Catch of the Day
Caganers and the Official NORAD Santa Tracker
Santa visiting Tokyo
Christmas “caganers” are the ubiquitous icons that have populated most Nativity scenes in Spain’s Catalonia region for the last three centuries or so. “Caganers” are portrayed with pants down answering a call of nature. The origin of the caganer (literally, “pooper”) is unclear, but Catalonia is now home to artists who craft statuettes of religious figures poised to relieve themselves, and the franchise extends to renditions of sports figures and celebrities.
Caganers: figurines of defecating world leaders in Catalan nativity scenes
Twoddler
How did Fisher Price miss this bet?
Twoddler is a prototype. A modified Fisher Price activity center, it has its activities monitored wirelessly by a computer and translated into Tweets. Presumably next year’s must have toy for the babbling set.
Paleo-Future
Where's my commuter helicopter? (c. 1947)
A look into the future that never was. And I’m still waiting for my jetpack.
Over The Top
Bull Leaping
They must be getting tired of bullfighting and the Running of the Bulls, because Spain is now going retro with the 5,000 year old sport of taurokathapsia (Bull Leaping). Bull leapers gather annually in various Spanish cities to taunt and jump over bulls attempting to impale them. But unlike the favorite pastime of Minoan Crete (and other Bronze Age tail gaters) grasping the horns is optional. In this way the Recortadores are more similar to the contemporary, but equally dangerous, Course Landaise performed with young cows in France.
Bull Leaper Performing A Superman Jump
Screen Cleaners
Girl Licking Screen
The Pug (Dog) and Cat are linked all over the web. There are even screensaver versions of them. Beyond Pugs, there’s bulldogs, bassets, beagles, and dachshunds; along with more cats, and the occasional rabbit or hamster. There’s even YouTube videos of girls and babies, and the ubiquitous animated Girl Licking Screen mobile phone screensaver shown above. There’s an iconic Thing Licking Screen on deviantART that has found its way on to lots of webpages. But laminally speaking, where are the chameleons, frogs, and anteaters? For more traditional screen washing the fourteen year old Internet Squeegee Guy still has a home on the web.
Licking Cat and Dog Screensavers
Bank Robbers’ Demand Notes
The Cell Phone Bandit
Bank Notes is a site that features the text of demand notes used in “successful and unsuccessful unarmed bank robberies,” along with a photo of the robber who penned it.
Close Encounters Chic
A Lamp That Celebrates Alien Cow Abductions Everywhere
Lasse Klein’s limited edition Alien Abduction Lamp features a laser engraved signature on the lamp and a specially printed certificate poster. The lamp comes complete with a glowing alien crew and real fake grass. The antenna function as the on-off switch and can also enable light pulsation. And of course, the cow can be removed so that you can place any figure or object that you want to have abducted in the beam. At $100 a pop, the lamp isn’t cheap, but it is slick. For those not creatively challenged, Dollar Store Crafts shows how you can Make an Alien Abduction Lamp for about five dollars.
Unfortunate Cookie
Proprocrastinatory Pastry
Footnote.com has scanned something like 59 million historical documents, from places like the National Archives and Library of Congress. In addition to its prosaic search interface, Footnote,com has added Unfortunate Cookie, a random document generator that pulls up a generally noire fortune along with an equally noire article from decades past. Distracting and mildly addictive.
Anon: If you ever get a tatoo, don’t put it in a place where it would be visible by a judge.
Follow
Subscribe
I want my Week Behind!our staff
recommends...