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.

The Sketchbook Project

Lamma Island.

If you lived here... by Debra Morris.

I am enthusiastically imagining doing this myself - making a story of words and book art. In my mind, each page is rich and resonant and meaning-filled.

By page two the disappointing realisation will dawn on me that I can never compose or create such a living work. I shall abandon it in a drawer, where it will shamefully remind me of failure. Maybe that should be a story in itself.

What sketchbook story would you compose?

The Great Barrier Reef

BBC publicity for new series starting January.

(Shark, you can watch it on my iplayer while I'm cooking dinner.)

The panda census

Pandas are counted once every ten years. It's reported that numbers have increased since 2001.

Try this article from The Guardian.

Here's a report with video. (I defy you not to sigh aahhh when you see the babies.)

Royal Institution Christmas lectures

Try the experiments on the Ri Channel.

And on the BBC iPlayer for a week.

Bookbinding extraordinary

The 2010 Bind-o-rama.

From a woman who has just stitched four signatures without making a mess, this is one place to aspire to.

Discover Antarctica

You think it's cold today in Hong Kong? Try finding out about Antarctica.

Swimming reindeer

A mere thirteen thousand years old. Still beautiful.

(A bit like me.)

For the podcast. And the close-up.

History Cookbook

Pick a recipe that we can use today, given our more limited ingredients.

I followed the Stuarts, and clicked to discover Stuart 'food facts'. See what you can find too.

Luminarium Encyclopedia Project

Check out the bar on the right hand side! It's like Christmas come early!

Use rope to bind sand

Explore Colossal

Art and design to seriously destabilise your thinking.

This is Colossal.

Drawing the face of the sun

the sun 'with a broad toothy smile seems a commonplace fixture ... but it seems to me that the Sun was an impressively dour character ... disappointed, and dark'.

What do you think? Are we making the sun too happy? Is it time to make the sun miserable again?

'Neil, your bedroom's on fire'

Ladies, when you argue, I sometimes recall scenes like this. Then I can laugh, and not cry.

Draw a stickman

The first stickman I drew just crawled off to die...