Sexually explicit DIY projects for pervy knitting fanatics. For every body part, there is a woolen warmer. Shown here, "crochet crotch." Link

Let me count the NSFW ways. Fleshbot opines:

"[T]he real reason why it's already generating a lot of interest [is] to save you from having to enter all those search terms over and over again (or until Yahoo! gets around to posting that "Jenna Jameson" button, as suggested in the Slashdot thread)."

Yahoo! Video Search: "Anal" · "Ass" · "Blowjob" · "Boobies" · "Bukkake" · "Cock" · "Fuck" · "Gay Porn" · "MILF" · "Orgy" · "Porn" · "Pussy" · "Suck" · "Threeway" · "Tits"

Getting to the "adult" stuff may require sign-in to a Yahoo! user account, and turning off "safe filtering." Image -- still shot from you-know-what.

This may not be news to those of you who are frequent Amazon shoppers, but I just noticed this new feature -- customer-added-images for listings at the online shopping site. Link to example. Seems like there's a huge potential for abuse or inaccuracy, but, interesting move nonetheless. (thanks SusannahBadMammaJamma)

Maybe you should ask for a new hard drive for Christmas:

In 2005, Basic Hip Digital Oddio will feature an entire year of albums from the golden age of kiddie records, lovingly transferred from the original 78s and encoded to 192kbps MP3 format.  That's one a week for 52 weeks!

We believe people from around the world and of all ages will be delighted to hear these records.  Not many folks these days play 78s or share this type of recording online.  Chances are you've never heard them and if you have, it's been a long, long time.  They are nostalgic, entertaining and just plain fun.  The colorful covers are beautiful works of art. 

Link (Via Oddio Overplay)

Good Slate piece that briefly goes over several aspects of human nature that lead to bad investment decisions, including "Self-attribution Bias," "The Gambler's Fallacy," "Prospect Theory," "Conservatism Bias," "Confirmatory Bias," "Overoptimism," "Outcome Bias," "Buffett's Rearview Mirror," and "Hindsight Bias."

Outcome Bias: We tend to evaluate decisions based on outcomes instead of probabilities. Thus, we congratulate ourselves for stupid choices that happen to turn out well and vow to never again make smart choices that happen to turn out badly. Our errors get reinforced, and our wise decisions rejected.

Link (Via Paul Boutin)

Eric Reynold's of Fantagraphics sent an email today with a list of good comic-book related things to read:

Jaime Hernandez is cover-featured in this week's issue of L.A. CITY BEAT newspaper. The feature includes a handsome new cover by Jaime, so those of you in So. Cal. might want to grab a hard copy.

Jaime's new book, LOCAS, is the lead review on Salon.com today and includes a lengthy interview with the man himself. The "ultramercial" you have to sit through to read the full article is brief today, so check it out.

Also, for the Chris Ware fans among us, Chris has new strips in both the current issue of ESQUIRE and the new issue of THE NEW YORKER. That's six all-new Ware pages, not to be missed.

Finally, today's PEANUTS strip made me laugh out loud.

The History Channel has a series called Weird U.S. I haven't seen it yet, but MrBaliHai's review has prompted me to create a season pass for it on my TiVo.

I happened to catch Weird U.S. on the History Channel last night, and I must say that it looks very promising. Yesterday's episode dealt with the bizarre case of the Wallet Man, french immigrant Antoine LeBlanc, who was executed in 1833 for murder, and subsequently skinned; his tanned hide was used to make wallets, purses, lampshades and book jackets!

Link

Whenever I'm in NYC, I blow a ton of cash at Other Music in the East Village. A visit to this CD/record boutique is like a transgenre tour of the finest music you've probably never heard. From glitch hop, Krautrock, and global pop to afro-beat, folktronica, and vintage psychedelia, OM only sells the choicest cuts. They also have an excellent Web site and weekly email update with RealAudio samples of the records they review. OM's Year End Recap--a "best of" culled from the weekly updates--is a great port-of-entry into the staff's exquisite taste. Link

If your rely on GPS to get you to work, out of the bush, back to shore, or anywhere else, it's time to stop. The Bush administration is paving the way to shutting down GPS in the event of an "emergency" so that "terrorists won't be able to navigate." Nice one, George: why not shut down the fire-departments, too, so that "terrorists won't be able to survive fires started by careless smoking?"

The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.

Link (via /.)

Back in October, we ran a post on the effort to raise funds for an ad in the New York Times promoting the superb Firefox browser, a spin-off of Mozilla that has now been downloaded over 11,000,000 times. Today, the ad -- a two page facing spread -- ran in the Times. w00t! Link (via /.)

