Photography by Jason Nocito.

Rod Stanley: You’ve just shown me that arrest warrant on the wall, but there’s so many other amazing objects in here. How long have you been collecting these items?

Joe Coleman: Only since my 20s. The collection is so much a part of my work that it can also reflect the way I work. The overall experience of the room is like my paintings – you look at a painting from a distance, but then if you get close to any of the details, each one has a whole story behind it. I can just grab… here, this is my favorite autograph – it’s William Marwood. He was a famous hangman, who discovered that if you weight the body and measure the distance of the drop, you could cause someone to die instantly. This is his calling card – if you turn the autograph around… here – you will see that it is his calling card.

Dazed: Inside the Odditorium of Joe Coleman

(via Richard Metzger)

Yeah, WTF? That’s by comics’ version of a grindhouse director, Rob Liefeld. It makes no sense to me either.

Via: Occasional Superheroine

Long ago I heard a list of funny-sounding diseases. My spelling may be off, because I heard and did not read them. They were gastrocolitis, valbuminitus and lumpuckaroo. The first I’ve confirmed as real. The third I’ve confirmed as “the blahs.” The second I’ve not confirmed at all.

What’s more, it seems I was told of a disease in which a person grows black thorns from their skin which when cut off - vibrate.

Now I’ve been told a bunch of stuff in my life. I’ve also told plenty of fibs myself. I’m not saying the vibrating thorn disease is real, or that it is called valbuminitus. But I’d like to find the origin of this story if possible. Thanks for helping, metafilter.

Full Story: Ask Metafilter

The best guess so far is that this refers to cutaneous horns or the extreme form epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Anyone know anything else about this? Particularly the vibrating part?

Most people have already seen the following images in the ‘WTF’ sections of social bookmarking sites, in threads dedicated to badass pictures or just circulated through their inboxes by the “funny” boss. There is never an explanation for these pictures, because they seem to intrinsically defy explanation; they are just still moments in time of unbelievable scope, and epic badassery. It seems hard to imagine what brought about the extraordinary circumstances these images depict, and that’s the magic, really - letting your imagination run with these ridiculous situations. Well, I decided to do some research on what the actual explanations were behind these famous pictures…because I hate magic, and I want to ruin it for you forever. I drown witches, bitches.

Full Story: Cracked

(via Robot Wisdom)

SARASOTA, FL. - Some excitement at the Sarasota City Commission meeting Tuesday, when a California man spoke out about who he thinks really killed John Lennon.

During public comment, a man with signs who identified himself as Steve Lightfoot, took a seat in front of commissioners saying he wanted to expose the truth. He then went on to allege that part-time Casey Key resident and author Stephen King was the person that killed John Lennon.

“I’m from California. I’m known by 10% of Florida. I’m known by 50% of California. I’m the man exposing the truth about John Lennon’s murder. Stephen King, Casey Key resident, shot John Lennon. He’s not suing me…my van says it all over the place,” said Lightfoot. He claimed that “Stephen King is the worst criminal the state of Florida has ever harbored.”

Full Story: mysuncoast.com

(Thanks Josh)

Awesome and amazing.

I don’t know if I have an “obsessive compulsive disorder”, as I’ve read somewhere, but I know that when I do something, I try to do it as best as possible (I don’t like to make things “half”).

I wear all this each time I go outside my home (unless I go to the swimming pool or to the beach of course, or unless I go out only 3 mn to drop a letter in the post box down the street (boring ancient times snail mail !)).

There are many things useful for travelling, I use to travel a lot, sometimes I leave for 3 or 4 days, without knowing where I will go ; I like adventure (but with prepareness it’s more fun ! I like adventure and discovery, not struggling all day against problems (I’ve seen too many tourists with painful stories, nothing in head)).

I live in a big city in France and my job has nothing to do with my special clothing, although I use quite often my things at my job (instead of wasting “hours” searching for things there, never placed where they should be) ; I learnt electricity at school, which explains that it is natural for me to use some tools like a digital multimeter, soldering iron, and so on…

My job allows me 4 days of weekend, which explains why I can easily make some small adventure escapades.

