Ah Japan, I love how you find a bandwagon, add something odd and unrelated, and then jump on it.  Who knew that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader could have repaired their familial rift it they just sat down for a nice tuna sandwich with a side of tuna salad?  Maybe they put something very special in their mayonaise ^^;;;

At the very end, after C3PO disrupts the (bow-initiated) duel, the narrator says “Peace can be found in this deliciousness.”  Maybe they should think about serving this at the COP meetings!

~MS the Hungry-for-a-tuna-sandwich

PS:  Don’t forget to take a good look at C3PO at the very end of the video – I didn’t realize that robots had panty lines or boobs XDDD

Hey all!  Sorry for the exceedingly long break in posting!!!  Hope Dad’s been keeping you entertained while I’ve been away ~_^  Where did I disappear to, you might ask… winter vacation featured another jaunt past the equator into the land of meat, meat, meat, a little sun, and more meat!  In other words, Australia!  We saw lots of wildlife while there…

Ok, so I didn’t see much of this kind of Australian wildlife ^^;;;  This is about as close to meeting a hot Aussie boy as I got:

This kangaroo was veeeeeeeery friendly.  I guess that old adage “quickest way to the heart is through the stomach” is true for all species.  I wouldn’t want to date someone who wanted me only for my alfalfa anyway ^^;;;

Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning is celebrating its 50th anniversary, a dubious celebration of this ubiquitous, useful and habit forming product.  C’mon now, have you ever tried to pop just one?  It’s as addictive as pistachios!   Believe it or not, January 25th marked the 10th Annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

Ever wonder how they make the stuff?

According to Fastpack Packaging Inc., Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning:

…starts as polyethylene (plastic) resin, in the form of beads about the size of pea gravel. The beads go into an extruder – a long cylinder with a screw inside that runs its entire length. As the screw is turned, heat builds up and the resin melts into a liquid that is squeezed out of the cylinder into two stacked sheets of clear plastic film. One layer of the film is wrapped around a drum with holes punched in it, and suction is applied drawing one web of film into the holes that form the bubbles. The second layer of film is then laminated over the first so that when the two films are joined, they stick together and trap the air in the bubbles.

What better way to celebrate than with a bubble wrap cake? This image is from the website of the Sealed Air Corporation, a leading global innovator and manufacturer of a wide range of packaging and performance-based materials and equipment systems, including Bubble Wrap®, that now serve an array of food, industrial, medical, and consumer applications.

According to Sealed Air (I love that name), the Bubble Wrap® brand

…has transcended its intended use of protecting valuables to become a “pop” culture phenomenon.  Bubble Wrap® cushioning is most recognized for the satisfying release and gleeful joy that comes with the popping of each plastic cell. In addition, Bubble Wrap® cushioning has been used as a medium for creating works of art, as a fashion statement and as a central prop piece to movies and commercials.

Artist Marshall Dines uses acrylic paints on bubble wrap to create portraits:

ThreadBanger gives us the bubble wrap dress: 

pop * pop * pop * pop * pop!

Apparently in China chocolate is not as popular as it is in Western countries.  But will a chocolate Great Wall change things?

According to NPR:

It’s a massive and delicious marketing ploy that’s part of an attraction at the World Chocolate Wonderland trade show opening later this month in Beijing. Chocolatiers hope to boost the confection’s popularity in China, where it is seen mostly as a treat for children. The 33-foot-long wall is made of dark chocolate bricks with white chocolate mortar — lined with 560 tiny chocolate replicas of the Terra-Cotta Warriors.

Check out these images of the Chinese Chocolate Wonderland.

The chocolate theme park will show creations such as the Great Wall, the Dunhuang Caves and Terracotta Warriors when it opens to the public on January 29th.

Image via Yahoo! News.

Some landscapes

2009 proved to be another good year for MadSilence.  November was our busiest month ever with 25,284 views.  Week 46 of 2009 (November 8th to the 14th) witnessed 6,829 views.  Our busiest day: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, with 1,199 views.  Thanks to all our visitors, viewers and MadFriends.

