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Friday, October 31, 2008

5 Candies You Hated Getting Every Halloween

Every Halloween the youngsters' thoughts turn to candy. And minor acts of vandalism. But mostly candy.

But there was always a downside to trick or treating, and not just the juvenile diabetes that kicked in a few years later. We're talking about the barely edible candies that got handed out every year, products that thrived at Halloween because it was the one time when the person who bought it wouldn't have to actually eat it.

We're talking about...

#5.
Wax Candy

The Main Offenders:

Wax Lips, Wax Fangs

The Good:

Everyone remembers wax lips, and to a lesser extent, wax fangs. They were bright red, shiny and, technically, edible. Like a poor man's collagen, these oily enhancers were the closest many children would ever come to a somewhat presentable face.

The Bad:

It's admirable that the manufacturers didn't attempt to disguise the product with a misleading name or fancy packaging. They came right out and told you, "That's a candle in your mouth, dipshit."

Not to mention the fact that to keep the lips and fangs attached to your face, you were required to bite down (ever so gently) on an extra piece of wax protruding from the inside of the "lips," making speech unintelligible on top of everything else.

Likelihood of Being Physically Injured by the Candy:

This was pretty safe by itself, if you didn't mind shitting a turd-shaped candle the next day. Of course if you were smart enough to abstain from actually eating it, you and your friends probably still wound up passing it from mouth to mouth, spreading colds and maybe even a case of Measles. Or herpes, depending on the crowd you ran with.

We must also consider the danger of being physically attacked by someone else due to the candy. Since it prominently displays itself in the dead-center of your face at all times, you couldn't really hide the fact that you were eating something retarded. Like, say, a mouth-shaped candle.

On the plus side, the wax candy doubles as a mouth guard, which you most likely needed.

#4.
Candy Jewelry

The Main Offenders:

Candy necklaces, Ring Pops

The Good:

It's tasty! It's fashionable! It will gain you the respect of your peers, catch the eye of that boy you've been after, and give you a delicious reprieve from the sheer torture that is your adolescence. It's the best of both worlds!

The Bad:

The whole edible clothing/accessory thing is really better in theory than practice. Like those novelty edible panties, you don't put them back on after they're partially eaten.

Not so with the candy necklace, which the little girl (or effeminate boy, we suppose) was sure to put in their mouth, then around their neck, then around their wrist, then on their friend's wrist, then in their friend's mouth. It'd be disgusting even if the candy didn't taste like chalk.


Disease-ridden shit machine.

The Ring Pop is no better, the whole point is to suck on the thing while it's still on your finger. Soon you wound up wearing a sticky glove of red saliva.

Likelihood of Being Physically Injured by the Candy:

Take all of the disease concerns we had about the wax candy and double it, since you've basically got a kid sporting a ring of loogies around his or her neck. Also, Ring Pops always scratched the shit out your finger.

#3.
Tobacco-Themed Candy

The Main Offenders:

Candy Cigarettes, Bubble Gum Cigars, Big League Chew

The Good:

Look at you, all grown up! Pretending to use tobacco and emulate the beautiful people like Marilyn Monroe, Pierce Brosnan, and Popeye.

The world has long since pussied-out on the whole "candy carcinogen" thing, but many of us still have fond memories of these from our childhoods. Until we started smoking for real at the age of 12.

The Bad:

Yes you think you look cool, but in reality you're just another poser, kid. That may sound harsh, but if you really thought chewing on the end of a bubble gum cigar would earn you the respect of your friends and strike fear into the hearts of your enemies a la Tony Soprano, you were in for one of those brutal lessons about growing up.


And it kind of looks like a dick.

Not to mention that once again the candy makers, confident that the fun shape would carry sales, didn't bother to inject any kind of flavor into any of these. We said the candy necklaces tasted like chalk? We're not completely sure that candy cigarettes weren't actual sticks of chalk.

Likelihood of Being Physically Injured by the Candy:

Big League Chew and gum cigars were just shaped bubble gum, no harm there. But as for the candy cigarettes ... you know you tried to light that shit.



#2.
Excessively Chewy Candy

The Main Offenders:

Now and Laters, Good n Fruity, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Salt Water Taffy

The Good:

Chewy candy has only one up-side: it lasts a long time.

The Bad:

It lasts a long fucking time! There's a limit to how long candy should be in your mouth, and that's four minutes. With the exception of chewing gum, no candy should force its flavor upon the user a moment longer.

