Giant bugs blasted by orbiting space cannons

Beetle and bee are incinerated by the sun in these ads by Y&R for the Zeiss magnifying glass. Via.

*Previously: VW Beetle Limo.

*Buy insect reference books at Amazon.

Deer devastates itself jumping over a fence (link roundup)

Deer jump FAIL video. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Spider cupcake.

2. Max from Where the Wild Things Are cosplay.

3. Halo Wars Arbiter concept art.

*Previously: Master Chief kicks back on an Eames Lounge Chair.

*Buy Where the Wild Things Are toys at eBay.

Keyboard Cat/Splinter Cell mashup (link roundup)

Keyboard Cat stars in the new teaser for Splinter Cell Conviction. Via.

And a few more links:

1. I previously noted that Disney was heavily advertising that the dragon Maleficent would be part of Fantasmic, even though the dragon was not working and was not actually part of the show. It's working now and you can see video here.

2. Bizarro shows it's tough being a praying mantis.

3. The Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin was put on Ritalin (warning, really depressing).

*Previously: Cheer yourself back up with this Calvin & Hobbes t-shirt.

*Buy Splinter Cell toys at eBay.

Neon signs outside of Rapture (link roundup)

Nice shot of the neon signs outside of Rapture in Bioshock.

And a few more links:

1. Esquire magazine wastes time and resources on whimsical bar codes for each issue.

2. Dragonfly man animated gif.

3. Rear-loading Lego trash truck. Via.

*Previously: Apparently, I have the sexual nature of a dragonfly.

*Buy Bioshock toys at eBay.

The Other Mother's hand, perhaps (link roundup)

"Hair and Eggs" spotted amongst various other sculptural oddities here.

And a few more links:

1. Monkey King and dragon illustration.

2. Read about Tibetan Catepillar Fungus, also called Vartsa Gunbu, and be horrified. The word "mummify" comes into play.

3. Illustration of a bird dangerous enough to require a muzzle.

*Previously: The Monkey King stars in an ad for the Olympics.

*Buy flying monkeys at eBay.

Ghastly Mickey Mouse Sculpture (link roundup)

Creepy Mickey Mouse skeleton sculpted by Ballistyc. See also his grisly Kamatamari Damacy sculpture.

And a few more links:

1. Roundup of some truly bizarre behavior by plants and animals. For example, Cabbage Aphids are suicide bombers.

2. Dexter meets David and Goliath, by way of Caravaggio.

3. Earlier this week, a Los Angeles police detective walked into the lobby of an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department station and shot herself.

4. Apparently, simply hanging small plastic bags of water can scare flies away.

*Previously: Silverware, flatware, furniture based on Dexter.

*Buy Disney snowglobes at eBay.

Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur fossil poster (link roundup)

Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur fossil poster by Dan McCarthy on sale for $40 here. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Rhinoceros beetle samurai helmet.

2. Giant musk rat.

3. That musk rat is courtesy of Honey at Sweet Station, who recently brought her art site to my attention. She's currently giving away stickers.

4. Character select screen for the ultimate 2D fighter.

*Previously: Plush anglerfish with glow in the dark stitching.

*Buy glow in the dark items at eBay.

Darkseid Minus the New Gods (link roundup)

Darkseid's pretty sad when everything else is removed from his panels. More strips here. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Nature is freaky. The Blue Butterfly starts life as a caterpillar, which impersonate immature red ants, secreting chemicals and making noises that convince the ants that it's a wayward grub. The ants carry the caterpillar to their underground homes and "keep looking after them even though the adopted intruders gobble ant grubs for 10 months before forming a chrysalis and flying away as adult butterflies."

2. How the NY Times and Wikipedia teamed up to keep the David Rohde's kidnapping a secret. Via.

3. Tips for how a indie video game developers can promote their games (much of the advice applies just as well to artists). Via.

4. So, what kind of kaiju will be revealed when NASA triggers "a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm the presence of water?" Via.

*Previously: Suge Knight as Darkseid.

