Eileen Maksym's Blog, page 5
June 6, 2017
Weird Wikipedia Wednesday: Toynbee Tiles
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Toynbee Tiles
The Toynbee tiles (also called Toynbee plaques) are messages of unknown origin found embedded in asphalt of streets in about two dozen major cities in the United States and four South American cities. Since the 1980s, several hundred tiles have been discovered. They are generally about the size of an American license plate (roughly 30 cm by 15 cm), but sometimes considerably larger. They contain some variation of the following inscription:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN MOViE `2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER
June 5, 2017
Only a Fool Gives It Away
I adore Deathcab for Cutie. Their music is beautiful and their lyrics heartbreaking, exploring such topics as losing a loved one, inevitable doom, crazy stalkers, and Donald Trump (yes, I’m serious. It’s called “Million Dollar Loan” and you should check it out). This song is about trying to be special, to be unique, to be something of value in a world where anything new can be imitated to worthlessness. The animation is poignant in its simplicity. Enjoy!
June 2, 2017
And I Want You
I adore this mash-up. The perkiness of Taylor Swift meets the darkness of Nine Inch Nails like a warm front meets a cold front, and the resulting tornado is quite a sight to behold. This song that far exceeds the sum of its parts. Enjoy!
May 31, 2017
Weird Wikipedia Wednesday: Shadow People
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Shadow People
A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity.
May 30, 2017
It’s HOT This Season!
I’m typically not one for rap, but I love Tim Fite. I’ve been a fan ever since I found out about him via the radio show/podcast Sound Opinions. One thing that I love about him is that he plays no favorites in his cutting social commentary. The above video is for “Camouflage,” from his album Over the Counter Culture. In it he takes the American war hawks to task for fighting a war for colonialism and oil while pushing it on the American people like a fashion trend. The song and the video are both jarring at times, and they should be, because there’s a great deal of cognitive dissonance related to the wars America waged (and is waging) in the Middle East. It’s a clear jab at George W. Bush and his supporters. In a later album, Under the Table Tennis, he takes on the economic bust of 2008, and the song “Oversight” features a sample of Obama promising exactly that “every step of the way,” while another voice yells “BAILOUT! BAILOUT! BAILOUT! BAILOUT!” Obama promised to act tough on the banks, but what wound up happening was something quite different.
If you’d like to find out more about Tim Fite and download some awesome free music, check him out at TimFite.com.
May 26, 2017
It’s Quiet Uptown
The most heartbreaking song in Hamilton, performed with heartbreaking depth by Kelly Clarkson. Enjoy!
May 25, 2017
A Big LEGO NOPE
This is an awesome use of LEGOs, and the realism is measured nicely by the level of heebie jeebies I get just looking at it.
May 24, 2017
Weird Wikipedia Wednesday: John Murray Spear and the New Motive Power
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John Murray Spear
Spear and a handful of followers retreated to a wooden shed at the top of High Rock hill in Lynn, Massachusetts, where they set to work creating the ‘‘New Motive Power’’, a mechanical Messiah which was intended to herald a new era of Utopia. The New Motive Power was constructed of copper, zinc and magnets, all carefully machined, as well as a dining room table. At the end of nine months, Spear and the ‘‘New Mary’’, an unnamed woman, ritualistically birthed the contraption in an attempt to give it life.
May 17, 2017
Weird Wikipedia Wednesday: Capgras Delusion
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Capgras Delusion
Mrs. D, a 74-year-old married housewife, recently discharged from a local hospital after her first psychiatric admission, presented to our facility for a second opinion. At the time of her admission earlier in the year, she had received the diagnosis of atypical psychosis because of her belief that her husband had been replaced by another unrelated man. She refused to sleep with the impostor, locked her bedroom and door at night, asked her son for a gun, and finally fought with the police when attempts were made to hospitalise her. At times she believed her husband was her long deceased father. She easily recognised other family members and would misidentify her husband only.
— Passer and Warnock, 1991
May 10, 2017
Weird Wikipedia Wednesday: Jersey Devil
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Jersey Devil
According to popular folklore, the Jersey Devil originated with a Pine Barrens resident known as Mother Leeds. The legend states that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, cursed the child in frustration, crying that the child would be the Devil. During 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night while her friends gathered around her. Born as a normal child, the 13th child changed to a creature with hooves, a goat’s head, bat wings, and a forked tail. Growling and screaming, it killed the midwife before flying up the chimney and heading into the pines. In some versions of the tale, Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child’s father was the Devil himself. Some versions of the legend also state that there was subsequently an attempt by local clergymen to exorcise the creature from the Pine Barrens, or that the creature proceeded to kill local children.