Plus this stuff can glue your teeth together with the strength of some kind of dental adhesive. The whole tedious, laborious task was way more work than eating a piece of candy should require. Maybe that would be fine if it was the only candy you had and you needed to stretch out the experience. But during the post-Halloween binge, it only delayed the eating of more candy.

Likelihood of Being Physically Injured by the Candy:

Attempt to find someone who's ever managed consume a Now and Later in less than 20 minutes. You won't, because they choked and died.


Why do people keep buying this?

The upside is if some bully tried to take your candy, you could always bet him $10 that he couldn't eat one of your Now and Laters in less than 20 minutes.

#1.
All Novelty Pseudo-Candy

The Main Offenders:

Candy Buttons on Paper Tape, Fun Dip, Pixy Stix

The Good:

"Novelty" candy is known as such because it's cute and original... for a limited time. Its novelty packaging and novelty consumption methods make it, well, a novelty. And some kids are really, really easily amused.

The Bad:

The amusement however doesn't make this shitty candy taste any better. The "novelty" of this candy wears off about 10 seconds after you pull it out of your little plastic pumpkin. The disappointment, however lasts a lifetime. So does the shame that comes from eating the a row of candy buttons directly off the paper, feeding it into your mouth like your head was a fax machine.

Likelihood of Being Physically Injured by the Candy:

Every candy buttons customer has felt the sting of paper cuts on the corners of their lips. They should have a warning label about that but they know we wouldn't listen. Also, which of us didn't at least once try to snort some Pixy Stix or the powder part of Fun Dip?

Okay, maybe not all of us. Oh, also, don't make our mistake and look up "Fun Dip" on Urban Dictionary.

Trust us. Don't.

The Office - Joker halloween costume



Creed, Kevin & Dwight dress up as the Joker for Halloween. Episode 5, Season 5.

From $603,000 to $1 In 60 Seconds

Deal or No Deal: Biggest Bonehead Move



Top Six Sexiest Vampires to grace your theatres

October 31, 2008 by kevin

Vampires are fascinating creatures. They need human blood to survive and can make us their slaves. In such a scenerio, The Daily Dust have put together a list of vampires who we would most like to donate our blood to.

6. Ingrid Pitt


Much to our benefits, Ingrid Pitt landed a role in the 1971 film Countess Dracula. Ingrid plays a scantily clad vampire who slays young virgins to keep her self young and supple. A worthy cause.

5. Leonor Varela


Blade II is full of vampires the competition for hottest vampire was fierce. However, Nyssa, a sexy fighting vampire played by the hot Chilean actress Leonor Varela took the crown.

4. Monica Belluci

In the 1992 film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula has three brides. His first was played by the gorgeous Monica Belluci who stole the scene, even with two other very sexy vampires

3. Salma Hayek

IN From Dusk Till Dawn , Salma Hayek brings a vampire infested strip club to a boil with her incredible dance with a big snake. One of the sexiest scenes in cinema ever.

2. Aaliyah

The late Aaliyah played the seriously sexy vampire, Akasha, the queen of the damned.

1. Kate Beckinsale

In the 2003 film Underworld , Kate Beckinsale showed us to match sexy with horror and action, playing Selene and dressed in skin-tight black, she had to win.

Let us know in the comments below if we have missed any hot vampires.

Rare dragon-like reptile found breeding in New Zealand for the first time in 200 years

By Daily Mail Reporter

A rare dragon-like reptile with lineage dating back to the dinosaur age has been found nesting on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in about 200 years, officials said.

Four leathery, white eggs from an indigenous tuatara, which once roused fears of extinction, were discovered today by staff at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington, conservation manager Rouen Epson said.

'The nest was uncovered by accident and is the first concrete proof we have that our tuatara are breeding,' Epson said.

Tuatara

Rare: Tuatara are the last descendants of a species that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago


'It suggests that there may be other nests in the sanctuary we don't know of.'

Tuatara, dragon-like reptiles that grow to up to 32 inches (80 centimeters), are the last descendants of a species that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago, zoologists say.

They have unique characteristics, such as two rows of top teeth closing over one row at the bottom.

They also have a pronounced 'third eye' on the top of their skull. This white patch of light-sensitive skin - called its parietal eye - slowly disappears as they mature.

A native species to New Zealand, tuatara were nearly extinct on the country's three main islands by the late 1700s due to the introduction of predators such as rats.

Tuatara eggs

Hope: The discovery of the four rare eggs is 'concrete proof' that the tuatara are breeding and suggests there are more nests undiscovered in the sanctuary

They still live in the wild on 32 small offshore islands cleared of predators.

A population of 70 tuatara was established at the Karori Sanctuary in 2005. Another 130 were released in the sanctuary in 2007.

The sanctuary, a 620-acre (250-hectare) wilderness minutes from downtown Wellington, was established to breed native birds, insects and other creatures securely behind a predator-proof fence.

Empson said that the four eggs - the size of pingpong balls - are likely the first of a larger number because the average nest contains around ten eggs.

The eggs were immediately covered up again to avoid disturbing incubation.

If all goes well, juvenile tuatara could hatch any time between now and March, Empson said.

The Ten Scariest-Looking Cars Of All Time

It's that wondrous time of year when our inner ghouls come out and we lurk the streets, be-costumed, reveling in our darker selves. Halloween night represents the one night we can cast off our cheeriness and embrace what lurks within the darkest corner of our souls. And though we must adorn ourselves with capes and masks to tell the world we're out for mischief, there are a number of automobiles that come prefabricated for ne'erdowelling across unlit streets. Below are the ten spookiest, creepiest and scary-cool looking cars ever seen by mere mortals.


10.) Mercury Marauder


Hearkening back to the good ol' days, the Mercury Marauder is one of the few modern cars to appeal to the dark side. Based on the same Panther platform that underpins countless Crown Vic police cars, the sight of one of these sends chills down the spine, and when you throw in the blacked-out windows, grille, headlights, taillights and pillars you end up with one spooky sled. There's a reason why the CIA and the Feds ordered up a bunch of Marauders.


9.) Plymouth Satellite


If, like the eponymous movie wants us to believe, cars have personalities, then the Plymouth Satellite is a scary zombie. At the very least, a ghost-white one with a little rust and a missing bumper is the perfect car for a zombie crew to jump in and use to terrorize the locals. Wait? Zombie drivers? We just came up with the best movie idea. Someone call Spielberg.


8.) Buick Roadmaster Station Wagon


In a decade defined by optimism, there was something deeply pessimistic about the nineties-era Buick Roadmaster. Built on the same b-body platform as a number of other GM wagons, the Roadmaster has an angry stature amplified by the long, mean nose and partially-covered rear wheels. Powered by a version of the 5.7-liter LT1 V8 used in the Corvette, a black Roadmaster wagon has the power to chase down lost souls and the room to store them. Paging the Grim Reaper. [Photo: StationWagon.com]


7.) Avanti II SportCoupe


We always thought a Studebaker Avanti coupe would have made a better batmobile than a Futura. With nary a straight line to be found, a tail end that abruptly comes to an end and a chrome bumper that looks like it has a pair of fangs we wonder if this isn't what Dracula drives when he turns into a bat. Combine that with those empty eyes and we doubt this spooky SportCoupe could see its own reflection in its shiny moon wheel covers.


6.) Lincoln Continental Mark III


Few vehicles bring the promise of misadventure and doom than a Lincoln Mark III. Squelch on a bet? A bookie in a Mark III is going to show up at your door and throw you onto the 16 acres of hood real estate. Drop a dime on a gangster? A dude named Tony and his friends Anthony and Anton will be happy to make room for you — in the trunk. Unlike the softer, luxurious luxury cars of the era, the Mark III clearly states that it means business. All black and chrome with those covered headlights, this Lincoln is prepared for stealthy mayhem. [Photo: SeriousWheels.com]


5.) Alfa Romeo Montreal


If Vader tools around in a GNX and the reaper has a Roadmaster wagon then Satan himself drives around in an Alfa Romeo Montreal. Don't let the name fool you: The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he was a Canadian. As Dante will tell you, the Antichrist is clearly an Italian guy and we don't imagine that his unholiness would drive around in a Ferrari. There's no doubt the Montreal's evil-looking grimace, angry NACA duct and 1970s Italian dependability make it the perfect car for lapping the eighth circle of Hell.


4.) Plymouth Valiant V-200


For your classier demon there's not much better than a Plymouth Valiant V200. From its demonically styled grille to the creepy fender chrome, the Valiant V-200 is ghoulishly awesome. The creepiest feature on the car, and on nearly any car, is the trunk, which appears to include the door to the underworld. Though this feature is actually for the spare tire, it looks like a portable gate to Hell.


