Friday 27 June 2008

Kermit Love R.I.P


Kermit Love (inset below) - the man who built Sesame Street icons Big Bird and Cookie Monster has died aged 91..
I was never a big fan of the Bird - but Cookie Monster was, and remains, my favourite Sesame Street character....


Wednesday 25 June 2008

Digital Horror Girls

Haunting visions of Japanese schoolgirls from CG artist Yock (Yoshitaka Kawakami).....





Tuesday 24 June 2008

Internet TV

The website says....

'Telly without context.

To watch you'll need a broadband connection, quite a fast computer and a deep seated urge to be totally bewildered.'

They weren't kidding!

Name Game


How many Simpsons characters can you name?

I scored 48 - see how you do...

Monday 23 June 2008

R.I.P. George Carlin

George Carlin has died from heart failure in Los Angeles aged 71.
His famous 'Seven words you can never say on TV' routine led to his arrest in 1972 for disturbing the peace after performing the show at Milwaukee. The same routine, which was played on a New York radio station, resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the governments authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.
And here it is -
Seven words you can never say on TV.

Saturday 21 June 2008

Spore Penis Monster

Friday 20 June 2008

Firefox 3


For those of you who've downloaded Firefox 3 this week - Lifehackers has a cool little users guide to help you out with all the new features.

Complex Crop Circle Shows Pi


A crop circle in Wroughton near Wiltshire has turned out to be a lot more than just a bit of flattened grass.
The Banbury Circle (above) appeared earlier this month and the crop cirlcle enthusiasts called it 'mind boggling'.
Retired astophysicist Mike Reed saw the pattern and made the mathematical link to Pi.
He says the crop pattern clearly shows the first 10 digits of Pi with the tenth digit correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point and the code is based on ten angular segments with the radial jumps being the indicator of each segment.
The coded image depicts 3.141592654 and the diagram below shows how it's done.



For the full explaination of how the diagram works see - HERE

Twitter Ye Not - We Have ICE On Mars!


Scientists announced yesterday that there is water ice on Mars within reach of the Phoenix Lander.
Photographs sent back by the lander have confirmed that a white substance was indeed ice and the pictures show it vapourising on the surface of the planet.
This is brilliant news for the lander mission and gives us here, back on Earth, something to think about .
The news was twittered out by the Mars Phoenix Lander with a message that read 'Are you ready to celebrate? Well get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!'
Animated photos of the ice can be found - HERE
Twitter link to MPL - HERE

Sunday 15 June 2008

Cheetos Porn

Ermmm......don't know quite what to say......


Welsh Weekend - Trooping the Colour

Thousands of people turned out in London this Saturday for this years Trooping the Colour.
Traditionally part of the millitarys preparation for battle, it was announce in 1748 that it would also be held to mark the sovereigns official birthday (Her Maj actually turned 82 on the 21st April).
The Colour (or flag) this year was that of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. The Queen inspected 1,100 troops most of which were dressed in traditional bearskin and red tunics. Among them were members of the Welsh Gaurds, Scots Gaurds, Grenadier Gaurds and the Coldstream Gaurds.
After the ceremony there was one of the biggest flypasts in recent years to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the RAF. The flypast involved 55 aircraft including a Nimrod, a 68 year old Spitfire and the RAFs latest aircraft - The Typhoon.

Welsh Weekend - Man v Horse


It was a horse that won a narrow victory at the 28th annual Man versus Horse race at Llanwrtyd Wells this year.
300 runners and 46 horses took part in the 22 mile event with Dukes Touch Of Fun coming in 30 seconds before the first runner John MacFarlane.
In last years race Dukes Touch Of Fun came a close second to human runner Florian Holtinger.

