April fool’s day is, it seems, confusing for some. In my morning trawl around the net newswires, I kept seeing comments from people who were unsure as to the veracity of the stories that were being posted online today — and bemoaning the fact that this was how they felt.

It occurred to me that this was actually a Good Thing and that perhaps a campaign should be started to make every day a day when jokes can be played before midday, thus reducing the gullibility quotient of the population in one fell swoop.

Talking of swoops, my favourite prank today has to be the BBC’s flying penguins advert for their iPlayer. I hope they leave it up beyond the next six days.

Another installment of Izzy’s creativity. Last time it was stop-frame animation. This time it consists of taking one of Stephen Appleby’s superb cartoons literally…

What she wanted, though, was to tell some stories about the adventures of Monster Potatohead — or “Bob” as he’s been officially named. Here he is with Izzy and a puppy on a farm in West Bengal, India:

I look forward to the further adventures - perhaps he’ll meet Mighty Mouse in another animated spectacular sometime. Roll on another wet weekend…

Born 13:40, 16th January, 2008

Safe zone in case of earthquake

On a recent trip to Peru, I thought it somewhat alarming that every hotel we stayed in had signs just like the one above — but now I know that they were deadly serious. I’d never heard of them until I stumbled upon this BBC report, but kudos to Telecoms Sans Frontieres who do a job that’s often overlooked in the news media’s obsession with more grisly details.

Here’s an animation that my girlfriend’s nine-year-old daughter, Izzy, filmed one rainy Friday afternoon. She made Mighty Mouse from scratch, then directed his adventure through our living room in search of whatever a mighty mouse might be after.

Bristol Wireless network coverage (Jan 2007)

Bristol Wireless have completed their 5.8 GHz backbone infrastructure - it’s fully tested, legal and now - most importantly - live. It gives them a network coverage of approximately 15 sq. km, which they think makes it the largest community wireless network in the UK. Unless, of course, anyone knows otherwise, in which case you’re asked to get in touch with them and let them know.

I found this poem in some of my father’s old papers last night:

time and space
may have their place
in space–time pace

but I’m convinced
that ever since
the time begins
no space, no time
nor space–time rhyme
has ever stood
the test of time

Stanislaw Wach, Xmas 1979

What were they thinking?

I can only guess that this local mechanic wanted to out-do his fellow mechanics by illustrating his premises with the poshest car he could think of. The trouble begins when one considers where the engine is on a 911…

Search no further

My friend Rob photographed this at a bus stop in London and thought I’d like it.

I do.

My friends Miles and Piers made this little ditty for my birthday last year. Finally, I’m able to post it on my birthday. Thanks chaps! This is also my first podcast from this site. There’s now a podcast category on this blog — subscribe to it with the following link: Just copy and paste into your iTunes podcast subscription dialog box, and away you go!

 

 my birthday song [0:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download