Picked up from envoy...

It seems that the folk behind The Sultan's Elephant, which I saw (and may have gotten a bit excited about at the time) a couple of years ago, are going be putting on 'something' in Liverpool this September. For those who weren't lucky enough to witness it, Sultan's Elephant was this amazing citywide piece of street theatre ( Read more... )

Went to see Beowulf last night with M and was pleasantly surprised - the reviews I'd read were quite lukewarm and I think it may be falling betwen two stools. Literary people won't touch it with a bargepole because "OMG animation!" and "Hollywood!" and the like, and it's far too adult/gory/literary/grim/complicated for the audience of teenagers ( Read more... )

( ..but I thought some of you kitten fans out there might appreciate the following: )

Explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell has had close encounters with vampire bats and angry bees, but his latest brush has been with a rather odd dog. He spotted a rare breed of Double-Nosed Andean tiger hound, which has two noses, on a recent trip to Bolivia. Linky hereI heard this guy on the radio this morning, chuntering on about double-nosed ( Read more... )

A morning scan of today's science page on the Beeb brings me the following astonishing studies, brought to you by the power of the silly season. It's August, there's absolutely f-all happening in the news, but the poor buggers have to keep reporting *something*. This led to an excruciatingly funny end to the Today programme this morning, involving ( Read more... )

Zoe Williams hits the nail on the head, again:

But I do wish Smith and co would say what they really mean, ie: "It was different for us, we did it at Oxford. Nobody goes psychotic on the Bridge of Sighs. When we say it's illegal, we're talking about poor people who can't control themselves." That's what you mean! Just say it!

This just made me laugh like a drain:

I quote 'Boston Dynamics, Inc, a company spun off from MIT in 1992, last week won $10m of Pentagon cash. This was for the construction of "a dog-like robot with the capability to run fast, traverse trough [sic] terrain, jump over obstacles one metre tall or two metres wide, and operate for two hours without ( Read more... )

I know several people have linked to this already, but it's still amusing me hugely. Basra locals accuse the British Army of releasing a plague of ravening badgers upon the city. Yes, really.

Particularly prompted by my discovery of this spoof news story from a couple of weeks ago, including a *fantastic* picture of a badger sitting in a tank, ( Read more... )

Graffiti made from light, done with glowsticks, fireworks, etc. and long exposure photography.

This one's my favourite :-)

( Read more... )

It's Monday morning and yet I am feeling quite bouncy. This is probably something to do with having finished off several projects last week, having had one paper published and another accepted by a journal, a chilled weekend involving a housewarming, a softfruit, hippies having taken over Platt Fields Park, lots of lazing about in the sunshine, and being ( Read more... )