3.) Porsche 917


Though we think of Porsches as small and sleek sports cars, the Porsche 917 is something of an outlier. Though fast and wonderful, it looks like a giant scary monster come down from the hills to eat the villagers. The sloping wings, huge inlet and bulky styling are more Frankenstein than Frankfurt. The 917/20, a.k.a. the "Pink Pig", is perhaps the most frightening of them all. From most angles it looks like a stitched-together bird-pig-man hybrid. Run, run for your lives from the Trufflehunter of Züffenhausen!


2.) Buick GNX


When the Buick GNX debuted, Car And Driver ran a review of it with the headline "Vader, Your Car is Ready" and that connection has never left the car. Ignore the fact that nearly every part, down to the wheels, is black. Ignore the evil grimace on its face. Ignore even the Buick's blade-sharp lines that scream "I will cut you and not look back" standing still. The thing that makes the GNX truly scary looking is the site of this G-bodied two-door from the late 80s screaming down the street to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and running a quarter-mile in 13.26. Evil incarnate.


1.) Rolls Royce Phantom Jonckheere


The single most frightening looking car in history also has one of the most spine-tingling names of any car. The Rolls Royce Phantom Jonckheere Coupe may be one of the finest automobiles built, but we fear the person who actually drives around in one of these. Built without concern for cost or common sense in the 1920s, the history of the car is somewhat murky but we wouldn't be surprised if it spent some time in Transylvania. From the rear three-quarter view it actually looks like Dracula's cape flowing in the wind. And on the inside? A blood red, entirely made of the finest materials. If you're ever invited inside make sure to bring a wooden stake with you.

Carroll, Ferrell pull off Halloween gag

As the door flew open on a camera tower high above the ground just outside Howard Jones Field, all eyes turned to a man inside screaming and waving his arms.

As he hurled to the ground, players winced in horror. Fullback Stanley Havili ran toward the door, but before he could get there, he received good news.

"He caught him," a woman yelled.

Associated Press
Will Ferrell is well-known supporter of USC.
With the man cradled in his arms, a masked superhero strolled into Howard Jones Field. Sure enough, "Captain Compete" turned out to be comedian Will Ferrell.

After speaking to the team for a couple of minutes, Captain Compete got another chance to save a life, when a man engulfed in flames emerged from behind the goalposts.

After the man was extinguished, Ferrell tried to help, launching a Gatorade cooler at the man ? not on the man.

"What a sense of timing that guy has," USC coach Pete Carroll said.

The Halloween gag had most of the Trojans fooled.

"It felt awful," Havili said. "My stomach just dropped."

Freshman defensive tackle Armond Armstead saw the man fall and thought tragedy struck.

"Seriously," he said, "I thought we just watched a dude die."

The prank lightened the mood after the team finalized its week of practice

"It was just a little something in the Halloween spirits," Carroll said. "I just thought we'd have a little fun."

For Ex-N.F.L. Star, a Dream of Sports in Space

Published: October 30, 2008

GREENBELT, Md. — The game would be called Float Ball. It would combine elements of basketball, football and the Lionel Richie video for “Dancing on the Ceiling” into a sort of free-for-all, compelling weightless players to bounce off walls, obstacles and one another while herding weightless balls of various colors to either end of the playing space, which would be placed inside the cabin of a zero-gravity plane or, possibly, on the moon. Eventually, one day, if all went well, some sort of custom arena would be constructed. On Mars.


Zero Gravity Corporation

Ken Harvey, a former Washington Redskins linebacker in a zero-gravity plane.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Harvey is promoting a project he calls Space Sportilization

“There’s a bonus,” said the game’s promoter, Ken Harvey, speaking to an attentive audience of National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers, technicians and scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center here recently, “where you have to pick up a person holding a certain ball and throw them through a hoop as a sort of extra point.”

The football analogy seemed to come easily to mind. Ken Harvey was that Ken Harvey, No. 57 in your Washington Redskins program for much of the late 1990s. Playing linebacker during the largely highlight-free interregnum of Coach Joe Gibbs, Harvey made four appearances in the Pro Bowl.

Now 43, he has not played a down since he dropped out of training camp in 1999. This year, he took a day job in the front office, where he has been charged with serving, according to Redskins management, “as a resource and adviser in the development of responsibility initiatives.”

