Formula One meets Podracers

SciFi promotional video for Formula One by Kotoc (a few years old, but new to me). Here's another campaign, featuring armored soccer players taking on deadly robots:




Via.

*Buy podracers at eBay.

Delivery truck of the retro-future (link roundup)

Giant delivery truck via these sites.

And a few more links:

1. The North Korean player who weeps during the anthem at the World Cup was born in Japan and lives in Japan.

2. Ben Templesmith when he was still a struggling artist: "I did lots of odd little things for few bucks, art wise, and was also a janitor in my time."

3. Why is race and gender discrimination tolerated at night clubs, but not country clubs?

*Previously: Burning Man big rig sculpture.

*Buy World Cup posters at eBay.

Tron fan art (link roundup)

Tron Legacy fan art by Barbara Tarr.

And a few more links:

1. Shain Erin's Morbid Art Dolls. Via.

2. Last paragraph of Roger Ebert's review of The Losers:

I noted that Zoe Saldana is beautiful. I noted something else. In keeping with the current popularity of cafe au lait complexions, the movie uses lighting and filters to bathe the romantic scenes in a kind of golden glow, so that Saldana and Morgan come out looking about the same. We're no longer making people of color look whiter in the movies; we're tinting people of whiteness. Time marches on.

3. How Wired tracked down the Gizmodo's iPhone finder. (Straightforward Google searches combined with tips from an anonymous source.)

*Previously: Tron Guy Lego Cubedude.

*Buy Tron toys at eBay.

Shan Jiang

A small sampling from Shan Jiang's portfolio:


Moonphase.




Dark Raven City.




Diver for Alice magazine.




Magician and Illusion poster.




Concept art for the Nike Chase video I posted last week.


And speaking of, here's another animated ad from I Love Dust - - a drag race that somehow is promoting Nooka watches:



*Buy Nooka watches at eBay.

Stubby Cthulhu (link roundup)

Cthulhu by Chris Nichols.

And a few more links:

1. Corrupted Thomas the Tank Engine.

2. Here's what Hasbro's Iron Man 2 action figures look like.

3. NY Times has a special gift guide for black people. Via these sites.

*Previously: Corrupted Seventeen magazine cover.

*Buy Iron Man toys at eBay.

Earth and Jupiter in one photo (link roundup)

Earth and Jupiter photographed together. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Gawker reports a claim that the Wall Street Journal is "hemorrhaging money." (Which would explain Rupert Murdoch's switch from boasting of giving content away for free, to trumpeting the need to demand payment for content.)

2. "Dick Giordano had a page of Teen Titans colored blue to help sort of 'sneak' the first interracial embrace in mainstream comics through." See the panel here.

3. Photograph of a giant octopus attack.

*Previously: Moon, Jupiter, and Venus over Los Angeles.

*Buy octopus toys at eBay.

Legendary Surfer t-shirt design (link roundup)

Japanese demon surfing on a giant carp - - a t-shirt design by Matheus Lopes Castro up for vote at Design by Humans.

And a few more links:

1. One of the book covers I highlighted recently is actually part of a bit of a scandal - - it features a white girl with long hair, even though the book is actually about a black girl who has short "nappy" hair. The author was not pleased. (Which all adds up to tell me, whoever decided on the cover did a good job.) Via.

2. The letter "U" as a plush monster (scroll down).

3. An impressive list of incredibly stupid serial killer ideas.

*Previously: Armored carp.

*Buy oni at eBay.

Beautiful garbage cans (link roundup)

One of the many beautiful recycling bins on display in the Flickr gallery for Global Inheritance's TRASHed show. Via.

And a few more links:

1. Clothes for Disabled People the book. There are a few on sale for less than $2 at Amazon.

2. Space Cock mecha.

3. Several ideas for getting rid of lingering food smells. Via.

4. Back in 2006, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) argued that hurricane names should "be inclusive of African American names." Via.

*Previously: "Nameless Hurricane That Much More Terrifying."

*Buy vintage tin robots at eBay.

Cheerful Lion Dance costume (link roundup)

Swoss' site is full of vibrant sculptures like this boy with lion dance costume.

And a few more links:

1. Win some paper robots.

2. Florida Governor Charlie Crist violated the state constitution when he refused to fill an appeals court seat because all of the potential picks were white.

