NEW SPECIES

"Predator X" could have potentially "...crushed a Hummer" said Jorn Harald who led the expedition that uncovered this beast. Read the full article here. Man I love when they find new species, specially enormous vicious monsters.



On a side note, Tour de France runner up for the past two years, Cadel Evans (Australian) announced that he is not competing in the Giro d'Italia as previously announced. He IS however, still seeking a couple riders to sign to his team for the epic June race.

Whose with me?

Cool News

Monkeys Floss




Apparently Monkeys have been flossing their teeth (with human hair specifically) for some time, however the BBC writes about Momma monkeys teaching babies how to floss. Pretty fascinating. On a side note, I just started my flossing routine back up, we'll see how long it lasts, but knowing that monkeys do it somehow makes it easier.

GM Doesn't need March's Money.



And again, indirectly (via Twitter) from The BBC, this time they write about General Motors saying "thanks but no thanks" to the 2 billion they were slated to get this month... WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?! Anyone, thoughts?

MIND READERZ


The Green section is the Hippocampus, a hilarious word which read literally makes me smile and also the area responsible for storing memories.

And my final repost for now, the BBC reports that, for the first time, scientists are able to see memories being stored. WHOA, this seems pretty huge, for any number of reasons. Memory is a tricky thing, given that we can easily alter it and convince ourselves & believe in things that may or may not have happend as we recall. As the article states however, suffers of diseases that attack the brain and especially memory stand to gain alot from this.

Young Colin

... thought this was pretty funny when it was on ABC's One Saturday Morning. That effing mouth effect...


A strange example of the bumper entitled: Mrs. Mungers' Class, from ABC's One Saturday Morning

TOTAL FNBS

boo.

Senior Project Presentation 01 PDF

If you are interested in killing 20-30 minutes reading about my senior project, I gladly invite you to download or view the PDF here.



I know I said this would be relegated to the tumblr... just couldn't resist.

Also, today was technorific—

Twitter kept me informed all morning,
Subscribed to Scribd
Used Justin's Iphone, subscribed to Punch Tweets, got FREE PUNCH ZA!

14 peers' web snippets

Above is the first project I have completed for my Critical Studies class, it will possibly be used in my Senior Project as well. It is a 42" x 72" drawing of 14 examples (one from every student in my class*) of linguistic ludicity. As a means to illustrate the importance of manipulating language to reflect our individual thoughts and ideas. The abbreviations, emoticons & interpretations used in the original text are celebrated and their efficiency negated by the laborious act of hand rendering each character. This seeks to counter the notion that these abbreviations and alterations are used solely as means of efficiency.





This is a detail of some of the snippets.


*There are a couple students missing from the list, I used our online responses to get the full names of all of my fellow students, and some had not posted, therefore, were not included)

Thanks to JAN for conceptual direction.

Text & Image

BIKE RIDES—

I have been trying to work in a nice (min. of 2hrs) bike ride every week, so far I've managed 3. Below are a few fings found along the way.



George Washington On a Bike (found on President's Day)




A Man befriending a squirrel




The beautiful view from Stone Arch Bridge

SENIOR PROJECT—

I am in the midst of preparing a formal presentation of my goals & intentions for senior project. I will be presenting this informatation on Friday February 20th, 2009: sometime after 1pm in room 414 or 416?

I will find a way to host the PDF I create for the presentation on here, so that if you are interested in seeing what I have been, and will be up to, you can do so.


David Crystal

If I may briefly speak about some recent advancements in my research, I would like to call your attention to a man who is uncannily in touch with something most people half his age don't understand: the importance of linguistic play & manipulation.

More than in touch with it, David Crystal is almost the godfather of the whole notion, inventor of the term Ludic Linguistics (meaning 'linguistic play), The seminal author of texts relating to the importance of how we use internet and text-message abbreviations, as well as a plethora of other linguistic-related articles.

I was fortunate enough to discover his work last Friday. I promptly sent him an email, to which he responded with endless helpful suggestions and places to look. I am truly grateful to have found his work, and consider him amongst the most exceptional minds in his field.

I highly recommend anyone with an interest in language, to read his very accessible & very insightful texts: articles, books & blog.



Giraffe—



This is a water color of a giraffe that I painted last year, I don't think I shared it publicly, so here you go!