I love this Comic Strip, which turns life and death into a love story. Sorry I can’t accredit it, as where it was shared on Facebook didn’t accredit the author/artist.
Unable to Credit Author/Artist.
3. Three The Pony #DancePonyDance Advert
This advert is great. To see a Pony dancing and Moon walking made my day:
4. Guardian Article – Pandering to the crowd: panda accused of faking pregnancy in bun fraud case
Ai Hin showed all the signs she was expecting but only wanted extra food and the trappings of celebrity, say keepers
Giant panda Ai Hin put on a ‘phantom pregnancy’, possibly because she wanted special treatment, her Chinese keepers say. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Hopes that tiny panda paws would be seen in the world’s first live-broadcast cub delivery have been dashed after Chinese experts suggested the “mother” may have been focusing more on extra bun rations than giving birth.
The slated star of the show, giant panda Ai Hin, had shown signs of pregnancy at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, according to state news agency Xinhua.
A live broadcast of the event was planned but Xinhua said her “behaviours and physiological indexes returned to normal”, citing experts saying she experienced a “phantom pregnancy”.
The breeding centre, in China’s south-western province of Sichuan, commonly moves pandas that are thought to be pregnant into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care.
“They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life,” Wu Kongju, an expert at the base told Xinhua.
Phantom pregnancy is said to be common among the endangered animals. Many continued to display pregnant behaviour after noticing the difference in treatment they received, Xinhua said.
Six-year-old Ai Hin showed reduced appetite, less mobility and a surge in hormones when her “pregnancy” was first detected, the news agency said, before further observations concluded it was fake.
The giant panda’s natural habitat is in the mountainous south-west of China. But they have a notoriously low reproductive rate and are under pressure from factors such as habitat loss.
China has about 1,600 pandas living in the wild and another 300 held in captivity.
“Only 24% of females in captivity give birth, posing a serious threat to the survival of the species,” Xinhua said.
(From: The Guardian, Last Accessed: Tuesday 28th October 2014.)
I laughed aloud when I read this, thinking: That’s exactly what I would do. Anything to get special treatment and an extra bun. Gawd, aren’t animals clever?
5. A Beautiful Tree Home by Pagan Artist Annika Worth
I probably wouldn’t have discovered this beautiful drawing, which was was so alluring that I wanted to go and live there if it wasn’t for Facebook:
Image Credit: Annika Worth.
6. My Video: When Trying To Be Funny Goes Wrong
This is my video I created entitled: When Trying To Be Funny Goes Wrong. I think it’s quite funny for a number of reasons, mainly because it’s so bad and everything doesn’t go according to plan.
Some time ago I commissioned my good friend Sye Watts to design a logo and some icons for my blog. I asked for a cartoony feel and he did a brilliant job.
Then for my Christmas present in 2011 Sye redesigned my logo (see image left for the two designed compared). It reflected a more mature blog, to match a more mature me.
Recently I commissioned Sye to redesign some of the old cartoon icons and create some new ones to match the new more mature style of the new logo. He did a fantastic job and created some amazing illustrations. Here are the old icons, redesigned, based on the brief I gave him:
Left: Old Goals/Adventures Illustrative Icon, Right: New Goals/Adventures Illustration.
Left: Old Books Illustrative Icon, Right: New Books Illustration.
Left: Old Photos Illustrative Icon, Right: New Photos Illustration.
Left: Old Celebration/Good Times Illustrative Icon, Right: New Celebration/Good Times Illustration.
Left: Old Home Illustrative Icon, Right: New Home Illustration.
Left: Old Paganism Illustrative Icon, Right: New Paganism Illustration.
And here are the new illustrations:
New: Blogging/iMac/Contact Illustration.
New: Cats Illustration.
New: Diabetes/Health Illustration.
New: Friends & Family Illustration.
New: Films/Movies Illustration.
New: Gay/Gay World Illustration.
New: Love & Relationships Illustration.
New: Financial/Money Illustration.
New: Technology Illustration.
New: Creative Writing Illustration.
Sye Watts is a truly Talented Illustrator. Professional throughout the process. He allowed me to sign off on the work – so that all of the illustrations were exactly as I want them and exceeded my expectations in all regards.
If you need an Illustrator I would without any hesitation recommend Sye Watts. He does a wide range of work including: logo design, illustrations, posters, comics, personalised gifts, etc. Sye is friendly and helpful – so please get in touch with him if you have a project that you think will utilise his talent, skill and knowledge.
Tom Daley recently came out as gay. He is a professional Swimmer and an award winning olympic one at that. As such it’s no surprise that he has a gay following, with his fit physique and his uniform being a small pair of speedos. I can’t deny that his body is adonis-like; even if that isn’t the type of man I’m into. Anyway, he’s some eye candy photos of him for you, gathered off the internet (so I don’t hold copyright for any of the images in this post):
Last weekend I dragged boyfriend-A along to Lancashire Science Festival. We arrived, signed in and were given a programmes, maps and visitor passes. It was being hosted by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), which had a special significance for me as UCLAN was where I completed Nursing studies sometime ago. It was nice to see that the campus has developed, while at the same time keeping some of the buildings that I studied and lived in. Walking around triggered many happy memories for me, but I wasn’t there for a trip down memory lane. We were there to explore all things science. All things geek.
Which started with Titan, a singing, dancing and joke-cracking robot. See photos below (click any image for full size photo):
Lancashire Science Festival Selfie with Titan.
Titan The Robot.
Titan 2
Titan 3
Titan 4.
Titan 5.
Titan 6. Mr Red Eyes.
Then boyfriend-A and I listened to a fascinating talk from @Drsurvival entitled Power Up Your Brain. I enjoyed the talk, but it would have been great to have two talks: one aimed at children & families and one aimed purely at adults. This was because I would have liked @Drsurvival to go into more of the biological and physiological detail.
We discovered a hall that had so many activities from a wide range of science and engineering organisations. My particular highlight was the CSI tent, where we learned more about the process of investigating crime. Then it was time for lunch, followed by Jo Blows Stuff Up!
Lancashire Science Festival ignited my imagination for everything science, engineering and technical. There was so much to get round, we spent most of the day there and only got through a small fraction of the activities on offer. I would have loved to have more time to do: the Science Dome Planetarium, Zoo Bus and Flash Bang Science. The free talks were over subscribed meaning that even pre-booking I couldn’t get tickets to attend Davros – An Audience with Davros and Science of Sherlock free talks. But I’m sure we’ll get around to some of these activities and talks next year.
Lancashire Science Festival is free fun for all the family. There were loads of young children there, loads of activities for them and they looked like they were having a fantastic time.
My advice on how to work the day: Arrive early and do the open activities in the morning. Then pre-book a talk or two for the afternoon.
