I didn’t like the first episode of Newstopia on SBS last year. I thought Shaun Micaleff was trying too hard to sound like he was being satirical. “I. Am. Telling. A. Joke. Now. And. I. Am. Clever.” But last night I changed my mind. I watched the latest episode online: he’s relaxed into the role, and much lolz. Maybe I’m finally over the fact that I found Mr Micaleff to be a painful arsehole back when he was at the Uni of Adelaide with me. (Weren’t we all, though.) Maybe it’s because I was, as Christian Kerr alleges, the first person to play him Supernaut’s I Like It Both Ways.
Big Scary, Little Scary
Which of these images do you find the most frightening? Which the most beautiful? Which the most relevant to human existence?
On the left, the highest-resolution image of a virus ever taken. It’s the Epsilon 15 Bacteriophage (i.e. a virus which infects bacteria), and if you count viruses as being alive then it’s one of the most abundant forms of life on Earth.
On the right, a photo of what one guy found growing under his co-worker’s computer monitor. There’s a full image gallery. Hat-tip to Boing Boing.
Zombies in Plain English
The folks at Common Craft are worried about you and your brain at Halloween. That’s zombie season and they want you to be prepared. To help, they made this 3 minute video that will enure you survive, brain intact. Wacky Canadians. (Hat-tip to Peter Black, kinda.)
John Howard wallows in the past, again
Did John Howard drop by Area 51 on the way to Washington? You know, Bush-era budget cuts mean poor cross-checking. Sometimes those probes don’t get removed promptly.
Little Winston never looked comfortable in front of a camera. But the way he’s smiling through clenched teeth here… it’s disturbing.
Perhaps we should have a competition for the best caption?
Oh, there’s a news story here too, apparently. I agree with The Road to Surfdom on this one:
John Howard has given his first major post-election speech and…oh, geez, honestly, I can’t be bothered. Read it here if you like. In the meantime, here’s a picture of a shallow empty vessel and a nice piece of glassware…
Lavartus Prodeo summed it up perfectly.
Compare and contrast, as they say, Kevin Rudd in PNG building bridges and restoring relationships and John Howard in Washington ranting about “Islamic fascism” and dwelling on the past.
It’s the exact same dynamic as in the election — Rudd accentuating the positive and looking to the future, and Howard mired in negativity and defending his “achievements”.
I’d much rather read Rudd’s speech.
So, captions…?
Note to Harvey Norman
Dear Harvey Norman: When you sell someone a new computer and tell them that “everything’s on there”, please explain that you’ve only dumped a copy of their old hard drive onto it, and that it’s still a few hours’ work to download and install software, put data in the right place and generally configure things. You might also like to explain that the “student and teacher” editions of Microsoft Office you’re trying to push aren’t actually able to be used by people running a commercial business.
Another brain in my notebook
My notebook is full of references to the human mind.
Once, on a Saturday Night at The Duke last year, it was a written note by a chap who’d only just been released from jail.
This time (pictured) it’s ’Pong explaining certain basic neurological reflexes.
No, it doesn’t say “Eight High Freeze” — whatever that is! — but “Fight Fligh[t] Freeze”. This diagram explains it all, neurochemistry and everything. Uhuh.
I just love the way that sketched explanations only make sense at the precise moment they’re being created.
Maybe I should go back through that notebook…