10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #93

If you have just tuned in…I hope you all have a healthy, happy, prosperous, light and love filled 2023. The clock has just ticked over into 2023 now in my part of the world. People are out partying and ringing in the new year, others are happy just staying home. It has been a bit of a confusing and difficult year for many people 2022 – here is to hoping that the new year brings you all you ever hope for. I hope these tasty tidbits make you chuckle and feel warm inside.

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A Calf Born in Winter by Khruangbin

This uplifting, peaceful and cruisey song from one of my favourite bands Khruangbin seemed like a nice way to start out the new year. If you are in the north you will be living through a freezing cold winter right now, so this song seems very appropriate.

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A beautiful and goulish 17th century Momento Mori ring

Death has a smiling face and a shadow side. One side has a woman’s face and the other an enamelled skull. Materials: gold and porcelain enamel. Collection: 2017 University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Originally tweeted by Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) on September 25, 2022.

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Floor 769: Intergalactic meme and pop culture animations for your eyeballs’ enjoyment

Imagine if you will a gigantic and intricately rendered animation showing classic films, TV, internet memes and more all interlinked and interacting together in weird ways. Floor 796 is what a space station would look like containing the backend rumblings and mutterings of Earthlings on the internet. Absolutely superb! If you zoom in you can see the exquisite detail and each time you move around, the URL is adjusted as though you are using Google Maps and have coordinates on a map.

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Janus: the world’s oldest two-headed tortoise

Janus’ two headed tortoise recently celebrated their 25th birthday. They share kidneys, a stomach and a large and small intestines. However they have two different brains. The head on the right is a much stronger personality and is curious about everything, the left head is more passive and content to watch the world go by.

Notice how Euronews refers to the tortoise as an IT. This tortoise is not an inanimate object or a thing…we are talking about a sentient intelligent being here, so best to refer to animals as either she/he/they, which shows them greater respect as autonomous, intelligent beings. I’ve referred to this tortoise as a they because they have two heads and therefore two brains 🙂

Dunc Tank podcast: Angelo Pentaris

Angelo Pentaris had a challenging early life. He was diagnosed as a child with Cerebral Palsy and tetraplegia. He did not let this slow him and spent many years in physical therapy. He tells his amazing and inspiring story in this podcast. He got incredibly fit and became a drummer- this is his story on the incredible Dunc Tank podcast.

Making a mini moon garden

A fascinating and soothing video showing the progression from odds and ends to mind-blowing Zen masterpiece.

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The Greenland Shark: the world’s longest living vertebrate finally gets protection

Greenland sharks move really slowly. They tend to wait until they are 150 years old to start having babies! They can live to between 270 to 500 years old. This makes them the longest-living known vertebrate on the planet – and a more critical reason to protect them.

In 2022 the Northwest Atlantic Fishing Organisation (NAFO) banned the intentional catching of Greenland sharks as well as unintentionally catching the species as bycatch. There is a loophole and exception in the rule which would allow countries like Norway, Iceland and Faroe Islands to continue to continue take these sharks from the ocean.

However conservationists are optimistic that more change is afoot in the regulations. I really hope so! Via Mongabay

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OSCOB – Praise the sun god

There are shades of 90’s lounge and acid jazz, world music ethno-house in here, there is a lot of depth to the sound…I really like it. Good background music for when you are working.

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Jacek Yerka: sublime surrealist painter

Jacek Yerka is an award-winning Polish surrealist painter from Toruń in Poland (b. 1952). He has exhibited in Poland, Germany, Monaco, France, and the United States, and may be found in the museums of Poland. A quiet kid he hated school but quickly gained the respect of school bullies by drawing comical depictions of them. He began working as an artist in 1980 and cites Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Cagliostro, Jan van Eyck, and Hugo van der Goes as formative influences on his art. I just love this painting of the cat in the golden forest and the tiny village. One wonders…what was going on in there and what happened after the cat’s arrival? Enchanting!

You can buy a limited edition print of this magnificent painting from his website. I am definitely tempted! Read more

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Why do people walk on two legs and have chins?

Find out the answer to these questions in this fascinating dissection of human evolution and the oddities and inconsistencies in our bodies that don’t really make sense! Read more at MIT Press Reader

Naturally, not everything in our bodies serves a purpose, otherwise we would have to ask ourselves why we (and not the Neanderthals) have chins. 

‘Bipedalism and Other Tales of Evolutionary Oddities’, MIT Press Reader

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Wild European bison will roam around Britain – YAY!

It’s not really a surprise that these massive animals that once roamed in Britain 6000 years ago are important to the ecosystem there. Steppe Bison were wiped out by anthropogenic factors like hunting.

That’s why their cousins the European Bison will now be introduced back into the UK as caretaker mammals to restore ecosystems, spread seeds and trample down overgrown plants to allow more plant diversity, just by roaming around.

They will be the biggest wild animals living on UK soil and they will perform a very important ecosystem function. Via Mongabay.

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Gift by R.S. Thomas

Some ask the world 

And are diminished 

in the receiving of it. You gave me 

only a small pool 

that the more I drink 

from, the more overflows

me with sourceless light 

Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2020) AKA R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest.

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Yummy orange sesame crispy tofu by Will Yeung

Extra firm tofu is really the king of all ingredients in cooking – you can make it into whatever the hell you want, a desert/pudding, stew, salad, roast, BBQ, breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can add it to any dish on the planet and with some love and care it can be transformed into something truly wonderful. Will’s videos are produced in such a calming and pleasurable way too.

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Is your home making you depressed?

An interior decorator shows you the mistakes you may be making that might be affecting your mood and how you feel.

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Fontaines D.C – Big

Dublin in the rain is mine

A pregnant city with a Catholic mind

My childhood was small

But I’m gonna be big

I am well obsessed with this band. This video clip is like a chatty and post-punk James Joyce novel.

I hope you enjoyed this edition and happy new year dear friends, stay warm and cosy. Let me know what you think of these things below.