Things of note for the week ending August 22nd, 2014.
1. Annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year Finalists
There isn’t much I can add to this. The photos are, of course, amazing. These are just a couple of my favourites but the whole set really is worth ten minutes of your time.
 
STRETCH.
TWEETING.
via Distractify.
2. Cap and Hulk = SCIENCE
Here is a three minute video explaining how the science behind Captain America and the HULK [if they actually existed in the real world].
Super interesting. Super fun. Super SCIENCE.
Speaking of superheroes…
3. The Phantom of Papua New Guinea
Have you ever heard of The Phantom? No, not that scary fella from the Opera. The purple one, from the jungle. The ghost who walks. The man who cannot die. Him. Once played by Billy Zane in a [terrible] film of the same name.
This guy:
Yeah, you remember him.
He was in [the frankly awesome] Defenders of the Earth Saturday morning cartoon show, remember?
Right.
Anyway.
Apparently – and this is so random – back in the 1960s and 1980s, Mr Purple Pants started appearing on the war shields of the people of New Guinea.
The Wahgi people of Papua New Guinea have long made enormous shields from tree trunks, and have continued to make these shields as a form of ritual artwork. In the late 20th century, many of these Papua New Guinea highlanders began incorporating “new ideas” into their traditional works, so that shields bore emblems of football teams, beer brands, and, yes, the Phantom. Western comic books became widely available in the region after World War II, and the Phantom became a particularly popular character.
I picked this story up from iO9 and they’ve got a huge bank of various images of The Phantom depicted in multiple ways on said shields.
It’s really awesome; I just love the idea that there were these badass warriors walking around with THE PHANTOM on their shields. ‘COME ON THEN! WE’VE GOT THE GHOST THAT WALKS!’ – or something like that.
4. Cyborgs
I know a cyborg. His name is Dan Lane (and it’s his birthday today – happy birthday Dan). His level of human/robot integration is probably higher than others but then again, if you know someone who wears contact lenses; they’re a cyborg too.
Do you know who else is a cyborg? Neil Harbisson. He has an antenna that comes out of his head specifically for turning colours into sounds.
Not kidding.
5. Batman photo album
A bit of a superhero-fest this week (sorry not sorry) but I couldn’t not share this.
Last week, someone posted this rather fantastic, 32-image photo set from The Dark Knight.
Specifically focusing on the interrogation scene between The Joker and Batman, the set is interspersed with quotes from an interview with Christopher Nolan discussing the work and effort that went into the scene, both from the actors therein and also the director of photography, Wally Pfister.
Great reading.
Great photos.
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Bonuses this week:
- A book of video game levels (better than it sounds).
- The Onion’s photoshop team are amazing (worth reading for the royal baby story alone).
- As you can see from the headline image, I got nominated for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Wanna watch me get soaked?
See you next week.