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August 08, 2011

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The most beautiful female goat in the world: “

Photo: Ali Jarekji / Reuters
Wasieef, a Maaz Al Shami (Damascene goat), won the first prize for the ‘Most Beautiful Goat’ title in the female category at a recent event in Amman, Jordan. The Mazayen al-Maaz competition was the first such event held in the desert kingdom. If you would like to see Wasieef looking right at you, a portrait is after the jump.

Photo: Ali Jarekji / Reuters
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[Damn, though, that’s an awful lot of paint, 99% of which is invisible in the finished piece. -e]
This mesmerizing video shows how Brooklyn artist Holton Rower created a series of paintings appropriately-titled “Pour.” (Thanks, Carra Sparks!)
Virtual pets starve after bungled resolution to Second Life’s “unauthorized food” war: “Wagner James Au sez, ‘Meeroos, an extremely popular species of virtual, breedable animal in Second Life, are now starving, because griefers have been selling their owners unauthorized food, and Linden Lab accidentally shut them down *and* their legitimate food supplier. The creatures don’t starve to death if their owners fail to feed them — after awhile, they’re just programmed to abandon their owners, presumably to find food. Linden Lab is finally addressing the issue, but Meeroos’ creators say the world is still ‘flooded with unauthorized food.”
Meeroos, SL’s extremely popular species of virtual, breedable animals created by Malevay Studios, are currently starving. Yesterday, reports Malevay’s Catherine Farspire, unidentified griefers using variations of the avatar name ‘Meeroos Resident’ (the company’s official account) were found selling unauthorized Meeroos food in the region of Twas. (The miscreants, says Ms. Farspire, ‘built their own [store] in the sky selling fraudulent food’.) As a result, she reports, Linden Lab has closed down the region of Twas — and also blocked ‘Meeroos Resident’, the legitimate Malevay Studios account: ‘We believe the account was blocked by Linden Lab by mistake, given all the reported accounts were variations of the same name, or the account was mistakenly reported by residents meaning to abuse report the offending avatars. We simply cannot be sure. Unfortunately, this has dealt us a crippling blow at the worst time possible.’
Meeroos Starving Due to SL Griefers Selling Fraudulent Food & Linden Lab Closing Their Legitimate Food Source (UPDATE: Meeroos Account Reopened, But SL Still “Flooded With Unauthorized Food”)
(Thanks, James!)
Collecting “PostNatural” life: “
The Center for PostNatural History was created ‘to acquire, interpret and provide access to a collection of living, preserved and documented organisms of postnatural origin.’ Center for PostNatural History (via IFTF Future of Science, thanks Ariel Waldman!)
[New work from Audrey Kawasaki. -e]

















~ in progress ~





[LOVE. -egg]
Sure, it’s not really what he had in mind. But I’m rather struck by the fact that pretty much every flame war ever could be avoided if we only listened to him. Shorter version: Recognize that you could be wrong, be tolerant of people who say things you hate and kind to people with whom you disagree, and, for god’s sake, don’t feed the trolls*.
*He didn’t actually say that last bit, but it’s just assumed at this point, right?
Via Joe Dwyer
[And speaking of Tortoise…]
[Video Link] Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman (Catfish directors) made this terrific short documentary about Metropolis II, Chris Burden‘s incredible kinetic sculpture, a 20′ x 30′ model city with 1,200 Matchbox-type cars running at 200 scale mph. It took four years to make and will open at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA) in Fall 2011.
Below, a photo of co-director Ariel Schulman:

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Ladies! Cannonball cure for constipation: “

In 1901, this Ladies Guide in Health and Disease ad advised women that they should let an “eminent German physician” cure their constipation by rolling a leather-encased cannonball around on their tummies.