Giant Buddha, I presume?

Michael Yamashita's site is one terrific photograph after another.

*Buy Buddhas at eBay.

Link roundup

1. From a review of an biography of Pope John Paul II, a major enemy of Communism:

And resist communism through their religion the Poles surely did, one pilgrimage and feast day and power struggle at a time. Take as emblematic the episode of the Black Madonna, a treasured national icon that the dauntless Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, another Polish hero, attempted to send on a pilgrimage throughout the country. Eventually forbidden to do so by the authorities, who obviously feared its power as a rallying point, Wyszynski did something else: He sent the icon’s frame on pilgrimage instead. Such brilliant yet constructive mischief in the face of communist oppression is the stuff of which Polish history in that era was made.

2. From a mock review of eReaders that picked newspapers as the winner:

The most obvious advantage of The Newspaper was the size of its display, which outclassed its rivals both in terms of size and elasticity. The Newspaper display could be read at full size or, when flipped open, twice its normal width. We also had no trouble reading copy when the display was flipped to half or even quarter size. One of our engineers even figured out how to make a hat...

The device's internal security system was chief among these attractions. We left one Newspaper on a park bench for six hours and, upon return, found it in the exact same place. Another we left in a bar after a thorough evening of testing. When we came back the next afternoon, The Newspaper remained untouched...

The Newspaper also has a great number of apps already downloaded onto the device, ones we have yet to see on any other e-reader. There are the previously mentioned fly-swatting, hat-making, present-wrapping, and tailing people apps. But also the "same ol' bullshit", "who's got the sports section?" and "packing material for my eBay business" apps.

3. On Wikileaks:

The Pentagon Papers revelations dealt with a discrete topic, the ever-increasing level of duplicity of our leaders over a score of years in increasing the nation's involvement in Vietnam while denying it. It revealed official wrongdoing or, at the least, a pervasive lack of candor by the government to its people.

WikiLeaks is different. It revels in the revelation of "secrets" simply because they are secret. It assaults the very notion of diplomacy that is not presented live on C-Span. It has sometimes served the public by its revelations but it also offers, at considerable potential price, a vast amount of material that discloses no abuses of power at all.

*Buy the McSweeney's newspaper at Amazon.

Emergency Cabinet

Emergency Cabinet by Tom Frencken: "This cabinet keeps a bible to prevent you from reading it until its absolutely necessary." Via these sites.

*Buy illustrated Bibles at Amazon.

Cowboys, Pepsi, and Jesus

Cowboys, Pepsi, and Jesus (and Jon Kitna). Via.

*Buy diamond crucifix pendants at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Fascinating explanations for why it's bad luck to walk under a ladder and why we bless people who sneeze(I'm going to assume this person knows what they're talking about.) Via.

2. Cake Wrecks is giving away prizes this month.

3. This last item is sort of a spoiler for All-Star Superman so...





Here's a long list of clues indicating that Lex Luthor is Leo Quintum. The overall argument is a good one, but this "clue" cracked me up:

Leo Quintum's wardrobe is "365 rainbow coats, all identical!" Luthor always did like to wear the same oufit. But note that the rainbow coats are Luthor's colors (green, purple, orange) plus Superman's colors (red, yellow, blue).

Via.

*Buy All-Star Superman toys at eBay.

Fighting JC on sale this week

Fighting JC by 3A Toys (Fighting, Exegesis, Mauro, Tracky Boss JC ), apparently going on sale for $80 this week.

*At Toycutter: Custom 3A Toys.

*Buy 3A Toys at eBay.

Service will take care of your pets after you join Jesus in the Rapture

The pitch:

You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each
Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

We are currently active in 24 states. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet's natural life.

We currently cover the following states:
Maine,New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Ohio.

Our service is plain and simple; our fee structure is reasonable.
For $110.00 we will guarantee that should the Rapture occur within ten (10) years of receipt of payment, one pet per residence will be saved. Each additional pet at your residence will be saved for an additional $15.00 fee. A small price to pay for your peace of mind and the health and safety of your four legged and feathered friends.

