Written by Sarah on December 3rd, 2011
My favorite animal chronicler, Sy Montgomery, has written a great article on the octopus and the bewildering nature of octopus intelligence.
Read the article and imagine yourself in the distant future, aboard a galactic ship crewed by beings from across the universe. You’ve got a new roomie, one from your home planet. Oh, boy! Another human, after years of being the only one onboard! Nope. It’s an octopus. She eyes you from the comfort of a brown beer bottle as you nervously search for a copy of the Octopus Enrichment Handbook in the All-Earthican Digital Library.
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Written by Sarah on December 3rd, 2011
After the excitement over the Fukushima nuclear plant, people in Japan are (understandably) a little jumpy about radiation. This seems to have led to the discovery of a bunch of antique radiation sources. A recent radiological survey of the Puget Sound area was done to establish what the normal baseline radiation level is (because the similar surveys in Fukushima had not had a pre-reactor-problem level to compare to). They were expecting to find a lot of non-disaster related radiation, and I wonder if they found any old bottles of radium, too?
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Written by Sarah on December 3rd, 2011
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Written by Sarah on November 29th, 2011
As mentioned in Stop Podcasting Yourself, the delightful Brad MacNeil performs at Senators games in exchange for tickets. Here are a few I found at the Sens YouTube account:
“Stronger”
“Dancing in the Dark”
“Eye of the Tiger”
“You Give Love a Bad Name”
“Friday”
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Written by Craig on November 14th, 2011
Goliath, Westerfeld. Yes. Follows Leviathan and Behemoth. If you’ve read them, you know whether you want to read this; if not, I recommend you start with them. I noted no mechanical difficulties, most likely because the story was holding me captive.
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Written by Craig on November 12th, 2011
It has, again, been a while since we’ve had any good FP examples here, so I was initially thrilled to see this link to 99 self-declared “Excellent Examples of Forced Perspective Photography.” When I followed the link, though, I was disappointed to find that while several of the photographs are excellent, very few of them use FP very well, if at all.
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Written by Craig on November 6th, 2011
The Tears of Autumn, McCarry. Yes. I’m tempted to believe that every aspect of the theory presented in this 1974 political thriller is true, it hangs together so nicely. The writing is also very good.
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Written by Sarah on November 4th, 2011
Some thoughts on the (astounding, as always) collection of pictures from Alan Taylor’s photo feature on the flooding in Thailand.
#2: Important! Does the “hang loose” gesture mean the same thing in Thailand?
#4: I’d like to imagine this as a sitcom about two slackers who live in a perpetually flooded apartment.
#7: I was relieved to see that these were flooded hedges rather than rapid algae growth on local boaters.
#15: The yellow flags looked similar enough to the symbol on a shirt I got at Goodwill that I was able to track down its meaning: the Personal Flag of H.M. King King Bhumipol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in honor of the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne. Neat!
#26: This guy will jokingly propose this picture for the family’s holiday update letter. His wife will merely scowl.
#33: Not only napping during a flood, but doing it on a bus stop anti-nap bench. He may win the nap championships.
#41: Best dad ever!
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Written by Sarah on October 31st, 2011
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Written by Sarah on October 28th, 2011
Rare on the internet, added context to an amusing video clip. In this case, on the importance of blowing on a hot New Zealand pie. I was surprised at the assertion that some viewers didn’t know the comment was in jest, but perhaps these would also be people taken in by the story about buying a 3 AM pie. Note in the longer version of the clip, the pie-seeker seems VERY familiar with how to present his wrists for handcuffing.
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