Vasili Blokhin

This guy is one of the most prolific slaughterer in the history of mankind: Vasili Blokhin was the chief executioner in Russia during the time of Stalin, and he is said to have personally executed tens of thousands of people. At the massacre of Katyn in 1940, it is said that he shot 7000 Polish prisoners of war in 28 nightly sessions, boasting an average kill-ratio of one murder per three minutes. After the reign of Stalin he purportedly sank into alcoholism and madness and killed himself in 1955.

Vasili Blokhin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Concept cars of the 1980s

Latest installment in our ongoing series about concept cars, in which we covered the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s concept cars so far. As amazing as the 1980s were regarding design, in concept car design I find most models remarkably undistinguished and generic, not at all like the seventies with all those bold ideas. There are some exceptions though, such as the above-pictured Ford Cockpit from 1981. As a plastic commuter car on three wheels it certainly looks strange but somehow cool. (By the way, a bit similar approach was chosen by the Daihatsu Trek from 1985, which is a one-seater offroad vehicle that's convertible to a sleeping cell. Neat.)

Carstyling.ru: 1981 Ford Cockpit (Ghia)


Yes, this 1986 Corvette Indy is a sleek car, as with most of these cars from the 80ies here the real show is inside the cockpit though, check out the super sophisticated spaceship consoles inside. Why don't we have car interiors like this by now?

Carstyling.ru: 1986 Chevrolet Corvette Indy


Another really futuristic vehicle. What's really cool here is that you can see the kickass engine through the tinted glass in the back. Also this car has no doors, the canopy would open and the steering wheel flip out so you can enter. Another great and functional cockpit with a ..hm radar? Missile crosshairs? I have no clue.

Carstyling.ru: 1985 Buick Wildcat


Uh la la, this one screams bad-ass for a couple of miles. Boxy, flat and edgy, it's a pretty bold design. Only one drivable vehicle was ever made.

Carstyling.ru: 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog


Ford Probe was eventually made into a regular sports car, but the design studies went some different ways: the later ones such as the IV and V had aerodynamics as a top priority and excelled in this respect.

Carstyling.ru: 1982 Ford Probe IV


If I could choose this would be my everyday vehicle to go to the supermarket. Ultra-flat, folding doors, aggressive red interior with ultra cool LED displays, GPS system (?), CD player, mega-sleek dashboard, what do you want more?

Carstyling.ru: 1984 Peugeot Quasar

Postscript: One of the most striking designs from the 1980s is the trapezoidal Citroen Karin which we've featured on the blog before.

Treme

A new show by the creators of The Wire? Count me in! Treme will premiere in April and focus on the life of New Orleans residents trying to return to ordinary after the Katrina hurricane of 2005.

Cynical-C | Trailer: Treme (from the makers of The Wire)

Google beast

Google bashing is en vogue right now, what with all the class action suits about privacy on Google Buzz, Google Maps etc. Above video is no exception-- it doesn't raise a lot of new points (we all know what a multi-tentacled octopus Google has become) but it does paint an informative allover picture.

The Presurfer: The Beast File: Google

Predators sneak preview

Here's the first footage from Robert Rodriguez' Predators movie, due out in July. While I didn't follow the franchise after the first movie (which is awesome--the sequels not so or rather not at all), this has got me at least a bit excited. Skip the stupid Hollywood cliches in the trailer ("They are evolving... they are learning... snore) and you have some visuals that are promising!

2 Minutes Of Footage From Robert Rodriguez's New Predators - Predators - io9

Blade Runner soundtrack bootlegs

There's a mind-bogging number of versions of the original Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis out there. One of the main reasons for that is that there was no official release of the OST until 1993. But that one also included some tracks not in the movie, which didn't go down so well with purist fans. Then in 2007, the 25-anniversary Trilogy edition, with more tracks from the movie on the second disc and some crappy re-interpretations on the third, was released.

In the meantime there were so many different fan-made editions that it's hard to keep track of them--the earliest one a bootleg from the year of release (1982). Some of these soundtracks cut the tracks from the film only, some combined the 1993 OST with cuts from the film, etc. etc. Actually some of them aren't bad, if you find them online, I would recommend to check out the Esper Edition and Private Edition-- these are quite good and hold up to the official releases.

Vangelis Rarities Page

World War I kids

French kids playing the war in Paris 1915. These autochrome photographs were made by a member of the Photography and Cinematography Organization of the French Army. The first photo shows a French anti-aircraft gun trying to shoot down a German Taube (pigeon) bomber -- these planes with characteristic spreaded tails and rounded wings were used to bomb Paris in the first months of the war.

