Round shoelaces. Those things will always come undone.
Journal
Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks is the late comedic great who was the inspiration for many of today’s talent – though few of them have the stones to be as confrontational and ahead of his time as he was. (Some have tried by blatantly ripping off his material – here’s looking at you, Leary.) He was an intellectual, and some of his comedic pieces were more spoken word than him trying to be funny, and he was probably the best at showing and highlighting our dissonant idiosyncrasies and idiotic behaviour. When I read his book, he often talked about censorship and the effect the disappointment of censorship had on him. One of the worst blows was his network television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman, where he performed and network management pulled the piece from the broadcast for not meeting regulations of the standards and liabilities department. I just stumbled upon an episode of the Late Show in which his mother was a guest, Letterman apologised for the incident and they aired the piece that was pulled more than a decade before. Enjoy.
Late Show with David Letterman – Bill Hicks Remembered – Part 1
Late Show with David Letterman – Bill Hicks Remembered – Part 2
Late Show with David Letterman – Bill Hicks Remembered – Part 3
Richard Feynman
One of the most famous and most important “contemporary” physicists is Richard Feynman, and I just stumbled upon a series of interesting “Fun to Imagine” videos that he did. This one is about fire and plants. He has a great way of explaining things.
Things That Blow Me Away #1878276
I recently saw a short documentary on killer whales (orcas.) Apparently, they found a pod of killer whales who had found a new way to hunt for stingrays by swimming upside down, biting down on them and then swim the right way up, flipping the stingray over and therefore putting them in a state of tonic immobility. The physiology of stingrays is such that they become docile and eventually asphyxiate when they are flipped up side down, so they don’t fight back. What was even more interesting was that they seemed to teach each other this new technique. Also, when the scientists who were observing them caught up with them several months later, they found that almost all of the orcas in the pod displayed vicious scars and signs of struggle, probably with sharks. They soon found out why because this pod had developed a shark hunting technique. They would flank a shark, ram it, stun it temporarily and then grab it, flip it upside down, putting it in a state of tonic immobility and suffocating it. The scary thing; they’re teaching it to other orcas. The great white shark is no longer the top of the food chain in this planet’s oceans. :)
[MMA] Best Entrance: Yoshihiro Akiyama
I was always a fan of Yoshihiro Akiyama – or Sexyama, as he’s called by his fans. When he moved from Dream to the UFC he stunned everyone with his amazing entrance. He walked out into the arena with his team, went down on his knees and bowed. Of course, those who knew him knew that that was his customary entrance. Coupled with the fact that the Japanese always have more window dressing than the UFC ever did, it looked nice, but it didn’t really shine like his entrances normally do. Here’s an image of his entrance at UFC 100:
Now compare that to his entrance at Dream 5, where he fought Misaki (ruled a no contest due to an illegal soccer kick to the head of Sexyama.) What’s also interesting is the stark contrast between Sexyama’s entrance and that of Misaki. :)