3. Hyrulean Vans.

4. You should definitely subscribe to your own feed. I've noticed two sites this week where the feed simply shows a string of nonsense spam words. The websites themselves look normal.

*Previously: Lego Lion Dance.

*Buy Legend of Zelda toys and collectibles at eBay.

DC Comics survey asking if you're interested in reading about black people

DC Comics had a customer survey in 1970 that inquired how interested its readers were in reading about black people. I'd love to know whether "black people" scored higher than "pollution." You can see the entire ad here.

*Previously: A global survey of adultery divided into geographical regions.

*Buy DC Direct action figures at eBay.

Best Godzilla poster ever (link roundp)

The Terror of Mechagodzilla (and The Yellow Submarine). Just another bit of evidence that the Poles make the absolutely best movie posters. Found amidst several other Godzilla posters here.

And a few more links:

1. A company called Nielsen announced it was disabling the "reply to all" function to reduce email clutter. Via. (I wish there was a "are you sure button?" that popped up whenever you pressed reply to all.)

2. Tracey O'Shaughnessy won a $1,000 journalism award from the Missouri School of Journalism in August. As of Tuesday, she still had not received the money. Romanesko picked up the story and by the afternoon there was a promise the school would pay.

3. White actor Jackson Rathbone was cast to play one of the Asian characters in The Last Airbender movie. He dismissed complaints about the all-white cast: "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan . . . ." Via.

4. Elegant HAL 9000 (2001) screensaver. Via.

*Previously: HAL paper toy.

*Buy Polish movie posters at eBay.

O.J. Simpson attacked and bloodied by 39-year-old daughter and other news of the day

1. O.J. Simpson was reportedly attacked and bloodied by his 39-year-old daughter Arnelle. In a bit of delicious irony, he declined to press charges for the domestic violence.

2. LA Times editor allows article to mention that robbery suspects were "5'6" - 6'0" tall, 150 –200 pounds – in their early to late 20s" but removes fact that they were African-American. After readers pointed out the obvious missing information, the LA Times said it was just a mistake by an overeager editor. Well, that's sort of what the explanation was.

3. TMZ has video of Beyonce's sister, Solange Knowles, starting an interview by saying she is dissatisfied by the introduction the host gave.

4. Wikileaks intends to auction off limited time exclusive access to three years worth of Hugo Chavez's personal email.

5. Dave Barry reminisces about the time he and a few colleagues went to the 1988 Democratic Convention "protest zone" with boxes on their heads and managed to be covered by the national news.

*Find more news stories here.

*Find great deals on Dave Barry's books at Amazon.

Follow up: Beyonce's skin is darker in L'Oreal ads appearing in magazine targeted at African-Americans

Radar has side by sides ads. Presumably L'Oreal will say it's just a quirk of the printing process. Via.

*Previously: TMZ points out that Beyonce's skin has gotten lighter and lighter in L'Oreal ads.

*Buy great advertising books at Amazon.

TMZ points out that Beyonce's skin has gotten lighter and lighter in L'Oreal ads

Damning comparison here, although L'Oreal issues a not quite denial.

*Previously: Follow up issue to the "black issue" of Vogue Italia includes zero black models.

*Buy The Bluest Eye at Amazon.

Follow up issue to the "black issue" of Vogue Italia includes zero black models

The July issue of Italian Vogue featured black models and articles about black people, as described here. The August issue features zero black models. Via.

*Previously" Alice In Wonderland-themed fashion shoot by Annie Lebovitz.

Desktop Wallpaper: Puma's homage to Tommie Smith

Puma has a site called "Silent Gesture" honoring Tommie Smith, of Olympic protest fame. I whipped up this simple desktop from a "sticker" that can be downloaded from the site. Via.

The Greatest Manhunt of World War II

"How a black soldier killed an officer, disappeared into the Burmese jungle, and joined a tribe of headhunters." Slate has a slideshow about Brendan I. Koerner intriguing new book Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II . Via.

White student named valedictorian at black college

"A white college valedictorian is nothing much to blog about, unless he went to Morehouse, the only all-male, historically black college in the country. Joshua Packwood (4.0 GPA) made history as the first white valedictorian in the 141-year history of Morehouse." Read more.