Category: goo brain

Hall Pass

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tJF3qBWyUk]

This isn’t some crazy movie set-piece for the next Resident Evil film, this is actually a hallway defense system created by Applied Energetics Inc, (formerly Ionatron,) a company that deals in Military level considerations on how to electrocute things.

The tingling means it’s working!

Applied Energetics, Inc. is slowly going under, due possibly to their habit of paying their executives and not their scientists, but also possibly because they used their lightning wielding skills to create a device for the US Military that couldn’t actually carry out its job of destroying roadside-IEDs by throwing electricity at them.

Tromboneheads
Still – they certainly look neat, and I feel confident that, while the folks overseas may not be any safer, that hallway is hella defended.

Even Crabbier

While the giant spider crab I posted up earlier was certainly impressive, in my heart of hearts I think I could probably defeat one in a duel. I’m not so sure about this, however:
Coconut Crab
The coconut (or robber) crab, as pointed out to me by Ms. AK, is huge. If confronted by a giant spider crab, you might rip off a limb and quickly dip it in some butter – this beast looks like it probably has a bucket of extra bold BBQ sauce stashed somewhere, just in case some human’s fingers come too close.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dytvRpBvLbI]

Cat-nappers

I realize this is sort of turning into a random post Friday, but:

I found this in the local paper.
Bozzie
(I apologize for the fuzziness, I captured the image using my phone’s camera.)

For a thousand dollars I’m tempted to wander into sitcom territory and break out the black spray paint.

I do like that they call them “tuxedo markings” – is this common in the cat-description world, or is Bozzie especially classy?

Also, who keeps their cat’s weight on file?

Horror Express

Horror Express Poster I haven’t been writing reviews of all the films I’ve watched so far for the October 31, although I’ll probably go back and chat them up when I have more of an opportunity – still, I wanted to take a moment to mark the watching of Horror Express, (aka Panic in the Trans-Siberian Train,) as it certainly deserves a bit of the spotlight.

The movie features two of my favourite actors, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, as a pair of scientists traveling back from Siberia, where Lee has recently made a fantastic discovery. Inevitably the find, basically the corpse of something akin to the abominable snowman, almost immediately jumps up and begins murderizing folks.
Horror Express Peekaboo

Filming began very soon after the death of Cushing’s wife, a blow he never entirely recovered from, and the lore is that he only stayed on the set because of the warmth Christopher Lee’s family showed him, and the swapping of stories from previous productions with Mr Lee himself. Lee certainly takes the helm for intensity in this film, although Cushing often gets the best lines, including: “Us? Monsters? We’re BRITISH.”

The cast also includes a Robert Deniro-lookalike as a guy who, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, isn’t at all based on the famous Russian mad monk Rasputin.
Horror Express: Evil Monk

Despite all this fantastic ridiculousness, my favourite part of the film is the barely explained entrance of Telly Savalas in the final act. Kojak comes riding in as a supposed Cossack, spouting barely comprehensible lines and beating people senseless without provocation.
Telly Savalas In Horror Express
The first time I saw this film I thought the director was looking for a Deus Ex Machina to defeat the monster – an American hero to step up and quash the beast – but instead Telly ends up on the floor, dead, no more than fifteen minutes after his appearance.

Terminator Eyes from Horror Express

Who actually quells the menace? Well – I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the truth is that it’s basically defeated by Russian bureaucracy.

You can find the full film on Youtube, if you don’t have the five dollars to fish it out of a Walmart bargain bin – I’ve certainly left enough of the surprises intact to make it worth your time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efYZoHd93DM]

Naughty Lizzie Borden

I realize that fetishizing murderers is a long standing tradition in some circles, but this Lizzie Borden figurine, which I came across while looking for a picture of the axe-murderess, really bugs me:
Lizzie Borden Figurine
From the wikipedia article:

The two daughters, well past marriage age, gladly entered the modern world whenever they visited friends. Emma and Lizzie had no marketable skills, and their father did not seem concerned about their future.

Borden was a woman on the verge of spinster-hood who lived with her parents, she wasn’t some sort of naughtily corseted sex-kitten.

An actual picture of Lizzie:

Lizzie in 1893

“Hey baby, the fact that I’m missing my teeth just means that there’s more room for your tongue.” (- link)

The New CPR

CPR Training Manikin from http://www.made-in-china.com

Have you heard about the new CPR, CCC?

Consider this Skinner.FM’s yearly Public Service Announcement:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbgpiKyUbs]

This does take a lot of the juvenile/romantic comedy aspect out of it, however.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kmfsiOYsbo]