picture of the day: chicken hormones

welcome to w00f!

We welcome w00f! into our family this week. W00f! is a new fish that we picked up from the pet shop. Our current fish has been a bit lonely since the passing of our old orange fish last week.

You may be asking how our new fishy got its name. Claire had a discussion with Charlie, as this new fish is now her pet (although Claire and I will probably manage the feeding as doing this with paws doesn’t work too well). The conversation went something like this:

Claire: Charlie… This is your own pet… You get to look after it, and get to name it… What do you want to call it…?

Charlie: … w00f!

What else were you expecting?

the last drop of toothpaste

One of the more memorable things that I found in my grandparents house was a little invention Grandpa made that was essentially a vice that squeezed all the toothpaste out of the tube. Most probably this was done due to his more thrifty nature, and today while on a design site I found a this…

It’s a small plastic utility to squeeze out all the toothpast from the tube. Definately not as elegant as the roughly welded metal and bolts construction that Grandpa completed, but I guess it would do the job. If he only organised a patent for optimising the squeezing of toothpaste from tube, he would be rolling in the royalties.

(via Core77)

awsome robots t-shirt

I love robots. Pure and simple. So when I saw this totally brilliant robots t-shirt I was in awe. Aparently I wasn’t the only one. Since being added to the Gizmondo and Boing-Boing websites, the store has had so much traffic that it is taking the server offline. I’d say they’ve seen their servers go through something similar to the digg effect or whatever you want to call it these days.

Anyway, stop what you are doing. Put down the porn, and go buy yourself one of these. Everybody needs a t-shirt. Goto http://www.chopshopstore.com to check them out.

P.S. There’s also a pretty damn good Darth Vader t-shirt on there too for the Star Wars fanboys.

rockin’ bento boxes

Pink Tentacle has a review of some bento boxes that some food hackers have crafted to look like albumn covers that might be somewhat memorable. They seem to be quite edible, including egg, paprika, nori (seaweed sheet), kamaboko (fish sausage), carrot, potato, ham, black sesame, rice and various other ingredients. Weird, but interesting. Go Japan!

(via Pink Tentacle)

let the english invade

If there ever was a god, his human form is Bill Hicks. Pity we killed him with our cigarettes. Fortunately, pointing out the craziness of international politics, cable news, fair trade, british imperialism, unfair trade, outsourcing, religion and hitting young boys with big sticks is not completely lost. John Oliver, who does occasional guest appears on the Daily Show recently did a gig named “John Oliver: Terrifying Times”, and the whole time I was watching it I was thinking Yes… Someone else has picked up the batton for speaking the truth and is running hard and fast.

Thankyou John Oliver. You have made the world a better place.

http://www.mrjohnoliver.com/

drowning in the vista pool

Tech Republic has a great article on predictions about Microsoft juming to Windows 7 in the next 12 months as an overall strategy to pull them out of the Vista pool that that they are currently drowning in. Worth a read if you are a nerd or care about the direction of windows.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=664

 

more japanese girls

Stumbled upon a rather bizarre event happening in Japan (again), featuring gorgeous Japanese girls (again). Kotaku had something on their website about Singer and swimsuit model Asuka Sawamoto flashing the crowd in Akihabara, which from all accounts is the nerdiest area of Japan. Asuka has been climbing up poles and flashing her ass at people.

 

This is quite bizarre. On the one hand I admire her for making Japan the most alluring place in the entire world. On the other hand, its just freaky. I can’t ever remember ever seeing something like this happen in Australia. Shit, the only time I see naked people running around is usually streaking footage during a soccer or cricket match. Ohwell, if only there was a technofile city in Australia that had lots of girls flashing… I’d be there.

(via Kotaku)

god save the queen

I was a bit shocked when I stumbled across this advert for a t-shirt on http://www.goatboy.com.au/, but even though I shouldn’t laugh I had to have a little giggle.