The Heritage of the Great War / First World War 1914 - 1918

Lego aircraft carrier

Lego again, here someone built the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman out of Lego--to scale, I suppose.

Hemmy.net: Lego Build Of USS Harry S Truman Aircraft Carrier

Video game bosses

CollegeHumor is always good for a laugh: in this video, video game bosses from various franchises gripe with the inability of their minions to stop the single player character from reaching the end level. Pretty funny, also I recommend the related videos that show up when you finish watching the video.

The Daily What: CollegeHumor Original of the Day

Crime scene template

At first I thought this is fake, which would be neat, but it's even cooler that it appears to be real, coming from the Institute of Police webshop: a crime scene template which makes it easy to fill in all the furniture, body parts and murder weapons to your crime scene sketch.

They have more templates for air and sea crashes and also a lot of useful literature their store: Anatomy of the Collision - 3rd Edition? Check. Crisis-Hostage Negotiations - Level II (Intermediate)? Check. The Water's Edge - A Manual for the Underwater Criminal Investigator? Check check check!

IPTM Online Store - Crime Scene Template

How to make profile pictures

Honestly I usually don't like posting advertisements, but this one has a point: in this ad clip Samsung shows a few handy tips how to appear cool on profile pictures even when you're a zombie, vampire or otherwise disfigured.

Blame It On The Voices: Do not trust profile pictures!

Ekranoplan

I wanted to post about the Ekranoplan or sea skimmer for a long time, now luckily both English Russia and The Presurfer have brought up the topic, posting up pictures from the only "planeship" that was ever built, in a quite derelict state.

I prefer the original pictures from when this strange vehicle was commissioned in 1987. The Ekranoplan was larger than an airbus and could carry 6 cruise missiles. At top speed it would fly about 3 meters above water or ground, but it was a strictly sea-bound vehicle without landing gear. So i guess it was a weird mix between ship, hovercraft and plane, and after the end of the Cold War there was never a second one built.

Vincelewis.net: Russian Secret Project Exposed

5-second videos

Well, just watch this, words don't do it any justice.

Goodbye blue sky

Stark and beautiful imagery in this clip from Alan Parker's movie version of Pink Floyd's The Wall from 1982. Full of post-apocalyptic wasteland, bomber planes, crosses, blood and skulls. Extraordinary.

thisshouldntconcernyou: Pink Floyd - Goodbye... -

EOD bomb-proof suit

Very interesting piece on how the bomb-proof EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) suits as seen in the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker work. These suits are made from hi-tech materials to ensure their wearer survives the initial shockwave blast from an explosion.

Real-life Hurt Locker: how bomb-proof suits work | DVICE

World leaders' daily life

Well, how similar the lives of some of the World's leader must be! In two unrelated slideshows, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and America's president Barack Obama are seen touring facilities in their country, getting things explained. The main difference is that in Kim's case, he is described as touring to "give his personal guidance on the spot", while with Obama it's titled "Obama feigning interest in mundane things.. funny!

On the Spot with Kim Jong-il - The Big Picture - Boston.com
A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things -- Daily Intel

Jesus was a Raptor

Besides the common knowledge that Jesus must have been a pirate at least, the newer studies have shown him to be even more awful.
But if Jesus is a raptor what would that make god? A raptor in an F16????
Oh boy, nothing is holy to the internez....

The elder Lolgods awake...

Who would have thought that the elder gods from Lovecrafts dark universe would even invade the lolcats.
Can i has cheezburger made of souls?
Beware....

Movie titles

This site has instantly become my favorite web site: a huge collection of movie opening and end titles starting from the 1920 until today. And by huge I mean insane: this site must hold more than 1000 titles. By far my favorite opening screens come from the 1940s and 1950s, I just love those hand-written and stenciled look. Also, back then, nobody was afraid to heavily use drop shadows (for legibility, probably) and mix different typefaces.

Film title screen shots from 1940 - 1944 | The Movie title stills collection

Descendants

The animated short film Descendants by Heiko van der Scherm is what you call a must-see. It's a story about a rose falling in love with a deer and it has the most amazing 3D CGI animations that you will see for quite a while. This film is winning awards left and right since last year and rightfully so. Featuring the voices of Whoopi Goldberg and Christy Scott Cashman.

The Daily What: Lights Out