Archives for category: look over here!

via wired via eric, but i’m just quoting the whole thing here because it’s brilliant.

  1. Sea mammal blowhole. Any animal that spends appreciable time in the ocean should be able to extract oxygen from water via gills. Enlarging the lungs and moving a nostril to the back of the head is a poor work-around.
  2. Hyena clitoris. When engorged, this “pseudopenis,” which doubles as the birth canal, becomes so hard it can crush babies to death during exit.
  3. Kangaroo teat. In order to nurse, the just-born joey, a frail and squishy jellybean, must clamber up Mom’s torso and into her pouch for a nipple.
  4. Giraffe birth canal. Mama giraffes stand up while giving birth, so baby’s entry into the world is a 5-foot drop. Wheeee! Crack.
  5. Goliath bird-eating spider exoskeleton. This giant spider can climb trees to hunt very mobile prey. Yet it has a shell so fragile it practically explodes when it falls? Well, at least it can produce silk to make a sail. Oh, wait — it can’t!
  6. Shark-fetus teeth. A few shark species have live births (instead of laying eggs). The Jaws juniors grow teeth in the womb. The first sibling or two to mature sometimes eat their siblings in utero. Mmm … siblings.
  7. Human stomach. People can digest a lot — except for cellulose, the primary component of plant matter. Why don’t we have commensal bacteria in our guts to do it? They’re busy helping termites.
  8. Slug genitalia. Some hermaphroditic species breed by wrapping their sex organs around each other. If one of said members gets stuck, the slug simply chews it off. What. The. Hell?
  9. Quadrupeds. Let’s say you’re a four-footed animal. Now let’s say you get a wound on your back, or an itch, or a bug wandering up there. Tough luck, kid. You probably can’t do much about it. Hope there’s a low branch around.
  10. Narwhal tusk. The unicorn-like protuberance on a male narwhal’s head is actually a tooth that erupts through the front of the jaw and keeps on growing, up to 9 feet. Narwhal: “Doc, I have a toothache.” Dentist: “Indeed.”

great posts like this one about how niko tinbergen reverse engineered the seagull and beautiful site design. i wish his proposed redesign of the american airlines website would come to fruition because dear lord that site is a train wreck.

via eric

it is time.

my milk toof

eric sent me this link today and i almost passed out, it was so cute. my milk toof documents the adventure of a little tooth. my favorite so far, (above) shows ickle reading and while new friend lardee tries to get him to play. also good, ickle’s field trip wherein he wears a cute little hat, and the strip where it’s time for ickle and lardee to take a bath.

kind of fantastic.

dresden codak 3rd act twists

hilarious and delightfully illustrated chart of 3rd act twists arranged by genre and device. the sample above is from ‘fantasy’.

penguin science fiction book covers!

i scrolled past this post on laist twice before i noticed the photo looked sort of familiar. see my photo in action here! check out the rest of the photos from my hike here.

as told by mike

seek 'n spell

everyone who has an iphone! my friends over at retronyms have released their third iphone app. seek ‘n spellis a game that uses gps to plot your (and your friends’) location, then scatters virtual letters around you. pick a time frame, run around and collect as many letters as you can before your friends’ get there first, then spell words with your letters to score points. highest score wins!

i had the privilege of demoing seek ‘n spell during one of my trips to san francisco and it is a lot of fun. bonus: you’re outside running around with your friends, so you’re getting exercise AND hanging out. double bonus: everyone who is not playing the game and is in the area is totally confused and in most cases, really interested in what you’re doing. a great way to meet people maybe?

go buy seek ‘n spell! only $3 and totally worth it.

/shameless promotion