(via I Believe In Advertising)

another travelling day

Yup, it’s another travelling day, and again to Sydney for another software demo. I have just spent the last hour enjoying the cold and wet landscape of Sydney from the Qantas lounge. Early morning travelling sucks, although getting some sleep on the plane is what I have found as the best way to survive. And at least the drive to the airport is great. Hardly any cars on the road at 5:30am. The worst part is having to do it all again in 8 hours.

font game

I should be working, but there’s always an excuse to blog some crap. This time it’s a font game that I know several design nerds will get there rocks off too. So if you fall into that category, go to http://ajax.sayitaintslow.com/fontgame/ and have some fun.

microsoft surface: hands on first look

Popular Mechanics have completed their first hands on with the Microsoft Surface product that is on the cusp of being released into the hands of several major retailers, including AT&T who recently announced they will be adding these to their retail stores. The video highlights the potential for a bigger trend in surface computing, including the idea that specific walls in a house could one day be “wallpapered” with touch sensitive computer displays that would allow us to interact with them in a whole different way.

Personally, I couldn’t think of anything more natural. As long as the interface was easy to use, this could make interacting with our videos, images, and information from the web all the more pervasive.

Click here to view the video.

sola rola flash game

Alex recently put me on to this little flash game on the net. It’s rather fun to play, and I have caught myself playing it a few times when there has been a moment to spare (usually when Claire is waiting for me to do a job around the house that I don’t really want to do).

It’s called Sola Rola, and involves rotating a maze around so that the red and blue ball things go into holes. Try it when you have a spare minute.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/offthewrist/sola-rola-the-gravity-maze

elephant artists

Recently there has been two different BoingBoing articles on elephants who are using their talents to help pay for the Elephant Art & Conservation Project, a group of people are saving the lives of elephants that would otherwise be killed for their ivory tusks.

The project is selling the paintings of the elephants online, and I am hoping that one day in the future some kind person will buy me one (hint hint Claire). As you can see, some of the paintings are rather fantastic, the one above being painted by the elephant named Boon Rod, the works is an acrylic on elephant dung paper.

The project can be found at http://www.elephantart.com/

But the interesting thing about these projects is the videos that are coming out of youtube showing the elephants doing their work. I was amazed when I saw the video below, as it shows an elephant painting an elephant holding a flower. I was in awe of what I was watching. It’s a nine minute video, but it is most definitely worth watching. It just makes you realise how crazy people are when they think that animals have no thoughts or feelings, and assume that they are not self aware. I’m going to shut up now, just go watch the video.

(via BoingBoing and BoingBoing)

picture of the day

Found this picture on a Japanese website that was talking about alternatve Prime Ministers. Aparently the approval ratings for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is down significantly, but the alternative people that could fill his shoes aren’t good candidates for the job either. I can’t add anything important to the discussion, but I thought the picture was rather cool.

(via Japan Probe)

children’s ninja costumes

In ninja related news, Japan’s Iga Me is offering free rides for children dressed in ninja costumes between April 1 to May 6 in an effort to highlight their yearly ninja festival. I don’t know much about the festival, but if the children’s costumes are anything to go by, it should be a fun time.

(via Japan Probe)

bye bye fishy

One of our fishies dies overnight. So we did the traditional burial in the watery grave (a.k.a the toilet flush). Looks like i’ll be back at the petshop soon. Bye bye fishy. We are thinking of you.

bug paintings

Some of my favourite paintings are created by things other than people. Bugs are no exception. This abstract artwork is done by Steven R Kutcher, who dips their legs in coloured paint and sets them free on the canvas. I’m totally in awe. Now I know what I will be doing next weekend.

(via Washington Post)

stop motion battle: tony vs paul

I remember watching Stop Motion videos on Sesame Street when I was a chid. So seeing this made me chuckle a little.

(via ZeFrank)

goatse: bill o’reilly

For those who get it… Someone in the graphics department of Bill O’Reillys crappy right wing propaganda show must have been having a chucke.