Dark Roasted Blend

The Eccentric Brilliance of Stan Mott

2009-12-15T18:28:00.005-08:00

"QUANTUM SHOT" #602
Link - by A. Abrams

Mind-bending images and ideas from a fabulous cartoonist and a superb illustrator

If you ever wondered what a steam locomotive racing might look like, or fantasized about driving the biggest baddest vehicle across the desert with its own supply of sharks and waterplanes, look no further - the eccentric imagination of Stan Mott might prove simply unmatched.

We'll start with the (probably) the most outrageous picture we've seen this month: "The Supertanker Chopper"! -

Super Tanker Chopper Golden Kick Stand and Dock:

It's hard to summarize Stan Mott's interests in a few words. The man is brilliant and has done some really amazing things ... like ride a go-cart around the world!! Here is an info that appeared in the "Road & Track" Magazine, June 1979:

"It's impossible to type the zany, crazy Mott (who lives on a yacht - sometimes), one of our readers' favorite cartoonists / writers and co-founder of Automobili Cyclops, the firm that rocketed to fame in its first appearance in R&T in 1957. When we asked Stan to tell us about his life, he said,

"Well, I escaped Flint, Michigan at an early age, owned 50-percent interest in a Cragar flathead A-bone roadster at 12, ran at El Mirage at 15, had first automotive cartoons published in Rosetta Timing Association's program in 1948. Went to Art Center College, developed sense of humor working in World's Greatest Rolling Clown Show (GM Styling Section). Then worked as fry cook, mercenary, airline pilot, art director of R&T, farmer, Wall Street broker, poet. Drove go kart around the world, became an Alpine guide, did freelance art work and smuggled. Helped found Automobili Cyclops SpA and hold position of propaganda minister in perpetuity. Now working philantropically to solve moral situations in Southern Mediterranian waters for the U.N."

Stan refuses to talk about his CIA work, arctic exploration or his stint as a human cannon ball."

From "The History of Tanks" (Racing Tanks, that is)

When asked by our DRB team for an update on his life, Stan adds:

"Since '79 I learned to fly gliders in Cyprus, did a "Captain Stan Show" in 1983-4 for Radio 103.2 in Mallorca, Spain, sailed the first Turkish caique across the Atlantic, roamed the Caribbean for seven years, settled here in Neuss, Germany. Also, I'm working on a 76-page graphic novel.".

According to the Top Gear Magazine (Dec 2001):

"The Captain Stan Show was a Pythonesque consciousness weird-out which must have left baffled tourists wondering if their Watney Red Barrel had been spiked."

All images and artwork are copyright Stan Mott, used by permission. You can see more at S. Berliner's wonderful archive site of Stan's artwork - click here.

Fantasy Steam Racing Locomotives

"Les 24 Heures de Choo-Choo" ("The 24 Hours of Choo-Choo" - as in Le Mans):

Other Wicked Fantasy Vehicles

Here is the personal aircraft carrier for the impossibly wealthy Oil Sheik. The Sheik is sea-sick, so the carrier rolls on the dry ground, while the seaplanes land on its deck filled with water. Some sharks were provided to keep the waters free of Russian scuba diving spies.

If you find that you're not talking as fast as usual, order a pair of diesel/olive oil-powered false teeth:

Of course, some may remember Stan Mott as the creator of "Cyclops" series of cartoons (a few "Cyclops" mini-cars were even manufactured by Automobili Cyclops SpA), which blessed the John Bond's great Road & Track Magazine with much fun and colour in the 60s. S. Berliner, III again provides an extensive coverage of this series - click here.

Don't miss Stan's tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Soviet aircraft designer Igor Sokerov. It's brimming with radical aircraft technology ideas and is a lot of fun.

And here is the man himself, surveying the terrain outside Quarzazate, Morrocco:

GM styling concept for a Segway:

Special thank you to S. Berliner, III, and s.a., of New Cafe (Racer) Society for promoting Stan's artwork and keeping the candle lit for his great talent. All images and artwork are copyright Stan Mott, used by permission.