More pics and a list of what he carries at Crazy Eric’s homepage

(via OVO)

Above: canned silkworm pupas

Steve eats disgusting foods and tells the world about it. What else do you need to know?

Steve Don’t Eat It

(Thanks Surrealestate)

My downstairs neighbor’s site:

Grindhouseland: Exploitation Film Reviews.

Presenting Intermittens. Intermittens is a periodical journal of Discordian diarrhea - an incontinent splattering of juicy ideas and corny jokes. Originally produced by the irreverant spags of the Peedy cabal, Intermittens is an expanding attempt to document some of the antics going on today in the Discordian Society. Every issue has a different editor. All content (unless otherwise marked) is from / for the public domain.

This project is an attempt to create an open-source Discordian magazine. We encourage anyone, even you, to haphazardly throw together an issue of what you think is cool. The project itself is a Golden Apple Seed Mission, or GASM, meaning we want your help! We need people who have writing, graphic, and layout skillz. We also need people with the balls to edit their own issue of Intermittens and join the elite Editor Cabal. Do you have what it takes? No, you don’t; none of us do. That’s why we’re making DIY magazines and not professional ones. And that’s why we need more cooks to foul the broth.

Intermittens is being published on a (roughly) monthly schedule. If you’re interested in helping out, check in at principiadiscordia.com/forum and martyr yourself for the cause. In any case, we hope you dig it. And by all means, share. Send the PDFs on to people you know, people you love, people you hate, hamsters, and other creatures.

My friend Telarus, KSC designed the first issue. Seems like a fun project.

Intermittens: a Journal of Discordian Bullshit

Full Story: the Telegraph

(via Clifford Pickover)

Brazilian scientists have rejected claims that the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele – notorious for his experiments at Auschwitz – was responsible for creating a tribe of twins in a small town near the border with Argentina.

In his book, Mengele: The Angel Of Death In South America, Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa claims that Mengele made regular trips to Linha São Pedro, a small and predominantly German settlement near the city of Cândido Godói in Brazil, during the 1960s. Shortly afterwards, the birth rate of twins began to spiral, he says.

However, Ursula Matte of the medical genetics unit at Porto Alegre Hospital in Brazil and her colleagues reject any notion that Mengele was responsible for the phenomenon. Her team was invited to Linha São Pedro during 1994 to investigate reports of a higher than average number of twin births in the town.

Full Story: New Scientist

See also: Josef Mengele responsible for high instance of twins in small Brazil town, historian says

Seven diners in northern Japan fell ill and three remained hospitalized Tuesday after eating blowfish testicles prepared in a restaurant not authorized to serve the poisonous delicacy.

The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city, who is also the chef, had no license to serve blowfish and was being questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official Yoshihito Iwase said.

Blowfish, while extremely poisonous if not prepared properly, is considered a delicacy in Japan and is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets.

Full Story: Fox News

(via Clifford Pickover)

The steely hearted “Angel of Death”, whose mission was to create a master race fit for the Third Reich, was the resident medic at Auschwitz from May 1943 until his flight in the face of the Red Army advance in January 1945.

His task was to carry out experiments to discover by what method of genetic quirk twins were produced – and then to artificially increase the Aryan birthrate for his master, Adolf Hitler.

Now, a historian claims, Mengele’s notorious experiments may have borne fruit.

For years scientists have failed to discover why as many as one in five pregnancies in a small Brazilian town have resulted in twins – most of them blond haired and blue eyed.

But residents of Candido Godoi now claim that Mengele made repeated visits there in the early 1960s, posing at first as a vet but then offering medical treatment to the women of the town.

Shuttling between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, he managed to evade justice before his death in 1979, but his dreams of a Nazi master race appeared unfulfilled.

