Neil Gaiman and FourPlay: Makin' Whoopee

Here's one of those things you never thought you'd see: Neil Gaiman, famed writer (Sandman, American Gods), on stage with a string quartet, singing, of all things: Makin' Whoopee. 

I found it while looking for a video of the string quartet, FourPlay, playing their wonderful rendition of one of my favorite Sinead O'connor songs, Just Like U said it Would B. 

Pen-F review

 Here is a review of the brand new Olympus Pen-F, from the 'Camera Store'. it's a video, and I like the camera stores reviews they are entertaining and still sober.

Fun photo collection

Fun photo collection, apparently not the result of Photoshop.

Your body language shape yourself

Don't miss this one, it splendid. Two minutes of body language "faking" can considerably increase your success rate.

Here's another cool one; how to spot lying.
Did you know that two strangers on average lie three times to each other in the first ten minutes?
(Notice the short video in the last third of a mother lying about who killed her children. That's a scary person, holy frig.)

Snow monsters!

 Snow monsters! This is one for the boys, I guess.

"Fragile"

I've always disliked when people misused important labels so much that the labels started to become meaningless and overlooked. One example is office workers labelling most of their memos "Urgent!" when they are really not so.
Another one is "fragile".

But this example is so extreme that I have to laugh. These are ball bearing balls which I bought for an art project. Now such balls are subject to immense pressure, so they have to be tough. In fact they are so strong and hard that they can handle tens of tons of pressure on one tiny point without cracking! There is nothing one can find in ordinary surroundings which can make a dent in these!
So to label a shipment of these "Fragile"...

Why hide beams?

One purpose of under-clothes nipple covers is to hide the fact that you have nipples, especially when they are on "full alert"...
One ad, in Oprah Magazine, says "avoid high beam situations", with no trace of irony.  :-)

That's one of those things I consider tragic. Nothing so sexy as "high beams", so why hide it? It *is* covered, so can hardly be called obscene.

David Bowie R.I.P. (Updated)

At 69, David Bowie succumbed to cancer, shortly after release of his latests, Dark Star.

I send blessings to him. For me, he was the Kilimanjaro of late-twentieth century seminal rock music (in the broadest sense). So original I can't even think of anybody who *really* tried to emulate him, while the number of musicians who state he was a major influence is legion.

OMG: Simpsons episode 11 was released on iTunes today, containing this line from Skinner: "She has a cat with two different colored eyes; his name is *Bowie*!"

Even my postman talked about Bowie today. That was one famous dude.

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Handheld video with 820mm telelens!

[Thanks to Bert]

Continuing with the super-stabilized new Olympus super-tele. Here is a video which is taken hand-held with it, *including* the 1.4x teleconverter. Astounding.

(Did you know seals have to crawl on land to sleep? Poor critters.)

Good compacts

It has been wondered why I seem to go for a certain type of camera. Like:

• Konica TC (C for compact)
• Pentax ME Super (Smallest SLR ever) 
• Olympus OM-2
• Konica Big Mini
• Micro Four Thirds cameras
• Sony RX100

Well, the fact is simple: I like things which are compact, powerful, and aesthetic.
Like Mila Kunis.

Bubbles!

This is a short video, but a lot of fun, A Gazillion Bubbles.

I like that she allows herself to show that she is having fun. Very few stage artists do.

Honor Terry Pratchett

A petition to name a new element in Terry Pratchett's honor. He richly deserves it, nobody matches his skill, wit, and intelligence, in or out of fantasy.