a few months ago i began thinking of paper shredding theory and two related parameters of paper shredding: granularity and location.
the first step in reversible-destruction document shredding is to split the shredder output into piles which are then discarded in different batches, and ideally different locations. but take, for example, a piece of paper with this written on it: (more…)
almost soapless. for months now i’ve used soap only on my feet and hands. everything else, just water. wouldn’t use soap on my feet either if always in a clean single-user shower. haven’t had the guts to ask anyone if i normally smell bad (or worse, anyway), but i seem to be better-smelling generally, for longer. no down side that i’ve seen.
my life is constant toward minimalism. ditching soap in most cases fits perfectly. don’t think it’ll work for clothes though.
though i guess more people lately are talking about skipping soap, especially shampoo, i got the idea from maria bamford’s dad’s site. he sells (sorta) a semi-joking soap alternative — engraved wood in the shape of a soap bar.
the alamo drafthouse uses voicemail from a pissed off customer (AKA narcissistic twat) to attract customers. groovy, baby:
at a theater years ago, after the fourth or fifth time a woman behind me kept talking, i turned around and shined an LED flashlight in her eyes, not stopping until she agreed to STFU. she and her husband were pissed. hmmm. sounds familiar.
i’m laughing watching human action leave supposed masters of human action in the mud on bitcoin. the moogelywoop “economists” are blowing fuses in quiet — so quiet — circumspection: it can’t be! there’s no “backing”! must sit on ass and watch while developing a theory. what’s happening with M3? surely there’s a new chart to be made.
bleh. the real problem few will discuss re the intellectual pussies: they didn’t learn about bitcoin in “school”. (more…)
the slop may slow your appreciation of Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, but ya gotta recognize the genius, especially since it was made in the 60s. “reality TV”? ha. blow symbiopsychotaxiplasm. onion AV club:
On paper, William Greaves’ art-film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One sounds like the kind of storm-the-doors-of-perception “happening” that made going out to be entertained such a drag back in 1968. Greaves, an accomplished documentary filmmaker and acting coach, shot a badly scripted conversation between a squabbling couple in New York’s Central Park, and simultaneously shot himself shooting the conversation. At one point, his crew went off on their own and filmed themselves debating whether Greaves knew what he was doing. Greaves cut all this together, with split-screens and snippets of muffed audio tracks, in order to explore the point where artifice ends and reality begins. […]
despite the pervasive 03:00 dorm room numb-o-argument tone, stunning intelligence sometimes emerges. one of my favorite “characters”, during a filmed secret meeting excluding the director, ostensibly held to complain about him: (more…)
i’ve spent at least an hour fascinated by filene’s basement’s Running of the Brides wedding dress sale, something i’d not heard of before today.
filene’s opens its doors to let frenzied hundreds run into the store, hauling down and guarding whatever dresses they can. employees grip the racks during the onslaught. key technique to encourage cooperation and fluidity among the bridal teams: conscious disorganization
Why aren’t the dresses organized by size?
1) We don’t want give the first people in line the unfair advantage of taking all of one size. 2) Any order we start with would break down as soon as all the gowns come off the racks. 3) Wedding gown sizes vary—often they run small. Try on any dress that looks close to your size and see how it fits.
appears many brides find dresses and deals they’re thrilled with using this system, which requires trading from the piles of dresses first gwolmped off racks with little regard for anything but volume and perhaps color. see their YouTube channel for evidence.
(for sale)
geeks on the internet, and YouTube especially, have awakened a lock industry that had grown even fatter than the crime of copyblight (“patents” in this case) allowed. hordes of puzzle-driven monomaniacs non-destructively defeat locks on camera, exposing the joke of conventional “security”. fortunate, most of the geeks don’t wring hands overmuch regarding the desirability of publishing successful attacks.
makes shopping for locks damned difficult though. the more your brain learns, the more it gets squashed against the other side of the equation — the impossibility of complete practical security. when to stop? it’s rough.
i now know so much about locks that i’ve begun, almost autonomically, to dabble in casual elementary picking here and there. i watch YouTube lockpick vids with increasing adoration for the monomaniacs. 
if, against the odds, you haven’t at least heard of lock bumping, raking, or shimming, those topics aren’t going back in the bag. may as well start to find out how much most locks suck. YouTube and amateurs are hastening the golden age of lock design. blessed be the market.
things i love about this video:
risk — small kids doing mildly dangerous things with full parental and public approval. art. regular collapse with apparently few injuries. pushing higher.
In the city of Tarragona, Spain, castellers gather every two years to see who can build the highest, most intricate human castles. This uniquely Catalan tradition requires astonishing strength, finesse, and balance. Not to mention courage.
if you like, YouTube has plenty of similar vids, though few as clear. something awesome about watching little kids climb. reminds me of my daughter at a climbing wall long ago, ringing the bell after all that work. beautiful. kids at the top of the human castles must put four fingers in the air.
recommended — irina werning
this is one of my favoritest photo collections evah. irina werning reconstructed old photographs using the original subjects. i’ve done similar in smaller spans (once took a pic of my daughter holding a pic of herself wearing the same outfit in the same place a year before), but have never seen anything of this scope.
check it out, and be patient if the site’s still overloaded; featured at boingboing today.
a quick vid i put together of Pickup on South Street (1953), showing the unusual clobbering of a 50s starlet (no stunt double, good for her), then her later appearance that shocked me into near drool. NB: major spoilers, including the end of the movie:
the body as machine. surprisingly view-expanding: