Via Elemy: “The average homeowner should expect to repair direct meteor damage every hundred million years.” Via the Motley Fool: “When you are in deep trouble, say nothing and try to be cool.”
And talking of photogenic sea life, here’s something you don’t see every day: giant rectangular fish leaping into the air.
Penguins: evidence of Intelligent Design or gay Commie bastards? You decide. [Having provided this link about animal behaviour and evolution I am now bracing myself for a breathtakingly confused Cuthbertson post accusing me of elevating “my radical politics” over “what science tells us about human goals and social realities” by failing to point out that “one […]
I have mentioned the wacky “campaigning windows” of Cambridge residents before. Today I walked past one that had a picture of a Labrador on display, with the caption “Liberate Laboratory Animals!” Also today I read this story: “Animal rights activists have stolen six huntaway dogs from a Massey University farm, some of which are carrying a […]
The estimable Michael Brooke is back with a thorough review of Boris Gudunov at Covent Garden. You’ve got admire a man who can criticise a production of an opera for containing a ludicrous theatrical image. Meanwhile, the other ‘Blogging Brooke is kittenblogging, God help him. [click to enlarge] And just to complete the set: [click to enlarge]
To minimize the inevitable public disapproval it is crucial when creating a cloned mammal in your laboratory to make as little mention as possible of your previous failed attempts to do so, and to give your successful clone a cute name: “Dolly” the sheep, “Ralph” the rat, and now “Snuppy”, the Afghan puppy who thinks […]
Tardigrades—“water bears”—are amazing. They are mostly less than a millimetre in length, but have a complete multicellular anatomy and physiology with recognisable limbs and organs. Despite their complexity they can go dormant and become hardy little spheres of just-add-water life. In this form they are resistant to all sorts of unpleasant treatment and harsh environments. […]
Somebody somewhere (Japan) thinks that dressing up dogs as sheep and even putting them in little pens is a good thing. Can you believe that they’ve sold out of some of these products? There’s probably a Japanese game show where they dress lambs up as dogs and get them to guide the pooches into their […]
If you’ve got Macromedia Flash installed on your computer this video is deeply entertaining [via The Motley Fool].
As the countdown to redundancy continues I envy this creature more and more. If I could retire now, though, it would be the perfect leaving gift for a quasi-civil servant like me.
Good socialists here, here, and here ‘Blog the demise of Rosa Luxemburg, but it is important that the loss of another Rosa Luxemburg is not overlooked—by Chris especially, and by others of the Left who, unlike Dr Brooke, are now almost certainly working as management consultants, investment bankers, or barristers: “Dons at an Oxford University […]
Leasey will only have to read the arithmetic expression “BadgerBadgerBadger + Christmas” to understand what’s at the other end Maoi’s link for the day.
Also from Slashdot I note that the planned advertisements for the superb open source Firefox Web browser have appeared. The ads depict the Firefox logo, a giant fox encircling the globe. This monster is the combined result of Tony Blair’s ban on hunting with dogs and his authorization of the release of GM organisms into […]
If you can get hold of a copy of today’s International Herald Tribune there is a superb and surprisingly beautiful front page photograph illustrating an item about the pink locusts in the Canaries. It was taken by Carlos Guevara for Reuters.
When the subject of British public attitudes to genetically modified organisms comes up at Genome Campus breaktime conversations I tend to make two standard contributions. I rail against the “Frankenfood” hysteria of the UK tabloid press (not to mention the bloody Archers) that has all but prevented a rational debate on the subject. I advance a corollary […]
I want the owner of this Website to try out this product. And I want action pictures.
This is the kind of thing that happens when you let the Germans reunite and people stop hunting wild animals.
Of course, if I did own a TV in this year of 2004, I could watch the alleged ex-lover of a waning international football star masturbate a pig. [Er, thanks, Laban.]
Not having a television, I have only seen some online snippets of Sacha Baron-Cohen’s comedy creation “Borat” before. Tomodachi at Susurration linked this week to a clip of an American hunter agreeing with the invented Khazakstani television presenter in front of cameras that it would be alright by him if the USA had a game […]
No, British moths are not in decline; the ones Dr Conrad’s looking for are all flapping around my bloody flat. And he can come round and collect them at a mutually convenient time.
I bought Edward Monkton’s “Penguin of Death” greetings card for Maoi on her last birthday. Another little friend of mine, Leasey, points me at his cute Website. And two girlies have set up their own where they hope to enumerate the 412 ways his Penguin can do away with you.
Where? There, on the stair.
“Tigger ‘fondled my breast’” is a classic tabloid headline and, fortunately for Michael Chartrand, contains a classic tabloid lie [free Telegraph registration required]. Disney might be re-employing him, but I don’t think they’ll be putting him in a tiger suit again any time soon.
I think they mean that chimpanzees also find yawning infectious, but it's interesting all the same.
[Thanks to Leasey] My street is full of Guardian-readers. I have leafletted it many times for the Labour Party and rolled my eyes at the windows full of anti-war posters and photocopied invitations to “subversive” gatherings of poets and “thinkers”. I've tried hard not to get into arguments about pre-emptive military action and top-up fees, but […]
I'm on a roll this week. I've been banging my head against a piece of code the past couple of days—until four o'clock Thurs, when my officemate and I went down for tea. One coffee and a Cornetto™ later, back at my desk, I nailed the bug. And I've just got back from a curry […]
Some stories are timeless. Mark Steyn wrote this in September 2003. This is from today's Guardian. Next people will be advocating our hunting smallpox or polio to extinction.
In the days before 'Bloggers, the traditional sad, no-lifes were birdwatchers. Here, one man (I'm just betting it's a man, but you're not going to bet against me, are you?) combines “twitching” and the Web to tell us about the Sparrows kleptoparasitising the Starlings.
Whether you agree with it or not, you can't deny that The Meatrix is a superb piece of animated propaganda for organic farming.
Cows at sea, beware the Atkins diet.