geekosystem

Back in August the Internet exploded with pictures of an attempt at restoring a Spanish fresco that depicted Jesus called Ecce Homo or Behold the Man. The attempted restoration was done by an 80-year-old woman named Celia Gimenez. She is now widely considered to be the worst, but it hasn't stopped her from painting, and now Celia Gimenez just sold a painting on eBay for $1,421. What are the chances she's really Banksy?

By this point, you are no doubt aware that the U.K. Ministry of Defence is installing surface-to-air missiles around London as a deterrent against would-be airplane hijackers during the Olympics. As you can imagine, some people are unhappy about the idea of having heavy weapons next door. Popular street artist Banksy doesn't seem too happy about it either.

England, you can keep your artistic, socially conscious, elusive street-poet Banksy, we have our own tongue-in-cheek, punny, irreverent ripoff: Hanksy. No one knows who Hanksy is, but one thing is for sure, the guy has excellent taste in puns. His art has been turning up all over New York's Lower East side and provides that nice, Tom Hanks pick-me-up that everyone needs. So far, it looks like his work consists entirely of ripping off Banksy and punning Tom Hanks' name, but that has more potential than you might think. I hope Hanksy gets his own art shows and documentary, "Exit Through the Drift Shop." Get it? Like Castaway? Drifting, like on a raft.

Clearly, I'm not Hanksy.

The identity of Banksy, one of the most prolific street artists in the world, is being sold on eBay. Banksy has famously kept his name a secret for a number of years, even while directing a film, so to be ousted over the internet -- assuming the sale is not a scam -- seems blasphemous. The bidding has nearly broken past the one million dollar mark, and will end Wednesday evening. The seller claims that he has matched the prices of Banksy's sold artwork with UK tax records, and is quite certain that his findings are completely legitimate. Banksy's website states that "Banksy neither produces or profits from the sale of greeting cards, mugs or photo canvases of his work. He is not represented by any of the commercial galleries that sell his paintings second hand and cannot be found on facebook/twitter/myspace etc.", so the seller's assertion seems shady at best.

The winner of this auction is the only person I will ever share this information with. The piece of paper will say his name, nothing more.

It's also possible that Banksy himself is selling the information (or pretending to) as some sort of social statement, but if not, lets hope that the buyer keeps the mystery alive. (eBay via Reddit)

The animators of The Simpsons would like everyone to know that despite the Banksy directed "couch gag" containing a depiction of their workplace being full of rats, lacking in light, and enslaving children and unicorns and murdering kittens; their working conditions are actually pretty normal. Nelson Shin, who has worked on The Simpsons since it's first airing in 1989, told Time that

The satire... gave the impression that Asian artists slave away in subpar sweatshops when, in fact, they animate much of The Simpsons every week in high-tech workshops in downtown Seoul. "Most of the content was about degrading people from Korea, China, Mexico and Vietnam," Shin fumed. "If Banksy wants to criticize these things ... I suggest that he learn more about it first."

Banksy has declined to comment on the intended meaning of the sequence (understandable, since ideally a work of art should speak for itself), though Time argues that the conditions were likely aimed to represent workers in South Korea's northern neighbor.

International viewers rejoice! A lot of people were upset yesterday when Banksy's dark, scathing Simpsons intro was pulled from YouTube, forcing viewers to watch it on the U.S. only-Hulu. While Fox has been widely blamed for this takedown and may or may not have had a hand in it, it's possible that this was one of YouTube's infamous automated video takedowns. In any event, the video is back up on YouTube now, where Canadians and The Simpsons' own South Korean animators (who showrunner Al Jean insists aren't exploited like the animators in Banksy's video) will be free to watch it. >>>Watch the video. (h/t Marc D. Schiller via Peter Kafka)

Street artist and activist Banksy storyboarded and directed the opening to last night's Simpsons, and ... wow. Fox actually let this run. The opening bit is decent enough, but wait until you get to the couch gag (at about the 0:35 mark), which consists of a brutal, unrelenting tour of the Banksy-imagined Asian sweatshop where frames of Simpsons animation are inked and merchandise is made, a horrifying gray cave filled with vats of toxic waste and human bones. Though a panda and a unicorn each make an appearance, there are no laughs to be had in this bleak tour. Update, 4:37pm: The original video has been taken down from YouTube despite the fact that it was posted by Banksy himself. Some pretty irate comments on his YouTube page: "Sucks that they took the video down, considering Banksy DIRECTED the damn thing! Copyright lawyers need to research before blindly hitting the "report copyright infringement" button." "Banksy and copyright, dear God... Sue the bastards! Who are they to take you away your very own piece of work? That's against absolutely everything you've been fighting for." Update2, 10/12, 3:31pm ET: Fox has lifted the ban! The video is back on YouTube. (h/t Peter Kafka) (via Wooster Collective)

When someone puts a general poll on the internet, we get Lara Croft Way and Computer Engineer Barbie; in other words, wonderful things happen. In this spirit, we'd like to give you some links to the more than 2 dozen geeky and geek beloved people on this year's list of 200 vying for a spot in an issue of Time through open internet poll. If it's going to be mostly unscientific anyway, let's tilt it in our favor!