The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.

[Via Boing Boing] Here’s a page from the 1906 schoolbook New Complete Geography showing a number of various “races” and what they look like.

Note the inclusion of “Philippino” — probably included because the Philippines was an American protectorate at the time (one of the by-products of which was my great-grandfather, one James O’Hara, born near Dayton, Ohio). I thought I’d run the image of my kababayan (countryman) from the book side-by-side with my own smiling mug, just for kicks:

Should I swap my goatee for that splendiferous handlebar moustache from the illustration?

For your nerdy enjoyment: a set of stills taken from Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, in glorious 1080p. Click the photo below to see it in its full high-def glory:

Click the photo to see it at full size (it’s huge — 1.7MB!)
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

I’m turning a couple of these into my desktop background images.

The use of computers as assistive devices for romantic encounters isn’t new: from the “computer dating gone terribly wrong” plotline used by some ’60s and ’70s sitcoms to SolveDating.com (has its developer, who had not yet been kissed at the age of 33 back in 2004, “gotten anywhere” yet?) the likes of LavaLife and eHarmony, we’ve had a handful of dating generations’ worth of software approaches. However, there wasn’t much in the way of romance-assistive computer hardware save for possibly impressing potential soulmates with your Guitar Hero or Rock Band skills. (And no, I don’t count sex-toy peripherals or “teledildonics” — I’m talking romance, not rumpy-pumpy.)

That’s changed, thanks to the USB Aroma Radio + Speaker, a US$30 device that boasts the following features:

• Radio (for mood music)
• Speaker (if you’d rather play the “shag tunes” playlist on your computer)
• Mood lighting (in 7 colours!)
• A scented oil warmer

Of course, how you lure that special someone into your place/cubicle/airport bathroom stall so you can actually use the USB Aroma Radio + Speaker to set the mood is up to you.

Photo-montage courtesy of Gizmodo.

[Found via Gizmodo; this article was also posted on Global Nerdy.]

Back in the 80’s, the Rambo series of movies was considered to be yardstick against which other action movies were compared for sheer hellzapoppin’ action. As the table below from the New York Times Magazine shows, the latest Rambo movie turns up the heat:

Click the picture to see it at full size.
Scan courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

I still suspect that the body count is still much higher when I play Crackdown on the XBox 360, and better still, I’m the star!