Still Too Cold To Go Birding (15th January, 2009)
www.birdchick.com/ 2009/ 01/ still-too-cold-to-go-birding.html
There's a video of unusual banana use, and stories of bubbles and spray.
Elsewhere, there's ‘Is it cold enough for you’ (by dmilstein) showing the effect of cold air on hot water.
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=F-ugVrA8e5M
which led to ( Read more... )

Panic Now


( Read more... )

Someone mentioned mud, and I immediately sang in my mind “mud, mud, glorious mud” - from ‘Hippopotamus’ by Flanders & Swann.

Mud is something they'd love to find on Mars - see HiRISE images of the Phoenix landing site at www.planetary.org/ blog/ article/ 00001472

Mud also plays a small, but vital role in the film The Ballad of Cable HogueAnd for ( Read more... )

Another food story. I'm not sure if this story is good news for chocophiles or bad. Actually, some of the work they're doing sounds like it could be quite useful in more general spin-offs.Super chocolate being developed for army"Scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Scottsdale in Tasmania are working on a new ( Read more... )

Several clips of one ad (sung by Ben Robinson). It's apparently a parody of a classic UK Christmas show. We aren't at all familiar with it here, though I recognise the tune from BriTV references to it, and many of the scenes they fly past. I'm informed one I scene don't know is the Falkirk Wheel (photos & some info at www.undiscoveredscotland.co. ( Read more... )

Another history archive online from the UK (see ' Shoulders we stand on' 25-Nov-2006, below)
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 - 1834
www.oldbaileyonline.org
A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at ( Read more... )

Elements of Subway-Announcement Style By Ken Krimstein (at McSweeney's - a very good site) - www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/6/13krimstein.html

Video (from YouTube.com) of an earlier event involving Buzz Aldrin of which you may have heard. You may have to view it on a fatter pipe - www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQKxAqpjroo

Some thoughts on Pharyngula not ( Read more... )

Over at Kung Fu Monkey there's a great little take-down of some bloke's comments on recent Academy Award nominations. I won't spoil any of the fun quotes, except to say that later on the author wrote in the comments "some of the rhetoric is a bit 5 am-ish".
Go and enjoy.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey ( www.wishville.co.uk/gorey) An Alphabet Book of Twisted Tales, by an author with an apposite appellation.

Leviathan: the Unauthorised Biography of Sydney
by John Birmingham
www.abc.net.au/arts/books/stories/s424252.htm[Recorded at the 2000 Brisbane Writers Festival and broadcast on Radio National's Books ( Read more... )