2009 also provided a plethora of interesting sites for us to visit.  Here are profiles of just a few.  So much to experience on the World Wide Web and so little time to do it…

Check out the delightful graphics of San Francisco Art & Design Lover.  The “Anatomical red Heart plush” sets the theme for MadSilence in 2010…we plan to feature a lot of amazing textile art.

Six Orange Carrots is cutesy & fun, dedicated to “my very small chicken named Pocket. And the very silly things I fall in love with on eBay.” The “art of the hitch-y tchotchke” made us big fans of tin toy collectibles.

And speaking of tin toy collectibles, the blog The Invisible Agent continues to engage & astound, introducing us to Replogle Globes and vintage Children’s Tin Globe Toys.

Garden History Girl addresses an unusual topic, the history of the garden.  Garden history “…is in fact a serious and scholarly ‘field’ of study; [...] much like architectural history, only about landscapes instead of buildings.  [...] gardens were–are–so much more than just a pretty place.  So much more than just a collection of plants.  I hope to share what, and why, with this blog.”  Check out the Garden of Caterpillars.

For those of us who love landscapes there is Some landscapes, a site that “concerns landscapes evoked, depicted or transformed in the arts: painting, literature, music, film, etc. It also discusses the creation or alteration of landscapes by architects, artists and garden designers.”  We’ve always been great fans of landscape art.

Finally, there’s Found in Mom’s Basement, a site dedicated to “Vintage advertising — found in my mother’s basement, flea markets and various corners of the Internet — dusted off and displayed for your viewing pleasure.”  Be sure to view the Soviet-era holiday cards.

Be sure to visit these sites, you’ll be glad you did, and tell them that “MadSilence sent me!”

Thanks to BusinessWeek.com, here are images of the Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years:

Also, The 25 Coolest Sneaker Designs of 2009:

The DailyMail gives us The Ridiculous Shoe as Art:

Men's V-Neck Sweater from World War II via the American Red Cross

During World War I and again during World War II, the American Red Cross launched nationwide, volunteer-driven knitting campaigns to supply soldiers and war refugees with warm clothing.  These volunteer knitters belonged to a Red Cross unit called the Production Corps that also produced bandages and sewn garments (such as pajamas) for veterans and civilian hospitals.

Military knitting patterns were designed to be compatible with soldiers’ and sailors’ uniforms and were required to be knitted in olive drab or navy blue. Production Corps volunteers would also knit from patterns designed for convalescing soldiers, such as the “Walking Cast Toe Sock,” the “Cap for the Bandaged Head” and the “Man’s Coat Sweater.”

Check out the selection of World War II-era knitting patterns from the archives of the American Red Cross and “knit your bit.”

Of course, the practice of “charity knitting” is still very much alive.  Betty Christiansen, in her book, Knitting for peace: make the world a better place one stitch at a time, discussed the history of knitting for charity.  The book was recently profiled on the WordPress blog, Blogging for a Good Book:

This book is a great blend of knitting writing, patterns, and personal narrative. Christiansen begins by exploring the historical nature of charity knitting, and highlights the Red Cross’s “Knit your Bit” program. After introducing the various modern charity projects, usually with some words from the organizers themselves, Christiansen provides fifteen patterns; most are specially designed to the donation specifications of the charities featured. These include a vest pattern for Afghans for Afghans (a program that provides hand-knitted wool items for warmth to Afghani orphanages, clinics, and children’s centers); a blanket pattern for Project Linus (which provides comfort blankets to critically ill and traumatized children); and a teddy bear pattern for the Mother Bear Project (which provides hand-knitted teddy bears to children orphaned by or infected with HIV/AIDS).

The Spartanburg Knitting Guild recently send over 100 hats, socks, neck gators and scarves to the soldiers in Iraq.

What a wonderful project and very much a labor of love.  Think of the creative energy these knitters pour into their creations, such energy and beauty to be shared with the recipients.  I’ve donated money and purchased phone cards to send to American troops in Iraq, but never had the courage nor the skill to offer such an intimate gift.

