Credenza a sideboard. Originally a chest where the butler would place food and taste/test it for poison. The food, once so tested, being given credence. Sarcasm comes from the Greek for a wild animal tearing flesh and by extension a verbal laceration. Irony is a figure of speech that twists the meaning to its opposite. From Greek for "to lie." Verafile Perhaps, one day, there will be a special file cabinet used for testing the veracity of ideas. kakistocracy a government by the worst. As opposed to an aristocracy, a government by the supposed best. PEBCAK Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard. The hardware and software are doing their job, it's the wetware that is at fault. Humor Some citations from the Oxford English Dictionary 1388: The humor of the fire beneath his flesh 1588: At Christmas last we could hardly find humor enough in the ground to plant. 1704: Being besmeared with a fatish and mucous humor to make the voice smooth 1756: If your husband should be really sullen let the black humor begin to spend itself before you come in. Laurie Anderson’s Here is an exploration of the possibilities of simple english.

From 50 Terrific Movies and How to Make Them An article by Chuck Workman in "Peter Max Magazine" Issue No. 2, 1970 1 IMAGES OF GOD Take your movie camera to a Bar Mitzvah or First Communion. Shoot a lot of film, then project the negative. 2 SANCTITY Go into your bathroom. Turn on all the lights. Bring in some lights and point them up at the ceiling from behind the shower curtain. Open up your camera's aperture as far as it goes. You will get a very, very bright effect. Deposit something in the toilet, a dark colored toothbrush on the sink, and some blood on the floor. These dark objects will look terrific and quite holy. 3 ELECTRONICALLY INDUCED IMAGES I Move your camera in close to the TV screen so that no one can tell it's a TV. Fiddle with the vertical, horizontal, fine tuning and color control knobs untill you have an interesting abstract pattern. Shoot as you continue to fiddle with the knobs. 4 STONE Picture same as #3. Put a sitar recording on the sound track. 22 66 An abstract film. Gather sets of 66 of various things such as books, bicycles, girls, eggs, fish, bunnies, telephones, samovars, pins, pubic hairs, dollars, etc., and photograph each set. Use 66 sets. Leave each on screen for 66 frames. The editing is quite important in this film and will teach you a great deal. For instance, should the 66 sets be arranged in alphabetical order, by size, by relationship? I leave this to you. 29 WELCOME BACK, MARY LOU, WELCOME BACK Another story film. Mary Lou, an octogenarian who dies years before, re-appears in her hometown. She has numerous adventures, many funy, some sad, all of which can be improvised by the actors. The trick is that Mary Lou always appears in color and everything else is in slow motion black and white. Mary Lou is right side up, everyone else in upside down. Is it real? Is it apparent? Who is Mary Lou? What is she? Are some of the questions the audience (and the critics) will ask themselves and each other. 33 THE ART OF FILM This will be your chef d'oeuvre, the culmination of everything you know about film. Shoot a toilet flushing, in color with sound. Cut to a pot of water boiling silently in slow motion and black and white. Cut to a child crying. Freeze the frame. Project this film and after it's over, blow up the theatre. This indicates your thoughts on the irrelevance of cinema as an art form. 41 AMO, AMAS AMAT Three people make love in extreme closeup. It should be difficult to tell who's who or what parts of whom are being shown. Get in very tight on arms, legs, noses, elbows, and private areas. Put a Beatles song behind it all at half-speed. 42 AMPERSAND An animated film. To the tune of Bach's Minuet in G Major, pop on a lot of different- sized, different- colored ampersands on a white background. 50 (Untitled) A glimpse of scarlet, a blast of yellow-gold, a succession of kaleidoscopic images in every color of the rainbow bombards the viewer while rock and roll blares. Suddenly silence, pure white. Life and death.

The Early Career Paths of Dictators ­ A Quiz
Match the dictator with his pre-political profession.

A. Hitler B. Mussolini C. Stalin D. Pol Pot E. Mao

1. Journalist 2. Art student 3. House painter 4. Librarian 5. Divinity student

Answers:
A3, B1, C5, D2, E4
Did you notice – no lawyers?

Quiz On Meaning Given: This maze has no solution. There is no way through. It is a large graphic in the form of a maze. Then it follows: It is not a maze. True__ or False__ Explain why. Actually, you can get through it.

Understanding Quantum Physics
a quasi-aesthetic quiz

Schrödinger's Cat is the title given to a grizzly little ``thought experiment'' by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Schrödinger imagined a cat imprisoned in a soundproof black box. The box is also a gas chamber. The poison gas is triggered by a radiation detector pointed at a piece of radioactive material that has a 50% chance of emitting a particle in a one-hour period, thereby killing the cat.

The cat in the box is neither alive or dead, but in a superposition, being possibly dead and possibly alive.

Pick the best name for Schrödinger's cat and explain why you picked that particular name.

A__Fluffy
B__Tom

And, while you’re in a question answering mood:
This mask is called "Capitano". What do you think about it?

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Take a tour of an abandoned missile base.
Or, if you're so inclined, buy one.

Fractals – they’re not just for pictures anymore. Claus-Dieter Schulz provides samples, articles and music generators.

Let me know what you think.

–Paul Smedberg