*Buy Darkseid toys at eBay.

A handmade book of drawings about the people Mike Tyson fought in 1985 (link roundup)

Go here to check out Scott MacDonald’s Tyson 85 project, a handmade book of drawings about the people Mike Tyson fought in 1985. No purchasing information yet. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Great Back to the Future poster.

2. Death by balloon. Via.

3. Mechanical insects. Via.

4. Better read the label, Naked Juice has been removing supplements from at least some of its drinks.

*Previously: Prints featuring the villains of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

*Buy boxing posters at eBay.

Flood Pure Form Stalker (link roundup)

Flood Pure Form Stalker (from Halo), coming soon from McFarlane Toys.

And a few more links:

1. Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008. Make sure you scroll down to the horrifying animated gif of a Cicada Molting. Via.

2. Apparently you can record the sounds a printer makes and then decode those sounds to figure out what words the printer printed out.

3. Cheer yourself up by looking at photos of miserable people.

4. Allium forest.

*Previously: The Horror Forest.

*Buy McFarlane toys at eBay.

Four versions of Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Kafka's The Metamorphosis as a silent film, anime-style adventure, creepy sex romp, and Bollywood film. Ads by Air for Filigranes Bookstore, the idea being that when you read a book, you can imagine it any way you want.

*Previously: Israeli cover for Kafka on the Shore.

*Buy insect posters at eBay.

Back to the Future DeLorean toy (link roundup)

Back to the Future DeLorean with swiveling tires, opening gull wing doors, and lights and sounds. On sale for $35 at Entertainment Earth.

And a few more links:

1. This would make an excellent, subtle Dark Knight teaser poster.

2. Demon-summoning, perhaps.

3. Vanity Fair has photos of some of the 35 pianos that star in the MCC Theater's Coraline musical. (If you're interested in Coraline, I am still regularly updating my Coraline blog Evil Buttons.)

4. And speaking of Neil Gaiman, he defends George Martin's decision to work on something other than the Song of Fire and Ice Series: "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch." (The last two books of the Dark Tower series emphasize over and over how hard Stephen King found it to finish the series.)

5. And speaking a bit more of Neil Gaiman, who else but he would suffer internet problems because a colony of ants infested his router?

*Previously: George Martin tells gripers to suck it.

*Buy Coraline posters at eBay.

Metal sculptures by Nemo Gold

As I understand it, all of these sculptures (and more) are for sale, although no price is mentioned.



Metal Praying Mantis sculpture by Nemo Gold. Here's an Instructable for how to make it.




Reindeer.



Giant squid.



One-eyed jackalope. Via.

*Previously: Plush praying mantis.

*Buy jackalopes at eBay.

Fishing lure looks just like Pac-Man (link roundup)

"The Stormy Petrel" fishing lure looks just like Pac-Man. Up for bid here. Via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. The Mycocepurus smithii species of ants reproduces by cloning and also maintains a garden of fungus. Via.

2. Driving instructor found guilty of DUI. Seems like it's a unique case - - he was not the driver. Via.

3. Apparently, Coca-Cola came up with the name "Tab" for its first diet drink by using a computer "programmed to disgorge every four-letter combination containing a vowel. Out came 250,000 combinations, and 600 names were examined as possibilities. But only 24, a mere four percent, had no conflict with existing trademarks. (One of them, Tabb, was shortened to Tab.)" Via.

4. There's now a Muji online store for the USA.

*Previously: Video of an anteater drinking wine.

*Buy vintage computers at eBay.

Lego Gundam (link roundup)

Lego Gundam by Marco-Pochi. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Just about completely taking the "school" out of high school basketball:

One of the requirements of playing for Findlay College Prep is a willingness to repeatedly explain an apparent conundrum: How can the Pilots be one of the best high school teams in the nation when Findlay Prep isn't a high school? In the Pilots' unconventional program, the players live together in a suburban Las Vegas house, travel as much as some college teams, dine occasionally on the Vegas strip and... oh, yes, take classes at a nearby private school, Henderson (Nev.) International School. ¶ "It can get confusing for people," says senior Carlos Lopez, the Pilots' 6'11" center from Lajas, Puerto Rico, and a UNLV recruit. "I tell them Findlay Prep is a team, not a school. Then it's like, 'You don't go to school?' Yes, we go to school just like anybody else, but our team is not the same as our school. Like I said, confusing."

