Proudy (Piss), Prague

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An 18th-century Portuguese monk who pioneered hypnotic techniques, Abbé Faria was honored in 1945 in the city of his birth with this rather unwholesome tribute. The novelist Evelyn Waugh called the thing “wildly vivacious,” saying that it captured the illustrious abbé at the “climax of an experiment, rampant over an entranced female.” Be that as it may, it’s easy to imagine that the abbé’s prostrate subject wishes that she could call the whole thing off and make a run for the beach instead.

See More Ugly Public Art

Photo: Wendy Underwood

 

 

Created by the provocateur and artist David Černý, this sculpture of two swiveling, copper-clad bros urinating into a pool shaped like the Czech Republic is a high-tech homage to Brussels’ beloved Manneken Pis. In an experiential twist, you can send a text message to the sculpture (the number’s on a plaque nearby), and the accommodating animatronic dudes will “write” your text in the water.

Biosphere 2 is Dying

If you grew up when we grew up, chances are you learned about the Biosphere 2 project in science class. Maybe you even read about it in Ranger Rick magazine. It was a hugely ambitious project — recreate the earth (aka Biosphere 1) so that people could live inside entirely self-sufficient. Some called it a failure because people only lived in there for two entire years, but they were calorie and oxygen deprived. However, many scientists call it a success because of the amount of knowledge gained by the experiment. We vote it as a success.
It was interesting to visit. In the magazines growing up, the entire structure radiated newness and cleanliness. Now, there are rusty spots, the paint is pealing away … it’s dying. Biosphere 1 is kicking Biosphere 2′s ass.
However, it was most interesting to hear the insider stories. Rumor has it that two factions formed during the long mission and there are still members of the groups that refuse to speak to each other! And supposedly there was at least one Biosphere hook-up — two of the original team were married after the mission according to our guide. Also according to our guide, the second experiment ended because the knowledge they were gaining was the same as the knowledge gained during the first experiment. Because of this, it was cut short. Wikipedia, however, tells a different story: federal marshals served the management team with a retraining order, removing them from the site. This pushed the mission into chaos.
The structure is now being used for other experiments, notably the LEO experiment that is going on now that hopes to learn more about soil formation and the interaction between rain and soil. It’s now wholly owned by the University of Arizona, and it’s evidently pretty expensive to keep up — tickets for the tour are $20.
We, of course, took a lot of pictures.

Biosphere 2 housing -- everybody had a duplex apartment.

Biosphere 2 kitchen. They cooked without oil for 2 years.

The Biosphere 2 rainforest.

The Biosphere 2 "ocean" area.

Under the ocean.

The guts of the Biosphere 2 building. This leads to one of the lungs.

One of the lungs -- the middle ceiling rises and falls to equalize the pressure when sealed. Otherwise it would blow out on hot days.

The LEO project gives the building new life.

The LEO is a big experiment. This is the old agricultural area.

Biosphere 2 shows its age -- construction finished in the early '90s.

A fresh coat of paint would do wonders ... and cost millions.

spooky...

An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were fewer mosquitoes than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods. Photo and caption by Russell Watkins/National Geographic Photo Contest

Bane Lets It Rip in Dark Knight Rises’ Menacing Prologue

As Bane, actor Tom Hardy brings convincing menace to The Dark Knight Rises, at least in the prologue.
Image courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

HOLLYWOOD — Heath Ledger’s Joker blasted through the opening heist sequence of The Dark Knight with chilling conviction three years ago. Smart, scary and utterly riveting, Ledger’s character set the tone for the rest of the picture by blending ice-cold humor with utterly remorseless criminal smarts.

sign of the Apocalypse #71

Taco Bell Doritos Taco: Chain Claims New Shell Will Reinvent Titular Menu Item .

Some things are perfect: sunshine, rainbows, koala bears, King Lear, fish tacos eaten on the beach in Malibu. These are things that, like the wheel, no one would want to reinvent. But what about Taco Bell tacos? Given that they've been accused of being filled with a faux-ground meat mixture, they hardly seem as perfect as rainbows. So why not reinvent them? Probably can't make them any worse, right?

If only.
As it turns out, Taco Bell had the capability to make its tacos much, much worse. Parent company Yum Brands just had to team up with fellow food giant PepsiCo for an answer, in the form of taco shells made of nacho cheese-flavored Doritos.

The tacos debuted at the beginning of 2011 in selected markets in the San Joaquin Valley in California, and proved enough a success that Yum Brands has decided to bring the product to Taco Bells around the country.

Representative from the company told Nation's Restaurant News that the Doritos Locos Tacos would "reinvent the taco," and help separate Taco Bell from its competitors. The fillings on the Dorito-clad tacos are said to be spiced more mildly than those in traditional tacos, to help compensate for the extra flavor in the shell.

At this point, it's unclear how the bright orange cheese powder on the exterior of the new tacos will affect Taco Bell's sodium reduction initiative, but we can't imagine it's helping. Maybe Taco Bell shouldn't have reinvented its wheel after all.

Here's an ad for the tacos that's been aired in California test markets

AL JAFFEE's Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions: Live at Joe's Pub

Uploaded by jahfurry on Nov 14, 2011

AL JAFFEE's Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions

hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

Nigella Douses Self In Salted Caramel As Guest Editor For Stylist Magazine

If someone really loved salted caramel, she could proclaim that love by consuming the sweet treat. Or she could pour the sugary sauce over her head, photograph it and put it on the cover of a magazine. That just so happens to be the way cookbook author and TV personality Nigella Lawson shared her love for this sweet confection with the world -- as Eater brought to light -- with an image of caramel dripping down her heavily made-up face on the latest cover of Stylist.

Nigella denies that this haunting image is by any means sexual in nature. In an interview with the London Times, Nigella maintains that this image "is simply rapturous joy in caramel," the Daily Mail reports. Well, we have never seen such joy take this form in the past, and we certainly hope that it sticks to its usual smiles from here on out.

It is safe to assume that not everyone perceives the Domestic Goddess' cover in the innocent light she may have hoped for. Celebrities do have a history of dousing themselves in food items while suggestively posing for the camera. If you have managed to forget some of the more striking erotic food photographs, Grub Street has nicely rounded up some of the best ones to refresh your memory. From images of actress Josie Maran spraying her face with milk straight from an udder to Giada De Laurentiis playing in a vat of tomato sauce -- feels like we have seen it all.