On Christmas morning I’m filled with a sense of hope, a promise of good things to come.  The days grow longer, the promise of the new year beckons, the fears and apprehensions of the old year fall away.  I’m reminded of the words of Pope John Paul II:

Be Not Afraid! Open up, no; swing wide the gates to Christ. Open up to his saving power the confines of the State, open up economic and political systems, the vast empires of culture, civilization and development…. Be not afraid!

And the words of Charles Dickens:

But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

Wishing all of our readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and all the best in the new year.

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Last year we highlighted some unusual Christmas trees.  This year, Arkady gives us One Hundred Christmas Trees for the holiday, as well as two other interesting blogs:  Airy Disc (Intersections between Art and Science) and Garden History Girl Gardens (Now and Then).

Here’s one of my favorite holiday displays: the Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche

And let’s not forget the Origami Tree at the American Museum of Natural History:

Origami Tree

Related MadSilence posts:

Virtual Advent Calendars for Christmas 2009!
Have a Lego Christmas!
Virtual Advent Calendars!

Sweet Potato Boats Recipe

A sweet, healthy, delicious treat!  Try something new for your Christmas dessert selection ^^

Sweet Potato Boats - the finished product!

Ingredients:

• 450g (about 2) Japanese Sweet Potatoes
• 30g (~2T) butter
• 2 eggs yolks
• 60g (~5T) granulated sugar
• 4 T milk
• a little water
• Optional:  cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Mr. T says "I pity the fool who doesn't hand mash their taters!"

Directions:

1. Peel and cut up the sweet potatoes.  Put them in a pot and cover with water (quickly!  Japanese sweet potatoes go brown much faster than the American ones).
2. Boil until tender.
3. Drain well, put back in the pot, and mash.
4. Add butter, milk, sugar and mix well.  Add spices if you’d like.  If your potatoes weren’t dried out by the residual heat in the cooking pot, put them over low heat and stir until they’re almost dry.
5. Cool and add egg yolk.  Mix well.
6. Shape tablespoons of potato like a canoe and put on cookie sheet.  They don’t really change shape while baking so don’t worry about putting them close together.
7. Mix the second yolk and a little water together.  Paint over the top of the boats (if you don’t have a pastry brush, use your fingers like me ^^).  Sprinkle with cinnamon.
8. Bake for 20 minutes at 180C/350F.

On with the egg and cinnamon!

Notes:

Japanese sweet potatoes are really, really sweet.  I couldn’t put in all the sugar… I’d suggest adding half the sugar to the mashed potatoes and tasting before adding the rest.  I’m sure these would be interesting with a more American twist, like sweetening with maple sugar or adding other spices!  Also, Japanese sweet potatoes are much drier and less… mushy?… than American ones, so you might get a different result with American sweet potatoes.

~MS the HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

PS:  IshikawaAJET blog has an interesting pumpkin (kabocha) cookie recipe, go check it out!

“I read Playboy for the articles”:  Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences

Source: Harvard Business School Working Papers

We want others to find us good, fair, responsible and logical; and we place even more importance on thinking of ourselves this way. Therefore, when people behave in ways that might appear selfish, prejudiced, or perverted, they tend to engage a host of strategies designed to justify questionable behavior with rational excuses: “I hired my son because he’s more qualified.” “I promoted Ashley because she does a better job than Aisha.” Or, “I read Playboy for the articles.” In this chapter from a forthcoming book, HBS doctoral student Zoë Chance and professor Michael I. Norton describe various means of coping with one’s own questionable behavior: through preemptive actions and concurrent strategies for re-framing uncomfortable situations, forgoing decisions, and forgetting those decisions altogether. Key concepts include:

• Because people do not want to be perceived as (or feel) unethical or immoral, they make excuses for their shameful behavior—even to themselves.

• People cope with their own questionable actions in a number of ways, from forgoing certain experiences to rationalizing, justifying, and forgetting—a remarkable range of strategies allowing them to maintain a clear conscience even under dubious circumstances.

Via DocuTicker