Geoff Hudspith’s Steam-Powered Bicycle.

Geoff Hudspith created a steam-powered bicycle: Link - via BloggerFodder

Foot Binding and Other Fashion Blunders in History.

From Radar Online, here’s a top 10 list of History’s Biggest Fashion Fouls. Coming in at number 5 is Chinese Bound Feet:
"According to one of several versions of the story, the Chinese fetish for foot-binding (pictured, above), designed literally to keep women in their place, dates from the thirteenth century with the Empress Taki, who was born with a clubfoot. Her courtiers took to binding their own feet in cloth in imitation, and soon small, tightly bound designer feet became highly desirable in Chinese women, even though bound toes were likely to become gangrenous. Chinese husbands, meanwhile, encouraged foot-binding because their crippled wives were less likely to run off. Foot-binding was officially abolished by Chairman Mao in 1949."
Link - via Gorilla Mask

Aleksandr Aksinin - Russian Graphic Art

These 3 etchings are © the estate of Russian graphic artist, Aleksandr Aksinin (1949-1985), killed in a plane crash on his way to an exhibition in Tallin.

Galleries: one, two, three, four. [Toronto Slavic Quarterly article]

18th Century Obstetrical Models.

The Anatomical Museum in Modena, Italy, has a very cool collection of obstetrical models made by Giovan Battista Manfredini in 1775.
Link [warning: teratology section at the bottom of the page is gross and distrubing, but now that I told you this, can you resist? Of course not you sick puppy.]

Jan Švankmajer - Rakvickarna

Images of the Day

UFO's in Ancient Artwork?

"In a time when there were no airplanes, weather balloons, or experimental military crafts, classic silvery discs, emanating beams of light appear in many famous Renaissance Era paintings, also religious text from China and India. Athough not always obvious, the resemblance is uncanny. Reports of unidentified flying objects appear even in our most ancient historical records. For anyone looking at the most ancient primitive cave drawings and petraglyphs it seems impossible now to take them for anything other than technology." Siriusly has brought togather an amazing collection of Artwork displaying what seems to be - well UFO's. Link below after some of my favorite images.

~ "The Baptism of Christ" ~ Fitzwilliam Musuem, Cambridge, England Painted in 1710 by Flemish artist Aert De Gelder

~ "The Madonna with Saint Giovannino" ~ Above Mary's left shoulder is a shining, or glowing, disk shaped object. A man and his dog can clearly be seen looking up at the floating object. Painted in the 15th century, Palazzo Vecchio lists the artist as unknown ~ although attributed to the Lippi school.

"La Tebaide" ~ Academy of Florence, painted c.1460-1465 by Paolo Uccello The close-up (right)

Haratonohama, Hitachi, Japan ~ 1803 The book "Ume No Chiri" (Dust of Apricot) tells us that a "foreign ship and crew" was once witnessed at Haratonohama (Haratono Seashore) in Hitachi no Kuni (Ibaragi Prefecture), Japan. The outer shell was made of iron and glass ~ and strange letters were seen inside the ship. Notice also four examples of alien heiroglyphs.

Many more images at - Siriusly

TDG - The Best of This Week

The best links and stories from TDG (The Daily Grail) in the past week.

BBC was half an hour too early reporting WTC7 collapse. More here. BBC responds. Further analysis.

A look inside an ancient computer: the Antikythera Mechanism.

Huge underground ocean found beneath Asia.

Joe Rogan talks about his DMT experiences (psychedelic video - which begins loading when you click - with audio overlay, which includes an abundance of expletives). Transcript and MP3.

Printable Cold Sores - Vandalism At Its Creative Best

Ah, vandalism at its creative best: printable cold sores. Link with a step by step guide - via Wooster Collective

Video of the Day - MS Paint Master

We have all sat at our PC and screwed with MS Paint at one time or another. Drawing to our hearts desires, but this guy is a MS Paint master. Reminds me of some of the stuff my buddy Ronnie would do back in the day before getting Paintshop. Amazing stuff.

Trepanation - Opening Ones "Third Eye" - The Hard Way

The medical community argues against it . . . media has used it as a shock story . . . but it's a procedure that has been around for ages, and some people believe it to be effective: trepanation. The desire to increase one's conciousness permanently has led some brave people to undergo this procedure. - Source WARNING - SHOCKING IMAGES ( This source under went a trepanation procedure. It shows not only trepanation in action, but also has his own personal diary. You have been warned. Read below for more links and information. )

Hippocrates endorsed its use and it’s the world’s second oldest surgical procedure following circumcision. It’s called trepanation and it literally means drilling a hole in your head. The practice of making a hole in the skull has been around since the Stone Age — archaeologists have found trepanned skulls dating back to 3000 B.C. Hippocrates, in his classic medical text "On Injuries of the Head," endorsed trepanation for the treatment of head wounds. During the middle ages it was thought the procedure was able to liberate demons from the heads of the possessed and, later on, “enlightened” Europeans did it to cure maladies ranging from meningitis to epilepsy.

And yes, today in the 21st Century people are still doing the procedure, even whats known as self-Trepanation....

