Not to be confused with Soylent Green or Ubik, Product 19 is a cereal from Kellogg’s that was conceived in the 1960s as a healthy competitor for Total. Apparently the copywriter had one of the largest “fuck it” moments in the history of his trade and named the 19th product pushed through his office in 1967 exactly that. No, really. Though still being produced, Product 19 is being discontinued by grocers, thus providing the scifi/surreal (ce-real?) cart you see above.
Areas affected by the hovering area comprised the entire “Other” demographic in the 2010 Census, exceeding every socio-economic grouping for highest suicide rates. This means whoever is unlucky enough to stumble upon this 12” x 12” area will almost certainly commit suicide (though will be privy, some say, to unreasonably clear WiFi reception before dying).
Amber sent me the most amazing link this evening. Entitled “Most Depressing WiFi Hotspots in Baltimore, MD“, it is the most sublime bit of inexplicable writing. Go read now!
(Thought Catalog)
In that study, they focused on a coda made only by Caribbean sperm whales. It appears to signify group membership. In the latest study, published Feb. 10 in Animal Behavior, they analyzed a coda made by sperm whales around the world. Called 5R, it’s composed of five consecutive clicks, and superficially appears to be identical in each whale. Analyzed closely, however, variations in click timing emerge. Each of the researchers’ whales had its own personal 5R riff.
In other words, each sperm whale may have its own name. For more, visit Wired, where the notion of dolphins already being proven to have the same is casually dropped in an article.
First there was the deployment of a much snazzier design language and now this: Kia has unveiled its SuperBowl commercial, one that gives us aliens and temporal vortex-summoning Mesoamericans. I’d even build an Optima online (update: I have) after seeing something so keyed in to my mind.
(Autoblog)
I found this on my computer this morning:
This is going to sound insane
because it’s 1:18 in the morning
but a motherfucking HELICOPTER just landed on our street
I can’t believe Bennet’s not outside, because it’s next to his house
I seem to be the only person awake to witness this. I don’t know how – the noise is deafening.
There seems to be some sort of massive emergency at the Dentention Center.
We’ve got the helicopter, ambulences, sherrifs vehicles, and a very large and unmarked BUS.
I knew it. This is how the zombie outbreak begins.
I cannot believe what I’m seeing.
They have taken someone OUT of the back of the ambulence
that came from ELSEWHERE
and are putting them in a stretcher on the helicopter
why do this transfer here and not at the hospital where there’s an actual landing pad for a helicopter?
It’s like E.T.
all i can see are the tall shadows of the men in suits
OMG
it’s taking off
all the trees are flattening in the wind
it’s swaying back and forth so much
it is SO CLOSE to bennet’s house
it could TOUCH
the men are running back now
it’s so huge up close
it’s rising up above the house top now
still swaying
now it’s going forward
and up
and i can see INTO it
and….
there it goes
off
into the darkness
just two lights blinking
WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!
1:38 AM
I tried to get photos but it was over so fast….
You are going to be SO PISSED if this had to do with aliens!
1:45 AM
Well now I think I’m probably awake for the long haul…..
This is how I prefer to start my days always!
I’ve only made it through the first portion that was hosted on CNN’s website, but this video exploration of Japan’s Suicide Forest is eerie – and a perfect compliment to the song in my head as the afternoon pushes on. (Thanks, Kate!)
Random student talking to her mom on the way to my car today:
So, if you pay the lawyer $5,000, does that mean you can take all of dad’s money? I mean, as long as you can get the $5,000 back, it seems worth it!
You may remember my email address of mysteries and the eventual contact with at least one of my “emailnick” variants. Well, I’ve heard again from the land down under, this time intentionally:
Dear Nick Smerker,
Loved your blog, & was crying with laughter. Sorry if you thought my last communication was “harsh”, but I thought it must have been very annoying for you that I did not know my son’s email address, probably because he lives downstairs, so naturally we use “speech” as our communication tool….very old fashioned I know.
Just thought you would like to know what one of your brothers is up to. I do hate ending a sentence with a preposition!! Almost as much as I hate the overuse of exclamation marks!!!!!!!
I am not the Judy Fogarty in Canberra, just a retired Physical Therapist living in Sydney. So the mystery continues……
Hope your real estate deals in Maitland work out.
All the best,
Judy (Furey) Fogarty
How fun! I thought I’d write back, since Judy sounds incredibly sweet:
Judy,
I’m glad you enjoyed my mystery chronicle on the blog! I hope you didn’t misinterpret my message – I thought I was being to harsh to you! I think that, honestly, Google must be misrouting messages to my account and I am concerned that other versions of “me” aren’t getting important messages. Lately, I’ve been getting messages intended for a variation of emailnick in the UK (a gmail.co.uk address.) So far, I’ve gotten order confirmations for play.co.uk and some other sites. *sigh*
Haha. I also hate ending with a preposition, so perhaps there is at least some electronic genetic similarity with my other mother.
I’m glad to hear you are doing well. I still think your son’s business (Rich) sounds fascinating and is remarkably similar to the work I do here in the States. No more emails telling me about Maitland properties, but if I’m ever in Australia, I will have to look you guys up.
Keep in touch – it’s kind of fun to have a pen pal!
Best,
Nick
The Russians realize what a real problem looks like and how to devise a smart solution. The problem: yetis are fighting with bears, causing fear that hibernation patterns will be disrupted, leading to bear visitations in neighboring towns. The solution: feed the bears!
The director of the International Center for Hominology Igor Burtsev assures that yetis leave traces of their stay in the taiga and fight with local bears: “They make strange pyramidal constructions of trunks and branches in the wood – sometimes 3 or 4 meters, sometimes only 30 cm high. Sometimes they bend huge trees and twist their trunks like wheels. A human being is just not strong enough for that, and there seems to be no need for bears to do this. At first, we thought that yetis do this to make shelters, but then we came to the conclusion that this is a sort of landmark for them” . . . If this “war” between yetis and bears continues, there is a risk that bears will not sleep this winter because of a shortage of food, instead going to villages in search of something to eat. To prevent this, the region’s authorities plan to organize bear feeding.
It’s exceptional to know that the sasquatch is just a fact of life in Siberia. Bigfoot awareness is making strides around the world!
(io9)
What was it about the casting of Ghostbusters? It seems all of the most eccentric people somehow made their way into the 1984 film. We have Dan Akroyd serving up diamond filtered vodka in crystal skulls and ranting about UFOs and now Bill Murray giving a 1982 speech that sounds like something from the Unabomber:
I guess we know that the right actors were chosen, at the very least. And that Bill Murray’s apparent befuddlement over the high tech world of Lost in Translation was authentic.