With two sons nearing college age, Harvey has taken the steady, earthbound gig as an anchor while training his restless imagination on a high-concept project he has called, somewhat risibly, SpaceSportilization.

“I did things the hard way getting to the pros, and I’m doing things the hard way now,” he said during an interview in a back room of the space center, where a disused model satellite served as decoration. “But sometimes you’ve got to believe the unbelievable.”

For Harvey, the hard way had included dropping out of high school, working in a fast-food restaurant and rising through the junior college circuit before starting his career with the Phoenix Cardinals. After his run with the Redskins, there was talk of additional millions, then there were injuries and then there was talk of hundreds of thousands. He walked away from a shrinking pile of money into the booby-trapped netherworld of N.F.L. retirement.

While casting about as a motivational speaker, Harvey struck up a friendship with Allen Herbert, a fellow congregant at Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly, Va. Herbert, a consultant who studied aerospace engineering in college, encouraged him to consider the outer reaches of the tourism business.

In recent years, the space industry has turned increasingly to private sources of finance and inspiration. The Office of Commercial Space Transportation, a unit of the Federal Aviation Administration, has started licensing businesses for suborbital flights. One company, Virgin Galactic, has collected more than $25 million in deposits from about 250 prospective passengers.

Seeking his own role with some degree of skepticism, Harvey met with Eric Anderson, the president of Space Adventures, a private company in Vienna, Va., that has delivered six paying customers to the International Space Station.

“I’ve always been protective,” Harvey said, “because everyone’s always trying to use players.”

Anderson, whose company also operates suborbital flights providing five minutes of weightlessness for $5,000, said in an interview that a Float Ball league would require a couple of decades of significant reductions in the cost of space travel. In the meantime, he said, thinking big can hardly hurt, least of all when the big thinker is a famous football player.

“Ken is a friend, and someone who has the ability to make things happen,” Anderson said. “It just helps get people excited about space.”

In the end, Harvey’s inner Star Trek fan guided him away from the steakhouses and car dealerships of traditional N.F.L. retirement. Taking Herbert as a business partner, he set to work developing a futuristic movie, promoting envisioned athletic offshoots of extraterrestrial tourism and designing Float Ball. He has been invited to address the Global Space Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi next month.

Upon arrival here at the space flight center, on an invitation from the National Society of Black Engineers, Harvey excited a stir of autograph seekers in the security checkpoint.

Inside the campus, a collection of low-slung brick buildings dating to the 1950s, he was escorted on a tour of communications centers stranded in time, working rooms behind glass replete with mainframe computers, heavy phones and framed portraits of astronauts. The only thing missing seemed to be sweaty guys in thin neckties leaning over smoldering ashtrays. His guides spoke of long-ago flush times for space exploration in the cold war.

“You had somebody to compete against,” Harvey said, “like Redskins against Cowboys.”

When the time came for his presentation, Harvey descended the steps of a flag-decked auditorium. Stocky and bald-shaven, dressed in a patterned tie, gray suit, brown loafers and interlocking silver bracelets, he stood before a projection screen that displayed grainy images of the SpaceLab scientists performing gymnastic routines.

His audience, about 40 NASA specialists, fell silent. Harvey ran through a series of slides covering the troubled economy, the promise of space tourism, citations of sports in the work of science fiction novelists and precedent-setting events like Alan Shepard’s lunar golf shot. He cracked jokes, digressed liberally and quickly won over the group.

“You may say, what the heck is all this?” Harvey told his audience. “You’re talking about sports and entertainment complexes on the moon.”

Advanced concepts like the Float Ball league, he argued, would develop in time from astronaut fitness programs, virtual reality games, zero-gravity flights and educational efforts designed to instill post-space age children with new interstellar dreams.

“Sometimes,” he said, “it doesn’t happen in your generation, but you plan to see it in the next generation.”

Then the NASA employees quizzed Harvey on his strategy for making money from space sports, a goal that has largely eluded him so far. From the fifth row, Rosalyn Nelson, a thermal blanket technician, asked how the general public could afford games like Float Ball.

“Great, great, great question,” Harvey said. “Next, please.”

40 Spine-Chilling Horror Photoshop Effects

psdtuts.com — It's that special time of year where we revel all things dark and creepy. To celebrate, we've collected 40 Photoshop techniques and effects to help you add a splash of macabre to your work. From twisted horror faces to ghosts, damned souls and zombies, you'll find it all here.


