As a public service, zombietime has compiled this gallery of unflattering Hillary photos.Is this "fair"? Is it mature, impartial and reasoned? Of course not. But this is politics, after all.
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Friday, December 7, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
25 Skills Every Man Should Know
These days, you can outsource almost any job — but some things you need to know how to do yourself. Study our master list with step-by-step tips from the experts, and test your DIY aptitude each step of the way.
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How to Make Exercise More Fun Than Sex
OK, maybe not the orgasm thing, but what if you could find a way to exercise that was so outrageous, so exhilarating, so much fun you couldn’t wait to do more of it every single day. What if it became such a treasured part of your life, you actually had to pull yourself away from it to make time for other pursuits?
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Best Windows Error Ever May Rip Time-Space Continuum
In what computer analysts and physicists all over the world have classified as "a clear and present danger to the survivability of the Human Race and the Universe as we know it," LA area-man and Gizmodo reader Kevin Barbee reports that his Windows Vista Problem Reporting has reported that it has stopped reporting
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Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Perfect Lego Costume Allows Man to Get Drunk to Pieces
We love LEGO, the perfect excuse to waste a weekend doing constructive things and/or just get drunk. We can even eat LEGO. Other people, however, actually are LEGO. Like reader Rob Hoffmann who, pulling a Robert DeNiro, became LEGO himself thanks to vinyl, chicken wire and foam, the three cornerstones of any equilibrated diet.
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The Most Expensive Photographs Ever Sold
Ever wondered just how much your best photograph could be worth if it was put up for auction?
Here are the photos that have won the five highest bids when put on the block.
Of course, we’re not saying that one of your photographs could be worth this much… but then again, who knows?
1. Andreas Gursky’s “99 Cent II Diptych”
Photo Courtesy Sotheby’s
The first photograph to sell for more than $3 million, Andreas Gurky’s 99 cent II, Diptych reached $3,340,456 at a Sotheby’s auction in London, February 2007. This was the third time the photograph had sold for more than $2 million. Another print of the same image was sold for $2.25 million in May, 2006, and yet another print had reached $2.48 million just six months later.
Interestingly, the record-breaking photograph was sold not at a photography auction, but at a sale of contemporary art. That might suggest that how an artwork is sold plays an important role in defining how much it can sell for.
2. Edward Steichen’s “The Pond-Moonlight”
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Just missing the $3 million mark, and for a while the world’s highest-selling photograph, Edward Steichen’s “The Pond - Moonlight” was sold for $2,928,000 at Sotheby’s in New York in February, 2006.
The picture shows moonlight between trees and reflecting on a pond, and appears to be in color. However, color photography did not begin until 1907, three years after the photograph was taken.
Steichen used layers of light-sensitive gum to create an impression of color. Only three prints exist, with the other two in museum collections.
One way to create an expensive photo then could be to use a unique process, keep it rare… and wait a hundred years.
3. Richard Prince’s “Anonymous (Cowboy)”
Courtesy of Christie’s
Richard Prince’s photograph of a cowboy was perhaps an odd choice as the first photograph to reach a million dollars at auction. It sold for $1,248,000 at Christie’s in New York in November 2005.
The photograph, which was taken in 1989, wasn’t original but a shot of part of a Marlboro ad. Prince had started shooting images of magazine ads while collating press clips for Time Life in the 1970s.
The only other image, other than the proof in the possession of the artist, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Subject matter and rarity count it seems.
4. Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey’s “Athènes, T[emple] de J[upiter] olympien pris de l’est”
Courtesy of Christie’s
It’s a little easier to understand the appeal — and the price — of French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey’s image of the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter in Athens, which was sold at Christie’s in London for $922,488 in 2003.
Shot in 1842, the daguerreotype is believed to be the oldest image of the temple still existing.
It makes you wonder what the first photograph of the iPhone might be worth in 150 years…
5. Gustave Le Gray’s “The Great Wave, Sete”
Sometimes a combination of the rarity an old image brings and a striking subject matter can be enough to create a high price. For Gustave Le Gray, it created a picture that sold for $838,000 at Sotheby’s in London in 1999.
Le Gray’s image marked the first time that a photographer had managed to expose landscape and sky correctly in the same image. He did this by creating one negative for the sky and one for the sea, and printing them together on the same sheet of paper. In effect, he created a collage.
It’s an easy technique for a modern photographer to emulate but try doing it without a digital camera, Photoshop… and from a glass negative.
