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It's 1968 and I'm with a couple of friends from back home. We take a tab each of orange sunshine LSD and we're laughing at pretty much everything, sitting on a window ledge, about five feet up, watching people on Hollywood Boulevard. My childhood friend, Robert, is untamed and mostly a jackass in his interactions with girls and minorities. The sidewalks are crowded and when a small group of Asian tourists walk by Robert jumps in front of them and bows from the waist. "Ah sooo, ah sooo!" He says. "Suki Aki, motherfucker." I'm hallucinating and a little confused but mostly I think Robert is a dick.

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It's 2007 and I drive to Hollywood Boulevard with a little Konica Minolta point-and-shoot, my first digital camera. I'm tempted by the yellow hues of sleaze to the east but the tourists go westward and crowd around Grauman's Chinese. I park on a side street and walk up past Highland on the north side and stop just short of the costumed superheroes. Vacationers pose with the animated locals and pay for the privilege with dollar bills. They get down on the ground and take selfies with the Walk of Fame. I hang where I am and I ask people if I can take a picture of them making funny faces.

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"What do you want a picture of me for?"

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"I like the way you look. Here, let me get you to stand over here. All you gotta do is make a funny face."

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I expose and say thank you. "That was great."

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Darth Vader comes over to ask me what I'm doing. I guess he's feeling territorial. I tell him I'm taking pictures of people making funny faces and he wants to know what the catch is. I tell him no catch I'm just doing what I'm doing for something to do. He seems dubious but goes away.

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It's 1980 and I'm living in an apartment with Leslie, behind the Aquarius theater on Sunset. I walk down to the Hollywood Ranch market to get a pack of smokes and when I return Leslie's had a miscarriage. The little critter is six weeks old and intact so we put it in a sandwich bag in the freezer to take to the clinic tomorrow. Still awake at 4 AM I walk up Vine to Hollywood Boulevard. An LAPD patrol car pulls to the curb and wants to know what I'm doing. I tell him I'm on my way to Grauman's to put my feet in Clint Eastwood's foot prints. He tells me he doesn't want to see me next time he comes around and I tell him I don't want to see him either.

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It's a Sunday in 1978 and Danielle and I go to Pickwick book store on Hollywood Boulevard where I buy Cockpit by Jerzy Kosiński. We walk down to Chris and Pitts for barbeque and when we're done we leave a big tip and skip the check. It makes for a nice Sunday so we do it again for the next three weeks.

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2012, Saturday night and Linda is driving and it's raining on Hollywood Boulevard and I'm taking pictures from the passenger seat. We go west to Highland then Sunset and park at Carney's train-car for hotdogs. Some guy drives by and flips a cigarette butt out the window. Linda picks it up and throws it back at the open window. "The world is not your ashtray, asshole." We get hotdogs and fries and Linda drives us back across the other side of the boulevard and then home.

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It's 2015 and I'm on the sidewalk taking pictures of the storefronts and shop windows. Two teenage boys are loitering in front of a little Italian joint. Pedestrians pass by and the larger boy says "Hey, can you help us we need a bus ticket back home." No one gives him as much as a look. A clean young couple pass by and he says, "Hey, girl, you got one hot ass. Hey dude, your bride got one hot ass. You better be hittin' that shit, bro." He's wearing a thick armor of belligerence and he's looking for a fight. I'm headed the other way but I stop and take a picture.

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The kid talks with a twang. "Why you taking pictures for?" I tell him you know, I just take pictures and he says no, he doesn't know and I'd better not take a picture of him. Boy number two speaks up and tells his friend he's too fuckin' ugly for pictures. I tell him that's a point well made.

A young Asian woman walks by and boy number one says, "Hey hottie, slow down, give me a better look." She doesn't slow down but speeds up, eyes forward. Boy number one yells, "Hey mamma san, me so horny, me so horny. Love me long time." Boy number two laughs, but not like he means it and I wonder if he thinks his friend is a dick.

Scot's first book, Lowlife, was released in 2011, and his memoir, Curb Service, is out now. You can find more information on his website.

