Monkey News!

Deep in the heart of Texas, a plant shop fell victim to a string of robberies. Plants, pots, concrete statues (Nazi Gnomes???) and other foliage-related items were being boosted. What was going on here?

The shop installed a security camera to try to identify the Thief With the Green Thumb. What they saw on the footage is just nuts. A monkey has been robbing them. Diabolical!



Like humans, not all monkeys are good. There are, I'm sad to admit, monkey criminals that use their powers for evil. As we have told you in the past, some of these rascals are locked up in the Monkey Prison.

No doubt there is some sort of simian organized crime ring in Texas that specializes in stolen shrubbery.

Bit of a kerfuffle in Germany involving gnomes and Nazis.

German artist Ottmar Hörl has a piece on display at the Weigl Gallery in Nuremberg. A few dozen garden gnomes are usually pretty adorable. However, these little buggers are are giving a Nazi salute. Bad gnomes. To be fair to Hörl, there is an inscription at the base of the statues that says "Poisoned." The intent was supposed to be a satirical message. That anyone, including cheeky garden gnomes, can be poisoned with bad ideology.

The problem? German anti-Nazi laws prohibit anyone from making a "heil Hitler" salute or using any Nazi symbols. Offenders can spend up to 3 years in the clink for violating the law.

Prosecutors are now investigating to see if the gnome art breaks the law. One of the lawyers is named Wolfgang Träg. How awesome/German is that name? He says "We're investigating whether this is a violation of German criminal law, which forbids the use of symbols from unconstitutional organizations."

So, a clever use of satire that parodies how good people can be persuaded toward evil? (Like the Nazi monkey in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It wasn't his fault he was a Nazi.) Or, a clear violation of anti-Nazi laws? You make the call.

Extra Tidbit: In the vast stacks of the J-Dub Memorial Library, I have a copy of a book called "Gnomes" that I found at the Strand Bookstore for 2 bucks. It's hilarious.

OK, let me see if I have this story straight. Altogether it seems like one of those stories where you go around in a circle and everyone adds a line to a tall tale, knowing they don't have to be responsible for bringing it all together. Guy A and guy B meet each other in a forum for furries. That was enough to creep me out, but it gets much much weirder.

Turns out guy A, who is 24 years old, lives with his parents but would like to have the four bedroom house to himself. He'd like guy B, a 19-year-old, to murder his folks. He doesn't have money to hire a pro, because if he did he wouldn't be living with his parents. But he figures he can pay guy B off in kinky sex. In fact, he will go so far as to let guy B bite off his penis! Guy B, see, is the type who will kill two people for the chance to bite off a friend's dick. But that's not a real sacrifice for guy A, because he's had this fantasy of getting his tallywhacker bitten clean off for years! Is this weird enough yet? It reminds me of the old joke where a daredevil is going to do some horrific stunt to audition for the circus and says, "Now watch close, because I can only do this once."

Anyway, guy B starts to carry out his part of the deal but screws up just enough to be arrested. He attacks the older couple in the middle of the night but they fight him off and summon the police. Now guy A and guy B are on trial, but the parents still can't believe the allegations against their son. I would have a hard time believing it myself, if I didn't surf the internet as much as I do. They use real names in the news story, which was a bit confusing since three of the four characters have the same last name.

Awesome doesn't even come close to describing this new T Shirt from Threadless. Three Wolf Moon meets Keyboard Cat is a tshirt mashup that will have your grandchildren scratching their heads one day going "WTF?" And we have one to give away!!!

So why break with tradition? It's the second Caption Competition today, but the only one where you can win a T Shirt with not one, but THREE keyboard cats. Plus moon. So add your Caption in the comments to the above photo, and the winner will get the T shirt (or maybe one that's never been worn.) .

Competition rules. I'll announce the winner when I'm good and ready, and choose indiscriminately and with bias, favoring those ladies with hot avatar pictures. This in no way affects your constitutional rights. Porno mustache & glasses not included. End of rules.

Central Park looking West

Thought I'd share a little personal project with you all.

Ever since I was a teenager, I've admired InfraRed photography and wanted to give it a try. But doing it with a regular film camera always seemed a bit of a nightmare. In England it was hard to get the actual film itself, and even with the advent of digital photography, true IR cameras are hard to find. Fuji make one, but you have to sign an affidavit when you buy one positioning yourself as a professional photographer and guaranteeing you won't use it for surveillance purposes (!) Luckily there's always eBay, and a few months ago, I gambled a few hundred bucks on a home-converted Canon Digital Rebel, and since then have been experimenting whenever I'm out with the family.

Shooting infrared definitely takes some practice - exposure can be a bit hit and miss, depending on the IR reflectivity of the subject, so for every 100 shots I take, I maybe only get 4 or 4 worth sharing. But in playing with it, I've rediscovered the joy of photography, and fulfilled an ambition that's been on my mind for 25 years.

I thought I'd share some of my imagesl, after the jump. There's quite a few, so be prepared for a long load. I'd love to hear your comments.

I tend to think that my neighboorhood is a fairly clean and respectable place to live.  Once in a while though, I see things that make me wonder what really happens behind closed doors.  What was left in the middle of the one street through my neighborhood has me kinda creeped out (especially since it's been there almost 24 hrs and nobody has moved it).