Origami Lotus Flower

I found some cute Japanese origami paper in a charity shop and this video on how to make a lotus flower :)




















I also finished the crochet blanket today... pictures soon!

Katamari hat

Can't stand to keep looking at Nick Griffin any more, even if it is in cartoon pisstake form.

So here's a not-as-good-as-the-ball-one Katamari hat to go with the cake. Much cuter!

I want to make woolly, sew-y things!

Fuck the BNP

Project Trico

This is very early footage the next game from Team ICO. As with most early footage you can expect graphical enhancements for the final product. Some of these elements, such as the main character, or scenarios you see here may not make the final cut.

OMG. OMG. OMG.

I need this now. Found here.

ICO

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Further to this post all I can say (with bitter disappointment) is:




Rubbish. Just rubbish.

Rorschach Plush

Found here.

How Harry Potter was pitched to the publishers

I love the books but just found this funny.

Modern Toilet

This is a toilet-themed restaurant in Taiwan. This, among a few other crazy themed restaurants, was found here.

Rejection

via videosift.com

Facebook risks 'infantilising' the human mind

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.

The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader issues, such as the psychological impact on children.

She said she found it strange we are "enthusiastically embracing" the possible erosion of our identity through social networking sites, since those that use such sites can lose a sense of where they themselves "finish and the outside world begins".

She claimed that sense of identity can be eroded by "fast-paced, instant screen reactions, perhaps the next generation will define themselves by the responses of others".

Social networking sites can provide a "constant reassurance – that you are listened to, recognised, and important". Greenfield continued. This was coupled with a distancing from the stress of face-to-face, real-life conversation, which were "far more perilous … occur in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever or witty responses" and "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and perhaps even to pheromones, those sneaky molecules that we release and which others smell subconsciously".

She said she feared "real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction."

The solutions, however, lay less in regulation as in education, culture and society.

Greenfield argued that the appeal of Facebook lay in the fact that "a child confined to the home every evening may find at the keyboard the kind of freedom of interaction and communication that earlier generations took for granted in the three-dimensional world of the street. But even given a choice, screen life can still be more appealing."

She quoted one user saying they had 900 friends, another saying the fact "that you can't see or hear other people makes it easier to reveal yourself in a way that you might not be comfortable with. You become less conscious of the individuals involved [including yourself], less inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be evaluated."

But Greenfield warned: "It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations. We know that the human brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world."

Full article here.

This woman has just said all the things I've been thinking about these sites for the last 4 or so years...

Recycling old computer monitors...

A LOST cake

May I be the first to say: WTF?!?

Created by this chap for reasons unknown. In-joke perhaps?

Benjamin Linus for President

Buy all manner of merchandise from Grubby Tees.

Lost fan art - 'Simpons-Style'

I very much enjoy 'Shannon's' left eye in this picture. Also, 'Charlie' doesn't look right to me...

How I 'Lost' the Last Three Weeks

So it's happened. I've got sucked into yet another TV show and have wasted my evenings over the last three weeks watching episodes back-to-back until my body wins the fight against the caffeine and my left eyes starts twitching, before falling asleep on the sofa all undignified like. But Lost is well and truly worth it. Three weeks ago I decided that since almost everyone I know (and valued their opinions) held the show in such high regard, I would start watching Lou's copy of Season One. Little did I know that 4 days later she would need to purchase Season Two. Then 5 days later I was *ahem* downloading Season 3. Then 4 found its way on to my computer. By the time I had gasped at the idea that Ben, Jack and the contents of that coffin (trying not to spoil anyone here) were going to return to the Island, it was the day before the first episode of Season 5 was scheduled to air, and I was beyond being hooked and had entered the realms of nerdy obsession.

That's right my friends, I highly recommend this show if you are one of the 12 people left in the western world that hasn't seen it. But if you do watch it, be warned: you have to start at the beginning. It's not the kind of show that you can just pick up half way through.

Namaste.

Here are some links:

Official Lost Website
The Fuselage (JJ Abrams' Lost-related forum)

The Flatulent Cat - Yoga Postitions for over 50s

A message for yoga teachers in-training: don't forget that the over 50s have a different yoga experience - they are more likely to feel strain on their back and their knees, more likely to get confused and forget where their legs are and it's quite possible that they will be more inclined to break wind often during classes.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.