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Link Latte 124

2009-12-08T00:16:00.003-08:00

#124 - Week of December 7, 2009

The Most Complicated Book Plot, info - [mind-boggling]
Hilarious Intruders; Making Secret Service All Jittery - [fascinating]
Interactive Portraits of the World Leaders - [photography]
A Catalog of Nautilus Designs - [wow site]
Found Magazine: it may suck you in - [funny notes]
Eye-opening Collection: Anglo-Saxon Gold Hoard - [flickr set]
The World's Smallest Snowman - [microscopic]
Stunning Interior Design: Volkswagen’s "Autostadt" - [architecture]
Incredibly Inventive Eyewear - [steampunk art]
The only potentially immortal creature on Earth - [cool info]
London Skyline Recreated Using Vegetables - [wow art]
Face-off with a Deadly Predator - [harrowing video]
Dogs Commiting Suicide for a Mysterious Reason - [spooky info]
Beautiful Steam Engines in NYC - [pics]
Perhaps the most heavenly piece Bach ever written - [wow music]
Fantastic Voyage: Microscopic Trip - [spectacular visualization]
Cool Paper Art from Money Bills - [weird art]
Brilliant Bedroom Interior Ideas - [compilation]
Dead Chickens. Mighty Weird - [strange art]
Strangest Gadgets for Christmas - [gadgets]
"Garage Band" with a Groovy Song - [music video]
Otters having too much fun - [wow video]
Impressive light display over Waterloo Station - [wow video]
Sneezing Baby Elephant - [fun video]
Window Cleaning of Burj Dubai, Suspended Outside - [wow videos]
Guinness Slide: Another Ad Masterpiece - [cool video]
Surreal, Classy Animation: "The Passenger" - [took 8 yrs to make]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]
Futuristic Waterworld Projects - [futurist]
Natural & Herbal Treatments for Aches & Pains - [health tips]
Surreal Paintings Collection - [compilation]

SEE ALL OTHER LINK LATTE ISSUES HERE

Archive: October-November 2009

2009-12-06T12:56:00.002-08:00

	When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs Super Crocs, Boar Crocs, Pancake Crocs...
	The Art of Science, the Science of Art Recreating nature in glass... and more
	The Extraordinary World of Ex Libris Art Mythic, bizarre, fantastic
	Outrageously Creative Ads, Issue 12 Unexpected Weirdness & Visual Candy
	Weird Food McDonald's Sells Around the World Spaghetti! Soaked! In Sugarrr!
	The World's Most Magnificent Pipe Organs Simply Blockbusters of Their Time!
	Lovely Cowgirls in Vintage Westerns Beauties with guns scorched the screen... and it was good
	Weirdest Cell Phones Ever! Totally non-conventional looks and futuristic specs.
	British Pubs: Signs of the Times, Part 2 Pub signs are almost like time machines...
	Fabulous Las Vegas: Modern Marvels Part 2: something you might've missed
	Fabulous Las Vegas: Vintage Treasures Part 1: Glamour vs. kitsch

	November 8, 2009 - Biscotti Bits Mixed Links & Images incl. "Marvelous Burj Dubai Fountain Show"
	October 20, 2009 - Biscotti Bits Mixed Links & Images incl. "The Unsinkable Pygmy Gecko"
	October 8, 2009 - Biscotti Bits Mixed Links & Images incl. "The Triangle: Jaw-Dropping Juggling"

Continue on to other monthly archives:

September 2009
August 2009
June-July 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
Link Lattes

Shadow Play

2009-12-03T10:33:00.003-08:00

Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Shadow Play

Ingenious and very tasteful Christmas advert for the Solaria Plaza in Fukuoka City, Japan.

url

Today's pictures & links:

Tsunami of Fog

(image credit: Agus Sutanto)

Another somewhat chilling image of storm clouds, often called "the cloud roll":

(original unknown)

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Crazy About You

(original unknown)

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Dramatic Sculptures

The frightened one:

(image credit: Anjelicek, seen in Vienna, Austria)

The love-sick pair:

(image credit: B. Ivanov, seen in Moscow)

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Rubbing Elbows

Happy romantic couple, cruising:

(photo by Takeyoshi Tanuma -1962, via)

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Mixed fresh links for today:

Sinister Nuclear Football, more, pics - [interesting]
Aluminum Man Startles London - [robots]
How to Vanish in a Digital Age - [a must-read article]
Hand-cranked Minimum Wage Machine - [weird tech]
Creative Passport Covers - [weird design]
Eiffel Tower in Dubai... What Can We Say? - [architecture]
Trying To Get To Little Rock, Still Trying - [music comedy]
Epic beard on the second guy - [wait for it]
A very cool way to wait for the bus - [fun video]
Invasion of the Giant Robots - [wow video]
Ice Disasters!, more - [cool video ads]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]
Photos of unusual animals galore - [compilation]
Fabulous & Offbeat Furniture Designs - [compilation]
Foraging For Food - [green tips]

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Fantastically Strange Trucks

If you remember our article about Scary Trucks and Truck Trains, here are a couple of incredible trucks we found recently:

Two-headed MAN fire truck - more info:

This is the two-headed tunnel washer that works in the Mont Blanc tunnel. Having two cabs allow it not to turn around in the tunnel.

