Portent

This takes a few seconds so have patience! Spore is a newly launched game by veteran game designer Will Wright- famous for Sim City and of course the Sims.

Spore is his latest and possibly greatest game in which you sort of play God! Starting with a tiny single cell critter, you evolve it to a bigger critter then move into land, form a tribe conquer the world and then go into space. What makes it so compelling is that you get to select the path of evolution by choosing all sorts of legs, fins, flippers, tentacles; a massive collection of parts which the game is able to animate. that’s the really clever part. And it gets better- you can share your critter or use others and the Sporepedia (pictured) now have over 8.2 million.

Earlier today it had 8.1 million so that’s over 100,000 added today. As the game is being launched thats probably to be expected but still quite remarkable! I have ordered a copy of Spore so the Portentaurus when I have created it might yet grace these pages…

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Between 2003 and 2007 a group of people lived in a secret room (750 square feet size) above a parking lot in a shopping mall. They came and went unnoticed.

Eventually they got caught and the whole story came out, but for four years they lived there working on a memorial project to 9/11. Quite amazing.

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PS. The link was broken; it’s fixed now

Popularity: 23% [?]

I have no idea what this is about but it’s colourful if rather badly wrong!

It’s just a map of the USA, seemingly as the Japanese (well those who can’t read an Atlas or view Google Maps) perceive the USA.

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Popularity: 38% [?]

Clearly a magazine that people are “dying” to buy. Girls and Corpses appears to be a somewhat satirical take on Lads magazines. The girls are hot and the corpses are dead!

I thought at first that this was a fake, like The Onion but it appears to be for real. Odd that I’ve never seen it in W.H. Smiths…

Wired Magazine sums it up “Straddling that fine line between brutal tastelessness and hilarious misogyny, Girls and Corpses is very much a throwback to the humor mags of the late ’70s/early ’80s, with a very pointed, sarcastic POV that recalls some of the best issues of National Lampoon. ”

Interesting note. I always thought that corpses was a British word while the US used cadaver. I suppose corpse isa bit snappier!

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Popularity: 23% [?]

Some of these statues are very strange indeed. Some aren’t exactly statues- like the Mini parked up the wall but they are all all a bit odd.

The rhino hanging in mid air is my favourite, followed closely by the women swinging the kid.

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Popularity: 47% [?]

This is almost certainly one that should be filed under the “Don’t try this at home” category. Mankind’s ingenuity has developed many different types of weapons of which one of the most nasty is a flame thrower. They have their uses- clearing bunkers and caves in wartime. Of course one of the things you don’t realise is that man carried flame throwers made the wearer a bit vulnerable- one stray bullet and you become a human torch as the fuel was carried under pressure and …

So it’s a bit of a risky thing to try - I could easily see anyone doing this ending up in the Darwin Awards one year so try it at your own risk… But it’s still fun to look at someone else doing it!

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Popularity: 28% [?]

If you like wine to have a little body in it, why not buy a fake corpse! These are terrific, though I suspect if you were to say drive around town with one in your front seat you might have a little explaining to do.

Each is hand crafted with attention to detail- nostril cavities and fingernails. Heads can rotate, mouths open a close and the fingers can be angled as you wish! Including howe much decay (6 months decay, drowned with maggots please!) Even the latex skin feels real and apart from the lack of smell, they look very realistic!

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Popularity: 20% [?]

In some parts of the world, people don’t really appreciate how evil the Nazis were and so the name of Hitler is regarded as just a historical leader.

So they must think “Hey why not open a bar and call it after old Adolf? We’ll get a photo or two or a Swastika and people will recognise the name”. South Koreans seem to have a few of these. The linked page has several photos and discusses some of them. Some owners have changed their minds once it has been pointed out who exactly they are using!

There is an interesting link to a serious piece about how South Korea was founded on fascist, ie nazi principles after World War II so perhaps that explains why these bars are so named.

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Popularity: 16% [?]

You wouldn’t want to meet this person on a dark night. I’m not sure if it is a face tattoo or just painted on. Excellent bit of artwork!

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Popularity: 100% [?]