We are here to inspect your genetics.

The World's Deadliest Meme

excerpt  from OBSOLETE! Magazine #1...

 

The AK-47

In the movie “Lord of War,” the protagonist Yuri Orlov, played by Nicholas Cage lays it all out:“Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947. More commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle. A weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy, even a child can use it; and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.”

Designed by a wounded tank commander and aspiring agricultural equipment designer named Mikhail Kalashnikov, the AK-47 is perhaps the quintessential product of the 20^th century. In an earnest attempt to create a weapon that would defend his Communist homeland from the aggression of fascist Germany, Kalashnikov unwittingly invented one of the key elements in the blueprint for Soviet expansion. By making the AK-47 design a sort of “open source” technology, the USSR licensed the  manufacturing of AK-47s to facilities in Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, China, North Korea, Egypt, Iraq, and others. Today, it is estimated that there is a one Kalashnikov-style rifle in use for every 66 people on earth.

As Yuri Orlov points out,  the very image of the AK is a symbol of revolution worldwide, and a symbol of the business of revolution.  It is the world's deadliest meme. In another Hollywood film, “Jackie Brown,” Samuel L. Jackson’s character Ordell says: "AK-47. The very best there is. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes.” 

image by Terror Worldwide

Kal Spelletich gets a nice plug from Boing Boing...

Boing Boing gave Kal's fundraiser a really nice plug...

"We've posted on BB before about San Francisco machine artist Kal Spelletich, who has made dozens of elegant, menacing, and incredible robots and kinetic sculptures over several decades. Kal is a veteran of Survival Research Laboratories, Seemen, and a former artist-in-residence at the Exploratorium. He's managed to secure a gallery show in New York City on August 6, 2010..."jump to full article...

Help Robot maker Kal Spelletich get to NYC!

Old friend Kal Spelletich is raising bucks to take his robot show to NYC- check out his work at:
http://www.kaltek.org/
You can pledge by clicking the kickstarter link on the right side of this page.....


FRINGE: Kal Spelletich Exhibit, Jun. 2-30, 2007, L.A., CA

Time to Make Sumac Tea!

We shot this last summer but I just got round to editing it last night- yes, it's very silly. But the Sumacs are in bloom- time to make Sumac Tea!

Operation: Biodiesel Phoenix

 Rebuilding the little diesel pickup- the new engine has run nothing but B100!

taproot solar installation