"There she is in her long brown hair / and a Che Guevara t-shirt"

[larryhammer]

Apropos absolutely nothing at all: maybe, just maybe, it's time to consider starting to write that epic poem, the one summarized as "Romeo x Juliet in a war of paladins versus kung fu wizards." (Or, more precisely, knights from medieval romance versus wuxia fighters.) Even if, by the time I finished, publishing will have moved past a fascination with What's Asian and onto the next fad.

While I think about that, have some linky goodness:

• Venice from above. Having recently watched a science fiction anime series set in a Martian creation of Venice, I found these photos particularly striking yet familiar, though most are of sights I'd not seen before. (via)
  
  
• Abandoned Antarctic stations. Needless to say, this plays right to my Antarctic obsessions.
  
  
• "Direction is a bucket that people keep sneaking into." I do love me some Dinosaur Comics -- it does to linguistics what XKCD does to physical sciences. (via)
  
  
• Because I know some of you lie awake worrying about these things, we now have experimental proof that the universe exists when we're not looking at it. That is, someone managed to be clever enough to test Hardy's paradox. (via)
  
  
• Japan shrinks silver cups presented to centenarians on Respect for the Aged Day. That's 20,000 ¥7500 cups for everyone turning 100 this year, and as usual the government is cut-cutting.
  
  
• Takasugi-an literally means, "a teahouse [built] too high", and that is all you need to know to decide whether to click through. (via)
  
  
• Princess Unicorn, for when you can't decide whether to play with your unicorn or your princess.
  
  
• "Dwarfed Punk," a Snow White vid set to "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk. Brill. (via)
  
  
• Would "Masters of the Business Apocalypse" be a better name for an M.B.A.? Somehow, the failure to consider the possiblity of responsibility described here does not surprise me. (via)
  
  
• I don't really agree with all this article on the geography of the econopocalypse says, but it's got a lot of thinky in it:

  But another crucial aspect of the crisis has been largely overlooked, and it might ultimately prove more important. Because America’s tendency to overconsume and under-save has been intimately intertwined with our postwar spatial fix—that is, with housing and suburbanization—the shape of the economy has been badly distorted, from where people live, to where investment flows, to what’s produced. Unless we make fundamental policy changes to eliminate these distortions, the economy is likely to face worsening handicaps in the years ahead.

  One thing that struck me: geographic mobility, long touted as an American trait, has gone down in direct correlation with homeownership. (via)

And finally, two angry camels in a car.

Just what it says.

---L.

Comments

[badtzphoto.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link to Photos of Venice from above- that's a real treat.

[larryhammer]

Aren't they? Very dramatic, some of them.

---L.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Princess Unicorn, for when you can't decide whether to play with your unicorn or your princess.

I was already laughing at your commentary and when I got to this I fell right out of my chair.

That was just what I needed about now. Thank you. *g*

[larryhammer]

Yes, but is it an intensely desirable giant bucket?

---L.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

The tea house looks like Baba Yaga's cousin the crane-witch.

Nine

[larryhammer]

Hee! I does, kind of.

I suspect it's a lot more stable inside than it looks, even on windy days.

---L.

[kah-tea-uh.livejournal.com]

Aria! Yay :D
Those photos remind me of the manga and the anime, both are favorites of mine.
And that tea house is so nifty (and reminds me of Baba Yaga)!

[larryhammer]

Have you seen the DVD extras of the first season of the ''Aria'' anime, in which the director takes a team to Venice to do location and gondolier research? (Apparently, the mangaka had never visited and used photo books.)

I very much like that series. Not as calming as ''Yotsuba&!'' or profound as ''Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou'', but I'll take it as a more readily available substitute.

---L.

[kah-tea-uh.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the extras, I can look for them online though (I watch episodes of the anime online). Yotsuba&! and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou are definitely my other two favorite mangas, I've gotten my brother into Yotsuba, too, which is cool, spreading the love :)

[larryhammer]

Yotsubalove deserves to be spread, yes. Are you active in yotsubato?

---L.

[kah-tea-uh.livejournal.com]

I haven't posted there, but I'm a member :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The abandoned Antarctic stations were very cool--though I couldn't help wondering which one(s) were cover for an X-Files style secret base...

[larryhammer]

All of them. Duh. Haven't you watched Carpenter's The Thing?

---L.