Nuthouse Flowers

Presso Australia
PRESSO provides clean, energy efficient espresso every time. A portable lever operated coffee machine for the home, office or caravan.

ZOMG! I COVET! Unpowered espresso love! It looks so very simple that I think even I, Ms. Distractability, could use it without burning the grounds. See it in action here. (via 50 Books.)

DIY Vodka "Pill" Lollies.
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms. (via Fark, I think.)

Via Sol
In the year 2042, the world was in crisis. So the richest people found a solution. They buit a rocket...and left. You are the president of the new world: Via Sol.

Very nifty little game. Chose between six maps, eight governing styles (including my favourite, Orwellian Nightmare), and three difficulties.Very witty and sharp for a small blab of Flash.(via Jay is Games.)

Santa Muerte: The New God in Town
Now appearing in New York, Houston and Los Angeles: Santa Muerte. The personage is Mexico's idolatrous form of the Grim Reaper: a skeleton — sometimes male, sometimes female — covered in a white, black or red cape, carrying a scythe, or a globe. For decades, thousands in some of Mexico's poorest neighborhoods have prayed to Santa Muerte for life-saving miracles. Or death to enemies.

The latest permutation of syncretic tendencies in colonized people. Facinating phenomena.

Mick Mercer's Top 30 Goth Singles
The recent Record Collector article chopped out a lot that Alex Ogg had written, including my Top 30, so I am including it all here, with Alex's permission, as it was prepared for publishing.

Ripping list of olde-skool sound, from Gloria Mundi's 1978 release Glory Of The World/Nothing To Say to more recent fare like Solemn Novena's As Darkness Falls. An excellent list and well worth a look-in for all you cats out there with a fondness for the rock end of the goth spectrum.

Alanis Morissette Covering that fucking Humps Song.
I never thought you could improve on perfection. But I was wrong!

7-Elevens May be Converted into Kwik-E-Marts to Promote Simpsons Movie.
The converted stores would sell items that Apu Nahasapeemapetilon might sell in his fictional store, like Krusty-Os, Buzz Cola, and Squishies (lucky for the 7-11 folks that they have a very similar product, huh?).
I want this to be true, and it needs to come down to Oz too. I'd love to buy me some Squishy.

The 10 Ugliest Men in Metal History.
These guys make Jimbob's Friendly Returning Cyst look like a beauty spot. Brutal.

Speaking of the Ugly: Velvet Painting of Dick Cheney, Cheney On Black Velvet. The All-Pro NeoCon On Black Velvet
Isn't it time you paid your respects?
Fantastic little piece of satire. Thsese were sold, in all seriousness, at the 1996 GOP Republican Convention by a pair of illegal-immigrant Mexicans armed with flurescent pink lint rollers. Though I must say that their later work is more to my taste, including this lovely WoW PC and a depiction of "President George W. Bush ...with a sort of glum resignation despite being desperately serenaded by a weeping Elvis Presley who vainly sings to the side of the President's head, in the hope of nuturing a tiny little spark of presidential vigor back into the waning Fundamentalist/NeoCon movement". Nothing but pure class. I can thank Mefi for that one.

Also, a shout-out to my Zombie-walking friends - you rate a mention on the BBC, and a mention that got Farked, too.

...And I think we need to finish with a baby tapir.

Slime Scones!
Non-vegan friendly egg substitute exploration.

Pregnant Mexican Spider Girls! (Safe for Work)
Grueling work practices for cunning chicas.

Drunken Elk Terror
If I made it up, no-one would believe me.

The Unauthorized Jilder Exhaustion Management Manifesto
Not really a manifesto, author is asleep.

Thirteen Babies and Counting
Don't make fun of the fundies, they outnumber us.

Let's Buy Us Some Darkies
So they don't die of massive corporate exploitation.

Crucifix Banned by School
Jamie Derman, 17, said she was stunned when told she could be suspended from Sunbury Downs Secondary College if she did not remove it.

Her discreet cross was outlawed as part of the multicultural college's new rules on jewellery and dress.

The summary here is that the college is not permitting religious icons as a concession to 'multiculturalism'. But it worries me that such acts result in a lack of culture, full stop, not a wide representation of them.

Australia is unique in many ways. We are the only nation made up predominantly of immigrant peoples from many different places, arriving in waves, from the first lot of prisoners, to each successive wave of refugees, relocators, speculators and characters of dubious origin. It's one of the most important and formative parts of our national identity. Our faces show origins that cover every corner of the planet.

Culturally, however, it's been more of a battleground. It shouldn't be - there is room in our institutions for many different forms of cultural expression, especially in schools. We can celebrate Easter twice, and acknowledge Ramadan, and go playing in the parks on Beltane. There isn't any reason why we should shut out all religious expression. In fact, if we want to encourage acceptance of different beliefs, the only way to do this is through exposure.

It's as if all colour must be removed, just in case anyone is offended. But this is not going to create any form of multicultural society. It breeds an acultural one, empty of meaning. I wonder sometimes if this actually a defensive action by the mainstream? As in "Better No Culture than Your Culture" sort of statement, where we'd rather see no religion at all than a smorgasbord of alternatives to the generally European Protestant beliefs of the powerful.

I could understand if the kid in question was wearing a massive Baroque thing, matching earrings and arms covered wrist to elbow in "WWJD?" bangles. This is a school, after all, with codes designed to prevent distraction. There's only so much personal expression before you start expressing all over the rest of the student body. But banning a wee little cross is perhaps a bit much.