23 things I’d Like to Change About Advertising

Terry O'Reilly's latest Age of Pursuasion episode. Streaming Audio. 27:30 --listen at CBC.ca

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

We live as though the world were as it should be. To show it what it can be."
--spoken by "Angel" in Angel (TV series): Season 4, Episode 1

Top 10 Grammar Myths by Grammar Girl

Irregardless of my studies, no mistake was made when "to boldly go" was written into the 1960's Star Trek opening monologue.... --via Digg.com; See Grammar Girl's Top 10 Myths

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
--Scott Adams, author of cartoon comic strip Dilbert

Snake bursts after gobbling gator

An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left both opponents dead. The Bermese Python is non-native. Over the past 20 years this species of snake, usually dumped by pet owners, has been thriving in Florida's swamps. --read more: BBC News

CBC Radio's "The Age of Persuasion" now streamed

The Age of Persuasion weekly episodes can be caught online through streaming audio.

1913 metal Amusement Park-style night-sky ride

"I am in a 'planetarium' built in 1913, and the metallic sphere that surrounds me is slowly turning the heavens. It was once a miraculous thing, this contraption, called the Atwood Sphere after the man who championed it. In the days before computer simulation, it was even used to train pilots in nighttime navigation." --read more: The New York Times

Canada Council for the Arts - Grant Programs

Deadline is June 1, 2008, for Artist & Community Collaborative Program (ACCP) and Visiting Foreign Artists Program (Pilot Program). See CanadaCouncil.ca for details

Tattoos may help deliver vaccine

"In studies with mice, tattooing a vaccine (rather than ink) produced 16 times more antibodies than a simple injection into muscle tissue. The level of antibodies indicates the strength of the immune system's response." --via BBC Tattoos may help deliver vaccine

Amphibians filmed eating mother's skin

"One of the strangest meal-times in the animal kingdom has been caught on film by a BBC crew. The team recorded a female worm-like amphibian, called a caecilian, allowing her young to peel off and eat her skin." --via BBC

Pogue on Product Design

Respected industry reviewer expounds on the shoddy design of many consumer electronic products. --via Daring Fireball --full article at New York Times

2 Picasso works stolen from Swiss exhibit

"Two paintings by Spanish master Pablo Picasso have been reported stolen from an exhibit in Switzerland, police announced on Thursday." --via CBC.ca

"What is Graphic Design" Poster Competition

Sky's the limit and cool prizes to boot. Closing: February 15. --via Daring Fireball --full article at Veerle's Blog

Russia creates online database of Nazi-looted art

"The Russian government has set up a website detailing some 46,000 of the country's artworks missing due to looting by the Nazis during the Second World War." --via CBC.ca

Ratatouille cleans up at Annie Awards

"The story of an upwardly mobile Parisian rat with a gourmet appetite ate up 10 Annie Awards, which honour the year's top achievements in film and television animation." --via CBC.ca

Polaroid instant film soon to be non-existent

Polaroid closing factories but keeping headquarters open to try to re-invent the company to prosper in the digital world of photography. Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights for its instant film in hopes that they can continue to supply Polaroid enthusiasts. Polaroid's brand-name foreign-made TVs, DVD players, digital photo frames, cameras and MP3 music players generated nearly $1 billion in revenue last year. --via CBC.ca

Even Master Artists Need Inspiration

"Jasper Johns’s Between the Clock and the Bed (1982-83) was partly inspired by a late self-portrait by Edvard Munch." --via New York Times Jasper Johns Shows His True Color

The Accidental Diptych

Separated since the late 1700s, the two pieces, "Landscape With a River God” (left) and “Venus and Adonis” (right), will be reunited in one frame for the first time in an exhibition opening on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's believed that this work of Nicolas Poussin was orginally cut in two for commercial reasons -- it's was likely easier to sell two smaller works than one large one. When the show closes in May, they will be separated again; one piece remaining in the permanent collection of the Met and the other returning to Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. --via the New York Times Together at Last: 2 Paintings in a Frame

Dripless 2-Lip Bottle

Beautifully designed for optimum look and function.

70% of Plants ID'd to Fight Cancer Found Only in Rainforests

"That's more than 2,000 tropical forest plants, and yet still less than one percent of tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value. Time is running out, as 5-10 percent of tropical rainforest species will be lost per decade unless more is done." Read more at The Nature Conservancy...

Altered Oceans

A Los Angeles Times 5-part video series on the crisis in the seas.
A lethal neurotoxin plagues the sea. The cause? Pollution, sewage and farm run-off. The result? Marine mammals dying in large numbers and coastal communities (and their dogs) plagued with respiratory ailments and severe illness. Disturbing but worth knowing about. I'll likely reduce my seafood intake, buy fewer things that have been imported, and never take a cruise ship vacation. This incredible set of videos takes a few seconds to download but is worth the wait.

New approach may power future of solar

"High energy prices are fueling a sleek new kind of solar technology that could someday set skyscrapers and high-rise apartment windows quietly buzzing with renewable power." Read more...

Collossal Squid Found

This Collossal Squid, which became entangled in fishing nets when it tried to feed off a catch, is in Top Ten Photos of 2007 From National Geographic News. The specimen weighs an estimated 990 pounds (450 kilograms), has eyes as wide as dinner plates and sharp hooks on some of its suckers. Other incredible photos on the list are of a tree frog encased in 25 million year old amber, a rare Goblin Shark (which died 3 days later in captivity) and a 100 year old Alaskan Rockfish (caught by commercial fishers).

Via Bruce Schneier's Friday Squid Blogging