So why are people still doing it? Wiki says : "Although widely considered today to be pseudoscience, the practice of trepanation for medical benefits continues. The most prominent explanation for these benefits is offered by Bart Hughes, sometimes referred to as "Dr. Bart Hughes" even though he did not complete his medical degree. In the Hughes theory, trepanation increases "brain blood volume" and thereby enhances cerebral metabolism in a manner similar to cerebral vasodilators such as gingko biloba. However, most individuals who practice non-emergency trepanation today do so for psychic purposes. A prominent proponent of the modern view is Peter Halvorson, who drilled a hole in the front of his own skull to increase "brain blood volume"."

Quite the length to go for Enlightenment. There is a Trepanation Society, Trepan, Which believes that by having Trepanation done, or even Self-Trepanation one can expand their own consciousness and open their 'third-eye'. Apparently, it goes under the guise of body modification, although it is a serious and dangerous 'medical' procedure. Its hard to believe people are actually out there doing this. Then again, not really.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy run and maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide. Apart from its online status, the encyclopedia maintains the traditional academic approach, used in most encyclopedias and academic journals.

Link - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Images of the Day

Best Commercial Ever

This commercial is for real. I mean it happened for real. He really made a rap video for his furniture store. Yeah.

The Armed Forces Welcomes Suicidal Teens

Top 5 weirdest patron saints

Mental Floss has compliled a collection of the top 5 weirdest patron saints :
1) Saint Drogo (1105-1185), a Flemish nobleman who was reportedly able to bilocate, maintaining his presence in two locations at once. Witnesses claimed seeing Drogo working in fields simultaneously, and going to mass every Sunday. He is the patron saint of coffee and coffeehouses, we suspect because his peculiar talent for multitasking. (He’s also the patron saint of those whom others find unspeakably repulsive, but that’s another story altogether.)

2) Saint Anthony the Great (251-356), an Egyptian Christian monk who lived in a tomb for some years to overcome the temptation of “boredom, laziness and the phantoms of women,” and thus is known (among other things) as the patron saint of gravediggers.

3) Saint Lawrence of Rome (225-258), having been martyred by being roasted alive on a gridiron, is the patron saint of cooks and tanners.

4) Saint Nicholas, commonly associated with Santa Claus, is said to have aided the poor father of three marriageable girls who could not afford their dowries. To save them from a life of prostitution (a common fate for unmarried women in third-century Asia Minor), he dropped three sacks of gold down their father’s chimney late one night. (Sound like another St. Nick we know?) Thus, he is known as the patron saint of prostitutes.

5)French saint Thérèse de Lisieux (1873-1897), known as “The Little Flower of Jesus,” who wrote “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” She is the patron saint of flowers.

Via - Mental Floss

Junko Mizuno - Powerpuff Girls on Acid

Junko Mizuno [wiki] is a Japanese artist. She debuted in 1996 with a booklet called MINA animal DX. Her drawing style mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror -a so-called kawaii noir style-. She describes her artwork as “The Powerpuff Girls on acid.”. Besides her comics, sometimes published in color, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles. Mizuno has participated at Angoulême International Comics Festival. In the U.S., Viz Comics has published some of her work.
In this video, Jonathan Ross interviews Junko Mizuno for the Japanorama BBC series.

Consciousness and Reality Documentaries

Some guy catalogues every Google and Youtube video dealing with consciousness and reality. This Site is a trip in of itself. An amazing video collection indeed! In fact after you're done with the videos, which will take ages, take a look around his page. This one is for surfing for hours.
Link - DEDROIDIFICATION

Images - Frozen "Waves"

OK, so it isn't really a "Frozen Wave" but it sure looks like it. What it really is is a Glacier that has melted and re-frozen over-and-over. Still amazing. Source - Thrilling Wonder - Tons of More Pics

Greeks - Worshipping the Ancient Gods Again

After a break of 16 centuries, Greek pagans are worshipping the ancient gods again - despite furious opposition from the Orthodox church.

"Not since the late fourth century AD, when the newly Christian Roman state outlawed all forms of pagan worship, had a high priestess officiated on the sacred site. It was high noon when Doreta Peppa, a woman with long, dark locks and owlish eyes, entered the Sanctuary of Olympian Zeus. At first, tourists visiting the Athenian temple thought they had stumbled on to a film set. It wasn't just that Peppa cut a dramatic figure with her flowing robes and garlanded hair. Or that she seemed to be in a state of near euphoria. Or even that the group of men and women accompanying her - dressed as warriors and nymphets in kitsch ancient garb - appeared to have stepped straight out of the city's Golden Age. However this was indeed an act of worship.

So big, that like a thunderbolt from the deity himself, the one-hour ceremony has achieved the near-impossible task of unnerving Greece's powerful Orthodox church. Since Peppa's performance 10 days ago, hierarchs have redirected the venom they usually reserve for homosexuals, Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, masons and the "barbaric" Turks at the "miserable resuscitators" of the degenerate dead religion. In fire-and-brimstone sermons priests have slammed the "satanic" New Ageists and fulminated against their idols. "

Article and interview in full at - The Guardian UK