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Accordion Guy Advent Calendar, Day Nine: Thousands of Weird Images from the "Universe People"

Photo: Figurine of Santa playing the accordion.

If you’re looking for new background images for your computer desktop,

need to spice up your dorm room or cubicle with wacky posters or are

looking for off-the-wall Christmas or Chanukah gift wrapping paper, the

Universe People website is a gold mine waiting to be tapped!

The Universe People site opens with something that I’ve heard only at

the Apple Store and that International House of Pancakes in San

Francisco’s SOMA district with the overly-cheeful staff: “WE LOVE YOU

AND HELP YOU OUT”. They warn you that “They” — meaning governments and

big business — “want to replace your spiritual heart by calculator!”

As far as I can tell, the Universe People are a wacky UFO-meets-Jesus

cult based in the Czech Republic. The text of the site, a mishmash of

Heaven’s Gate-ish sci-fi religion written in poorly-translated English,

makes hours for unintentionally hilarious reading. However, the site’s

true gem is its collection of images, of which there are thousands. For

example, take a gander at this image of Jesus in a style approaching

that of Maragret Keane’s “sad-eyed children” paintings:

Better still is this diagram of “Transcendental Action of Helpful

Energies from Heaven and Hell on the Planet Earth”, shown below. You

can click the image to see it at full size.

Click the image to see it at full size.

I really love that “Informatic-Analyst” bit at the bottom

(“informatics” is a term often used outside North America to refer to

what we call “computer science”). Let’s take a closer look:

Click the image to see it at full size.

You know, that looks like a lot of dot-com business models.

Thousands of other equally-strange images are available for

download from their images site. Be sure to browse this freaky gallery

where you can find this painting, which makes me want to go buy a van

right now so I can have it airbrushed just like so:

Damn, I wish I could’ve used that image for our wedding invitations!

Being a UFO-Jesus cult, they have no shortage of pictures of flying saucers:

or ships that look just like the “whalesong” vessel from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:

The Universe People’s site should give you lots of fun browsing during

the downtime of the Christmas season. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah,

and KLAATU BARATO NIKTO!

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It Happened to Me

Random Photo, Just for Kicks

Even while at Kickass Karaoke, I’m still takin’ care of bidniss!

The article on the front page of that section — Tucows Milking the Internet, featuring a photo of our CEO — is mentioned in this entry. Thanks to Eldon Brown for providing me with the paper!

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Last Day to Vote

Graphic: 2005 Canadian Blog Awards button. Today is the last day to vote for “Best Blog” in the 2005 Canadian Blog Awards — at midnight tonight, the polls will close. Please cast your vote for Accordion Guy!

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It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Snow Day

Last night’s snowfall has some very pretty after-effects, so I took a

little time to take some pictures around the neighbourhood before

hopping on the train to work. I’ve gathered them into a small

collection which you can view in album or slideshow format. I’ve got a couple of samples below:

Bloor Street, looking east between Quebec and High Park Avenues. Click the picture to see it at full size.

The entranceway to High Park. Click the picture to see it at full size.

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It Happened to Me

There’s a Back Story Here…

Seen this morning on the eastbound platform of High Park subway

station: a discarded day-old boutonniere sitting on top of a pay phone.

I’ve seen enough dates to semi-formal school dances gone wrong — many

of them my own — to imagine scenarios that would’ve led to this:

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Heh. I’m "Sensible and Shrewd". Mom would be proud.

From Lesson X — “Races of Man” — of Mrs. M.B. Moore’s book, The Geographical Reader for the Dixie Children:

The men who inhabit the globe, are not all alike. Those in Europe and

America are mostly white and are called the Caucasian race. This race is civilized, and

is far above the others. They have schools and churches and live in fine style. They

also generally have wise and good men for rulers, and a regular form of government. The

women are treated with respect and tenderness, and in many cases their wish is law among

their male friends.

There is a class of people who inhabit most of Asia which is of a yellow color. They

are a quiet, plodding race, but when educated are sensible and shrewd. They

have some books, and a regular form of government, but they are heathen; I mean

by this that they worship images made of wood and stone. They do not know about

Jesus. And yet they pray to those idols much oftener than we christians do to our

Savior. This race is called the Mongolion. Missionaries have

been sent to teach them

about Jesus. When they every become converted, they hold fast their profession, and

are not fickle like some races.

The African or negro race is found in Africa. They are slothful and vicious, but

possess little cunning. They are very cruel to each other, and when they have want they

sell their prisoners to the white people for slaves. They know nothing of Jesus, and the

climate in Africa is so unhealthy that white men can scarcely go there to preach to them.

The slaves who are found in America are in much better condition. They are better fed,

better clothed, and better instructed than in their native country.

I must say, it reads rather like Steve Sailer’s site in places.

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In the News It Happened to Me

Which Canadian Election Candidate Matches You?

Joi Ito, in his IRC channel, #joiito, pointed to this CBC test that attempts to determine which Canadian federal election candidate aligns most closely with you.

It presents the four major political parties’ positions on twelve

issues, but the identities removed. In the quiz, you select “agree” or

“disagree” on each point, and at the end, each candidate is listed,

along with the points on which you agree and disgree with him.

How’d it work out for me? Pure centrist: the candidates with whom I agreed most were the Conservatives’ Stephen Harper (12 issues) and the NDP’s Jack Layton (12 issues).