Monday 24 August 2009
Origami Lotus Flower
I also finished the crochet blanket today... pictures soon!
Friday 21 August 2009
Katamari hat
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Tuesday 26 May 2009
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.
Wednesday 22 April 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
Thursday 19 March 2009
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Modern Toilet
This is a toilet-themed restaurant in Taiwan. This, among a few other crazy themed restaurants, was found here.
Friday 6 March 2009
Tuesday 24 February 2009
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sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf.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...
Monday 23 February 2009
Thursday 5 February 2009
Thursday 29 January 2009
How I 'Lost' the Last Three Weeks
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)
Tuesday 27 January 2009
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.