Anyone know how to reverse hack Flickr links like this to see more from whoever made this… please comment.

Link = http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2296375371_8fc0ff5742_o.gif

According to New Scientist, people with low self esteem who ponder death feel compelled to eat cookies and shop.

Smeesters found that people with low self-esteem shop and eat more after watching death-related news clips.

“One would hope that companies do not exploit this by putting food ads straight after the news,” Smeesters says.

One would also hope that they’d wake up one morning to a gold helicopter stuffed with video games and Cheetos, but like, guess what…ain’t gonna happen.

Jyoti, all 1 foot and 11 inches of her, goes to a regular school (her classmates, pictured above) and sits at a custom-built little desk. And she’s recording a rap album later this year. Lots more pics at the link. Spread the Jyoti love.

via DGSF Patrick

Yeah. No joke. That’s Angela Lansbury. If you’re impatient, fast forward to 2:50. Via Everything is Terrible.

Article and more video (don’t miss! the monkey manipulates the arm so he can lick the fingers):

In a dramatic display of the potential of prosthetic arms, a monkey at the University of Pittsburgh was able to use his brain to directly control a robotic arm and feed himself a marshmallow. The research, published today in the journal Nature, is the first to show that an interface that converts brain signals directly into action is sophisticated enough to perform a practical function: eating. Researchers who led the work have just begun human tests of a related technology.

Forget where this came up, but it reminded me how awesome the folks at Improbable Research are. Above, from awhile back, is a pic from a project that studied how cats are indifferent to bearded men. More recent topics include: Suggestions for the most plagiarized project, the Swedish Crisp Bread Salivation Limerick Competition, and the olfactory benefits of divine inspiration. Three cheers for academic research.

From a NYT article:

“Twisted: A Balloonamentary” examines the world of professional balloon twisters, who make everything from life-size racing cars to their own wedding dresses. It also exposes the rift — who knew? — between the “gospel twisters,” who use their craft as a way to teach Bible lessons, and the “adult” twisters, who use balloons for more prurient entertainment.

“I refused to see the movie” when it first played, said Ralph Dewey, a prominent gospel twister from Deer Park, Tex. “There’s just too much unclean stuff in there.” He and several other like-minded twisters boycotted a screening of “Twisted” at a balloon convention in Texas last year.

The scenes that might make Mr. Dewey squirm take place at a gay men’s party in Las Vegas, where balloons are fashioned into parts of the male anatomy that are most logically suited for this purpose.

According to the twisters themselves, the two factions have long co-existed, however uncomfortably, at conventions and other gatherings, but the film is bringing simmering resentments to the surface.

Gallery of balloon sculptures.

Lei Rodriguez lives in Miami, and that’s appropriate, because you can feel the oppressive heat of rioting vegetation in her work. Gorgeous stuff—feels like being in a jungle that doubles as a strip joint, or being in Buffalo Bill’s house, if he ran the Little Shop of Horrors. More works:

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Last seen in the premier arts/comics crossover anthology, Kramers Ergot, Victor Cayro, aka BALD EAGLES has a web presence again for the first time since ilovevictorcayroandhiscomics.com expired a while back. BALD EAGLES’ obsessive-compulsively detailed imagery, like a melding of S. Clay Wilson, Geoff Darrow & Brian Chippendale, is often auto-biographical in its’ focus- Cayro often shows up as Robocop, alter ego “THE BEARD”, Saturn eating his young, etc., either tormented by inner demons and crass humanity, or tormenting said crass humanity. He also has a penchant for making videos that remind me of a home-grown Paul McCarthy.

Flickr actually seems to be the perfect venue for Cayro, as his need to fill his work with detailed marginalia can actually spill out into the site as well, infecting the descriptions and tags of each page with his free-associative commentary. If you’re not looking at most of those images at full size and reading all the lables, tags, and details of each piece, you’re missing out.

Via DGSF Josh Simmons.

One more image and a video under the cut:

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