Release the bats! I am not sure I could convince myself to leap from a perfectly functional aircraft (I wish I had the requisite courage as one hears parachuting is a freakin’ blast!), but maybe the perfect outfit would help. This gentleman definitely has the perfect outfit! The lovely picture featured below was originally found here.
Maybe it’s not really a costume, but more of a lifestyle choice. : )
Really? A bird smuggler with his illegal live cargo strapped to his crotch? Sounds like some sort of thrill junkie to me, with just a little sexual oddity added to spice up the game. But then, once you see the provided image of his “pigeon pants”, it’s clear this is not some extreme sex pervert but something else again entirely. Nice plug for Adidas man-tights!
Damn, but the ocean continues to slowly yield more and more fantastical creatures! Of particular note is the elusive magnapinna or elbowed squid. Found at depths of 1.5 miles underwater, these deep sea dwellers are still mostly a mystery to science as they have yet to examine an intact body, dead or alive. One positive of the continued deep sea drilling by petrol companies is the capture of creatures on remote vehicle video. Click the link below to see the video footage released and hosted by National Geographic, and shared by the Shell oil company.
Link via National Geographic
I love people with the money, vision and passion to move forward on a fantastical idea, and this is a great example. With a generous donation from PayPal founder, Peter Thiel, The Seasteading Institute is moving forward with their vision of creating experimental ocean communities. They plan to have an example in the water of the San Francisco Bay within two years, basing their prototype on a scaled down version of an off-shore oil rig design called a spar platform. They are not only envisioning a new approach to living on/in the ocean with the establishment of deep water homesteads on the high seas, they are desirous of a new utopian community based on a different political model than the standard nation-state that we are all familiar with. Sounds pretty fashion-forward and far out there, but I would love to see them succeed. Hell, I’d be interested in signing up for my small piece of the libertarian ocean colonies – living space is currently projected to be in the neighborhood of 300 square feet deep in the concrete tube. While the project is in it’s very early conceptual stages, there are already concerns about sovereignty and fending off established governments – they even have a plan to purchase a flag of convenience from one of the countries that sell them. One imagines this flag would be replaced once the seasteading colony became established and went through the process of being recognized as it’s own country, which appears to be a pretty complicated feat. Read more of the seasteading ideas in their 300 page on-line book.
via Wired: Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies
Last Christmas I was the recipient of a fun interactive gift – Sea Monkeys on Mars
I have a pretty strong appreciation for bats, and am continually interested in their forms of locomotion. Flying is super cool all on its own, even before adding the modified forelimbs detail and their bad ass echo-location. Here is a small collection of cool video clips concerning one of my favorite bats, the vampire. Thanks for the inspiration from Afarensis.
Bat in flight
bat on treadmill
bat on treadmill w/muzak (my favorite)
bats scrabbling
A simple, fun, on-line vocabulary building game that helps out people in need? Perfect. If you have not already heard about www.freerice.com, you should check it out. The simplistic but challenging game is addictive, and the time flies once you start playing. You are presented with a word and 4 possible definitions. For each word you correctly define, 20 grains of rice are donated to people in need. If you get a word right, you get a harder word and if you miss a word the next one will be a little easier, so the game play stays interesting. How can me playing a game generate money, you ask? With each new word, or round of the game, a different banner ad is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and it is through these ads that the money is generated to buy the rice. The site has been up since October 2007, and they recently posted a video of rice being delivered to refugees from Myanmar who are sheltering in Bangladesh. Pretty inspiring stuff.
