Friday Ephemera
Jerboa. // Sculpted pencil tips. // How to pet your porcupine. // Robot butterfly. // The Rex exoskeleton. // MRI scans of oranges, mushrooms and other foodstuffs. // Beef lolly. // Abandoned couches. // A brief history of computer icons. // “Communist authorities suspected that Wittenburg’s photos amounted to a critique of the regime.” // Penn & Teller on the hijacking of environmentalism. // Simulated physics. // Pondering Inception. // Ode to Newport. // Tesseract 101. // Turntable kitsch. // Floating Point. // Bioluminescent algae. // Niagara Street, 1908. Spot the window cleaner. // Zoom trees. // A must for Elvis fans.
“A must for Elvis fans.”
And someone WILL want them.
Someone complained that Newport wasn’t included in The Idler’s book of ‘Crap Towns’. (“The town centre smells of urine.”)
http://idler.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2737
The song’s triumph is the line, “Twinned with Guangxi Province in China.”
Though Newport still sounds livelier than Didcot, which I visited once, briefly, and which seemed to be devoid of any distinguishing features. Or amenities.
It has a power station.
and a parkway train station, so both a large car-park and a station!
Rather more fun physics simulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjIzoGnkCZs
“A must for Elvis fans.”
Oh no…
“Autopsy instruments used in the embalmment and preparation of the body of Elvis Presley have been withdrawn from the August 12 auction at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers per the request of the owner. Due to questions of ownership.”
http://www.lesliehindman.com/index.php?/around-the-block/elvis-embalming-tools-withdrawn-by-auction-house/
Gutted.
Porcupine link naturally calls to mind this poem by Hilaire Belloc:
.
What! And would you slap the porcupine?
Unhappy child! Desist!
Alas – that any friend of mine
Should turn a tupto-philist.
.
To slap the smallest and the least
Of creatures is a sin:
How much more bad to beat a beast
With prickles on its skin.
.
Wise words.