Happy Birthday Paul Newman!

Smokin' Hot! There is no bad picture of Paul Newman. It NEVER happened!

Happy Birthday Marilyn Monroe!

Here is an interesting story about a letter she wrote to her doctor when she was committed in 1961... yeah. Classy though. Classy, classy, classy.

The King's Speech

Back when I posted this I hadn't seen the The King's Speech yet. I didn't even know it was coming out! I just noticed the vintage hotness and decided it should be explicitly pointed out. Anyway, here is an actual speech from the king himself:

So hot. Go see the movie. It is now one of my absolute favorites.

via Nag on the Lake

Art Whores

Some art is more than STDs and ladies of the night. Some art is not.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

I was going to post this later, but, once again, world events prompted an expedited art themed post. Check it out:

Cute Old French Couple Has $80 million Worth of Picassos in Their Attic.

via Nag on the Lake

The End of an Era

The time-honoured practice of wearing nothing beneath the kilt has been condemned by an organization dedicated to upholding Scottish traditions.

via Neatorama

Notice My Flowers

Music, Pink and Blue II, 1919

... when you took time to really notice my flowers you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.

- Georgia O'Keeffe, 1943

Riiiight.

Anyway, I was going to post this picture yesterday, but then I found that ancient graffiti and decided to delay the art lesson. THEN I found out that yesterday was actually Georgia O'Keeffe's B-Day. So... happy belated Georgia! It's been weird!

Vital Statistics

Dig the graphics.

via Nag on the Lake

Cargo Cult

Apparently there is a tribe in the anthropologically famous (or infamous) Trobriand Islands that worships Prince Phillip.

Awesome. This is awesome.

The Body Bag Industry

Not to make light of an egregious impending situation, but if you read this article from the BBC about military operations against Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka you will read this interesting phrase:

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed a routine order of body bags...

A routine order of body bags? That is a detail of war that I've never thought of. This implies that there is a body bag industry from which it is possible to order. If there is a body bag industry then there could be competing body bag manufacturing companies offering a range of products in a range of qualities for a range of prices. Are there government standards that body bag manufacturers have to abide by? Who else uses body bags on such a regular basis that they require "routine" orders besides the ICRC? Off the top of my head I came up with: county coroners and forensic departments, the army, hospitals, and TV shows with an emphasis on crime and forensics.

According to my Google inquiries it seems that the industry name for body bag is "transport pouch" (there is even a transportpouch.com). There are different types of "transport pouches" for different situations such as "water recovery" or simply "disaster." You can order them individually or by the case. They have handles of various types. They come in several different colors (blue, orange, black, and an array of drab grays and greens), several different materials (mostly vinyl and nylon it seems), and they come in sizes from infant to adult (with a special "oversized" adult bag). Apparently there are transport pouches that are up to military specification.

And now I know about the body ba... I mean transport pouch industry.

Photo by Danny Hammontree