Poetic Justice June 14, 2009

If you’re sick of journalists writing the news, then you should probably move to Israel, where last Wednesday newspaper Haaretz commissioned some of the country’s most loved authors and poets to write the news stories for that day.

The weather report was a sonnet about summer and some news stories were even written in the first person. And why not?

Here’s one example (translated obviously), of author Avri Herling tackling the stock market summary:

“Everything’s okay. Everything’s like usual. Yesterday trading ended. Everything’s okay. The economists went to their homes, the laundry is drying on the lines, dinners are waiting in place… Dow Jones traded steadily and closed with 8,761 points, Nasdaq added 0.9% to a level of 1,860 points…. The guy from the shakshuka [an Israeli egg-and-tomato dish] shop raised his prices again….”

I’d love to see an English language newspaper do this, and maybe one of them will pick up on the Israeli experiment and give it a go? Doubtful, but not impossible…

[via Forward]
[Image: evinglenside]

USB flavoured PEZ June 9, 2009

Remember PEZ sweets? Those very 90s tablet-sized sweets that you loaded into a tube with a character’s head on top, and then dispensed sweets from said character’s neck? Well, in one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ moments, someone at DHHDesign has had the bright idea of turning them into gimmicky USB keys.

Pictured above is the Snoopy version of the product, which holds 2GB of data and as an added bonus, it also holds 3 PEZ pellets in case you get peckish.

Versions with Darth Vader, Chewbacca and Donkey from Shrek are also available, amongst others.

They cost $24.99, and will obviously cost more to deliver to Ireland of all places. It’s tempting though, isn’t it? Get one here.

When pigs fly, and ice cream doesn't melt June 5, 2009

Some clever person at Coldstone, their Tastemaster, Ray Karam, has devised a way to turn ice cream into JELL-O (or rather jelly for us non-Americans) when its temperature falls to room temperature. It apparently “…has a mouth feel much like a velvety mousse.”

Now I read JELL-O and assumed this meant jelly as we know it, like the wobbly fruity kind. But the flavours of these ice creams range from butterscotch to chocolate, so I assume it’ll be more of a pudding-style affair.

Not sure how I feel about this…I’m not a huge ice cream fan but for some reason it sounds a bit disgusting. I find melted ice cream pretty horrible to begin with, but pudding-y melted ice cream is a whole new level of weird I’m not quite sure I’m ready for.

It’s (typically) only available in America at the moment but I’ll be sure to sample it if and when I get a chance.

The flavours that will be available are:

Butterscotch Velvet — Butterscotch JELL-O Pudding Ice Cream mixed with Butterfinger, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and Caramel.

Chocolate-y Goodness — Chocolate JELL-O Pudding Ice Cream mixed with Peanut Butter, Caramel and Fudge.

[via Food2 Blog]
[Image: Coldstone Creamery]

He did that with an iPhone? May 26, 2009

Above is the cover of the June 1st issue of The New Yorker, painted by artist Jorge Colombo entirely on his iPhone, using the app “Brushes”.

In an interview with The New York Times, Colombo said it “made it easy for me to sketch without having to carry all my pens and brushes and notepads with me, and I like the fact that I am drawing with a set of tools that anybody can have easily in their pocket.”

Makes me wonder what kind of art I could create on my iPhone, although I’m still struggling to make a perfect stick man.

More of Colombo’s iPhone sketches are available on his official website.

[via NYTimes.com]

People love what I'm doing here May 19, 2009

Just got this comment:

is it 2005?

blogging, MDS and the word lol, fucking riding the crest of the cultural wave arent you.

Yes I am Chris. Unashamedly so. lol

So here I am May 13, 2009

Wanted: A roof May 13, 2009

Leaving in two weeks.

We will find a house in Chicago.

We will.

We will.