Unfortunately at this time we are not equipped to accommodate all species and must limit our services to dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and small caged mammals. [Please note: we can now offer rescue services for horses, camels, llamas and donkeys in NH,VT, ID and MT ]

Via.

*Buy Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne (Left Behind No. 9) at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. What happens if you release 100 cats in an Ikea store? Who knows, mostly the video shows closeups of people watching the cats.

UPDATE: My mistake, there's a commercial featuring the cats in action.

2. Michael Lewis looks at Greece's disastrous economic situation, which he blames on corruption and lax oversight. His focus is on a monastery reminiscent of the the one in Neal Stephenson's Anathem:

Knowing nothing else about the Vatopaidi monastery except that, in a perfectly corrupt society, it had somehow been identified as the soul of corruption, I made my way up to the north of Greece, in search of a bunch of monks who had found new, improved ways to work the Greek economy. The first stage was fairly easy: the plane to Greece’s second city of Thessaloniki, the car being driven along narrow roads at nerve-racking speeds, and a night with a lot of Bulgarian tourists at a surprisingly delightful hotel in the middle of nowhere, called the Eagles Palace. There the single most helpful hotel employee I have ever met (ask for Olga) handed me a stack of books and said wistfully how lucky I was to be able to visit the place. The Vatopaidi monastery, along with 19 others, was built in the 10th century on a 37-mile-long-by-6-mile-wide peninsula in northeast Greece, called Mount Athos. Mount Athos now is severed from the mainland by a long fence, and so the only way onto it is by boat, which gives the peninsula the flavor of an island. And on this island no women are allowed—no female animals of any kind, in fact, except for cats. The official history ascribes the ban to the desire of the church to honor the Virgin; the unofficial one to the problem of monks hitting on female visitors. The ban has stood for 1,000 years.

This explains the high-pitched shrieks the next morning, as the ancient ferry packed with monks and pilgrims pulls away from the docks. Dozens of women gather there to holler at the tops of their lungs, but with such good cheer that it is unclear whether they are lamenting or celebrating the fact that they cannot accompany their men. Olga has told me that she was pretty sure I was going to need to hike some part of the way to Vatopaidi, and that the people she has seen off to the holy mountain don’t usually carry with them anything so redolent of the modern material world as a wheelie bag. As a result, all I have is an Eagles Palace plastic laundry bag with spare underwear, a toothbrush, and a bottle of Ambien.

3. A woman fell into a wasp nest and was stung 500 times:

Rescue crews had to deal with yellow jackets even inside the ambulance, and once the unidentified woman was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital, hospital staff then had to handle yellow jackets in the emergency room.

Via.

*Buy Anathem at Amazon (it's like Harry Potter, but with string theory).

Masters of the Universe by Jason Hernandez

Masters of the Universe religious painting by Jason Hernandez, who has art on sale here. Via.

*Buy Masters of the Universe toys at Amazon.

Cookie Monster Kaiju (and other new Threadless shirts)

New Threadless t-shirts (don't forget to enter my $50 Threadless credit giveaway).



The Real Mmmmmph Mmmph Monster! by Jimmy Breen.





Wake by Phil Jones.






Parting the Red Sea by Alex Solis.




Dark Raven by Ben Chen.

*Previously: Moses by Jack Kirby.

*Buy Cookie Monster toys at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Warren Ellis looks at magic cannibalism (hint, you almost certainly know someone who practices it).

2. TARDIS paper toy.

3. The Story of Paris’s Most Secret Underground Society. Via.

Link roundup

1. Ulala (Space Channel 5) and Han Solo paper toys (scroll down).

2. An American Idol-like show in Malaysia features young imams competing to win a trip to Mecca and a scholarship in Saudi Arabia. They have to sing and interpret the Koran.

3. Baking soda does not absorb odors in the fridge (and other kitchen myths dispelled).

*Previously: Ulala cosplay.

*Buy Space Channel 5 toys at eBay.

Captain Caveman sketch (link roundup)

Captain Caveman illustration by Rich Page.

