This is Omar’s blog

• Trap-jaw ants, Odontomachus bauri, fire their mandibles with such acceleration that when the mandibles strike a hard surface, the forces generated are strong enough to propel the ants’ bodies through the air. In the “escape jump,” shown here, the ant’s trajectory is directed upward. In a “bouncer defense jump” (bottom), by comparison, the ant clears a greater horizontal distance. The video is being shown 100 times slower than real time. link Via Metafilter

• Reader, let me tell you: men want me - and you - to be lobotomised

• 9 of 50 Most loathsome people in America. You

  Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism — it’s nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears’ children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you’re going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase “enhanced interrogation techniques.” You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can’t spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don’t want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy’s doing well. You’re an idiot.

  Exhibit A: You couldn’t get enough Anna Nicole Smith coverage.

  Sentence: A gradual decline into abject poverty as you continue to vote against your own self-interest. Death by an easily treated disorder that your health insurance doesn’t cover. You deserve it, chump.

  (Yes it is American, but there are definitely parallels)

Youngsters hoping for a white Christmas saw their dream come true at a hospice for sick children in Yorkshire after a businessman won a charity auction.Children at Martin House Hospice at Boston Spa near Leeds found 10 tonnes of the real stuff on their front lawn on Christmas Eve.

Company chief Chris Hopkins bid £1,420 for the snow on the eBay auction site and had it delivered to the hospice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7159421.stm

I suppose the point is, what is the point of Xmas.

It took me ten minutes to recover my senses once I tried this. I was shuddering in a corner, convinced I narrowly escaped killing myself.
Here’s what happened:
The water fills the hole in the saran wrap so that there is either water or vaccum in your mouth. The water pours into your sinuses and throat. You struggle to expel water periodically by building enough pressure in your lungs. With the saran wrap though each time I expelled water, I was able to draw in less air. Finally the lungs can no longer expel water and you begin to draw it up into your respiratory tract.
It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control. All hell breaks loose. Instinct tells us we are dying.
I have never been more panicked in my whole life. Once your lungs are empty and collapsed and they start to draw fluid it is simply all over. You [b]know[b] you are dead and it’s too late. Involuntary and total panic.

(link)

Man waterboards himself to see what it is like. It’s quite a powerful piece. (More from the BBC on the controversy surrounding it.)

It’s funny because in such a short space of time on the internet you can look at/glance over/watch/briefly scan/read/ so much as then you see something and it makes everything else seem so much smaller. This video is a Tay Zonday’s Chocolate Rain mixed with Radiohead’s Talk Show Host. It’s awesome, it really is. (.mp3). It seems Chocolate Rain was big in July and I am only just catching up.

Which I found from here (The Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading - some really good things there). Which was linked to from a number of places.

Jenn > From that list is this Blogotheque - Take Away Shows (”Drag a band out into the street, shoot video of them playing”.) Which features the Cold War Kids. Though also there is Arcade Fire and Jeremy Warmsley (remember him?!).

(The “Blog of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks is there too. Also.)

“It’s funny,” he said before taking another drag, “an advanced, science-minded species and what do we have to show for it? No colony on Mars, no patches for the ozone layer. No proof of intelligent life out there and no flying cars. We don’t even have a cure for cancer, just this dodge around it” he paused and held the SimStik out dramatically. Alice looked up from the spot on his chest that she’d nestled up against. “Just this little plastic straw that makes our brains think we’re perpetuating a filthy habit with none of the undesirable side effects.”

link

The BBC said: “We are playing an edited version because some members of the audience might find it offensive.”

It’s funny that, because I find Radio 1 offensive generally.

If Radio One were so outraged by “faggot” why did they insist on
running a news piece in the breakfast news (at least twice) where the
aforementioned word was singled out?

Reversed.