Geeks in a Web

Another collection of pretty much entirely random links:

Here's what at first glance looks like a typical online photo collection of babes, and it can certainly be enjoyed as such. But this photographer is a bit more honest about his work methods and emphasizes his skill at retouching photos. His portfolio affords the opportunity to see Halle Barry, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys and others before the photographer works his magic in the studio. Creepily fascinating, especially the way the breasts and buttocks of these women inflate in the retouching (heh) process.

When internet geeks like myself are not busy staring at retouched photos, we're busy obsessing over the exact date when that tape of Dr. Demento songs was recorded, and where our lives have gone since then. All hail the Internet Geek! For without Him (and it is always a "him," isn't it?) we would not be able to spend hours reviewing the lost hours spent listening to other geeks playing geeky records. Oh, internet! (For the record: I began recording Dr. D's weekly Funny Five on February 8, 1981.)

Speaking of geeks, who among us has not recognized that Tom Cruise, Mr. Sexy Hollywood Movie Star, is becoming more obsessively geeky about this whole Scientology thing by the minute? Of course, just as any political extremist will eventually become convinced of their own righteousness, so has Mr. Cruise become less willing to consider reasonable dialogue as a means of persuasion. Witness his turn to the Dark Side here. Unlimited Power!

Were it not for periodic reminders that this truly is a beautiful planet, one might abandon all hope and let the Geeks take over. Fortunately, we have this recent shot of Mt. McKinley, Alaska, taken from the International Space Station at a somewhat extreme angle, to remind us that some things are still worth walking away from the blog machine for.

I have a whole list of links I've been collecting over the last few days, but this should keep you busy for a while. I'm going to go watch a rerun of China Beach.