In a new book, Mengele: the Angel of Death in South America, the Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa, a specialist in the post-war Nazi flight to South America, has painstakingly pieced together the Nazi doctor’s mysterious later years.

The Telegraph

(via Cryptogon)

oe Francis and Larry Flynt claim the economy has made America’s sexual appetite go limp, so they’re going to the one place where sex is always rampant — Congress.

Flynt (the “Hustler” guy) and Francis (the “Girls Gone Wild” dude) are asking the government for a $5 billion bailout, claiming the adult entertainment industry has taken a huge shot to the face because of the downturn — citing the fact that XXX DVD sales are down 22% from a year ago.

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” Flynt says. “It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.”

Full Story: TMZ

(via The Agitator)

“A builder scared off a house-breaker by running at him dressed as the Norse god Thor. The terrified intruder leapt from a first floor window to escape Torvald Alexander, who was dressed as the Norse god of thunder in a red cape and silver helmet and breastplate. Mr Alexander had just returned from a New Year’s Eve fancy dress party when he discovered the man in his home in Inverleith, Edinburgh.

He said he acted instinctively to chase the intruder away, and believed his costume may have added impact. Mr Alexander, 39, said: “We were both startled but then the instant reaction was that I ran at him and he just jumped straight out of the window. “I think I would be quite scared if someone looking almost like a gladiator ran at them.”

(via Metro. Thanks DJ!)

Full Story: The Corner of Mystery

(Thanks Mac!)

“It may not sound like the most promising start to a romance, but a bout of sneezing can be sign that someone is attracted to you. Doctors have uncovered a bizarre medical condition where people sneeze every time they think about sex or have an orgasm. The condition appears to afflict both and men and women and to be uncontrollable.

Dr Mahmood Bhutta, an ear, nose and throat expert at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, who describes the condition in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, admits that his initial reaction was disbelief. But now he thinks the phenomenon is genuine and closely linked to the bursts of sneezing that one in four people have when they are exposed to bright sunshine.

The condition came to light in a middle-aged man, who has not been named, who complained that he had an uncontrollable fit of sneezes each time he was sexually aroused. After overcoming his scepticism, Dr Bhutta began searching medical records - and internet chat rooms - to see if anyone else had a similar problem. ‘I was surprised by how many people also reported the same reflex in internet chat rooms,’ he said. Typing the words ’sex, sneeze or sneezing’ into the Google search engine produced a surprising number of hits. Seventeen men and women reported sneezing immediately when they thought about sex, and three had the same experience after orgasm.”

(via The Daily Mail)

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting. [...]

The Campbells’ other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because “no one else in the world would have that name.” He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated.

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived his entire life in Hunterdon County. On Tuesday he wore a pair of black boots he said were worn by a German soldier during World War II.

Full Story: Associated Press

My opinion? ShopRite shoulda baked the cake. But “Adolf Hitler Campbell”? Seriously? Why does this guy hate his kids so much?

What do you think? Can what you name your kids constitute a form of abuse?

Wired has an update on the Sex Life of Robots movie and interview with sculptor and animator Michael Sullivan. The Museum of Sex has a new exhibition by Sullivan.

Video: Wired

Museum of Sex exhibition

From the English Russian: “This Russian animal was born numbered. It’s still is and the owners search for some good sports player who uses the number “10″ to sell the goat to him.”

More pics: the English Russian

(Thanks Danny)

I just came down from flavor tripping and boy is my palate tired. Also, I’m a bit drunk. I wasn’t trying to get a bit drunk, but that’s what happens when you hit the Miracle Fruit. The stuff basically rewires your tongue, erasing your ability to taste sour and bitter flavors for a short period of time. The upshot of the whole thing is that a lemon tastes like candy fruit and balsamic vinegar tastes like a high fructose fruit drink.

