Alien Jesus Collective

From the back 40:

A bit more stylish than the Russian doomsday truck, Japan’s tractor-trailers really give off a Transformer vibe. There was a series of movies in the 1970’s featuring decorated trucks, and I guess it just spiralled out of control from there. Pink Tentacle has a bunch more pictures, and links to more galleries of “Dekotora” trucks.

More pics at English Russia. Chock full of post-Soviet madness!

Accused grave robbers dodge sex charges

“Three men who dug up a young woman’s corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.”

Seems like a sex tourism business waiting to happen. Probably not a huge market for necrophilia holidays, but I bet the clientele is extremely loyal. Act fast though, there’s already been a bill introduced to outlaw it!

Unfortunately, the Pizza Hut “Double Roll” pizza is only available in Japan. Crust blanketed bacon wrapped sausages surround a center full of everything you can think of. 646 calories per slice, not counting the maple syrup dipping sauce. I wonder if they deliver to hotel rooms?

(Via Gizmodo.)

Ape Lad unearthed some depression-era comic strips penned by his grandfather. There’s nothing new under teh sun, including lolcats:

For more:
the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats on Flickr

The problem of
disappearing bees has been getting some attention lately, and it turns out the bees have not been raptured. According to a Spanish scientist, the problem is parasites:

Then he decided to sequence the parasite’s DNA and discovered it was an Asian variant, nosema ceranae. Asian honeybees are less vulnerable to it, but it can kill European bees in a matter of days in laboratory conditions.

“Nosema ceranae is far more dangerous and lives in heat and cold. A hive can become infected in two months and the whole colony can collapse in six to 18 months,” said Higes, whose team has published a number of papers on the subject.

There’s a lunar eclipse coming on August 28. Should be visible in the Americas and much of Asia, with Hawaii offering the best view. Space.com has all the details, including a map of where and when.

Em português

Happy July 4!

Here’s the full gallery of fireworks pics from the Deer Valley show. All were shot handheld with a Nikon Coolpix P5000 in fireworks scene mode. The results are arguably better than what my old Coolpix 5700 can do on a tripod in full manual mode. There’s a little bit of a learning curve with it, but the P5000 seems to do a great job with anything I throw at it. Wish the wide angle was 28mm equivalent instead of 36mm, but that’s a minor quibble. If you’re in the market for a pocket point and shoot, this is a camera you should be looking at. More pics I’ve shot with it can be seen here.