Internet Study Guides: Google Images

The last time I was in school the Internet was just beginning to form. This was before the Dot Com Boom. Before Hotmail became part of Microsoft. When Excite was more important than Yahoo and Google was just a funny name. During that time, which seems so long ago even though it's not, studying for an exam mainly involved notes and a textbook. If it was a lab practical, say for biology, it involved drawing detailed diagrams of what you were seeing. The students who did the best on those exams were ones who brought in colored pencils, filling in every conceivable detail they could sketch on their lab manual. My skills as an artist caused everything to look like an abstract painting version of the same thing.

Most of my labs would have some version of the follow conversation with my lab partner:

"What is that," my lab partner would ask pointing at the painstaking drawing before me.
"Columnar cells."
She (My lab partners were always women.) would pick up the sheet of paper rotating it in front of her face.
"Are you sure? Cause this doesn't look anything like the slide."

Invariably I never did very well on the lab practicals.

Fast forward - how many years? - to what in the eyes of technology is an eon. There are so many new tools available it is staggering sometimes. In the case of lab practicals Google Images or Yahoo and Flickr are an amazing resource.

The best part of this is that the artistically deficient do not have to rely souly on their rushed renderings. For example the study list for my current biology practical included a fetal pig dissection. Found that. Even though the sheep heart wasn't on the exam I found a better primer for the basic structures than the actual lab. You can also buy one for $3.80. Then their was the earthworm. Not the best photos but there it is. I was having trouble finding the male version of the ginkgophyta plant. But here it is. What do juniper berries look like again? Oh yeah.

It is all at your fingertips. God bless the Internet for making it easier for slackers to keep pace with the overachievers.

GTA IV Borough Slogans

After over a year of steady promotion Grand Theft Auto IV has been released for thousands of game hounds to devour by the weekend. It's enough of an incentive to prompt me to buy a 360 or PS3 just to play the game. In the meantime the website offers plenty to give visitors the look, feel, and flavor of the game.

One of the first things that caught my attention was the interactive map of Liberty City, which is Basically the five boroughs of New York under different names. As your cursor glides over the different areas a short description pops up. If you have lived in New York City within last few years then you should find these borough slogans rather appropriate.

Algonquin = Manhattan
Self-proclaimed center of everything.
Expensive, snooty and over.
Better in the movies.
Tall buildings, angry people.
Yawn.

Broken = Brooklyn
Desperate try-hards.
Suddenly fashionable. No on sure why.
Gentrifying, but still rough.
Still bridge and tunnel.
Churches, hipsters and housing projects.

Dukes = Queens
Multicultural ghettoes.
I think my maid lives there.
Best thing is the airport.

Bohan = Broxn
Like the suburbs, only worse.
Where is that again?
Be afraid.
Ripe for re-development.
Practically upstate.

Alberney = New Jersey
Soccer moms and SUVS
Industrial wasteland meets suburban hell.
Bring your passport.
Strip malls and condos

Wierd Edge Shaving Gel Commercial

While at the gym last night studying my notes on the elliptical machine a strange sight caught my attention.

A group of orange clad models spraying a CGI set of a mans unshaven face with foam. Smiling and laughing this collection of gel activating hotties where have the time of their lives. The next shot is the man shaving. It seems an odd juxtaposition since the only assumption you can make is that this man is mowing down these hot women with his razor. Once moment they were frolicking around, spraying each other with aloe and moisturizer, then next they have been sliced up by a series of razor blades. What a horrible way to go.

If that wasn't odd enough the next series of shots should be considered evidence that the ad agency who crafted this were ingesting plenty of hallucinogens. With his shaving carnage complete the man lifted the remaining glob of gel to his nose. Rising from the shaving cream like a cadre of hot Phoenixes was another group of models wearing green jet packs. The next shot was a profile of the man's huge nose. Seriously, his nose took up the entire screen. Below his gargantuan honker were a couple dozen green dots that rose into his nasal cavity. Once inside the models transformed the cavernous nasal passage was into a rave. They even brought their own dj and dancers.

If you see this commercial and happen to be in an altered state of mind of your own choosing please remember that you are not seeing things.

Playing Art With Daddy's Money

This story is equal fascinating and repelling. Such a lead in can only lead to a jump to Fox News.

Yale Pulls Student's "Abortion Art" Project From Exhibit Opening

A Google search for Aliza Shvarts brought up a web page that does an excellent job of assimilating and dissecting her previous biographical background, previous work, and relationship to her advisor.

Aliza Shvarts: Abortion Goo Girl Rants Against the "Patriarchal Heteronormative"

The blogger, Gerard Van Der Leun, also provides a more eloquent examination of Shvarts and what calling something morally questionable, if not downright dangerous, as art.