I have come upon a find of biblical proportions: “Golden Arak”

This bottle of liquor has traveled from the Holy Land of Ramallah, into our nations capital (Washington, DC), into the hands of a dear friend, and into our 2009 New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The taste of rocket fuel is simply masked by that of aniseed and takes on the illusion of ouzo at first glance.  Do not be mistaken, this is rocket fuel.  We no longer need to contemplate where the Palestinians have acquired the fuel for their Qasaam rockets; it sits here before me.

The story according to Doug Humphrey, the founder of DIGEX, and director of Joss:

So, I and a friend who is very into wine are looking though a warehouse filled with wine from a bankruptcy – the problem is that the government left all of about a half million bucks of inventory in a warehouse with no heat or cooling for a year plus – as you can imagine, EVERYTHING in there was shot – ruined.

Except, we come across a 20 or so cases of “Golden Arak” which I had no experience with, but he called “Ramallah Rocket Fuel” and stated that heat, cold, nothing could hurt this stuff.  We got it at the auction for a penny a CASE so that’s 1/12th a cent per bottle….  wish there had been more of it!

At 50% alcohol, you can run this in your car, use it as windshield wiper fluid, drink it or whatever – and it will all smell like anise seed as you do it – so from Yasser Arafat’s home town to you…..a Product of the Holy Land! – Doug Humphrey

Happy New Year! Welcome in 2010 with the power of the Holy Land propelling you away from the dreaded year of 2009.

See the Flickr set of more photos of this wonderfully dangerous stuff.

photos by T.bias

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“Toys ‘R’ Us Dinghy” is a 2006 art installation by Michael Johansson featuring a full-size rowboat made to look like a plastic model kit. Michael as created several other works of art that are along the same lines featuring everyday objects.

A boat and related equipment are joined together in a welded metal frame. Everything is painted in a unifying plastic layer to resemble the surface of a model kit. The real boat is transformed into a model of itself, and its original purpose has given way to something else.

via Neatorama

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David Cowles and Jeremy Galante directed an awesome 8bit game themed animated music video for “Put It to the Test” by They Might Be Giants, from their new children’s DVD “Here Comes Science”.

via monochrom

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• Broadband, Yes. Toilet, No. (NY Times)
• TSA Threatens Blogger Who Posted New Screening Directive (Wired Threat Level)
• Spy Agencies Failed to Share Clues on Terror Before Flight (NY Times)

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“Famous Dog Walker” by David Soames, the ultimate dog walking gig.

via The Daily What

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National Geographic is selling the full series of their magazines from 1888-2008 on a 160GB hard drive for $199.95. It is also available on DVD for $59.95.

Explore 120 years of amazing discoveries, fascinating maps, and the world’s best photography with The Complete National Geographic. This definitive collection of every issue of National Geographic magazine, digitally reproduced in stunning high resolution, brings you the world and all that is in it. Use the advanced interface to explore a topic, search for photographs, browse the globe, or wander on your own expedition.

Access all of the maps, photos, and magazine issues found on the DVD collection in one external hard drive. Browse and search the entire collection without needing to swap out DVDs. Lightweight and travel-friendly, the hard drive is just 3″ x 5″ and requires only a USB connection. We’ve left plenty of hard disk space to accommodate future upgrades. We’ve also allocated approximately 100GB of hard disk space for your own personal use.

via Download Squad

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Ubachswisbrun/JWT produced a guerilla ad campaign featuring MINI Cooper shipping boxes on the streets of Amsterdam to promote the MINI Amsterdam financing program. I wonder if I could have one shipped using Amazon Prime.

This is similar to a recent Heineken ad campaign featuring Walk-In Fridge boxes.

via Ads of the World & Rocketboom

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“Muzorama”, a wonerfully surreal 3D animated short film featuring the art of illustrator Jean-Philippe Masson aka Muzo.

via Boing Boing

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Not sure what to make as your New Year’s resolution for 2010? Monina Velarde created a really cool New Year’s Resolution Generator that will help provide a few ideas.

via swissmiss

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Artist Marc Tasman took a Polaroid self-portrait every day from for ten years and one day. That’s 3,654 consecutive days from July 24, 1999 through July 24, 2009, for a total of 4600+ photos compiled into a 5:27 video.

See Previously: Jamie Livingston Documented His Life With 6,000 Polaroid Photos

via Noelle Steffen

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photo by Thomas Kelley

Inspired by Michael Hughes’ Souvenir project, Jason Powell started Looking Into The Past, a Flickr pool devoted to combining old photos of locations, buildings, and people with the present day scene. The ones with the most impact have the photographer holding an old photo in front of the camera lined up with features in the scene. Since many of these gems are buried in the pool, I’ve created a gallery with some favorites. Paulo Canabarro and Wired UK have also collected some good ones.

If you’re interested in taking your own shots like this there are several online resources for original images.

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• (in)security theatre (Violet Blue)
• A Life Lived Among Old-Tech Amusements (NY Times Bay Area Blog)
• Is aviation security mostly for show? (Bruce Schneier on CNN)
• 2000s: The Decade of DVR (PVRblog)

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Parody rapper SeanieMic presents “Two Thousand And Nine Rap-Up: The Year of WTF”.

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A 35′ tall Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) sounding rocket that was used in atmospheric studies is located in front of Century Boulder Theatre as part of the The Wonder of Science exhibit at Twenty Ninth Street mall in Boulder.

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<img src="http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/10-words-you-need-to-stop-misspelling-20091230-111836.png" alt="The Oatmeal"/>

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling by The Oatmeal

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Sam Young made a wondeful animated music video for “Neighborhood” by Sugar & Gold that is a lovely tribute to San Francisco.

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photo by Scott Beale

On our recent trip to Boulder, we stopped by the beautiful Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, which was created to celebrate sister city ties between Boulder and Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Here are a few photos.

From 1987 -1990, more than 40 artisans in several cities of Tajikistan created the decorative elements our Teahouse, including its hand-carved and hand-painted ceiling, tables, stools, columns, and exterior ceramic panels. Often these skills are handed down from generation to generation within families.

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“Refill Required”, a t-shirt by Glennz Tees that reminds you that you could always use more coffee.

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YouTube user Brusspup created some amazing animated optical illusions based on the book Magic Moving Images. If a giant ones of these doesn’t end up at Burning Man next year, I’ll eat my hat.

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Squirrel Monkeys at the Monkey House in the Bronx Zoo recently received a special holiday treat in the form of JELL-O with blueberries, “a jiggly concoction that immediately stimulates their foraging instincts”.

via ScienceBlogs

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