Charlie Hebdo

The January 14, 2015 issue of Charlie Hebdo. Headline: "All is Forgiven".

It has been nearly a week since the massacre at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly newspaper. And words still fail me.

This was a direct attack not just on a little French weekly. It was an attack on all of us who cherish freedom of speech. The artists, writers, journalists, reporters and bloggers of the world, be they on paper or online. And their readers. No matter where we are in the world.

And a painful reminder that even in America, there are hateful forces right here that are willing to silence those who they do not agree with through deadly force.

The surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo in spite of enduring the most horrific tragedy imaginable, have chosen to carry on. Because you cannot give in to evil no matter what the threat may be.

The path of freedom has always been a long, painful and bloody one. But stopping is not an option.

Remember May Day Baskets?

Remember when we used to make May Day Baskets out of brightly coloured construction paper and our crayons?

It was a lot more fun than getting decked upside the head by some dreadlocked anarchy dude from down in Eugene, OR who came up to pick a fight in Seattle on you because you LOOK like a capitalist (and sometimes, LESS than they do) on an otherwise perfectly good Thursday night when you actually kinda felt for them and would love to help them figure things out if they would just CALM DOWN!

Good times.....

Glass Grapes

Next to rain lamps, glass grapes were ubiquitous in '70s living rooms....

Vanishing Car Act

This is pretty amazing and cool.........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8030766.stm

Vintage Japanese Subway Poster

Vintage Japanese subway poster warning of the three monsters you are most likely to encounter whilst on Japanese subways: Nesshii (the sleeping monster), Asshii (the leg-crossing monster), and Shinbunshii (the newspaper-reading monster).

Aqua Dots

 

It seemed like a good idea.....

A kids art toy that made art out of little beads (aka "dots") and it was 2007 Toy of The Year, what could go wrong?

Well, everything.

The beads were manufactured in China and when combined with water, the chemicals did more than make art. When little kids swallowed the colourful dots that looked like candy (as little kids tend to do), and when mixed with water (or saliva) they combined to make what is known as GBH, infamously known as a "date rape" drug. Several kids were hospitalized after ingesting them. Fortunately no fatalities.

They were immediately recalled and parents rightfully began to question toys made in China and to no one's surprise, the vast majority of American toys are manufactured in China. Which is out of the jurisdiction of American regulators and where American toy corporations manufacture most of their toys because of the extremely cheap labour in manufacturing.

The product was reintroduced as Bindeez, Beados and Pixos using a non-toxic formula that was coated with a bitter tasting substance to discourage ingestion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindeez

You MUST Have THIS: Mail Order Madness

Crayola Crayons

Who didn't own themselves a box of THESE?

Remember these now retired colours?

Green Blue
Orange Red
Orange Yellow
Violet Blue         
Maize
Lemon Yellow   
Blue Gray
Raw Umber (WTF?)