Heaven’s Gate Cult Members Might Eat Better Than You

If there is a Holy Grail in the world of music films, few will argue against it being Penelope Spheeris’ brilliant three-part series “Decline Of Western Civilization.” Filmed in 1979, 1986 and 1998 respectively, the films dig deep into the worlds of budding punk, heavy metal, hair metal and other harder sounds, and feature interviews and performances with some of the most iconic bands ever. Yet until now, they have never been properly released and rarely shown in public, giving them true cult status.

Upon the initial theatrical release of the first film in 1980, more than 300 LAPD officers were on hand to try and control a crowd that was estimated to be in the thousands. Due to both the size and perception of the crowd, then-Chief Of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter that basically demanded the film never be show again in Los Angeles. This only helped to give it cult status, but even without the police intervention, the content of the film makes it nothing short of legendary.

From Black Flag, The Germs, and Fear to Poison, Aerosmith, and Ozzy, the film captured some of the most vicious performances ever, along with intimate and often iconic interviews. It was part two that gave the world the moment when Ozzy Osbourne responded “”it fucking sucks” when asked about sobriety whilst cooking in his kitchen, and later KISS’s Paul Stanley gave an interview while surrounded on all sides by scantily-clad women.

Yet beyond the famous bands, the films remain some of the best documents of the culture of the scene, as well as the lives some fans led. Stretching from young punks in the ’70s to “metal mamas” to gutter punks, it’s often the scenes of the squalid living conditions and unsettling drug abuse that make the films something beyond mesmerizing. Understanding how important a historical document she created, Spheeris stated, “This is my life’s work, and I like to think that when I go to my grave, The Decline is what I’ll be remembered for.”

Set to be released as a four-disc Blu-Ray collection at the end of June, it will feature all three films with 2k high-definition restoration that Spheeris herself supervised. The set will also include an additional commentary track by current rock messiah Dave Grohl, as well as extended interviews and a 40 page book of writing and photos.

Image

It must be terribly dizzying to be on the never ending cycle of a human hamster wheel but boy does this guy make it look fun. In fact, it looks like he's moving inside his very own roller coaster. Or at the very least, it looks like he has combined every fun thing on a playground in one fun ride.

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It was previously thought that the Arkam Knight preorder DLC pack featuring Harley Quinn would just be a handful of extra challenge maps, but the pack’s product description has confirmed that Harley will get to tee off against the Blüdhaven PD in her own story mode.

The Amazon listing for Arkham Knight describes the DLC pack like this:

For the first time in the Arkham series take on the role of Joker’s psychotic side-kick Harley Quinn and wreak havoc inside the Blüdhaven Police Department. With this exclusive Story Pack experience events in the lead-up to Arkham Knight as you infiltrate Blüdhaven to rescue your partner in crime: Poison Ivy. Delve deep into Harley’s demented nature and utilize her devastating baseball bat to smash, crash and bash your way to a friend very much in need.

Players who preorder through Amazon will automatically receive the Harley DLC pack, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to kick ass all over Nightwing’s turf with Harley? She sure has come a long way since Batman: TAS.

(via UPROXX)

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This delightful bunny pug is the work of awesome artist and illustrator Bill Carman (previously featured here). The Easter Bunny is great, but we believe he works in tandem with the the Easter Pug. He makes the cutest snorfling sounds while hiding Easter eggs. Sure, your basket of candy might have a little drool on it, but look at that snaggletoothed face!

[via Bill Carman]

Even the ancient god of madness and despair known as Cthulhu can look adorable when he lives in the deep, dark depths of your teacup. Michael Palmer, an artist based in Brisbane, Australia, has a line of teacups that feature Cthulhu, octopuses and other strange creatures of the deep peeking out from cups of tea as dark as the depths of their insanity.

Unfortunately, you can’t drink from them because they’re filled with resin tea, but they still look awesome – and each comes in a different teacup. Palmer sells these teacups, and a lot of other Cthulhu- and Giger-themed artwork on his Voodoo Delicious Etsy shop. Take a look!

More info: Etsy | voodoodelicious.com | Facebook (h/t: thatsnerdalicious)

Check out Michael Palmer’s Voodoo Delicious Etsy shop for more!

