Anime soldiers at war

Totoro and other anime heroes go to war in this sculpture spotted here. At the same site, disturbing giant finger and spider legs sculptures.

*Previously: How to make Totoro cream puffs.

*Buy Totoro toys at eBay.

What Goes Around Comes Around anti-war images

The four images in the clever "What goes around comes around" campaign by Big Ant International for Global Coalition for Peace are designed to wrap around poles.

*Previously: North Korean anti-America propaganda posters.

*Buy propaganda poster collections at Amazon.

Katamari Damacy plus Shadow of the Colossus equals... (link roundup)

Katamari Damacy/Shadow of the Colossus mashup. Via this collection of weird Katamari art.

And a few more links:

1. News to me: "H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds was an allegory about the injustice of European imperial rule of Africa, China and India."

2. Good article about soldiers ambushed in Afghanistan:

The Americans, seasoned by years of war here and in Iraq, would seek to create an intricately violent response, designed to undo the odds, save the pinned soldiers and kill the insurgents who, for a moment, had shown themselves.

3. Pranksters installed swings on San Francisco's BART.

4. Quality commentary on the Supreme Court upholding the FCC's indecency fines:

I propose this deal: the baby boomers can continue their astonishing string of selling out every single principle they ever claimed to have (R.I.P George Carlin) and keep their precious network television. Meanwhile, Gen X and the Millennials can have the internet. Oh, we're already doing that? Cool.

*Previously: Lego Shadow of the Colossus.

*Buy Shadow of the Colossus toys at eBay.

Bomb-worshiping kids t-shirt

"We All Fall Down" t-shirt on sale here.

*Previously: Russia honors spy who stole secret to the atom bomb.

*Buy concert t-shirts at eBay.

Walt Disney Goes To War

The Hollywood Animation Archive has posted an article from Life Magazine about Disney's efforts to help America during World War II. Pictured, you can see helpful tips for where to hide if you want to shoot Hitler's tank, and also the dangers of weather for pilots. Head over here to see high res versions of the entire article.

*Previously: Michael Phelps and Julianne Moore as Mermaids.

*Buy "Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World" at Amazon.

Interesting discussion about how to wear down Russian forces in Georgia

Actually, this discussion by Stuart Koehl is most interesting because it seems to describe the exact tactics used against Russia twenty-one years ago in Tom Clancy's excellent Red Storm Rising.

*Find more posts on Russia and Georgia here.

Slate reporter finds out how easy it would be to help Russia's cyber attack against Georgia

Hearing reports that many crucial Georgian websites were knocked out by cyber attacks, Evgeny Morozov became curious as to whether those attacks were necessarily part of a sophisticated, organized, government assault. The answer: No. In just one hour, Morozov (not a sophisticated hacker) acquired multiple software programs for launching denial of service attacks, instructions for using the programs, and websites directing him to useful targets. You can read about his investigation here. Via.

All in all, Russia did the US and the world a favor in launching this attack. It's a good reminder for everyone as to what countries are a danger to the world.

Most interesting blog post I've seen yet regarding Russia's invasion of Georgia

From Little Green Footballs:

In the past few hours, I’ve discovered and blocked at least six web crawlers trying to go through the site and download everything as quickly as possible, in violation of the rules in our robots.txt file. Two of them seemed to be focusing on the posts related to the Georgia crisis.

Pretty unusual activity for a Wednesday afternoon.

Link.

Also, regarding Russia and Georgia, Popular Mechanics has a roundup of which tactics worked against the Russians, and which didn't.

Stalin grew up in Georgia, when it was known for streetfighting

The book Young Stalin, by Simon Sebag Montefiore, sounds great:

Born in 1879 as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, the man who would become known as Stalin, was known throughout his childhood and youth as Soso. Young Soso was born and raised in the industrial Georgian town of Gori, in the far reaches of the Russian Empire. This seething Caucasian town was a turbulent mix of piety, honor and drunken unruliness. "Gori was one of the last towns to practice the picturesque and savage custom of free for all town brawls with special rules, but no holds barred violence. Boozing, praying and fighting were all interconnected, with drunken Priests acting as referees." Soso's father was a drunken cobbler who viciously abused him. His mother was compassionate, yet maybe too much so, as she had a reputation for being promiscuous. Stalin was certainly aware, writes Montefiore, that his biological father might have been one of three neighborhood men that were close to the family. The Georgia of Stalin's youth was also steeped in a culture of rebellion and banditry. Young Soso grew up hearing stories of heroic Georgians who fought off the imperialist forces of Russia, and his original revolutionary cohorts were a turbulent admixture of dedicated Marxists and bloodthirsty criminals.

Young Stalin is on sale at Amazon.

Via.

Meanwhile, for some interesting commentary on the Russian invasion of Georgia, visit these sites.

Cinematic war moment

From the obituary of Roger Hall:

One of his favorite OSS stories involved a colleague sent to occupied France to destroy a seemingly impenetrable German tank at a key crossroads. The French resistance found that grenades were no use.

The OSS man, fluent in German and dressed like a French peasant, walked up to the tank and yelled, "Mail!"

The lid opened, and in went two grenades.

Click through to read how Hall handled the surrender of a German colonel. Via.

Here's a longer obituary in the NY Times, which convinced me to add Hall's book You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger to my Amazon wish list.

General Lee cosplay, and other surprising places for the General Lee paint scheme to show up

Part of a much larger gallery.

Threadless T-Shirt Design: The true cost of playing Pac-Man

Syria tried to hide its nuke facility by making it look like a ruined Byzantine fortress

Photo comparison here. Via.

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 6 (Starbucks edition)

Thanks to Wired's Danger Room, I was reminded of the great U.S. Military patches I dug up last month. Here's another batch:












Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 1

Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 2

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 3

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 4

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 5.


These patches (and many, many more) are all on sale at McGrogan's.

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 5

I thought it'd be fun to post some military patches, and ended up finding a treasure trove of good ones. I'll be posting more soon.












Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 1

Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 2

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 3

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 4


These patches (and many, many more) are all on sale at McGrogan's.



Finally, this book about military patches sounds great:

Shown here for the first time, these seventy-five patches reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon, where classified projects are known by peculiar names ("Goat Suckers," "None of Your Fucking Business," "Tastes Like Chicken") and illustrated with occult symbols and ridiculous cartoons. Although the actual projects represented here (such as the notorious Area 51) are classified, these patches-which are worn by military units working on classified missions-are precisely photographed, strangely hinting at a world about which little is known.

By submitting hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, the author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide to the patches included here, making this volume the best available survey of the military's black world-a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11.

I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagons Black World

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 4

I thought it'd be fun to post some military patches, and ended up finding a treasure trove of good ones. I'll be posting more soon.












Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 1

Awesome U.S Military Patches Part 2

Awesome U.S. Military Patches Part 3


These patches (and many, many more) are all on sale at McGrogan's.