1. Mongrel Horror Face

2. Dark Eyes

3. 'The Ring' Corpse Blue Effect

4. Cannibal Clown

Awesome tennis shots & tricks



Check out our TOP 7 selection of best tennis shots

Bourtange: Awesome Star Fort in the Netherlands

http://i37.tinypic.com/15wi8tv.jpg

Bourtange is a star fort and village in the Westerwolde region of the Dutch province of Groningen. A star fort or trace italienne is a fortification in the style that evolved during the age of black powder, when cannons came to dominate the battlefield. In 2001, the town of Bourtange had 267 inhabitants.

Google maps: click here

WIKI: click here

Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners announced

By Paul Eccleston

Ten long months spent stalking the rare and elusive snow leopard in temperatures as low as -40ºC paid off for a dogged photographer.

Snowstorm leopard by Steve Winter/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Snowstorm leopard by Steve Winter/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

An image of the Himalayan big cat, silhouetted against a black sky filled with snow, won the aptly-named Steve Winter the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.

The picture captures the majestic beauty of the endangered leopard and the bitingly cold and hostile high-altitude landscape it manages to survive in.

Troublemaker by Stefano Unterthiner/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Troublemaker by Stefano Unterthiner/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Camping out on a mountainside in Hemis High Altitude National Park in northern India he used 14 remote-controlled cameras as part of his quest to find the secretive snow leopard.

"As the weather turned warmer, I moved the camera traps to higher altitudes along the trail. I put a camera in this location because it was where three trails converge," said Steve from Hoboken in New York.

He checked the camera in May 2007 more in hope than expectation to find the winning image.

Battle of the Bears by Tom Mills/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Battle of the Bears by Tom Mills/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

"I was thrilled to have finally captured the shot I had dreamed of - a wild snow leopard in its true element," he said.

An estimated 3,500-7,000 snow leopards (Uncia uncia) survive in the high-altitude regions of the Himalayas and mountains of Central Asia. A fearsome predator, it has suffered a steep decline in numbers because of poaching for its highly-prized skin and body parts.

Orcas at sunset by Nuno Sa/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Orcas at sunset by Nuno Sa/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The competition, run by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, attracted more than 32,000 entries from 82 countries.

Other winners, runners-up and commended in 17 categories, included a comical baboon with a punk-style haircut, a dramatic picture of a Whooper swan lifting off from an icy sea, a pod of orca whales on the ocean surface at sunset, and two polar bears disputing the ownership of a freshly killed seal.

Whooper lift-off by Ellen Anon/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Whooper lift-off by Ellen Anon/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

An exhibition of the winning images will be on view at the Natural History Museum from October 31 2008 - April 26 2009.

Last year the exhibition attracted almost 134,000 visitors and was later seen by more than 1m people at regional and international venues.

Clothes that Grow from Living Human Tissue

The womb

All images: Tissue Culture and Art Project

In a lab far, far away grows a tiny coat, made of living tissue and shaped into what looks like small winter-wear for a mouse. The oddity of it is, this coat is alive, or was, (it has since died) a living organism created in a lab for the sake of art. Known as Victimless Leather, this project was grown onto a polymer matrix, coated with immortalized living cells, and shaped into a stitch-less form to create a coat like shape.

The implications of such a project are limitless, but the purpose of the scientific team is to stimulate conversation, debate and discussion on the possibility of wearing ‘leather’ without killing living animals.

leather

The School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia and a team of scientists, Oran Catts, Ionat Zurr and Guy Ben-Ary, developed the project as an “art form to illuminate our human conduct with other living systems.

“… by de-constructing our cultural meaning of clothes as a second skin through art, we raise questions about our exploitation of other living beings.”

Living Ear

How society views this project and the effects of creating ‘beings’ for art, or otherwise, remains to be seen. Some may call it art, some say it’s horrendous yet some will call it science. In any context, it is still thought-provoking.

Other Tissue Projects:
• The Disembodied Cuisine: attempting to grow sheep or frog skeletal muscle over bio-polymer for food
• The Flying Pig: attempting to grow wings on a pig
• The Extra Ear 1/4 Scale: attempting to show recognizable living body parts as an art form
• The Living Doll: attempting to make partially living worry dolls

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4