I love the way news stories on hallucinogenic drug research always have this sort of willful ignorance to them. Headline: Magic Mushrooms: Study Says They Help Some See Their Spiritual Side. Whenever I see a headline along these lines I can’t help but blurt out, like a annoyed pre-teen, “Duh!” Also, newsflash: water is wet!

Quote: “The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit.” This was a funded study remember. It was Science! Meanwhile the “study” that’s been ongoing for centuries, involving literally millions upon millions of subjects in every age/gender/scocio-economic combination possible, and which, I might add, arrived at this very same conclusion long, long, loonnnng ago, is decidedly not. It’s not of much value in discerning facts or compiling evidence or just generally helping us to better understand the effects of the drug in question evidently, and, as a matter of fact, is dangerous, illegal, and quite possibly evil…

On July 1st 1858 a theory, jointly arrived at by one Charles Darwin and one Alfred Russel Wallace, was presented to The Linnean Society of London in the form of two papers. The theory, of course, was Natural Selection, and it was revealed to the world 150 years ago today. Huzzah!

Keywords: Japanese, slutty maid, zombies, chainsaw, gore, claymation, sweet! Via.

Gosh Tees. Here we have two handsome new tees being made available at the Nonist Shop, both variations on a theme. Whether you are an atheist seeking to snuff-out superstitious hokum one sentence at a time, an enthusiastic follower of commandments desiring to mince every oath, a situationist, a cultural critic hoping to highlight the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of a 21st century society motivated, above all else, by an insatiable desire for new forms of entertainment and spectacle, or simply a smart-ass, these are designs for you! 

These hand drawn graphics (See below for larger versions) ought to look good on most apparel colors. See your options for “Gosh Is In The Details” here, and “One Nation Under Gosh” here, or see all of the Nonist’s offerings here.

I’ve noticed, in my long years of toiling wage slavery, that certain products created exclusively for corporate consumption, specifically those products meant to be used in office kitchens and bathrooms, are, shall we say, “different” from their consumer level counterparts. These are purely functional items whose exteriors fall somewhere between the total austerity of military issue and the frenetic high-gloss of supermarket fare. These are items not aimed at individual consumers and so most pretense of friendliness is absent. Fittingly they eschew all up-beat and desire-kindling market-speak, employing instead the dry, litigation-resistant language of the work-place. Strangely, however, these products still maintain evolutionary vestiges of graphic design once meant to please and comfort end-users. These are products in a grey limbo of package design. They inevitably exhibit an odd, inelegant, half-hearted sort of aesthetic which seems almost to originate from a different culture or, indeed, a whole other era.

Speaking of which, take a closer look at the example product pictured above…

Have you ever wondered when it was exactly that clowns became terrifying to people? I mean, sure, there must have always been little bed-wetting children here and there who were put-off by clowns, all the way back to Scaramouche’s day and beyond. But at what point did clowns transform, in the minds of vast swaths of people the world over, en-masse, from absurd and funny haha to pant’s-crapingly yikes frightening? And Why?

Got that? They’ll be a quiz. Originally from Little Pet’s Picture Alphabet, 1850’s.

Today IO9 linked to a page re-telling the story of Sergei Brukhonenko and the severed dog’s head he reportedly managed to keep alive with his autojector. It’s a fascinating historical tidbit. Anyhoo, I’d completely forgotten about it until today, and IO9’s gentle reminder was all the excuse I needed to whip-up this homage to that poor, nameless, zombified pooch-head and its gruesomely miraculous horror. (Maybe I’ll make it a T-shirt eventually.) In related linkage, a classic: The Museum of Hoaxes Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time.

In conjunction with my post over at the Nonist proper about the poster art of Tomi Ungerer I would like to offer some related content here, namely some pieces Mr. Ungerer created for an exhibition at IBM’s New York City headquarters. The exhibition, held in 1966, was called Some Computer ABC’s. See below.

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Thomas Carlyle, 1850. Make of it what you will.

Came across an interesting item tucked within hamletworks.org, titled: Visual Representations of Hamlet, 1709-1900. Check it out. Meanwhile, by way of augmentation, a quick search reveals: Hamlet on the Ramparts’ Art and Production Stills, Hamlet lantern slides, Delacroix’s Lithographs of Hamlet, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet page, NYPL Hamlet, Wikimedia Hamlet, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and Shakespeare in pictures.

Came across the site Branded in the 80’s which has among its offerings a pretty dynamite collection of nostalgic stickers for your viewing pleasure. And no, they don’t all depict monsters, despite the two I decided to feature above.

In honor of Mr. Carlin, whose work I enjoyed.  And a larger version for genral use.

-Mark Twain, from his speech, Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism, 1879.

Dearest Fingers. The typewriter, after centuries of dedicated service, is fading fast from the memory of men. These noble machines, once the trusted friend of novelist, philosopher, poet, lover, spy, and bureaucrat alike, have fallen on hard times. Today they sit in attics and shadowy back-rooms, confused and lonely. They know they still have so much to give, so much romance to kindle, so much tactile pleasure in their keys and mechanisms! But alas, Man is fickle. Man is thoughtless. Man is… cruel. If you listen closely you can almost hear them, softly clacking their final words, as the dust grows ever thicker… “Dearest Fingers, I’m lost without you.”

This design (see below for larger image) ought to look good on most apparel colors, light and dark. Check out all of your options for this Tee here, or see all the Nonist’s products here.

In 1965, the thunderegg (proud owners, one and all, of the greatest name ever bestowed on a rock by we fleshy types) was designated as the Oregon state rock. More info: 1, 2, 3, 4. More images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Well, I see a slightly deformed pelvis, soaked in pomegranate juice and then smeared with wasabi. Whatever that means.

Today at the Nonist proper, I posted a piece on being an atheist in a world of Religious profanity, with special consideration for so-called minced oaths. I was hoping, with your help, to compile a running list of exclamations which eschew the usual “God!” “Christ!” “Holy whatever!” conventions that come so naturally. I’m interested in those oaths actually in-use, those inherited and particular to family or friends, as well as invented non-sequiturs coined for nothing more than comic effect.  What say ye? Leave your contribution in comments, and if you can’t think of any… feel free to smash your thumb with a hammer… and then invent one!