chimps just mushrooms short of civilization

Still no baby yet... the waiting, hopefully, is the hardest part... was due the 22nd... we await his arrival imminently...

I just read on the BBC that chimps have been observed using spears (they sharpen them with their teeth) to hunt other primates. I knew they could use sticks to fish out termites and rocks to bash nuts. They've also been observed standing in apparent awe at the sight of a wonder of nature, say a rainbow over a waterfall, perhaps the makings of a spirituality of sorts... just wait till they find magic mushrooms (see Terrence McKenna), then they'll really be showing us evolution in action... story here.

Here's a link to a new Charlie Taylor video - Too Drunk To Drink

I did a little video for Rock when Charlie was on stage at last year's Spring Scream.

Look for a shot of IVO below the stage that they put in the video...

I don't know why but this last blip tv post has saddled me with a much too large thumbnail of Ivo... trying to work out the kinks in the relationship between blip and beta blogger...for now you can just click the pick to watch the video...

IVO DRUMMING! "NO PICTURE!"

Click to Play

Ivo loves drumming and drums on all manner of things.

I'm thrilled he's learned to say "No picture!"

Living in Taiwan he tends to attract a lot of unwanted attention, which drives ol' dad nuts...

Norwegians to Build 'Doomsday' Seed Vault

This just caught my eye. The Svalbard International Seed Vault is being planned to house all the known seed variations of world in the deep Arctic...

Sounds like the prologue of a science fiction epic... "In the year 2007, before the great calamity, the Norwegians had the foresight to deposit a vast and complete seed catalogue in the far reaches of the Arctic...with the nuclear winter dissipating and sunshine breaking through for the first time in centuries, a small band of survivors makes their way to the legendary vault, unsure of the validity of the claim, but pressing on, they alone mankind's last hope..."

or something like that...

Death of a Gold -Digger

Last week I was teaching a lesson on people watching and in the dialogue there was an older man walking with a young girl. The friends assumed she was a 'gold-digger'. I told my students the story of Anna Nicole Smith and her marriage to the billionaire oil man in the 90's to better explain the idea of 'gold-digging'.

And now she's dead at 39. Too strange.

update

This is my first day of vacation. Finally. That was a long ol' semester. These last two weeks have been pretty hectic getting ready for the new baby. Sandy is heavily pregnant. We feel that the delivery could come at any time now. My mom flew in from NB last week to help out with everything. She's been a tremendous help already. Ivo's getting to know his Grammie a little more every day and seems to be aware that there's a baby in mama's belly and he's going to come out soon...

ad hoc, chiayi rock

some old changhua friends came into town last night to see chiayi rockers ad hoc at the grooveyard. what a great show! tight solid fun rock n roll. they brought a throng of chiayi fans up on a bus to see the show. go see'em if you get a chance.

here's a link to their site. from there you can navigate to a couple youtube vids or their myspace site...

chickens really do live after their heads are cut off, the 5 second rule is bunk, water drains in the sink according to the size and shape of the basin and a poppy seed bagel may indeed make you test positive for opiates...

live science and the 20 common 'myths' in science...

'Quantum Boggs'

Quantum Boggs: Episode II

The adventure continues as Hall of Famer Wade Boggs goes back in time to help Dan Marino acquire the necessary skills to win Super Bowl 19. POW!

In case you missed the first one, I'm pleased to present Episode I here in its entirety...

edit: I'm linking to the video on youtube... I don't know what's up with youtube lately but i've been waiting ages for some of these videos to load. And often they get cut off in the middle. So here it is, Episode I, all of it, if you can get it.

'Night Owls'

the Vlogpond is happy to present this short film from Albatross Productions, called Night Owls. Sean Scanlan interviews a Taipei noodle lady about the noisy foreigners living upstairs... funny!

The Crappapellis, a short about a musical family by Erin King

back to the link list... i've added a few good ones...

Michael Turton's The View From Taiwan is all Taiwan all the time with lots of handy links. I've been visiting his blog for along time, as has anyone who's even surfed 'taiwan blogs'. He's well known to anyone into the Taiwan blogosphere. A genuine cyber celeb. I'm probably the last Taiwan blog to even mention him. That aside, his blog is the Taiwany-est and well worth a visit. The Blogfather!

The Chocolate President and the Hungry Donkeys is well written, smart and funny. This is the domain of Erin King , formerly of Taichung, currently of Taipei. Erin played music with Taichung live act Milk for years. He's associated with Albatross Productions , a Taipei based film group.

Check out The Crazy 8 - Erin stars as a Taipei pool hustler.

ch-ch-changes

i've redone my link list, finally. changed the font too. now it looks like old school typing. not that this is going to make any of these posts more fun to read but it looks better to me anyway. when i got up this morning the background was pink, or salmon or some kind of pastel color. it looked fine but i've changed it back not 'cause it was gay but just because it was either unintentional or unauthorized. i'm leaning towards the unintentional change. that's what happens when you play with your layout drunk i guess. a friend once advised on blogging, "...don't blog drunk. or high. well maybe high's ok, but never drunk..." i'll try to heed his advice from now on...

anyway back to the links...to be continued cause ivo wants to read a book...

I came across this blog the other day.

Rebel Frequencies' - 'Ten Musical Reasons To Be Cheerful in 2007'

baseball batting robot video

looks kinda like a jedi blocking death rays, no follow through, but hey it's got endurance...

Ramen Man

What would millions of Asian students be snacking on without Momofuku Ando?

inventor of the instant noodle dies at 96.

I'd heard of this man before but didn't realize that he was born in Taiwan and lived here until he was 23 before moving to Japan...

"The Singhsons" intro - the Simpsons are reincarnated as Indians!

speaking of superman IVO loves to pretend he's flying, especially on slides...

shot in Taipei on the 24th, not the the 23rd like the title says

if you haven't seen this yet, check it out... 'how superman should have ended'