The Mystery of the Supranational Rabbit (porsupah) wrote,
The Mystery of the Supranational Rabbit

  • Mood:

Wild haggis

"Iron Sky" is a film I hadn't actually heard of (or have forgotten =:) before today, but I wish I had! Go on, tell me this doesn't sound like fun: "In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers. When American astronaut James Washington puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Washington claims the mission is just a publicity stunt for the President of the United States (Stephanie Paul), but what else could the man be but a scout for the imminent attack by Earth forces? The Fourth Reich must act!" And did I mention the soundtrack is provided by Laibach?

Unfortunately, for reasons known only unto themselves, the UK distributor - Revolver Entertainment - is planning a cinematic release of.. one day, May 23. The director is understandably somewhat miffed, and is requesting people ask Revolver to reconsider.

Some researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have a survey on virtual world usage they'd like people to add to, amounting to around 10-15 mins.

Here's a video loganberrybunny might want to peek at, and indeed, anyone else who agrees that Fluttershy is Best Pony. ^_^ Flutterwonder, set to a remix by PinkiePieSwear, with the whole feeling like something Pogo (né Faggotron) might come up with - an upbeat, ambient track, with no real lyrics, so much as a sensation. And in a similarly abstract vein, the particularly catchy Fluttershy's Lament. (Thanks to ducktapeddonkey)

This short, a second year animation student project, needs to be seen as an example of just how engaging you can make your characters, in barely three minutes, and with no dialogue to boot: Crayon Dragon. Just beautiful.

And then, we have Ratatoing, not so lovingly made by a Brazilian outfit with a fondness for finding inspiration in Pixar productions. Enjoy the trailer - or, if you're strong enough, there's a genuinely funny version of the film itself, plastered with MST3K-worthy annotations, to help ease the pain.

Sadly, just a design concept.. but wouldn't it be magnificent if these could actually appear somewhere? =:D (Thanks to whitetail!)

An experimental (as in, it's costing them money, but they're not yet charging for it - as the FAQ notes, they want to find out if it'll prove popular and useful) search tool for UK train fare splits: Tickety Split Lite. Give it a route, and it'll try to find combinations of tickets for sections of the route that wind up being cheaper than just one ticket. "Why is it cheaper? Simply because train fares and logic go together like Coco Pops and ketchup."

You may have seen a recent story doing the rounds, implying that dinosaurs may have, effectively, farted themselves to extinction. However, that's not really what the report says, not so surprisingly. The paper does, though, estimate that a medium-sized sauropod may have given off some 2700 liters of gas per day.

I doubt it'll be enough to make me pick up a 3DS, but I was pleased to see there's work progressing on Animal Crossing: Jump Out. Sounds like it'll be very much a continuation of it all, with little additions like being able to become mayor of the village, and finally being able to swim. Some of the additions are shown in this series of stills.

It's not all that often that lawyers are entertaining, but Regretsy's offering up a truly memorable example. Recently, there was, shall we say, a modicum of disagreement over the "hand made" nature of some furniture being offered by someone Etsy promoted as a Featured Seller; an amusing little saga in itself. The disgruntlement has lingered, leading to one of the parties involved sending a rather awkward Cease & Desist notice (scroll down a bit, if you only want to read the C&D) to someone who started a forum thread. It's an oddly rambling letter, but claims to be from someone who is indeed listed by the State Bar of California. So! The fun part? Popehat, a genuine lawyer with a record of blogger pro bono work, sent off a reply. The contrast is.. delicious.

Speaking of which, Thursday's experiment turned out rather well: some cubed stewing steak, gently fried to start off with, then joined by half a tin of borlotti beans, half a tin of baked beans, and two sliced mushrooms. To create the real flavors and sauce, I added a good bit of oyster sauce, plus a dash of black bean, and a teaspoon of sesame paste. Also some black pepper and herbes de provence, a few quartered tinned artichoke hearts, and a good dash of balsamic vinegar. While all that was gently melding together, I sliced two potatoes reasonably thinly, gave them a quick rub with olive oil, a little salt, and into the toaster oven to crispen up. Finally, all of it on top of the potato slices. Tasty! And nutritious.

On Tuesday, the weather wasn't too bad, so I headed up the line one stop west, with a view to probably looping around and catching the train back a few hours later, hopefully with a good shot or two in the bag - ideally buns, but I'll happily capture any wildlife. It began well, if a bit soggily, with some of the meadow sneakily submerged at the roots - but that was forgotten soon enough, when I came upon a bunch of swallows, performing their usual amazing acrobatics. I wasn't really close enough, but, there were some reasonable outcomes, all the same, including the one above. ^_^ Even got to see some variety of owl, whom I really ought to identify, and a curiously ancient looking barn, styled like an old abbey - probably just a folly, but an enchanting sight regardless. Then onto a cycling path, once a train line, now properly surfaced and away from any traffic - a good walking route, though being somewhat elevated for part of the route, not so much use for wildlife.

Or so I thought.. until, as the day drew close to its end, and I reached a more forest-like section, and spotted a bun crossing the path. No sign of them when I got there, but it seemed like a hopeful sign - and indeed, a short way on, I saw three by the side, gradually edging up the path, and seeming not to mind my presence. I gradually crept closer, with them about as close as I've been to wild rabbits. The light was rather muted by that point, being less than an hour from sunset on a cloudy end to a day, shoving the camera into high ISO territory and longer exposures than I'd have preferred (around ISO 5000 for this, at 1/400th, 300mm f/4) - but some results I'm very happy with, not to mention simply having been able to be that close to them. ^_^

Only catch was, it wasn't really worth heading back to the station by then, leaving me with about another five miles to walk back into town.. my paws were definitely unhappy with me, but I didn't care. =:D

Tags: animal crossing, animated shorts, beans, birds, bunnies, cooking, crayon dragon, eht, fares, fluttershy, fluttershy's lament, flutterwonder, git, global warming, iron sky, knockoffs, lawyers, moon nazis, mst3k, pixar, pmv, precision smackdown, pylons, rail, ratatoing, ratatouille, regretsy, revolver entertainment, scifi, survey, swallows, tickets, tickety split, trains, virtual worlds, wild rabbits, wildlife photography
  • Post a new comment


    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.