Techno Chicken

Via Victor: "Dominos in Australia are promoting their barbecue chicken and bacon pizza with the Techno Chicken Dance.

"More than 8 different chickens were used, trained by James Delaney and Caroline Girdlestone at Hero Animals(the team behind Babe and Black Sheep). None were harmed, although the crew did have chicken on the menu for lunch."

How to draw cartoons with a message

Via Steve: Who hasn't looked at the witty and insightful cartoons in the local paper and wished they too could contribute to public discourse with such humor? It turns out it may be easier than you think to join in on the fun. Tom Gammill and The Doozies show you how:

New Zune Paint ad leads some to swear off internet video forever

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Via NotCot: A recent AP article noted that "Since it first landed two years ago, the Zune has been the butt of many jokes." Most readers, however, did not know just how literal the statement was.

According to NotCot, the above unauthorized ad by Sibling Rivalry for Zune Arts is "so inappropriate, yet shot nicely and has fun music... but SO WRONG, you have been warned!"

Nanobamas plan world domination

Via Neatorama: "Professor John Hart of the University of Michigan created nanoscale likenesses of president-elect Barack Obama that are each smaller than a grain of sand! The 'nanobamas' were made to raise awareness of nanotechnology."

Unfortunately, "building contractors failed to properly install filters in a certain vent in the building. As a result, hazardous elements such as the assemblers, the bacteria, and the nanobamas were blown into the desert, evolving and eventually forming autonomous swarms. These swarms appear to be solar-powered and self-sufficient, reproducing and evolving at an amazingly fast rate. The swarms exhibit predatory behavior, attacking and killing animals in wild. Most alarmingly, the swarms seem to possess rudimentary intelligence, the ability to quickly learn and to innovate."

A great stocking stuffer

Via Neatorama: "This is a pair of genuine taxidermy squirrel feet earrings. They have been professionally freeze dried."

I suppose you have to do something with them post-launch.

PoF gets Typealyzed

Via the Presurfer: "Typealizer finds features that distinguishes one type from another. When all features, words, and sentences are combined, Typealyzer is able to guess which type of writer you are."

Here's how Pieces of Flair turned out: ESFP - "The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

"The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

Knitastic

Via Drawn!: "An animated music video composed entirely of machine-knitted frames. The music is by the Montreal band Tricot Machine."

Need more knitting action? Knitta please!

If you love America, you throw money in its hole

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

An Anniversary to Remember

November 12, 2008: 38th Anniversary of Oregon's exploding whale:



While PoF likes to keep you abreast of current cultural detritus and the latest tomfoolery, every now and then it helps to look back at where we came from. This will give us direction as we plunge headlong into the uncertain future, or at least they told us something like that in college. No matter what happens in the financial markets, when I'm hunkered down in my survival compound, I will remember that whales, civil servants and dynamite do not mix.

Evidently, dead whales sometimes spontaneously combust, so there's really no way of determining when this hidden menace will strike.

Proving that this topic is very important/relevant, here's the wikipedia entry and snopes page.

Incredibly, there are folks with more time on their hands than your humble PoF posse. Witness, theexplodingwhale.com

U2 Tower shelved - PoF Tower moving forward

Via the AP: "Plans to build the tallest building in Ireland — with new recording studios for Irish supergroup U2 on top — were suspended Friday because of Dublin’s slumping property market and slide into recession.

"[British architect Norman] Foster envisioned a 400-foot triangular tower on the south bank of Dublin’s River Liffey with an egg-shaped pod housing U2’s new recording studios on top. That would give Bono and his bandmates a view at least twice as tall as any other building in Dublin."

While the news comes as a blow to U2 fans, PoF followers can take heart that the Pieces of Flair Tower remains on schedule for completion early in 2010. The building will tower over the skyline of Springfield, Missouri, and will feature a poo-hat shaped pod to house PoF administrative headquarters.

Springfield was selected for its location at roughly the central point of the geographic triangle created by tracing the route between Birmingham, Alabama, Richmond, Indiana, and Denver, Colorado - making the spot equally inconvenient for all PoF contributors.

Marketing advice from Matt - Bose edition

Occasionally, I like to offer some marketing advice to all of the advertising execs that read PoF. In the past, I have suggested such pearls of wisdom this: Classic rock = YES!, and Family Goatse = NO!

Despite these efforts, it seems that few are listening. In particular, corporations continue in failing to see the advantages of tying their products to classic rock anthems. How awesome would it be to turn TV and film advertisement time into an endless loop of the greatest hits from the 60s and 70s? I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest some of the wildest pairings I can come up with just to get everyone's creative juices flowing:

Microsoft + Rolling Stones = Awesome!
Coke + Queen = Stellar!
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines + Iggy Pop = Why Not?!?

Even less radical is the almost common sense pairing of Bose and Thin Lizzy. The Bose Wave Radio has been on the market long enough to become a bore. What would bring back the excitement? I propose a "Whopper off the Burger King Menu" publicity stunt where Bose takes the Wave Radio off the market for a short period - long enough to upset Bose Wave Radio fans - and then bring it back with gusto and a new theme song - "The Bose is Back in Town!"

Company executives interested in paying me for additional marketing advice may contact me at any time.

The Pipe

A scene from "The Pipe," a short film based on a story by Jack Pendarvis about "a pill-popping paramedic and a stoic security guard work the midnight shift, protecting the air pipe of a radio personality who has been buried alive for 46 days as a publicity stunt. A lot can happen when two crazy people are left alone in the dark with a pipe."

One man Star Wars symphonic quartet

John Williams is the man!

Via Julian.

Celebrate Movember

"Movember is an annual month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November."

Here's a catchy way to help you keep the cause in mind:

"Whether you're stopping or going
Just you remember
To keep that mo growing
Whilst in Movember"

Pickles and ice cream - together at last

Dynamite Dill's Midnight Cravings ice cream blends cinnamon ice cream, dark chocolate chunks and cinnamon-clove pickles. Sprinkle with Spitz Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds for an extra crunch.