The Electronic Privacy Information Center have ucovered the fact that everyone who uses a post office kiosk gets her or his picture snapped and retained for 30 days. If the picture can't be taken (because the camera is covered, say), the transaction fails.

EPIC FOIA Request Shows Postal Machines Take, Store Photos. Documents (pdf 1.9 MB) obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act show that new Postal Service self-service postage machines take portrait-style photographs of customers and retain them for 30 days on a Windows XP platform. One document reads, "Camera required by FAA. Privacy Office is requiring a notice for customers, advising that photograph may be taken during the transaction." For more information, see the EPIC Postal Service Privacy Page. (Dec. 9)

Link (via /.)

R Bryan Rumble sez, "this site has a great selection of some older radio shows and it includes the classic 'X minus 1' series that ran from 1955 to 1957 on NBC radio. All are considered public domain and are free to listen to. 'X minus 1' was a forerunner of the 'Twilight Zone' and 'Outer Limits' TV series, and featured radio adaptations of stories by Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, etc." Link (Thanks, RBR!)

Link (Thanks, Jonno)

The Tissue Culture & Art Project used human cells to grow this quarter-scale replica of performance artist Stelarc's ear. In October, I posted about a tiny skin jacket they produced in vitro.

"The ear is cultured in a rotating micro-gravity bioreactor which allows the cells to grow in three dimensions. Stelarc's recent projects and performances are concerned with the prosthetic. The prosthesis is seen not as a sign of lack, but as a symptom of excess. Rather than replacing a missing or malfunctioning part of the body, these artifacts are alternate additions to the body's form and function.

Extra Ear 1/4 Scale is about two collaborative concerns. The project represents a recognisable human part. However, it is being presented as partial life and brings into question the notions of the wholeness of the body. It is also confronts broader cultural perceptions of 'life' given our increasing ability to manipulate living systems. TC&A are dealing with the ethical and perceptual issues stemming from the realization that living tissue can be sustained, grown, and is able to function outside the body. Stelarc, ultimately, is concerned with the attachment of the ear to the body as a soft prosthesis. Extra Ear 1/4 Scale is partial life form – partly constructed and partly grown – waiting to become a soft prosthesis."

Link

Russian magazine Moskovsky Komsomolets is running a contest called Amaze The Country to honor the region's most interesting hobbyists. From The Moscow Times:

...The votes for this week's three semifinalists were being led -- perhaps rather fishily -- by an entrant who "studies the secrets of hermetic science" and makes amber pendants that cure headaches and heart problems. Coming from behind was a man from the Siberian town of Chernogorsk who has crafted an 18-meter crocodile and a life-sized Mercedes in topiary. One of those through to the semifinals is Vladimir Aniskin, a specialist in microminiatures, who has crafted a caravan of camels in the eye of a needle and written "Peace to the World" on a human hair...

Some of the most colorful entries come from the Russian Club of Records, or "Levsha," a Moscow organization that publishes a book of national records and submits information on local feats to Guinness World Records. Among the 50 or so members featured are an Altai schoolteacher who can play Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata while lying with his head under the keyboard and a man who has collected all his nail clippings for the last 35 years.

Link (via Reality Carnival)

Cops in Oklahoma busted two truck drivers after discovering 610 pounds of marijuana stuffed into coffins they were hauling. From Reuters:

An attorney for one of the men said his client was unaware there was marijuana in the caskets and was only delivering them.

"He didn't check inside the caskets for drugs -- would you?" attorney Donn Baker said.

Link

Oliver Stone has apparently apologized to Turkey for possibly exaggerating the nightmare of Turkish prison life as depicted in Midnight Express. From The Guardian:

"It's true I over-dramatised the script," Stone told reporters in Istanbul before holding talks with Turkey's culture and tourism minister, Erkan Mumcu. "But the reality of Turkish prisons at the time was also referred to ... by various human rights associations"....

Echoing the view of diplomats who said that, if anything, foreigners were often treated better than locals in Turkish jails, Stone said that the country had improved greatly since 1974, when a brief visit to Istanbul had given him the impression of being in a "very Ottoman" place.

Link

Here's a gallery of old pop music LPs featuring sitar music. Unfortunately, the MP3s are just sound clips, not the whole songs. What gives? Link (via PCL LinkDump)

imadeit sells furniture kits for kids to make. Link (via Core77)

Here's an amazing streaming video of science fiction writer and design professor Bruce Sterling presenting his views on the future of design and technology, revolving around RFIDs, rapid prototyping, and cradle-to-grave design for zero-emission disposal, from his talk at Germany's "Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen" Link (Thanks, Stefan!)