Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Birds

An amazing unscripted video...

Are these birds counting coup?

Certain cats, you don't mess with them.



Thanks to one of our local Durham readers for sending this video our way.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Picasso Trove surfaces



271 pieces by Pablo Picasso including lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolor from his "Blue Period" have surfaced in the hands of a retired electrician in southern France. Pierre Le Guennec, the electrician, installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's various houses in France, including his villa in Cannes, during the three years before the artist died in 1973.

Le Guennec says that Picasso gave him the works. Picasso's son claims it is not true, "To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard of. It doesn't add up," he told the French newspaper Liberation. "It was a part of his life."

Police have raided Le Guennec’s home in the Cote d'Azur, seizing him and the art. They have since released him, but the paintings remain secured at the Central Office for the Fight Against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property on the outskirts of Paris. Reportedly Le Guennec had the works stored in a trunk in his garage.

Le Guennec says he came forward now because he did not want possession of the art work to cause problems for his children.

Monty Burns frog



An expedition coordinated by Conservation International looking for possibly extinct species of frog instead discovered three new species, two toads and a poison-secreting rocket frog. The expedition to Colombia failed to find the species it was hoping to rediscover, the Mesopotamia beaked toad.

According to the BBC, it did find a 3-4cm red-eyed toad, which was discovered at an altitude of over 6,000 feet. It also encountered a new toad that is also tiny, less than 2cm long. It has a bird beak-shaped head that Dr. Robin Moore, the scientist who led the rediscovery project, compared to the snout of Montgomery Burns.

Read the whole story here in the BBC.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Computer, run amok



Ever wonder about what your computer might be up to when you leave it alone for a long period of time? They warn you that turning the machine on and off is the most stressful part of its life-cycle, so many of us leave our machines running 24/7.

So what do they get up to during that quiet time? We have found anthropomorphism to be a bankrupt concept, because inanimate objects have a mind of their own.

Here is one animator's insight into computer down time.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Only a French guy



Only a French guy would have the guts to cheat on Eva Longoria. Allegedly, French basketball star, Tony Parker did just that, and with a former teammate's wife, nice.

Longoria announced today that she was filing for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences." She is seeking spousal support from Parker. The couple had a pre-nuptial agreement that was not made public.

Simple advice

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Interesting Conversion



The New York Times reports that the rapper Shyne, a Sean P. Diddy Combs protégé, has converted to Orthodox Judaism and moved to Israel. He has legally changed his name from Jamaal Barrow to Moses Levi. He says, "My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama...[the Hebrew word for soul]."

Shyne served almost nine years in prison for allegedly opening fire in a New York nightclub in 1999. Shyne was in the club with Combs and his then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. Many surmised that Shyne took the fall for the more famous, P. Diddy Combs. Combs is now allegedly worth $350 million dollars. Might be a little debt of gratitude there.

Shyne had a fascinating backstory even before his conversion to Judaism. He grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn with a single mother who cleaned houses for a living. His father is now the Prime Minister of Belize.

Shyne has two new records coming out with Def Jam.

Read the whole story here.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

What they are watching...Episode XV

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link and [scroll down].

This time we ran into a t-shirt at the mall that said, "Hide your wife. Hide your kids." And we were like, yo, what is that about?

Apparently, it is about this. And that, spawned this...Which is what they are watching. Amazing.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Young maestro

Check out the young maestro grooving to the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.



We would like to thank one of our Allentown, Pennsylvania readers for sending this link our way.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Rerun success



The current show we see as mostly likely to become a cult hit in reruns, a much bigger success in its second life than in first run, is "How I met Your Mother." It has been increasingly popular as a CBS network television show. Word of mouth has gradually built over the years, it has momentum. As the sitcom heads into a sixth season, "How I met Your Mother" is poised to enter another echelon of fame moving into syndication.