But what about booze? Well, let’s start with Trillium Absinthe. This stuff can be quite bitter if you don’t hit it with ice water and a smidge of sugar, but under the influence of Miracle Fruit, it’s all anise, all the time. It’s kinda like choking on the strongest black liquorish rope you’ve ever put in your mouth. But strangely, if you add a bit of rice vinegar, the whole thing mellows and turns into this almost nutty tasting, light anisette liquor with a touch of salt. Yes, I added rice vinegar to absinthe, which is not half as adventurous as some of the crap I’ve mixed at home at 4am after a vicious bender.

Full Story: r6xx, where you can buy miracle berries.

Disclaimer: r6xx was a sponsor of Esozone in 2008, and I’ve been paid to write for r6xx.com in the past. I am not currently being paid to promote r6xx.

“The developers of a conceptual, ergonomic 9mm handgun — designed for people crippled by arthritis, muscular dystrophy, or similar conditions that render them too weak to operate normal handguns — hope it will eventually be considered a Class 1 Medical Device. The single-shot gun, dubbed the Palm Pistol, is “an adaptive tool that allows someone otherwise incapable of handling a revolver or semiautomatic weapon to operate one,” said Matthew Carmel of Constitution Arms, the New Jersey-based company developing the gun.

If the gun were designated as a medical device, doctors could eventually write prescriptions for it and then be reimbursed by Medicare. The proposed Daily Activity Assist Device would be symmetrical, ambidextrous, and made largely of stainless steel. For the gun to be fired, two mechanical safeties must be depressed with the fingers on either side of the barrel before the trigger, located on the top and bottom of the gun, is pressed by the thumb. A three-digit combination lock is set opposite to the loading button to help prevent accidental discharge.

The Palm Pistol would hold a single cartridge, loaded by pressing a button in the middle of the combined stock and receiver, which swings to the side. “A single shot means it’s clearly for self-defense,” said Carmel. Depending on sales of the single-shot version, he says a multiple-shot version could be possible.”

(via Discovery.com)

In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency began to receive a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies. Strangest of all, the “students” had visited the homes of numerous DEA officers and other senior federal officials.

As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA appeared to have been targeted in what it called an “organized intelligence gathering activity.” But to what end, and for whom, no one knew.

Full Story: Salon

(via Honky Tonk Dragon)

It’s a long story, but here’s the take-away: no one knows what was going. There’s various speculation, and this sounds most likely to me (for what little my opinion is worth):

Theory No. 3, the Art Student as Agent as Art Student Smoke Screen. It has major problems, but let’s roll with it for a moment. This theory contends that the art student ring was a smoke screen intended to create confusion and allow actual spies — who were also posing as art students — to be lumped together with the rest and escape detection. In other words, the operation is an elaborate double fake-out, a hiding-in-plain-sight scam. Whoever dreamed it up thought ahead to the endgame and knew that the DEA-stakeout aspect was so bizarre that it would throw off American intelligence. According to this theory — Stability’s “Victor/Victoria” scenario — Israeli agents wanted, let’s say, to monitor al-Qaida members in Florida and other states. But they feared detection. So to provide cover, and also to create a dizzyingly Byzantine story that would confuse the situation, Israeli intel flooded areas of real operations with these bumbling “art students” — who were told to deliberately stake out DEA agents.

Here’s another possibility: they were part of some sort of well organized, well funded prank. (Or, like Honky Tonk Dragon said - “Life imitates Illuminatus”)

Anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV/Aids are being bought and smoked by teenagers in South Africa to get high.

Reports suggest that the drugs are being sold by patients and even healthcare staff for money.

Schoolchildren have been spotted smoking the drugs, which are ground into powder and sometimes mixed with painkillers or marijuana.

Aids patients themselves have been found smoking the drugs instead of taking them as prescribed.

Full Story: BBC

(Thanks Ulysses Lazarus)

Libertine Press is offering a free download in PDF and Microsoft Reader formats of Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard. This is the first and only complete text of the book I’ve seen available online. (The blog serialization of Might is Right has been taken down, I’m not sure it was ever completed.)

Might is Right download at Libertine Press

(via OVO)

Update: Now also available from the Technoccult library in HTML format.