Le Tourneau US Army Load Carrier - more info

(images via)

This is "the 1962 US Army's 13-unit electric hub motor all-wheel-drive Overland Train MkII, built for the US Army Transportation Research and Development Command. A 'mere' 382 tonnes GCW and 'small' 137 tonnes payload."

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I'm always late anyway:

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A new "creature" from Sam Van Olffen

Sam Van Olffen's work we featured before. Today he returns with -

The Obama-Machine!

(art by Sam Van Olffen)

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Extreme Graffiti News

We are long overdue for the full-length article about graffiti since our last Graffiti Showcase. In the meantime, here are some eye-catching examples:

(top left - quote from "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery; top right - "Snakes & Ladders", via)

See other awesome graffiti on this page.

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Steampunk Animals by James Corbett, The Car Part Sculptor

John Davies Gallery has the exhibition of works by James Corbett, each a unique, somewhat whimsical structure built from car parts:

(art by James Corbett)

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Big Heads

Click to enlarge - really bizarre ad campaign by DDB London Agency. I feel uncomfortable just looking at these:

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Another one of these "get rich quick" schemes?

Sell these, together with a 30-day course of starting a donut farm.

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Whaaaat?

(original unknown)

READ THE PREVIOUS ISSUE ->

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When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs

2009-11-29T20:32:00.009-08:00

"QUANTUM SHOT" #601
Link

National Geographic announced the discovery of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck’s bill.

This discovery was made by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno and recently featured on the National Geographic Channel as part of the "Expedition Week" series - click here for more info.

Even though the episode aired already, we just could not pass the opportunity to share with you exclusive pictures of these incredible croc monsters walking on the face of the Earth several hundred millions years ago and eating... dinosaurs for breakfast:

(Boar Croc roaring. It went after larger prey and its head was outfitted with even more impressive weaponry. It had over-sized triple set of canines and a massively armored nose that it could have used for butting prey. So it was battering as well as shredding dinosaurs that crossed its path.)

Back when crocodiles were the ruling T. Rexes of the waters.

They galloped on land, ambushed prey at the river’s edge … even terrorized dinosaurs. And more, these swift predators evolved through the ages into the modern crocs we know today:

(A saltwater crocodile jumps out of the water for bait. The largest living crocodilians on earth are saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds.)

Now, armed with newly discovered prehistoric crocodile bones, Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Paul Sereno is determined to bring the ancient creatures to life — and tell their fantastic untold story. Learn about a croc that pursued prey across land, a supercroc that locked its jaws around dinos, with a startlingly canine face. Blending art, forensics and biology, a team reanimates a lost world of strange Cretaceous crocs that paleontology forgot.

Even relatively small "duck" crocodiles were the "stuff of nightmares":

(A model of prehistoric "duck" crocodile - all images are courtesy and copyright by National Geographic)

And yet somehow... cute, in a perverse way:

Duck Croc had an exaggerated forebrain; its flat-billed, pinnochio-nosed head and long, sleek leg bones more suited to something upright and fleet of foot:

Monsters on the prowl (pursuing their prey across land):

Dog Croc had a very large forebrain: the thinking, sensing part of the brain. Its brain indicates that it not only looked like a dog, it probably lived like one as well:

Pancake Croc mouth open. At 20 feet long, as big as the largest crocs alive today Pancake Croc looked dangerous. It had a 3-foot long set of jaws that were actually thin, fragile and underpowered. Its jaws were only designed to open and shut and not to tussle with big prey:

Rat Croc digging for food in a rotting log. It was a little buck-toothed, snub-nose creature, that was maybe two feet long:

Strange fossils give us evidence that ancient crocodilian behemoths lived beside the dinosaurs...and ate them as snacks!

Here is a CGI rendition of a duel between a Super Croc and a Suchomimus. The Sarcosuchus imperator, or flesh crocodile emperor was so enormous that Explorer in Residence Paul Sereno nicknamed the beast Super Croc. Scientists speculate that this reptilian terror possessed enough force and bulk to take down large dinosaurs:

(A boar croc bites Nigersaurus - all images are courtesy and copyright by National Geographic)

This is truly spectacular video: an unforgettable encounter between a dinosaur and a monstrous crocodile springing from the depths...

Link

For more info and visual material click the episode's site here.

CONTINUE TO "KOMODO DRAGONS: THEY EAT MEAT" ->

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