Boing Boing tv, surreal shorts about food and drink, in a two-part showcase of works from filmmaker Stefan Nadelman. First, “Food Fight,” a stop-animation piece that provides an abridged history of war, told through the foods of the countries in conflict (Ed.: the original work has been edited for time, and captions have been added to assist the history-impaired). Next, “My Dog Impersonating Orson Welles,” in which a pooch clutches a bottle of champagne, and attempts to form sentences.
Plus, Will is at it again with Semi-pro:
Plus here’s one from MSFT insider Tina at on10.net - about life at Microsoft. I am not sure its really funny or just trying really hard to be funny? You decide.
Judging from similar occurrences over the past two years in Britain, it appears that these lizards [Komodo Dragons] sometimes use a form of virgin birth in which eggs hatch without conception. The embryos are genetic clones of the mother.
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And that is the point. Biology is about variation. Without variation, the world would be static and unchangeable, and species would gradually disappear as they failed to meet challenges like changing climates and environments. So as we continue our very necessary debates over ethical issues, let’s bear in mind that morality is a concept limited to our species. The natural world is a fuzzy place that doesn’t always accommodate our decidedly human need to find cut-and-dried categories.
Today is a sunny, mild and bluster spring like day in London. We had a big rain storm blow through last night. For what ever reason I’ve been thinking about summer and holidays. Which reminded me about this travel piece I read in the Guardian ages ago about a company that rents VW Camper Vans - Seven Degree West - that have been fully kitted and sound way cool. Maybe this is just the ticket for our summer holiday. I hope that VW vans become available all over the world for holiday rentals and to inspire the beach bum in all of us.
February is a short month - even in a leap year. So, I am going to use this as part of my excuse (ie, its a short month) as to why I am short of posts and generally doing shorter “meta posts” this month. I am also very busy with a new full-time work gig (more on that another time or better yet, if you’re interested lets do some real social networking at the pub and I can tell you all about it). Bring on spring!
Ok, this is just for fun. An entire site of side split-tingly funny short clips. Sweet, Rock on. [Note: from the UK the site seems a bit slow, but worth the wait.]
A friend (thanks! Jason) sent me this link to a very cool piece on a new species of palm tree found in Madagascar. This is particularly interesting to because I did my master’s thesis on the biology of palm trees from Fiji - more on that adventure another time.
The article as says that this new species - Tahina spectabilis - can even apparently be seen on Google Earth… So, I checked with Google Sightseeing and you can’t really see it - but hey it makes the story a little more exciting for the Internet generation… Great branding for this palm tree to be associated with Google Earth. Or is it the other way around?
Some of the interesting extracts from the Telegraph:
The tree has a strange lifecycle when after growing for as long as 50 years and to an immense height, the stem tip develops a giant inflorescence and bursts into branches of hundreds of tiny flowers.
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Dr Dransfield, one of the world’s leading authorities on palms, said: “I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the images posted on the web.
“Seeing it was one of the most exciting moments in my entire career. This tree is a new genus and a new species - an evolutionary line not seen in Madagascar before.”
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Although there are known to be bigger palms the Madagscar find is believed to be the most massive with a huge trunk which towers over 60-feet high (60 feet) and fan leaves which are 16-feet in diameter - making it among the largest known in flowering plants. The palm is so massive that it can even be seen in Google Earth.
And from Google Sightseeing:
And yet not ONE of the many, many, many, many, many reporters managed to include a link to the location of the tree, or even the co-ordinates! And the reason of course, is that none of them actually bothered to check whether you really can see this tree or not.
Fortunately the team at Google Sightseeing don’t subscribe to such lazy reporting methods, and we can EXCLUSIVELY REVEAL the location of the Mysterious Self-Destructing Palm Tree!
Enjoy! And just think its almost the weekend.
Update: a good post on this palm over at Scientific Blogging as we..
A fun piece on SEL with 20 photos that should make you smile on Google Maps. If you think this is good then be sure to visit Google Sightseeing as well - a complete site of this stuff and there is a companion book - Off The Map site.
What’s cool is the folks running Google Sightseeing have created a nice little derivative business off Google… A life hack for sure.
One of the gifts I got for Christmas was a Diabolo - which is a kind of juggling toy. Its harder than it looks to master and to get it to do tricks. I am now able to flip it into the air and catch it. Playing with the Diabolo is a great stress reliever and is all about getting into flow.
I found this very interesting post with a bunch of stats on Google, plus this funny picture over on Buzzmachine. I guess there are some questions that Google still can’t answer?!
The 2 stats that really struck me were:
Google controls 79% of the pay-per-click ad market, according to RimmKaufman. It controls 40% of all online advertising, according to web site HipMojo.
Google became the No. 1 brand in the world in 2007, according to Millward Brown Brandz Top 100.
btw - its funny my oldest daughter, who is only 6 years old, thinks you can ask the “Internet” anything and it will give you the right answer. It will not be long before she just says “Daddy can we ask Google about xyz”, she’s still not very brand aware which is a good thing.