Sports Illustrated investigates.

2. The threat against the White House you may have missed last week - - bees.

3. There's a band called "Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin" and here's a concert poster for it.

4. Watch the sequel to Mike Tyson's Punch-Out you never knew about - - "Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch."

*Previously: Beehive cake.

*Buy Gundam toys and collectibles at eBay.

Here's the new tween Dora the Explorer (link roundup)

Here's what the new Dora the Explorer looks like. I wonder if they're writing off boys with this look. You can read about the change here.

And a few more links:

1. Is the cause of asthma for inner-city kids cockroaches? Via.

2. Embarrassed by the revelation that someone was paid to peel off the labels on bottled water used by Los Angeles Supervisors, the Supervisors decided they would use pitchers and cups for now on.

3. Old school Ninja Gaiden/Disney mashup.

4. At a Terminator site, you can upload a photo of your face and damage it to reveal the endoskeleton beneath. And at a Star Trek site, you can turn yourself into a Vulcan, Romulan, or Star Fleet officer. Via.

*Previously: Ninjas on roller skates - - the movie.

*Buy ninja toys at eBay.

Wall-E casemod (link roundup)

Wall-E casemod. See a huge gallery of how it was made here. Via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. Who thought X-Treme Cappuccino with "french vanilla energy boost" was a good choice to be the Wolverine flavored Slurpee at 7-Eleven?

2. "Live every day of your life as if you're dying of a contagious disease that turns people into flesh-eating zombies when you bite them." Link.

3. How to make a bunny napkin ring.

4. Clockwork insect.

*Previously: Thai government to release approved list of nicknames to prevent rash of people nicknamed after 7-Eleven (honest).

*Buy WALL-E toys at eBay.

Angry farewell cakes (link roundup)

One of several angry farewell cakes on display here.

And a few more links:

1. Could there possibly have been a time when bees were mailed in tiny little cages. (Umm, is that how they're shipped now?) Via.

2. William Gibson denies being paid to write about Volkswagen in Spook Country. (I was terribly disappointed when I saw what a Buzz Rickson’s bomber jacket actually looked like.)

3. On that topic, anyone else wonder if Monday's Penny Arcade strip about Gilette was a paid ad?

4. Japanese FedEx poster makes delivering packages look awfully exciting.

*Previously: Raiders of the Lost Ark cake.

*Choose from thousands of cake toppers at eBay.

Insultabotz Toy Robot Kit

Insultabotz Toy Robot Kit. Amazon says:

* Detects and avoids objects in its way by stopping, reversing direction and then insulting you
* Record one or more messages up to fifteen seconds long, and hear Insultabotz play them back
* Six-legged insect action is nearly as creepy as the things you record
* Warning: Parents can hear what Insultabotz is saying just as easily as you can
* Easily built with common hand tools-a fun learning experience

$80 at Amazon.

*Previously: Found item bug sculpture.

*Buy bug robots at eBay.

Maximilian from The Black Hole desktop wallpaper (link roundup)

Download a desktop wallpaper featuring evil robot Maximilian from The Black Hole.

And a few more links:

1. Photos of a koala taking a bath.

2. To make a bs point about fighting malaria, Bill Gates released mosquitoes during his TED talk. His schools are apparently a big failure, by the way. Probably why he has to resort to scary stunts to try to intimidate his audience.

3. William Gibson continues to publish what seem to be small snippets of a sequel to Spook Country.

4. Seems like only yesterday I mocked the garbage posted at Barry Diller's new blog. Traffic has apparently fallen significantly since then. Via.

*Previously: Why you never see Disney's The Black Hole on tv.

*Buy plush koalas at eBay.