Category: General

As part of an experiment/stunt, international virtuoso Joshua Bell and his nigh $4 million violin spent some time busking with some interesting results.

For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists.

I don’t know if I agree with that entirely, but it’s food for thought.

[link to article]

Friendster, Orkut, there’s too many of these “friend” sites to keep track of, and they keep emailing me to tell me I have a new friend. Most recently I was invited to join Facebook and I thought, why not? At least it has a fanclub for The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets on it. I had no idea there were so many people I know on Facebook, it seems every day I get a new request. Some of whom I don’t even know!

The point is, don’t let me forget to tape “Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters” tonight!

There is a heated discussion on The Octopus News Magazine Online (tonmo.com) as Dr Steve O’Shea tries to identify just what the hell this could be

Size- 30-40cm long and around 5-10cm thick around anterior end, and 2-5cm thick posterior skirt.
Grey colour on dorsal side of body. Pale ventral. Red/white bands around edges of ‘skirt’ Orange/brown patch on ventral surface behind the ‘vent’.
Skirt – This appears to be a membranous tissue on the posterior end of the body, mostly grey but with banding around the edges. On close inspection of the photographs this looks like a thin layer of ‘skin’ that ‘flaps’ like a ray. The banded area looks like 2 separate appendages that do not join, but the ends meet.

Anterior – very distinctive ‘nose’/ trunk like protrusion which appears to be able to move independently of the rest of the body. Small grooves run from the tip of the underside of the ‘nose’, towards the middle underside and around the side of the body towards the vent. There was a notable inflation of the ‘melon’ as the animal surfaced and this then deflated as it dived.
2 (visible) circular indentations on dorsal surface near the beginning of the ‘skirt’

Movement – slow swimming, possibly using the ‘vents’ on the side of the body to propel it forward. It moved with the ‘nose’ end leading. One photograph shows a ‘footprint’ left behind the animal.

Behaviour – First spotted just below the surface (~ 30cm), it then surfaced and swam towards the boat, stopped and lifted the ‘nose’ towards us as if sensing something in front of it.

There was a group of about 200+ bottlenose dolphins in the area, feeding on small fish. They did not appear interested in the creature, nor it by them.
Relatively calm sea conditions, sea state 1, slight easterly swell. Water depth, <25m.

Here’s some interesting things happening this month:

April 4 (Thursday) – Chris Wood’s art show opening gala at the Diane Farris Gallery!!!!!!! 6-8pm
Currently – Blades of Glory at The Rio (who wants to go?)
Tuesday April 17 – Vancouver Ukelele Circle at Our Town Bakery
Saturday April 21 – Vancouver Comic Jam at Jolly Alderman Pub 8pm
Sunday April 22 – Vancouver Comicon at Heritage Hall (daytime)

Who knows of other things?

ps – here’s [link] a short and insightful interview with George Lucas about what characters will be appearing in the Clone Wars live action series.

Here [link] is an interesting (short) article on one of the many problems with DVDs. Basically, as you may have guessed, the people who produce DVDs hold goodies back from a box set so that you will buy the next edition.

Here’s another:

Lord Geekington posts a fascinating article about very large squid. Read it [here] if you wish. Or just look at this chart:

That guy at the top is you. Now pretend that it’s a screenshot from a video game.

Not me. But my roommate does. Is it wrong to sneak into his room to envelope myself in CCC (Cthulhu’s Comfy Clutches)?

Thanks to Duncan for the photo.

There is an old Klingon proverb that says anything can be improved by adding either chocolate or cheese. Well, we’ve all had chocolate cheesecake but now we can also have chocolate flavoured cheese slices.

And here as promised is a scan of the box that contained the tiny individually-wrapped green tea flavoured KitKat bars I got in Richmond. Check it out. Virtually to scale.