Before you start sorting through your archive to pull out better images than these, bear in mind that the value of a photograph at auction depends on all sorts of factors that go beyond the quality of the image. These might include the state of the stock market, the fame of the artist, the number of prints, when the print was made and the restrictions imposed on the negative.
Creating a million dollar photo often requires a lot more than getting the shot right.
See what’s now on the block at Sotheby’s photography auctions here, and Christie’s here, and tell us what you think of the price of photographic art.
30 Miserable Lives Lost In Greyhound Bus Crash
ALBANY, NY—In one of the most merciful disasters in recent years, a Greyhound bus traveling from Rochester to Albany, NY skidded into a ditch Tuesday, putting dozens of deadbeat fathers, penniless addicts, and worthless high school dropouts finally out of their misery.
According to Greyhound officials, the fatal crash occurred less than an hour after passengers gathered their pathetic belongings and dragged what little hope they had left onto the despair-soaked bus. Emergency crews called to the scene described the remains of the victims as "slightly more lifeless than they were before the accident."
"This is by far the saddest thing I've ever witnessed," said head rescue worker Charles Rabnett, referring to the sea of fast-food wrappers, losing lottery tickets, and scorched corpses that littered the crash site. "We've done our best to contact family members and loved ones, but so far we've only been able to reach four parole officers and 10 AA sponsors."
Added Rabnett: "Dear God, what a terrible waste of my time."
While officials are still not sure what happened aboard the Albany-bound bus, a number of theories have been posited, including icy roads, low visibility due to fog, and the likelihood that the driver, Ron Jenkins, fell asleep at the wheel after spending a restless night consumed by his failures as a husband.
Police investigators also suspect that the cause of the accident may have been as simple as "these luckless bastards getting shit on by the world one last time."
Enlarge Image 
Rescue workers were visibly sickened by the number of hamburger wrappers and soda bottles strewn about the bus.
"Dental records have helped identify only two-thirds of the casualties, as the remaining 10 passengers were discovered to have none of their original teeth left," Albany police chief Henry Goodwin said. "Among those, one is believed to have been a recently disowned teenage mother, the other an elderly widow forced to pawn her favorite necklace in order to purchase a bus ticket, and what appears to be the hollow shells of several middle-aged men."
No survivors were reported following the accident. In addition, initial surveillance of the wreckage seems to indicate that those who managed to pull their world-weary bodies out of the overturned bus, gave up on their wretched existence within minutes. According to paramedics, it is likely that many of the casualties had suffered during the crash, and, if not then, for years earlier.
"Thank heavens nobody made it," said chief paramedic John Thurston, who described the "disturbing smell" at the scene as a combination of gasoline, body odor, Aqua Velva, and relentless disappointment. "For a second there, I was worried I'd actually have to interact with some of these people."
In response to the relative tragedy, Greyhound has agreed to donate $200 worth of rolled quarters and greasy, crumpled dollar bills they had collected as bus fare to a local charity. The casualties of the crash will also be memorialized with a small commemorative plaque that will hang at the Albany station, between an out-of-order vending machine and a set of bathrooms where customers can often be heard weeping.
"It's hard to believe that something like this could even happen," said Albany resident Carl Robinson, who, since losing his home to a fire earlier this month, has been sleeping in the city's dilapidated bus station. "To know that life, no matter how dreadful or hopeless, always has a chance of coming to an end—it's so inspiring."
As of press time, hundreds of men and women had gathered at the site of the fatal accident to mourn the loss of a perfectly good bus.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Toddler Fools art World with Ketchup Masterpieces [PICS]
To the untrained eye, they appear to be simple daubs that could have been created by a two year old. Which is precisely what they are. But that didn't stop the supposed experts falling over themselves to acclaim them. The toddler in question is Freddie Linsky, who has fooled the art world into buying and asking to exhibit his paintings.
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I Have Feelings, Too. (pic - had to!)
Probably the cutest picture in existence.I have feelings, too. (pic) ---> had to :)
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[ESSAY] 2 Girls 1 Cup
"in the masterful modern 2girls1cup, the feminist genre is reexamined through a series of reversals of expectations..." LOL
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read more | digg story
Monday, December 3, 2007
Spiral galaxy M81 - sharpest image ever taken
Though the galaxy is located 11.6 million light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope's view is so sharp that it can resolve individual stars, along with open star clusters, globular star clusters, and even glowing regions of fluorescent gas.
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