I do believe your notion of an "independent movie" is a bit skewed.



ETA: I just voted for 500 Days of Summer and then clicked "other" and wrote, "most of these aren't independent."

I would like to see a shoe with a heel that goes to infinity. I don't think I'd want to wear it, but I want to see it.

I just rewatched "The Wheel" and highly recommend that anyone who owns the first season DVDs do the same and then immediately rewatch this:



It was brilliant the first time, but directly after "The Wheel" it's amazing. I need icons of "Sal" saying, "Who, me?" and of almost everyone (including Peggy but not "Sal") watching "Joan" walk away.

Also NO ONE SPOIL ME ON THE PREMIERE UNTIL AFTER MIDNIGHT. I got home too late yesterday, and it's not OnDemand or on the AMC website; my only chance is tonight's 11pm rerun.

Stoned wallabies make crop circles

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The mystery of crop circles in poppy fields in Australia's southern island state of Tasmania has been solved -- stoned wallabies are eating the poppy heads and hopping around in circles.

"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," the state's top lawmaker Lara Giddings told local media on Thursday.

"Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," she said.

Many people believe crop circles that mysteriously appear in fields around the world are created by aliens.

Poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids said livestock which ate the poppies were known to "act weird" -- including deer and sheep in the state's highlands.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," said field operations manager Rick Rockliff.

Australia produces about 50 percent of the world's raw material for morphine and related opiates.

from here

Someone at Jones New York Shoes watches too much The Office and reads too much Harry Potter.

Dunder Boot
Mifflin Metallic or Reptile T Strap Sandal
Krasinski Stretch Boot
Beesley Suede and Patent Oxford
Shrute Leather Wedge Sandal

Hedwig Leather Sandal
Granger Grommet Leather Sandal
Severus Leather Thong (lol, wrong mental image.)
Nagrid Leather Slide (was that a typo in the naming?)
Lupin Leather Bootie
Privet Leather Ankle Boot
Gringot Woven Flat
Diggory T Strap Sandal
Lovegood Colorblock Sandal
Krabbe Leather Sandal
Goyle 3 Jeweled Thong
Kreacher Leather Pump
Expecto Leather Ankle Boot
Accio Leather Slide

As Steph said, it's hilarious that a "real-life, grown-up" shoe company is using ridiculous names like this...it wouldn't be nearly as funny if it was a more youth-oriented brand like H&M.

Spiders Getting Bigger -- Global Warming to Blame?
Matt Kaplan
for National Geographic News
May 5, 2009
As if global warming isn't giving us enough to worry about, now scientists say it could lead to bigger—and possibly more—spiders of at least one species.

A group of Danish scientists wondered whether global warming would make the hairy, meat-eating wolf spiders of northeastern Greenland bigger, since longer summers mean more hunting time. The little-known species, Pardosa glacialis, grows as long as 1.6 inches (four centimeters), study co-author Toke Høye of Aarhus University estimates.

The spiders can live for at least two years, and the researchers found that, in years when spring came early, the animals grew larger, on average.

For example, when spring came 30 days earlier than usual, some spiders grew exoskeletons that were 10 percent thicker than average, resulting in bigger bodies overall.

Likewise, in colder years average exoskeleton thickness shrank.

At the end of the ten-year study, average exoskeleton thickness averaged 0.104 inch (2.65 millimeters), a 2 percent increase over the 0.102 inch (2.6 millimeters) commonly found in the early years of the study—a big difference to see in just a ten year period, according to the researchers.

Warmer temperatures also seem to be giving the females of the species a size advantage over males, the new study suggests.

Pardosa glacialis females tend to be only slightly bigger than males—as was the case in 1997, when the spring thaw came 160 days into the year. But in 2005, for example, when the thaw occurred 143 days into the year, females' exoskeletons were 2 percent bigger than males', on average.

Why warming seems to be making these spiders bigger is a mystery.

It could be that the spiders are growing larger because their prime hunting season is longer. Or perhaps longer summers allow the spiders to molt—shedding old exoskeletons—more often and thereby grow bigger during their lifetimes.

It's not known whether the wolf spiders are being born any bigger, as the study focused on adult spiders.

Nobody has any idea what effect these larger spiders will have on the local environment, Høye said.

But he's pretty sure the spiders will be not only bigger but more plentiful.

Larger adult females will probably increase spider populations, because larger females produce larger and/or more offspring Høye said.

On the bright side—at least for arachnophobes—cannibalism is common in many spider species. The practice could help keep populations in check, Høye said, especially as adults grow even bigger, making spiderlings even easier prey.

Are there any graphics-making Mac users on my flist? I need a free graphics program for Mac, preferably one that can make animated GIFs. The best I've found so far is Pixelmator, but I can't get it to save GIFs as animations. Suggestions?

It's almost midnight, so I decided to post the completed Mad Libs before Valentine's Day was over. You people have had a few hours to do it, and I've chosen my favorites before reading the story. So without further ado:

( Classic Love LetterCollapse )

Since it's Valentine's Day and I just got a Mammoth Book of Adult Mad Libs, let's play. You give me some words below, and I'll choose my favorite word suggestions and insert them into the given text. No rating restrictions; this is, after all, Adult Mad Libs. Have at it!

Beetlejuice living in the toilet bowl, waiting to grab me, and wolves that appeared on the floor around my bed at night, also lying in wait for me.