Turnt #taxidermy #afterlifeanatomy

Presidents have to prepare for all sorts of contingencies. Including the possibility, in Richard Nixon's case, that the Apollo 11 astronauts might not safely return from the moon.

This contingency speech — found in the National Archives by the excellent blog Letters of Note — provides a chilling look at what might have been, starting with its blunt headline: "In Event of Moon Disaster."

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace," Nixon's speechwriter William Safire began. "These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery."

Given Apollo 11's success, it's easy to overlook the fact that a mission failure was quite possible. The module used to ferry astronauts from the Apollo spacecraft to the moon's surface, in particular, was developed in a hurry — and as it descended, its computer malfunctioned, spitting out error messages and forcing Neil Armstrong to land the craft without radar data.

Here's the speech, which was first revealed on Meet the Press in 1999:

(National Archives)

(National Archives)

Space

Earlier this week, a colonist candidate for the one-way mission to Mars broke his silence and spoke out against the Mars One project, calling the selection process dangerously flawed. 

Trader Joe's is recalling five varieties of raw walnuts sold under its house brand due to potential salmonella contamination, the chain has announced. The recalled walnuts include Trader Joe’s Nuts Raw California Walnut Pieces, Trader Joe’s Nuts Raw California Walnut Halves & Pieces, Trader Joe’s Nuts Raw California Walnut Baking Pieces, Trader...

Ellen Jewett, a talented sculptor based in Canda, creates unbelievably detailed and delicate-looking handmade clay sculptures of creatures that look like they’d be right at home in our wildest dreams (or nightmares).

Ellen says her inspiration comes “from animal physiology and a love of the fantastic, grotesque and absurd. Each sculpture is handmade and painted with no more tools than fingers and a paint brush. The process begins with a handmade metal armature over which light weight clay is sculpted. The painting is executed with acrylic, mineral and oil pigments and the embedded eyes are glass. When complete the whole piece is glazed to intensify colour and strength.”

Another interesting touch is that she avoids using any toxic materials; “This, unavoidably, excludes most of what is commonly commercially available, and has sent me on a journey of unique material combination and invention.”

More info: ellenjewettsculpture.com | Etsy | DeviantArt (h/t: colossal)

Ellen Jewett sells her sculptures on Etsy.

Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel has an unusual hobby during the offseason: he's a mathematician.

Last week, Urschel got his latest paper, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians," published in the Journal of Computational Mathematics, as Bloomberg Businessweek notes.

This isn't some cute publicity stunt: Urschel got both a bachelor's and a master's degree in math from Penn State before being drafted into the NFL in 2014, and has published two previous papers in math journals, as well as another paper on the dynamics of asteroid orbits around the sun. Urschel's Twitter handle, appropriately enough, is @MathMeetsFball.

"I am a mathematical researcher in my spare time, continuing to do research in the areas of numerical linear algebra, multigrid methods, spectral graph theory and machine learning," he recently wrote in the Player's Tribune.

Urschel, at Penn State. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

That quote comes from the heartfelt, honest essay "Why I Still Play Football" Urschel published last week. Frequently asked why he plays the game despite the risk of head injury, he responds:

I play because I love the game. I love hitting people. There’s a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I’m (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere else.

When Urschel was considering colleges, his mother urged him toward an Ivy League school, but he chose Big Ten power Penn State because of his love of football. He eventually became a team captain and won the Campbell Trophy — often called the "academic Heisman" — annually given to a football player who both has an outstanding academic record (Urschel had a 4.0) and dominates on the field.

Last spring, Urschel was drafted in the fifth round by the Baltimore Ravens and started three games as a rookie, getting positive grades for his performance.

But he's stayed busy during the offseason. Among other things, he's a competitive chess player (he competed in his first tournament, the Pittsburgh Open Chess Grand Prix, earlier this month). He's also a budding data journalist, having published a detailed quantitative analysis of college football players' majors for the Player's Tribune in December.

John Urschel, want to come write for Vox?

Did you miss out on your opportunity to be at one of the eight tapings of The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail for Comedy Central?

