Introducing Your 2009 Anchorage Mayoral Candidates

I went to high school with one of these candidates running for mayor of my home city. In case you can’t figure out which one, it’s the esteemed gentleman in the yellow glasses, natch. A former news inserter at the Anchorage Daily News under the “great night boss Steve” and also a “self trained scientist and engineer,” candidate Jacob Kern promises local Anchorage residents a bright new future under his stewardship thanks to his “technology machines.”

Why are you running for mayor?
To use the cities budget to make my technology machines so Anchorage residents don’t have to pay taxes.

Do you support lowering property taxes by starting a sales tax?
mayor kern will pay Anchorage residents taxes from revenue of my technologies.

Would you support changing exceptions that currently keep churches and some non-profits from having to pay property taxes?
mayor kern will PAY 4 THE CHURCHES and the non profits.

Should the city support construction of a Knik Arm bridge? Why or why not?
mayor kern’s new vehicles can fly.

And then there’s his video pitch and his batshit insane website where he mentions his intent to run for president in 2016. America, you’ve been warned.

[Hat tip to Clay and Will]

Wooden Vespa

A photo gallery documenting the production of a wooden Vespa.

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One Hit Novel Wonders

Times UK list of 10 authors “for whom one novel proved quite enough.” One of the books on the list is an all time favorite novel of mine:

John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy of Dunces

The author committed suicide in 1969, having given up hope of seeing his comic masterpiece in print. Eventually it was published in 1980.

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Top 10 Worst College Mascots

Fox Sports rank of the top ten worst college mascots. Western Kentucky’s “Big Red” is pretty turrible.

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T-Shirt Juxtaposition

VS.

Or in other words, FTW vs. FML.

$19 each (or both for $34) here.

Interview with Twitter Fail Whale Artist, Yiying Lu

A short interview with Yiying Lu, the Australian artist behind the image, now popularly known as the “Fail Whale” that is displayed on Twitter whenever there is a service outage. Lu originally uploaded her whimsical creation to a stock image site from which Twitter founder Biz Stone purchased it for a few dollars (!!!) and since then it has become “as iconic as any corporate logo, and far more beloved.”

1) What was the inspiration for the whale and birds illustration?

It was initially created as a birthday e-card for an overseas friend of mine when I was in my last year study at University – expressing my: Sorry I am failed to be there across the ocean, but here is a little console from my heart. The whale is a self metaphor. Hence the original name I had for that artwork was “lifting a dreamer”.

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18k Gold Atari Ring

Japanese artist Sakurako Shimizu created this 18 karat old ring from a cast of the original 1981 Atari computer chip. Nerd bling at its finest!

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Slo-Mo Camera Sample Shots

Stunning test video shot by David Coiffer with his new camera (a Photron SA2…from the future maybe?) is delicious super slo-mo eye candy.

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Bow Ties and PBR

The bow tie, jacket and shorts combination is a terrible look from a bygone era, thankfully, but I do appreciate how these preps in this old LIFE photograph maintain their swagger by drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon. While some things go out of fashion, PBR always remains classic.

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