The health care situation in America must be pretty fucked up if it seems like a good idea to market and sell prepaid healthcare gift certificates. (via)

The old advertising slogan “Guinness is Good for You” may be true after all, according to researchers.

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Is it time for my medicine?

If anybody reading this gets any strange postcards from Poland within the next few weeks, they are not from me.

*I do not speak Polish

Oh hi, what are you doing here? You’re dead.

I know this is a dream. I’m going to hug you until I wake up.

Last weekend M and I went to Linz, Austria as part of the TourCon trip organized by some students at her University. We left Lüneburg on a bus on Friday night, got off at Passau, got on the MS Johann Strauss and went down the Danube river overnight to Linz. While M was enjoying conferences and seminars, I explored Linz.

I noticed that there were a lot of creepy dudes meandering about near the town center on this Sunday morning. I think they were party zombies left over from the previous evening’s events.

It being Sunday, all the shops were closed. My first stop was the ARS Electronica. If you are interested in the latest greatest forms of interactive input devices, check it out. They are currently renovating their permanent location which means the exhibits in their current location are kinda slapped together. A lot of the cool gadget things weren’t working. The things that were working were cool and interesting but trying to get any helpful information from the guides was pointless. There was a very cool music sequencer that was controlled by light and also a so called CAVE, both of which I would have liked to learn more about. Hardware? Software? “Um, something with Onyx I think.”

I also got to play with or in Gulliver’s World. It was a lot of fun.

Next stop was the Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich. There was a cool exhibit by Luca Vitone and a really interesting audio exhibit audio Sam Auinger. My favorites were deep blue v.1.2 and mauerpark.

I could write more but I have become bored and don’t feel like it. Here are some pictures.

Sweet.

The immense, awe-inspiring, Überschwerer Kampfschreitpanzer (Superheavy Armored Walking Tank) is thought to be the brainchild of notorious Nazi (mad) scientist Doctor Siegfried Qual, who built the initial prototype as a gift to Adolph Hitler.

via.

I went to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club play at the Markthalle* in Hamburg. Hi-res pics can be seen here. It was one of the best rocking concerts I have seen in a long time. The droning/searing guitars along with the light show helped create a very mellow groovy atmosphere.

If you are into early Verve, The Stooges, Spiritualized or Black Sabbath, you might like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

And if your kitchen table has a hole in it where a doorknob used to be, you might be a redneck or something.

*Look who else played at the Markthalle last month.

For lunch yesterday, I had a mutated banana that consisted of 2 bananas inside one peel. It was double delicious. Click for more pics.

Human Rights Panel Criticizes Blacklisting Methods

The Council of Europe’s legal committee urged an international overhaul of regulations for blacklisting individuals and groups to provide them access to evidence, rights to a fair trial or impartial review within a reasonable time, and compensation for wrongful designation as a terrorist.

Wow. This seems so common sense. Why would it seem so strange then if the US Supreme Court were to say the same thing at a press conference tomorrow? It’s pretty sad that it would be a complete surprise. A shock to some indeed.

I’m not sure yet what the implications of this may be, but maybe the EU could set a good example.

I’m going to bed.

ZZZzzz…_*

I don’t mean Elvis. I mean King Ludwig II of Bavaria. I was just kicking it at his crib a few weeks ago and was seriously doubting the suicide theory. I have no doubt he was crazy though. Seriously, a grotto inside the castle? Der Spiegel has an article about a new theory concerning his madness and death.

Was “Mad” King Ludwig Murdered?

For over a century, Crazy King Ludwig’s death has been ruled a suicide. But now, a new theory, based on a mysterious, bullet-ridden coat, has it that the Bavarian monarch, builder of Bavaria’s fairytale castles, was actually shot. And maybe he wasn’t insane after all.