Press freedom around the world

"Reporters without Borders" monitor which countries have an open and free press, and which ones limit what can be published, harrass journalists, and generally make it difficult for the public to find out what the government and big business is doing.

Here is their report for last year. The African country Namibia actually scores better than the UK! China is down with the worst.

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html

El Greco

A film I want to see. I'll ignore the poetic licence, historical inaccuracies and total fabrication. It's historical story-telling, after all.

El Greco.

Food means more than nutrition

Can we create a vegetarian version of the jiaozi dumpling?

NASA

Go looking for planets, moons and stars with NASA.

Bubbles

Video of toroidal vortices. I know it doesn't sound promising, but you should see how a dolphin can play.

Making a date with Pitt Rivers

‘Just occasionally, an artist comes to work with the collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum with such a sympathetic but different take that it changes everyone’s way of seeing. Such an artist is Sue Johnson.’ Jeremy Coote, Curator and Joint Head of Collections.

I doubt I'll undergo a profound change-of-vision conversion, Jeremy. But anyone who helps me take myself out of my brain for a couple of hours is good in my book.

Ladies, let's book ourselves an Oxford trip before 10 June.

Stuart Blackton & animation

'James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941), usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. He is considered the father of American animation.' (Wiki.)

I think we should find out. Watch early animation over at Youtube.

When you're ready, spend A LONG TIME looking at the Pixar site. Check out How we do it. Also take time to look around the index of short films; click around to read the stories and look at the pictures.

The 10 most expensive books in the world

They missed off the one your mama hasn't writ yet, obvosly.

The 10 most expensive books in the world.

Listening to the deep ocean environment

Listen live to the sound from deep ocean sites around the world!

listentothedeep

See the BBC link

'I felt something was going to happen. It was the morning the wind changed direction.'

What next?

Weeping...

...is a response, to the 15 most toxic places to live.

If you want to try and balance out the depression, try 14 most amazing waterfalls.

(I particularly liked Blood Falls.)

Three-Dimensional Goldfish Embedded in Layers of Resin

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/riusuke-fukahori-paints-three-dimensional-goldfish-embedded-in-layers-of-resin/

Don't stop me...

...when you see me, heading out the door wearing my vintage knickers-and-bra set, strapping the ice cube tray to my head and holding a sparkler.

I do it in homage of wearable art, and thank you, New Zealand.

Before we tour the fashion gallery in the museums and go to see the show, if you are feeling strong, click through the theatrical costumes of Lady Gaga, since she's known for dressing up with ice-cube trays and the like.

I think I may use her for my inspiration with the fridge magnets.

Nigeria

I feel the need to worry about life and death in Nigeria.

Why can't everyone just be nice to each other?

America in Colour 1939-1943

The more I see of history, the more I see how we humans, we're just the same.

Thanks to the Denver Post photoblog for extraordinary quality colour pictures of a particular time in rural and small town America.

Life, it changes, and it stays the same.

Yuri Norstein animation

Coming very late indeed to the animation of Norstein.

Better late than never.

Hedgehog in the fog.
Seasons

Tale of Tales I, Tale of Tales II, Tale of Tales III, Tale of Tales IV. (I see the debate continues whether this should be considered the finest work of animation ever, or the second finest.)

Clip from The Overcoat, the film Norstein and team had completed 10 minutes of, after 2 years. Norstein explains a little of the film in this clip.

I want to be a scientist

They can play all day long!

I'm convinced. Shark found this: a hamster-powered submarine.

(I went off to find out how to bake a geologic time-scale cake. ... which reminds me, I want to compose the Periodic Biscuit Table... Shall we be scientists today?)

See? Your mother is RIGHT

Even the BBC says she is RIGHT.

Lentil and tomato soup it is then.

And you do not need to buy ready-made soups ladies, unless you're ill or can't be bothered. Mother's potage bonne femme is easy! Stew onions, carrots, potatoes, celery in butter or olive oil, add water and Boullion stock and hubblebubble it.

You can eat it as is ...or scrape out and add: left overs from the fridge; a handful of peas or spinach; tomato puree; tin kidney beans; whatever you like, because Gordon Ramsay's sure not coming round to eat it.

Another alternative I like is plenty of garlic and ginger in the original stewy steam.

Tell me your favourite veg soup.

How I fell in love with a fish

A TED talk by a chef - so, sorry Shark, he is interested in eating fish. But this talk is not really about eating, it is about sustainable fish farming. I like the idea that the fish farmer's measure of success is how many of his fish get poached by flamingos.

TED talks are about inspiring ideas - usually told by someone who stands in front of an audience and speaks without a script. TED stands for 'Technology, Entertainment, Design'.

Sculpture with underwater ink

Aqueous Floreau

See a deliciously sculptured world by coloured ink.

'It's rude to stare'

Well, I kept on looking, because I knew it was just a photo. And maybe I kept on looking just a little too long for comfort, but I knew she couldn't see me, right?

You go and look.

What do you think?

there can be no mastery over anything if you have no mastery over yourself -from gweipo.

Is 'losing control' any part of the creative process?

Papercraft architecture

From the Canon Creative Park site, the Architecture Museum.

Pick your building from around the world, download the paper model and instructions for assembly, then off you go. Make another papery mess all over the floor.

The love/hate relationship

I have a lot of sympathy with China; the country has a tremendously tumultuous recent history, and now faces enormous issues. And they don't half piss me off.