Rhinos look kind of funny when they’re hog-tied and being flown around by helicopter.
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
The Extreme Improbability of Your Existence
What is truly bizarre is that there are those who use extreme improbability to argue against the existence of God. I saw Richard Dawkins essentially make that argument in Brisbane last year… anyway. Mind. Blown.
You are a miracle.
Via BoingBoing
The Mike Tyson Song
This song has some very rude words. But it is very funny. A song made up of quotes from the rather deranged ex-boxer/ear-biter Mike Tyson.
Via Richard W on Google+
Just what the doctor ordered: Scientifically accurate fabric brain art
Yes. This is a thing that exists. Thanks to the Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art, no less. There’s even a wooden counterpart.
If that’s not your cup of tea – how about some mathematically accurate knitting? For example: a double-knitted Möbius-band-into-torus…
The Mystery of the Giant Lego Man and his Lego Army
This chalk painting is pretty amazing. Am I right?
And is apparently a response to the re-emergence of Ego Leonard (wiki), the giant floating lego man who has washed up on beaches around the world. Most recently in the US.
It is possible that the chalk artist is the man behind the giant. The newspaper running this story didn’t really like the old “artist uses a mysterious giant lego man to sell stuff” trick. But it’s fine by me.
Here, lest any mystery be left unsolved, is the drawing behind that magical chalk art.
Via BoingBoing
Playing realistic plastic soldiers…
This is a great Halloween costume. This Soldier’s name is Harrison Jones. And he deserves your admiration.
“Harrison started by picking out the perfect green tarp, then taking it to the hardware store and having them color match a quart of semi-gloss interior latex paint. He then painted the air soft helmet, boots, and gun with several coats of the green paint. Next, he cut out cardboard in an oval shape, painted it green, and used duct tape in a loop to stick to his boots.
As for the uniform, he picked out a long-sleeve shirt and a pair of pants he was willing to sacrifice, and cut them both along the seams. Harrison then spread the chopped shirt and pants out on the tarp, pinned them to the tarp, and cut around the fabric, leaving about a half inch of extra tarp (the sleeves were done separately). He used duct tape to “sew” the tarp back together, leaving half of the tape’s sticky side exposed and putting it on the inside of the seam, and then connecting the matching part of the tarp, adjusting to the right fit.
Possibly not the best skin treatment, but he then painted his hands and face with the same latex paint. I had to ask how that latex paint felt on his skin, and he said, “It was okay as long as I wasn’t in direct sunlight, and after a while it would crack if I smiled or moved my face. It ended up just being able to peel off in warm water.”
Via Make.
Old Chinese Choir goes Ga Ga…
Give this a few seconds to get warmed up, and it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever seen, today, possibly.
Perhaps an analogy of what happens when old people try to do music for young people? A lesson for U2 to learn.
Web 3.0: Why cloudsourcing is cool
Let me tell you what the latest cool thing I like to watch on the Internet is (you’re forgiven for thinking all I do is watch YouTube videos and look for dumb stuff). Crowdsourcing. Or, Cloudsourcing. The basic idea, for those who came in late, is that you have a good idea, you need funds, so you throw it out there and see if the internet will help. It works for everything from charity to book publishing, from inventing new products, to new science projects.
And it’s cool. It takes the power of social networking, and the nature of the internet, and actually applies it to something.
Here are some crowdsourcing sites that I’ve found. I’m sure there are others out there.
Kiva.org – Kiva is a microfinancing site where you can provide loans to needy entrepeneurs from around the globe. I love it. I’ve funded a few coffee farmers. You can start groups and stuff – and the Christians and Atheists are battling it out for generosity supremacy.
Santos here is a coffee farmer. He’s trying to raise $350.
Kickstarter.com – Kickstarter is a hub for funding inventors, artists, and people who are creating new products that don’t fall into those categories. Funding a project normally buys you some share in its success (ie a version of whatever it is you’re funding). Here’s an example – a project called Etchpop – which will buy a company a laser cutter to make wooden block type stamps for people. $25 will get you a wooden stamp if they get funding.
RocketHub.com – RocketHub is just like Kickstarter, only its currently running a campaign to fund science projects. This Sea Turtle conservation project looks pretty cool.
Loudsauce.com – Loudsauce is perhaps my favourite. If you’re into a cause you can chip in to having advertisements produced and aired. All their campaigns are currently funded – but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
This FairTrade soccer balls campaign looked fun.
Unbound.co.uk – Unbound is a book publisher. But not just any sort of book publisher – a classy one… at the moment you can support one of my favourite blogs, Letters of Note, as they head towards publishing a book.
Fiverr.com – Fiverr is a bit different, and I’ve linked to it before, but it is so much fun. And so cheap. You can get Mario to make you a video for $5 (here’s my version). Bargain.
Urban Animals: A photo project that would have been funny before Ohio
I think two weeks is about right… I saw this the day before a pack of wild animals from a crazy man’s crazy zoo wandered crazy town and got shot by some crazy cops. It wasn’t really “funny” then… nor is it now, but these are composite images created from people’s animal photos on Flickr, and one man’s architectural works.
More here.
The monster infographic
Pop Chart Labs produce beautiful infographic/poster things. Here’s their latest – a visual guide to all the monsters ever invented… well… almost.
There’s a zoomable version here.
A revolutionary chalk duster produces recursive chalk
This is pretty cool. Perpetual chalk, depending on the transmission loss…
“As you erase the board, the Chalkeeper has a tiny vacuum motor that sucks up all of the dust and stores it inside the handle. That by itself would be a big improvement over the usual chalky mess, but this concept goes one step further by combining the chalk dust with heat and water to mold new chalk sticks.”
Via Dvice
Tumblrweed: Stocking, possibly the new “new planking”…
Stock photography has the capacity to be pretty awful. Mixing random keywords together in the hope that the internet will discover and fall in love with your generic image is a recipe for some pretty awful photo composition.
So stock photography is great fodder for mockery, and thus great fodder for a single serving tumblr. Enter “Stocking is the new planking”…
Minute Physics: Get in touch with your inner geek…
These are cool.
H/T to Kutz, who shared this pink light one a while ago.