Jerry Coyne, of Why Evolution is True, linked to a video today of a pack of orcas hunting together and working cooperatively to get a seal off an ice floe. There’s more info at his article (and the info originally came from the book Here Be Dragons).
I imagine that seal is a bit freaked out.
Lori showed me this video the other day of some foxes playing on a trampoline. One of them obviously likes the bounciness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isWZPFkzwUs
Dolphins amaze me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ50PYMXDCQ
A pod of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida have developed a remarkable hunting strategy in order to catch fish. Another awesome thing about this technique is that only one female in the pod can create this ring.
From the first episode (Challenges of Life) of the new BBC series Life. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lbpcy
Those are some clever animals.
I saw this months ago, but listened to it again and wanted to share it.
Tim Minchin performs his beat poem titled “Storm.” Don’t let “beat poem” put you off. This is such a wonderfully entertaining, funny, and insightful nine minutes that you won’t regret it!
I just saw a link from John Moltz that referenced this site. Like him, I had totally forgotten about owning this album! I had the orange version when I was around eight years old.
Check out the site for larger versions. It even has scans of the record cover insert which had all kinds of party planning ideas. I remember making all the invitations, though I can’t remember if I actually had the party or not.
Good times. Good times.
Okay, it’s not really in the house, but today Lori bought a new silver Scion xB to replace her aging Dodge Caravan. The dealer let her bring it home so I could check it out and we took it for a quick test drive around the neighborhood. It’s got a lot more pep than I expected and a ton of room inside. All her Pampered Chef gear fits perfectly in the back so it’s just what she needs for her shows… and it gets much better mileage.
We’re taking it tonight when we go to dinner while my car waits forlornly in the driveway for my return.
(Anthropomorphism, for the win!)
I saw this video linked by Felicia Day via Twitter. It’s a sand painter/animator on the Ukranian version of “America’s Got Talent” and she’s phenomenal.
Last night was the first time I got to use my new telescope that I got from Telescopes.com. It was delivered on July 17th and, with one exception, the sky has been cloudy every… single… night! Finally, last night, there were enough clear spots that I could get a nice view of the moon and the detail. The view, even without a filter, was terrific. Megan was pretty excited about it, too (Lori took a look and said she saw footprints. Ha!).
The moon was probably only about one-third full, but there were lots of craters visible with great resolution. I used a 20mm eyepiece to position everything (about 50x magnification) and then switched to a 10mm eyepiece (100x) to get more detail. I almost expected to see the LRO cruising around the moon!
I’ll be taking a drive with the telescope to a much darker location with less light pollution soon, so I’m hoping to get an even better moon view and some great views of a planet or two… if I can find them. I’m still not fluent with the whole astronomical coordinate language yet, so that’s going to be tough for awhile.
I’m really looking forward to a clearer night with a fuller moon.
I remember seeing the Phlat Ball on television awhile ago. It’s a Frisbee kind of thing that turns into a ball when you throw it. So you throw it just like you would a Frisbee, but you get to catch a ball. The commercial had all kinds of cool shots of the ball transforming and I thought, Wow, that looks cool!
Well, I saw it in action today and it’s very clever. When you collapse it, there are two internal suction cups that hold it flat in its Frisbee configuration, but when you throw it, the spin releases the suction cups and it turns into a ball. This is all well and good, but what you really end up with is a Frisbee that rolls away if you don’t catch it. This is annoying, but it’s even more annoying if you’re playing on a hill.
A+ for intent and potential coolness. C for practical usage.
After writing the last post about Rush Limbaugh, I got a bit of a sickening feeling in my stomach and realized that today’s post made three in a row about Rush. That’s both depressing and unacceptable. So in order to remedy that sad state of affairs, I figured it’d do a quick write-up of Burn Notice, a spy/drama/action/comedy television show that is in its third season. The accompanying photo is way better than a bloated Rush face, too.
I got hooked watching Burn Notice a few months ago when I happened to catch a couple episodes on USA Network. It had a great Miami Vice meets Beverly Hills Cop kind of style. Netflix hooked me up with the Season 1 and Season 2 DVD’s and Hulu provided me the opportunity to completely catch up with this season.
Sadly, now I have to wait a week (or longer) between episodes.
The show, however, kicks ass. I frequently find myself laughing out loud… and then sitting on the edge of my seat… and then getting a little choked up. The mood mixing is done very well and the style of the show is such that it’s a visual treat as well.
Though there is an over-arcing storyline, each episode generally contains a standalone storyline as well, making it very easy to pick up in the middle and still understand most of what’s going on. The characters have phenomenal chemistry. Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar constantly have a cool, sexual tension heat while Donovan and Bruce Campbell have great buddy charisma. Sharon Gless, who plays Donovan’s mother, is a perfect mix of doting, overprotective mother and nagging bitch. Mix all that up with the spy back story and Donovan’s informative voiceover narrative and you’ve got a terrific show that is a delight to watch.
And you learn lots of pretend spy stuff. 😉