DON’T WORRY, YOU CAN STILL GET IN!

We are taping episodes on Wednesday, March 25th, Friday, March 27th, Wednesday, April 1st, and Saturday, April 4th at 7:30 and 9:30pm.

There will be room for many extra people at each taping. We will have standby lines inside Meltdown Comics, near the bathroom. Standby audiences are not guaranteed to get a seat but are welcome to stand. 

In order to be considered as a standby audience member, you must

-for the 7:30pm tapings, you must be IN THE STANDBY LINE by 7:00PM

-for the 9:30pm tapings, you must be IN THE STANDBY LINE by 9:00PM

-show up ready to sign a waiver to possibly appear on camera, laughing and looking as gorgeous as ever!

Lioness

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Turtle

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Tawny Frogmouth

Zebra

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Deer Family

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Hedgehog

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Alligator

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Peacock

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Kangaroo

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Lion

Humpback Whale

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Owl

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Reindeer

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Squirrel

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Gorilla

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Hummingbird

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Crow

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Snake

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Doberman

Raccoon

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Rhino

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becausebirds:

Happy first day of Spring! 

This season brings all sorts of new birds into town because of their spring migration! Check out this page to see a list of spring birds you might spot in your part of the country.

Gordon Hayward

Les Deux Garçons

If restaurants billed like hospitals, going out to eat would be a downright miserable experience.

Rachel Feierman at Philadelphia radio station WHYY is working on a larger project that aims to increase transparency around health-care prices. She also posted this great graphic, which imagines a world in which restaurants worked like hospitals — billing for any service they provided, no matter how small.

The waiter provided a greeting? That will be 43 cents. Asking if everything is okay? Another 62 cents. Serving the food would cost an additional $1.64. Anything ranging from the chair you sat in to the utensils you used and your trip to the bathroom would come with a charge.

You see this happen in health care all the time; hospitals charge for pretty much anything they can, down to each individual Tylenol pill handed out to their patients.

As with health care, these wouldn't be things the customer requested. But they are services the restaurant provided, and so the customer ends up with a bill. The prices are, of course, nonsensical: there's no reason delivering a bill should cost a different amount than a greeting.

And, of course, none of these prices would be listed anywhere: they'd just turn up in the form of a receipt at the end of the meal — and the customer would be stuck with the bill.

WATCH: 'The dysfunction of the American health-care system'

Physics

Sound is carried by periodic vibrations of atoms in gases, liquids and solids. When we talk to each other, the vocal chords of the speaker vibrate, causing the air coming from his lungs to vibrate as well. This creates sound waves, which then propagate through the air until they hit a listener’s eardrums and make them vibrate as well. From these vibrations, the listener can then reconstruct the speaker’s words.

aundlux:

Endless summer

hopehavoccosplay:

Humans only have three color channels in which we can see. The mantis shrimp have twelve channels, seeing colors we couldn’t even dream possible. They see the world in 11 or 12 primary colors, compared to our three, from the ultraviolet through to the infrared. Their compound eyes can move independently from each other and can even simultaneously detect four linear and two circular polarisations. This incredible crustacean also has two club-like appendages that can administer the fastest recorded “punch” (50 mph) of any living animal.

missuhmanda03:

benzmakeherdance:

asylum-art:

Breathtaking Frozen Lakes, Oceans And Ponds, That Look Like Art

Lakes and ponds might look nice, but the cold of winter just elevates them to another dimension.  Freezing water creates an astonishing variety of patterns: from jagged lines or frozen bubbles to perfect snowflakes with every imaginable shade of blue, green and white.

Via: boredpanda

So beautiful but so cold

❤️❤️❤️

Here are six tours that won't show you celebrity homes, unless something horrible happened in them. [ more › ]

It's that sexy time of year again where grunions get their spawning on at beaches, and we humans get to watch them in action. [ more › ]

Child-killer George Zimmerman has released a video—recorded, The Orlando Sentinel reports, by his divorce lawyer—in which he expresses the utmost lack of regret or remorse for the events that led to the death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin three years ago last month.

Read more...