Our own Greg Veiss: You Tube Hunter, pointed me to this great piece on Obama and his smoking on Slate. It’s a little old, but it’s an intriguing question: If the Democrat’s superstar drops the habit, will he lose his golden voice? From the piece:

Smoking over time transforms a person’s voice by thickening and drying out the vocal chords… David Witsell, who directs Duke University’s Voice Care Center, notes that the nodules on Johnny Cash’s vocal cords that stemmed in part from his smoking habit helped create his unique sound. “Many famous voices in history have pathologies that are part of their vocal signatures,” Witsell says. But Obama’s semisecret weapon amounts to a double-edged sword. After all, what sort of successful Democratic politician smokes nowadays?

Fascinating! The piece goes on to talk about how Obama’s smoothly side-stepped questions about the habit, and how quitting could affect his mellow tone. I’m guessing, though, if he makes a pledge to quit, and gets Americans to join him (Kirstie Allie-style), he could muster even more popularity. In any case, election season is my third favorite sporting event, after March Madness and the World Cup. and I’m ready to see some action. Click here for the Slate piece. Thanks Greg!

A fisherman recently spotted a live frilled shark off the coast of Japan. And while many of you might be wondering why a creature that bears a striking resemblance to Leona Helmsley is getting such attention, others will be frilled to know that the “living fossil” really exists. For anyone not in the know, the species resides over 600 meters below the sea, is rarely seen in shallow waters, and is almost never spotted alive. The sharks are considered primitive because it’s thought they’ve changed little since prehistoric times (the fisherman who first spotted it called it a giant eel-like creature with needle sharp teeth). Sadly, this one died soon after it was caught… but it was clearly wise beyond its years. The creature was smart enough to pose for beauty shots before swimming toward the great beyond. Click here to read more at the SMH. Story via ettf.

Film director Michel Gondry sports a well-earned reputation for being a cinematic trickster, as well as a lover of puzzles and games. Watch this video, simply entitled “Michel Gondry solves a Rubik’s Cube with his feet,” and tell us what you think: is he solving a puzzle, or creating one for us to solve?

It’s been a very long time since I dropped some objects in the blog. You guys seemed to enjoy them, so I thought it high time for a revival. If you’ve missed our past installments, the idea of Found Objects is pretty simple: I post some sort of visual representation of an object, equation, theory or idea that inspired or made its way into a book, film, song, poem, or painting. Your job is to name it and tell us where it’s found.

This humorous one comes from a pretty well known book: (And remember: no Googling or Internet searching of any kind!)

Do not, repeat, do NOT click on this link if you actually have something even slightly, vaguely important to do today, or if you are at all worried about maintaining your sanity.

Okay, fine, click.

Loituma Girl is the most spellbinding thing I’ve ever seen, and the worst part is, I can’t explain why. At least Wikipedia can explain what:

Loituma Girl (also known as Leekspin) is a flash cartoon set to a gibberish section of the traditional Finnish folk song “Ievan Polkka” sung by the Finnish quartet Loituma, taken from their 1995 debut album Things of Beauty. … The cartoon consists of a 4-frame animation of the Bleach anime character Orihime Inoue twirling a leek (a type of green onion, called a negi in Japan) to a 27-second loop from the song. …

The cartoon uses the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) from the song. Unlike the rest of the song, these two stanzas have no meaning, consisting mostly of phonetically-inspired gibberish that vary from performance to performance and are usually made up on the spot by the singer (compare scat singing in jazz).

The origin of the cartoon is unclear. Within a few days of its appearance, tens of thousands of pages either directed to the possible origin or had the file uploaded on their own server. On 10 July 2006, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that Loituma Girl had caused a resurgence in Loituma’s popularity, and the band had received thousands of fan letters from around the world.

BBC’s The World radio program even covered the animation in a segment, in which they noted the clip’s trance-inducing qualities: “This is basically a joke for someone who spends all of their time staring at a computer, made by people who spend all of their time staring at a computer.”

So many questions! Why the Japanese-Polish fusion? Why a leek? Is this the new Hampster Dance? Will I ever get this song out of my head?

I saw this along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and had to pull out my camera. Pun spoiler: God Grew Tired of Us is a 2006 Sundance documentary about three Sudanese “Lost Boys” making their way in the U.S. and A. As for cod, overfishing has turned this once-thriving species into a restaurant rarity. Soon we’ll all be eating jellyfish.

Along with playing chess and watching my friends have sex, I derive endless enjoyment from Dumb Criminal videos. And based upon all the airtime these grainy surveillance tapes get, I’m guessing you do, too. So let’s drop the ado…

This one is the most famous of the stupid crook YouTubes. There are many different versions of this video including one that’s more than borderline racist

–but I like this one the best for its subtitles, which are undoubtedly accurate:

And look at this guy who doesn’t know the difference between pushing and pulling. Oh sweet petunia stank, this is awesome!

(more…)

Because the Government’s Making You
Naming your baby Brooklynn, America, or Lindsee might be acceptable (if mockable) in the good ol’ US of A, but don’t try a stunt like that in Denmark. Of all the European laws regulating baby names, Denmark’s are the strictest. Danish parents must choose from a state-approved list of 7,000 names, which seems like a lot, until you fall in love with a name that isn’t on there. And bucking the system means months of slogging through a bureaucratic process to get your chosen moniker individually approved by the Names Investigation Department and the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Each year, those organizations reject 15 to 20 percent of the names they review—all in the, uh, “name” of protecting the baby’s dignity.
Because You Aren’t As Religious As Your Parents
Forget the hippies, the award for #1 crazy-baby-name subculture absolutely has to go to the Puritans. Well known for burning eccentric neighbors, forcing adulterers to wear colorful letterman jackets, and condemning the concept of “fun” in general, Puritan culture was basically a big ball of repressed wackiness looking for an outlet. Thus, did little Silence, Humiliation, and Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin (i.e. the writing on the wall from the Book of Daniel) pay the price for their parents’ self-flagellation. Some, however, later rebelled. Sometime before 1660, a preacher’s son-turned doctor changed his name from Hath-Christ-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Woudst-Be-Damned Barbone to the more sensible Nicholas Barbon. He went on to found the world’s first insurance company, thus storing up treasures on Earth and probably getting himself in even more trouble with his dad.

For the Sake of A Little Publicity
Between 1965 and 1979, San Francisco painting contractor Bill Holland changed his name no fewer than three times. But Holland’s odyssey wasn’t part of some New Age attempt to find himself. Rather, it was a purely Capitalist scheme. In order to become easily identifiable as the “last name in the phone book” Holland took on the professional pseudonym of Zachary Zzzra. Over the next 15 years, he had to periodically add some “z’s” as first a “Zelda Zzzwramp” and then a “Vladimir Zzzzzzabokov” ostensibly moved to town. By 1979, Holland’s painting contract business could be found under the unwieldy moniker of Zachary Zzzzzzzzzra.

chances are you’re going to love ‘em in Japanese! Or maybe not. In any case, I thought it was great to see that the humor seems to translate over continents (at least I’m assuming it translates, since I saw our Japanese designer giggling at them). I’m not sure that the Japanese PC is nearly as cuddly as our own John Hodgeman, but he still seems pretty lovable in his own way. Click here to watch the video. Story via Adfreak.

It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”

Today I typed in “Einstein quotes” unearthing the following words of wisdom from the Master (most via this page):

• Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.
• If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
• Imagination is more important than knowledge…
• Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.
• The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
• The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
• Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
• Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
• Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.
• Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
• I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
• The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
• If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
• You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.