Welsh Weekend - Queens Honours

There's been quite a bit of welsh 'stuff' in the news this weekend.
Our very own Russel T Davies was awarded an OBE for his services to drama.
Brought to public attention by the Channel 4 series 'Queer as Folk' (the most complained about programme ever) RTD went on to write the wonderful 'Casanova' mini series starring the second of Russels doctors, David Tennant and then doing the world a great service by breathing life back into Dr Who and creating the spin-off series 'Torchwood'

Friday 13 June 2008

Goodies From The Computex Trade Show

From this years Computex Trade Show in Taipei, Taiwan comes this irresistable little usb toy. Plug this baby into your hub and he'll hit himself on the head with the little hammer every time someone IMs you.
WANT!!!

Firestorm

Shot with 3 cameras over a period of 28 hours during September 28-29th 2005, this film gives a unique look at the Simi Valley fire which destroyed 25,000 acres.
Watch for Mars, Orion and the Moon rising in the distance.



Firestorm from powrslave on Vimeo.

Childhood Fears

From the photographer Joshua Hoffine this set of pictures really brings back that wonderful, innocent fear that you have as a child.






Wednesday 11 June 2008

A Message To Those Who Know Me


Update: My space is back - yay!

Seems I posted some pics of second life avatars doing naughty things and Livespace took offence *sheesh* Sorted now though

Thanks for your support.


Aaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!

It seems my 'Livespace' has gone missing....anyone on my friends list will notice I'm showing up as 'no name' and my space is coming up as 'temporarily unavailable'.


I've been in touch with Microsoft about this and I'm waiting for their answer - so don't panic (yet) I will be back!!


I'm hoping it's just got something to do with the high traffic numbers I've been getting lately and the multiple RSS feeds - but who knows...


....bear with me - I shouldn't be gone long..

Most Painful Skateboard Landing

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Out For A Stroll


Definition Of The Word - TWAT...

Monday 9 June 2008

Largest Ever Picture Of The Milky Way

The Imaging team from the Spitzer Space Telescope last week unveiled the largest, highest resolution infra-red picture ever taken of the Milky Way. The photo spans 180 feet and takes up an entire wall at the AAS meeting in St. Louis (picture above).
The image is made up of 800,000 images taken by Spitzer amassing 39,000 x 6000 pixels and shows an area of sky 120 degrees longitude by 2 degrees latitude.


The online version can be found here

(via)

Our Place In The Universe

A survey using the Spitzer Space Telescope has offered some evidence that we live in a large galaxy distinguished by two main spiral arms (the Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus arms) emerging from the ends of a large central bar.
If you could view our galaxy face on you would likely see the Milky Way as a two-armed barred spiral similar to the picture above. Previous investigations have identified a smaller central barred structure and four spiral arms.
Astronomers place our sun about a third of the way in from the Milky Ways outer edge in a minor arm called the Orion Spur.

Random Trivia

Every day, the sun produces energy equivalent to 35,000,000 times the annual electricity consumption of North America.

Curved Bridge

This is Sky Bridge in Langkawi, Malaysia. It stands 687 metres aboce sea level and curves around the single support column from which it's suspended.


Saturday 7 June 2008

I Love Brian Blessed

Everything you ever wanted to know about Brian Blessed...



Just Popping Out For Some Milk

You know those days when you just can't be bothered to get dressed..........


Wednesday 4 June 2008

A Matter Of Perspective

Classic Hammer Horror And Carry On From The Royal Mail

Due to be released on Tuesday 10th June 2008 this set of stamps from the Royal Mail celebrates the 50th anniversary of the release of the classic 'Hammer Horror' and 'Carry On' films.
The First Class stamp features Carry on Sergeant. For 48p you get Dracula. 50p will buy you Carry on Cleo. 56p is the Curse Of Frankenstein. Carry on Screaming comes in at 72p and last but not least is The Mummy at 81p.
There's a brilliant fun gadget at the Royal Mail website which allows you to magnify the stamps and see them in glorious Technicoloured detail.
I haven't collected any stamps since I was about 12 - but, as a massive Hammer films fan I think I'll make an exception for these.....