Category: Awesomeness

The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition finds the very best wildlife images taken by the world’s top professional and amateur photographers.

Here are some of the winners from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 competition.

Overall Winner – Snowstorm Leopard

This most striking photo was taken by Steve Winter (United States of America) after spending 10 months and a winter with little snow in Ladakh’s Hemis High Altitude National Park, India.

Snow leopards are adapted to life in the mountains of central Asia. They have long, waterproof outer fur, dense woolly under-fur and large nasal cavities that warm the air as they breathe it in. This allows them to survive temperatures as low as -40°C. But the leopards can also tolerate the heat of the Gobi Desert, where temperatures can reach 40°C.

Creative Visions of Nature Winner – Polar Sunrise

This photo taken by Miguel Lasa (United Kingdom) shows a bear backlit by the first rays of sunlight.

During winter, polar bears live on the frozen seas of the Arctic. In summer, in areas where the ice melts completely like Canada’s Hudson Bay, they spend months ashore living on a variety of foods. They will also swim in the water and catch birds. By the time the seas freeze again in autumn they are eager for fresh seal-meat.

Animal Behaviour: Birds – Osprey Snatch

This specially commended photo by Paul Hobson (United Kingdom) was taken from hide overlooking a lake in Pohtiolampi, Finland.

Ospreys hover over water then dive, plunging into the shallows to grab prey. They have special feet to hold onto slippery fish scales: the soles are covered in spines and one talon can move so the bird can grip either side of the fish.

Ten years and under – Great Tits and Teasels

This photo from Baptiste Drouet (France) won the runner-up prize in the 10 years and under section of the Junior awards.

Great tits are a woodland bird found across Europe and Asia, but many have adapted to urban gardens. In rural areas they eat insects, but urban populations supplement their diet with bird seed put out by humans. Tits can be aggressive at bird tables, fighting off other smaller birds.

One Earth Award Winner – Sacrifice

Taken by David Maitland (United Kingdom), this disturbing photo shows a Gabon black colobus monkey being tossed onto an open fire to strip off the fur.

A cloud of acrid smoke filled the air. Then, the glossy jet-black fur caught fire, crinkled and crisped up, and fell off as dust. It was deeply upsetting.’ Black colobus monkeys have a distinct, high-pitched roar and frequently call to each other, so human hunters can easily track them down. This helps to make them one of the 10 most threatened primate species in Africa.

You can see more photos from the competition at the Natural History Museum’s Online Gallery.

If you live in Cape Town, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 exhibition will be at the Iziko South African Museum (25 Queen Victoria Street Cape Town) until 15 March 2009. Entrance is R15 and well worth it.

Tags animals, awards, nature, photography, wildlife

Awesomeness Mindlessness Useful/Useless Info

Uncyclopedia, the Content-Free Encyclopedia

Post author By prawn1
Post date January 4, 2009

Since its launch in 2005, Uncyclopedia, an addictive parody of Wikipedia, has grown into a formidable wiki.

It is the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and according to co-founder Jonathan Huang, there are two main rules at Uncyclopedia: 1) Be funny and not just stupid, and 2) Don’t be a dick. BUT if you’re being funny and being a dick, chances are your entry may stay. In any case, it is the masses that decide what’s funny, with users and admins constantly on the prowl for quality assurance.

Uncyclopedia has an extensive Howto section from which I have learnt a lot more than I should admit to:

Dive into a whole new world of unknowledge at Uncyclopedia.

Tags howtos, parody, uncyclopedia, wikipedia

Awesomeness Science & Technology

Hamster Power!

Post author By prawn1
Post date January 1, 2009

For his masters degree in industrial design, Tom Ballhatchet, 29, has developed an environmentally-friendly paper shredder that runs on hamster power. The rodent has to run flat out for 45 minutes to shred one sheet of A4 paper, but the rewards are great – the the shredded paper that falls onto the base of the cage provides fresh bedding.

The London-based design consultant said:

I wanted to come up with a product that would capture people’s imagination while addressing issues of topical concern such as climate change, recycling, and identity fraud.

Several companies have apparently expressed an interest in turning the working prototype into a full scale production.

Read the full article at the Daily Mail – via Bits & Pieces.

Tags hamsters, recycling

Arty Awesomeness Video Clips

One Year in 40 Seconds

The view out of my computer room looks straight into the neighbour’s kitchen, where a married couple delight in their monthly naked cooking sessions. It’s not a pleasant sight. Living far away from the concrete jungle, Eirik Solheim had a much better view out of his window, and in 2005 he decided to shoot images out of his window, for one year. He did this again at the end of 2007 but in much better quality.

What you see below is a 40-second clip of those photos. It’s pretty stunning if you like seeing trees change colour, which I do :)

Read about the process at Eirik’s website – via Neatorama.

Tags 365 days, montages, patience, photography

Awesomeness Mindlessness

Socially Responsible Violence

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 31, 2008

Some people just ruin things for everybody, and over at peoplewhodeserveit.com is out to expose them and give you the socially responsible reasons to punch them in the face.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

No Toilet Paper Secret Keeper

Public bathrooms are sick. The doorknobs are smeared with salmonella, the toilet seats are laced with syphillis and last time we checked, the hand dryers blew AIDS. But “No Toilet Paper Secret Keeper” believes this is just not enough. That’s right, you should have to wipe your ass with your pashmina.

This bathroom biatch exits her stall and watches you enter, without even the most remote hint of the missing paper. Instead, you’re left dripping and grasping at the empty roll, cursing the day NTPSK was born. So, you drip-dry and spend the rest of the day pretending the sticky patch on your leg isn’t aged urine.

There’s only one thing to do after an encounter like this. Don’t wash your hands, chase her down and slap her in the eye with a fistful of byproduct.

Personal Bubble Invader

This is another entry ripped from the pages of “Suggest-a-Punch”, known across the land by many different monikers: space intruder, face raider, close talker, near speaker, and douche bag.

Easily identified by the inability to put even the slimmest amount of space between the two of you, “Personal Bubble Invader” wastes no time at parties getting all up in your grill. So close is his proximity, you can literally smell his stomach lining. And it smells like death.

If for any reason you find yourself being accosted by “Halitosis Harry,” politely remind him that your “no fly zone” is patrolled by swinging fists to the face.

Disgruntled Ticket Agent

Customer service – it’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And usually, that person is a miserable wretch. Or as we like to call her, DTA.

What’s that Mr. Innocent Passenger? Your plane was delayed 9 hours and the person sitting next to you was morbidly obese and took up half your seat and threw up on you and your plane landed prematurely due to turbulence and you’re stranded in a strange city and they lost your bags? Hmm, that’s too bad. Disgruntled Ticket Agent doesn’t care. Because she’s disgruntled and she hates you.

So next time she shrugs and gives you the puss face, remind her the customer is always right. With your knuckle. In her eye.

Read more good reasons to give people beatdowns at People Who Deserve It – thanks Emily!