Vienna le Rouge, originally uploaded by elaisted.

Vienna le Rouge, a noted burlesque performer and maker of fine corsets. Photo by Kevin Hundsnurscher.

My cousin Paul and his wife Nora just gave birth to an adorable baby girl. On our own Georgene’s recommendation, I am considering buying them a set of these adorable cephalopod jammies. I will put all your names on the card. Cthulhu too cute.

Stuck on You Octopus Costume for Babies [Babystyle]

Midgets Palace, originally uploaded by the owls go.

The Midget Palace: once the royal residence of the “King and Queen of All Midgets” and their son, “The Only Child Born to Midgets” (who was normally sized), now a gay bath house promoting sausage-filled saunas for Montreal men.

The Midget Palace [Flickr] : Boing Boing (who are cautiously tip-toeing around the potentially explosive political incorrectness by pretending not to think this is hysterical)

Gerald began — but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them ‘permanently’ meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash — to pee.

I can think of several less interesting opening sentences that grace the first page of many New York Times Bestsellers. In fact, as far as getting me interested in reading more, that first sentence is a real winner.

But the Bulwer-Lytton Award has always been pretty silly. “It was a dark and stormy night,” is a fine opening sentence: it never would have passed into cliche if it wasn’t.

Wis. man gets top prize for bad prose [Yahoo News] : Thanks Dad

The Neurophilosophy blog has posted a fascinating, concise and extremely moving write-up of the history of the prefrontal lobotomy. It’s utterly riveting, but the below quote — written by a boy who was given a lobotomy to curb his defiant behavior to his step-mother — is heart-shakingly poignant:

My stepmother hated me. I never understood why, but it was clear she’d do anything to get rid of me…If you saw me you’d never know I’d had a lobotomy.

The only thing you’d notice is that I’m very tall and weigh about 350 pounds. But I’ve always felt different - wondered if something’s missing from my soul. I have no memory of the operation, and never had the courage to ask my family about it.

So [recently] I set out on a journey to learn everything I could about my lobotomy…It took me years to get my life together. Through it all I’ve been haunted by questions: ‘Did I do something to deserve this?, Can I ever be normal?’, and, most of all, ‘Why did my dad let this happen?’

The Rise and Fall of the Prefrontal Lobotomy [Neurophilosophy] : Hugo Strikes Back! : Boing Boing : Mind Hacks

You might remember the clip we posted a while back of the 1500 prisoners of Philippines’ Cebu prison rehearsing their version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Or, at least, you should… it was only one of the best things we ever posted, inspiring an entire horde of nut-brown Filipino Internet enthusiasts to descend upon Ectomo and regale us with pidgin praise.

But it was worth attention: not only was it awesome, it was an excellent example of how prisoners can be rehabilitate through ebullient fun.

I have to plot this next sentence carefully, because I can still scarcely believe it: racist, Jew-hating, terrorist-supporting television network Al Jazeera, of all people, have filed an excellent report on the Cebu Prison’s Dance Program. It’s unbelievable: if not for the call sign, you’d never guess that this wasn’t done for CNN. A truly excellent look at the progressive genius of some of Cebu Prison’s rehabilitation officers.

Behind the Philippine ‘Thriller’ video - 29 July 07 [YouTube]

An Israeli Design Student’s Graduation Project: animating Tom Waits’ “Starving in the Belly of the Whale.” I love Tom Waits: I often wish I’d gargled Clorox before launching into a singing career.

Starving in the Belly of a Whale [Artist’s Site]

Transposed in a shaft of sunlight, a translucent-skinned sylph walks out of the forest to tread, goddess-like, upon the table of some apathetic picnickers. Perhaps I’m a sucker for overexposed black-and-white shots, but this photograph is unforgettable. The photograph is by Sally Mann.

The Perfect Tomato [Guggenheim] : Hugo Strikes Back! : MCSG SYM

Shivraj Giri #2, Varanasi. India 2007, originally uploaded by fredcan.

Shivraj Giri is a very charismatic naga sadhu i spent some time with in Varanasi in February 2007. Here, taking a little chai (tea) break. Indian pilgrims would sometimes wait in line in front of him to receive his darshan (blessing), making him a very popular and busy man in Varanasi.

When not on the pilgrimage routes, Shivaraj Giri lives away from the chaos of the world, just outside a tiny village in Madhya-Pradesh (central India), where his desciples and villagers regularly go and pay him respectful visits.

Sahus are yoga practitioners who renounced all material except for blue body paint and wicked awesome dreads in order to elevate their spirit to a higher plateau.

A gorgeously animated and lushly gothic adaptation by UPA of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-tale Heart. The narration is by Humbert Humbert himself, Mr. James Mason: the adaptation was done by Bill Scott, the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose.

Tell Tale Heart Animation [YouTube]

Another fine masterpiece of consecutive non-linear art by the fabled Al Hartley, Christian comics pioneer and author of “The Cross and the Switchblade.” The lesson is stark and simple: ignore your Bible and watch in horror as Hitler rises to power, gets his ass-kicked by gum-chewing American gangster, then leaves you as prey to roving Communist rape gangs.

Hansi, the girl who loved the Swastika [Scribd.com]

Before I stumbled upon grupthink to check out an enigmatically promising link titled “The worst tattoo you have ever seen,” I was unaware how many fat, hairy people out there had enthusiastically goatse.cxed their navels, or otherwise transformed them into gigantic, cavernous anuses.

Worst tattoo you have ever seen [Grupthink]

I’d love to get my MacBook Pro modded like this.

Clockwork Powerbook [Mac Mod]

Arnold Schwarzennegger’s famous speech from the homoerotic masterpiece Pumping Iron, in which he compares lifting weights to ejaculating. He seems to like the way the word “coming” sensuously rolls over his tongue, so then he says it over and over and over again, his eyes become more frantic with each repeated phoneme.

Thirty years later, this guy’s a Governor, and I don’t want anyone to think for a second I don’t approve, or approve only snarkily. An ape-like foreigner with a thick Austrian accent who is obsessed with ejaculation becoming, within three decades, one of the leaders of the country? That’s the American dream.

Incidentally, you might want to sit back from your screen, lest one of Arnold’s bulging veins rip out of his skin and — whipping around like an out-of-control fire hose — take out your eye.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Coming” speech from Pumping Iron [PoETV]

Badamsinh Juwansinh Gurjar holds the world record for moustache growing with a pair measured together at 12.5 feet. He has not cut his moustache in over 22 years. The moustache is relatively unstylish, unsmeared as it is with moustache goop, but you need to realize that a moustache of this size could not form handlebars without several drums of caulobacter cescentus applied to it daily.

Longest moustache ever in the world [Lunatic Marks] : ectotweeted by Ross R.