When I say that we’re living in a society where almost everything is ugly like shit — you can see this especially with cars designed in the last 10-15 years, and not only SUVs –, what I mean is that the “sense of beauty” is determined by this kind of design:

ssbad1ssbad2ssbad3ssbad4

This is what most people buy and wear — or at least this is what they see on streets –, and this is corrupting their common sense. Why don’t they buy “classic” models instead, which are still available? Say:

ssgood1ssgood2ssgood3ssgood4

While decent-looking sport shoes are still available, decent-looking cars are not. Shitty, ugly cars — this is what one can buy; but their designers must find them “beautiful”.

Houtong Cat Village is a very interesting place in Taiwan — that is, full of cats. There is actually a story of how a few dozen cats managed to save an entire community in 2008 after coal extraction ceased in the 1970s.

As a bonus to the aforementioned two articles, I’ve added a few photos taken in Houtong by copycatko:

copycatko1 Read more

■ First table: some popular phones, as reviewed and testet by notebookcheck.net – the header is self-explanatory with regards to the usage scenarios. I don’t understand the first one (if the phone is idle, the screen should be black, not at minimum brightness), but I value the 2nd one very much – surfing the web while on Wi-Fi. Read more

Why iOS7 is ugly

Categories: Idiocy
Comments: No

So this is iOS7:

ios7_1

And it’s ugly like shit.

It’s not just the icons (photo: Alex Washburn / Wired): Read more

Yes, it is. And yes, if you care about how it looks, you must add (with simple quotes, not these fancy ones):

<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no”>

and no less, regardless of what some people say.

But my blog doesn’t look as expected on smartphones. This responsive theme adjust the layout, so that the top navigation menu shows as rectangular blocks for screen widths of 768px or more, and only degrades into a dropdown menu for smaller screen. However, even on smartphones having 800px or more (say, in landscape), it looks like this: Read more

Is it me, or there is indeed a trend in designing ugly car rear lights? 2013 rectangular-ish collection:

2013 VW Polo BlueGT:

2013_vw_polo_blue_gt2013_vw_polo_blue_gt_bis

2013 Dacia Logan and Sandero:

2013_logan2013_sandero

2013 Fiat 500L Trekking: Read more

1942. Uzinele Renault de la Boulogne-Billancourt lansează un atac nerușinat asupra glorioasei Royal Air Force. Cel puțin așa credea Virginia Carianopol în 1999:

WP_000209

Parmi les autres produits interdits par les connards contemporains, un produit qui était très efficace contre la transpiration des pieds (bromhidrose, hyperhydrose localisée): l’Ephydol “classique”, celui qu’on a retiré du marché soit le 09/10/2007, soit le 05/07/2010, selon la source.

Son problème? (À part l’efficacité exemplaire.) Son contenu en formol (formaldéhyde). En effet, en voici la formule originale: Read more

Înțeleg să interzici substanțele nootrope și psihostimulante care pot da dependență sau au efecte adverse deosebit de periculoase, dar cu meclofenoxatul ce-au avut? În anii ’60-’70, francezii îi ziceau Lucidril, iar în anii ’80, se găsea la liber în România socialistă. Era bun când învățai pentru un examen, ceva, te ținea treaz. Avea 100 mg, și cred că mergeau până la 6 pe zi. Era ieftin.

În „civilizația contemporană”, nici o companie farmaceutică mainstream nu-l mai fabrică. Nostalgicii sau nespălații pe creier care-l doresc se văd obligați să-l comande de pe Internet de la fabricanți de suplimente alimentare. De pildă așa: Read more

Aproape singurul produs românesc (din cele care încă mai sunt „de pe vremuri, ca pe vremuri”) căruia o să-i duc dorul atunci când va dispărea. Apa de gură Ossidenta „clasică”. Atenție, nu pișaturile astea îndulcite „cu aromă de cireșe” sau de mentă, ci adevărata Ossidenta, cea care se diluează (iar soluția diluată se tulbură într-un mod specific), care este astringentă și care conține printre altele fenicul.

Adică asta: Read more