Anti-advertising group fakes nuclear blast

A few months back, Ask.com pretended to hack into British airwaves as part of its much-debated Information Revolution campaign. At the time, I wondered: “What? Who hacks TV signals? Other than that guy who busted into HBO’s airing of The Falcon and the Snowman?” Well, apparently it happens. This week, a counterculture art group called Ztohoven hacked a live Czech public television broadcast. The result made it look like a nuclear bomb had exploded in Bohemia’s scenic Krkonose Mountains. (Watch the video here.) The group’s previous targets have included advertisements, which one member said “abuse our innermost desires, ideas and feelings in order to sell goods.”

Hollywood Garbage Pail Kids

Back in the dayz, everybody loved the Topps' Garbage Pail Kid trading card series. Now there's a new card in town that hits the world of "celebrities gone wild"... Hollywood Zombies!

Frankenstars in Zombiewood
Evil Celebrity Twins
Distorted Egos

More Hollywood Zombies below!...

Star Wars stroller based on the popular ATAT

This is one of the weirdest products I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s a Star Wars stroller based on the popular ATAT from The Empire strikes back. I guess you can’t buy it since it looks a bit home made, but it’s quite cool don’t you think?

Tiger in water

Fascinated by this tree

On a recent trip to Hilo, I was fascinated by this tree, almost every leaf of which was scratched with names and memories.

There was something profound about seeing all these memories (and people) brought together on a living, growing thing. So much so that I lost all interest in the nearby waterfall... obviously, so did many others!

And as can be seen in this third photo, the record keeping spread to some other large-leafed plants.

House on a Wire

Precarious Home by Giancarlo Norese, 2007

A New Eye

A few years back, I discovered a box of false glass eyes in an antique store. Their detail – down to the smallest capillary – was near perfect. I bought one of the eyes for only a few bucks.

For a long time, I kept it sitting around on my desk: it's craftsmanship was somehow inspiring. But the best part of my glass eye: it was perfect for playing pranks on unsuspecting friends and relatives, many of which were horrified as one of my eyes seemed to inadvertently pop forth from its socket (a favorite of my kids)!

Then, one day, the eye smashed to pieces. Shattered. I don't remember how. A sad day indeed. (I probably punched a hole through the nearest wall or something).

How would I ever get another false eye? It was impossible. I was bereft. I was lost. My inspiration was gone. My pranks... shattered (sort of like my glass eye).

And just today, I discovered the answer! Occularist, Kim Erickson: he labors with the same level of dedication and craft as those occularists of old. Take a look at this amazing video journal describing his work.

Cute and Curious in Pink

The Republic of Tinselman brings your attention to this pair of extraordinary giant rabbit slippers, believed to be unearthed (somewhere) in the hottest area of Nevada. The president of the Republic is upset. He wants to know: who could possibly wear such gigantic slippers? How could such a huge being go for so long without being discovered? Where does he or she hide? And why (for god's sakes, why!) is it wearing pink bunny slippers!

Early Mickey

Ah, Mickey. That adorable, big eared mouse, with whom we've laughed and cried! Just a mouse. Just a drawing. But to us, he was human! The first animated being of his kind.

But was he original after all? It appears not! 1000 years before Mickey ever appeared in Plane Crazy, a French artist fashioned a bronze brooch that looks astonishingly like Mickey Mouse. Of course, he didn't mean to invent Mickey; he was trying to sculpt a lion but failed miserably, inadvertently stumbling upon the most famous cartoon character of all time.

• Discovery Article about the brooch

Say goodbye to the smelly fridge

It's quite some time I don't post print campaigns... this time I can't avoid sharing these ads I've found on Cool0r. The agency is DDB Paris, is Brandt, a refrigerator which prevents odors to mix. I think the illustration/characters' idea is just brilliant.

he worst of the CNN/YouTube Presidential debate videos

he worst of the CNN/YouTube Presidential debate videos

BoingBoing reader Destiny Land says,

YouTube joined CNN for a bold experiment -- letting YouTube users upload questions for the 2008 candidates for President. But one week in, how's it working out?

The Washington Post rounds up the best videos they could find: Link.

...but 10 Zen Monkeys found the WORST! Link.

I loved the hard-hitting questions from the audience during the Kerry/Bush debates -- but what happens if YouTube can't deliver enough good questions? In the end, couldn't this trivialize the primary process -- and the role of "citizen video-bloggers" -- rather than expand it?

Snip from the 10ZenMonkeys post by Lou Cabron:

What if my President was selected by MySpace? It’s the nagging concern raised when young video bloggers lob questions at the Presidential candidates. In July when the Democrats gather in Charleston, they’ll find CNN has swapped in questions that were uploaded as videos to YouTube.

At least that was the hope when the CNN/YouTube “debate” was announced. Unfortunately, no one cared about the announcement (except the commenter who added “omg the youtube guy is fucking HAWTT!!!”). Nearly a week later, YouTube has barely managed to assemble more than 50 questions to choose from. And five of them are the dogs below.