And a few more links:

1. Batman Tumbler golf cart.

2. "The so-called healing stone of Wahiawa, venerated for more than 20 years by a local Hindu group as an embodiment of the god Shiva, was removed from its display platform on California Avenue last week by a group of Hawaiian nationalists intent of returning it to its earlier resting place near the Kukaniloko birthing site." Much more here. Via.

3. How a shoe store employee who was unusually good at getting people to buy shoes became a major NBA power broker.

*Previously: Vintage Batmobile.

*Buy Captain Caveman toys at eBay.

The Aztec Pantheon at The Getty Villa

A few highlights from The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire show at The Getty Villa in Los Angeles:


Mictlantecuhtli, lord of death and the underworld.



Tlaloc, the rain god.



Chicomecoatl, a goddess of agriculture.



Ehecatl, a wind god wearing a duck mask.

*Previously: Crystal Skull and three other Aztec-themed desktop wallpapers.

*Buy The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire at Amazon.

Oil Barons t-shirt design (link roundup)

Oil Barons t-shirt design by Joshua Kemble currently up for vote at Design By Humans.

And a few more links:

1. "The ancient meteorite cult of Estonia."

2. Celtics Doc Rivers hid $2600 in the Staples Center as a way to motivate his team to get back to Los Angeles for the Finals.

3. Microsoft store superheroes.

*Previously: "Google Jet Launches For Meteor Viewing Mission."

*Buy meteorites at eBay.

Lucy Van Pelt illustration (link roundup)

John Martz turned the Koyama Press mascot into Lucy Van Pelt as a commission.

And a few more links:

1. Review of several new books about Christianity is full of interesting details:

The odd absences in Mark are matched by the unreal presences in the other Gospels. The beautiful Nativity story in Luke, for instance, in which a Roman census forces the Holy Family to go back to its ancestral city of Bethlehem, is an obvious invention, since there was no Empire-wide census at that moment, and no sane Roman bureaucrat would have dreamed of ordering people back to be counted in cities that their families had left hundreds of years before. The author of Luke, whoever he might have been, invented Bethlehem in order to put Jesus in David’s city.

Via.

2. There's an island near Australia called Magnetic Island.

3. You can watch a full playthrough of Alan Wake.

*Previously: Watch Bright Falls, the Alan Wake prequel.

*Buy Peanuts toys at eBay.

Bad Egg (link roundup)

Sentient egg specimen by Wendy Given, who has a show opening today in Oregon.

And a few more links:

1. "Cleveland County prisoners wear jail-issue uniforms of hot pink shirts and yellow-and-white striped pants, which some say make them look more like clowns than criminals." Photo link. Via.

2. The crystal skull that inspired the Indiana Jones movie is a fake. Via.

3. It wasn't pretty when god took Adam's rib.

*Previously: Fairy specimen.

*Buy bell jars at Amazon.

Plush Satan and his Disciples

Plush Satan and his Disciples by Cupco, who has various provocative stuffed creations on sale here.

*Previously: "God's kill count is 227037% higher than Satan's."

*Buy illustrated Bibles at Amazon.

Video roundup

Animated music video by Eric Power of Clear Productions for Fictionist's "Blue Eyed Universe." Via these sites.




Skateboarding owl.




How to use a rubber band to defeat a sliding chain lock.



Tilt-shift sumo tournament. Via these sites.



Metroid: Other M gameplay.





Noisy exorcism videotaped by the Toy Baroness, plus note she left for the recently-cleansed. Via these sites.

*Previously: Samus in her 8-Bit bikini.

*Buy Metroid toys at eBay.

Birds of Pray (and other new Threadless t-shirts)

Birds of Pray by Phil Jones on sale at Threadless.

I took the liberty of turning a few more of today's new Threadless t-shrts into desktop wallpapers:


Space Needs Color by Alvaro Arteaga Sabaini.




Zombie at Tiffany's by Marion Cromb.




The King by Alex Solis.




Ninjas vs Luchadores by Michael Valadares Ferreira.