Monday, October 19, 2009

Marvel Monday: Oh so many things!

Good Monday to you!
In the last week, a whole host of magnificence has occurred and I ignored all of it...let's investigate.


MARVEL NUMBER 1
Last Tuesday, a German journalism student was ejected from a train when it was discovered that he had no ticket. In retaliation for the above, he decided to moon the train's staff. But when he put his ass to the glass of the train's window, his pants got stuck in the train's and he was dragged 200 meters – or, in English, 656.167 feet (or, in sports parlance, more than two football fields!) – before the emergency brake stopped the train. Reuters tells us that the whole rescue effort & sundry caused a 23 train delay, but who cares?


MARVEL NUMBER 2




Caterpillar, makers of the 252B Series 2 Skid Steer Loader seen to the left, is leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average as it soars to new, nearly indescribable heights.
Expectations are high for this week. Numbers, letters, and money are all moving around in rapid succession.


MARVEL NUMBER 3

Speaking of rapid succession, numbers, trading, money, and letters, Philips Electronics is developing a product to keep called THE RATIONALIZER. The Philips Electronics website says this: 
The Rationalizer system consists of two components - the EmoBracelet and the EmoBowl. The bracelet measures the arousal component of the user’s emotion through a galvanic skin response sensor. This arousal level is rendered as a dynamic light pattern on either the EmoBracelet itself or on the EmoBowl. The higher the arousal level, the more intense the dynamic light pattern becomes: the number of elements increases, the speed increases and the color shifts from a soft yellow, via orange, to a deep red. The concept is based on easy to experience advanced sensing and signal processing technology from Philips: it does not require a complicated setup or complex user interface. [emphasis & hyperlinks to images of EmoBracelets mine]
For real, though, this is a mood ring with wifi. It's target market is day traders...day traders who have no idea how to cope with stress...day traders who – despite their unchecked and fluctuating stress levels – will consult a little watchband and a bowl in order to keep them from making emotionally based decisions.
msnbc.com fills in the blanks:
"Women are less emotional investors," [Philips' design arm director Geert Christiaansen] said. "Men have too much attachment to the underlying assets. Women don't have that as much."
Now, I don't know what that means or how it might affect the use of this product, but it is an interesting sentiment – even if it is outstandingly vague and makes no fucking sense.

More marvels to come!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Marvel Monday: A Weekly Day of Amazing. This Week: PRELIMINARIES AND UNDERSEA BLOBS

Hi, all.
Historically, I've been less than reliable when it comes to updating a personal blog, but I'm not terribly interested in elaborating upon the many (and legitimate) reasons why that occurs – at least not right here, not right now.


What I am interested in – what I think, once made aware, everyone will be interested in – is a weekly blog post falling under the heading "Marvel Monday"
You might be asking, why call it Marvel Monday?
Easy: a good friend and font-of-talent, Sam Bosma, draws beauties from the Marvel Comics universe on Mondays. I had been looking for something to spark a weekly post and – since my preferred emotional positioning is one of awe, and dazzlement – have decided that Marvel Monday would be a perfect beginning of the ole' routine.


If this catches, perhaps a series of weekly posts – like another good friend and font-of-talent, John Shortino, has going with his MWF posting schedule – will come from my hands to
your screens (Perhaps What Am I Doing? Wednesdays & Hungry Fridays? Ho hum, ho hum. Gotta let things get going before I get going all ahead of myself.)


Well, then!
ON TO THE POST


For the first Marvel Monday post of all time, I've chosen to expose Giant, Mucus Sea Blobs as more than a simple reality, but rather a problem bordering on MEDITERRANEAN HEALTH THREAT!
Check out the video:



The video – mostly the announcetrix's bemusedly slow speech pattern – makes GIANT MUCUS BLOBS a bit less compelling than this quote:

Serena Fonda Umani, of Italy's University of Trieste, remembers diving about 50 feet (15 meters) down when she got the sensation of a ghost floating over her--"sort of an alien experience."
But even that isn't very interesting.
One day, Professoressa Umani was swimming down, down low to the depths of the sea when she "got the sensation of a ghost floating over her." Creepy, but not so creepy, not so unnatural or disturbing as to be anything but sort of an alien experience?


There are giant zombie-fied balls of mucus floating around in the ocean, smothering fish and potentially infecting Italians, Greeks, and all manner of Speedo-wearing beachgoers with e.coli.


I'm feeling a little marvelous/marvel-filled/marvelful, but not extremely so.
The world – both the natural and the man-made – has much more to offer than balls of mucus in the ocean.


The best I can do is offer a brief list of potential sources of said mucus:
  • Poseidon's hay fever
  • The wall behind Aquaman's headboard, where he keeps his booger collection
Ho hum. Nothing really can match the haunting effervescence of the photo.


Next Marvel Monday, something more interesting.