Things of note for the week ending Friday August 28th, 2015.
Yeah, I thought it might be late this week.Â
Want some choons to listen to while you read this week’s packed edition of things? OK! Here’s Acid Stag with it’s 40th volume of SERIOUS COVERS.
Shall we?
1. NIKITA NOMERZ
Since 2010, Nikita Nomerz has been spending a fair old chunk of time trying to find the ‘inner soul’ of the abandoned buildings around him. The above (and below) are a result of that ongoing artistic search. And I love them all.
Creepy as hell but just so utterly gorgeous you can’t help but stare.
“I’m going to eat you…”
Web Urbanist has more.
…
2. SNAKE ISLAND
About 90 miles off the Ṣo Paulo coast is an island known as Ilha da Queimada Grande Рaka: the island of snakes so utterly dangerous that the Brazilian government strictly controls all visitors and literally NOBODY is allowed to stop there, even in passing, without express permission.
And if you do stop there then – get this – you must must must have a qualified anti-venom doctor with you at all times.
Why?
Because Queimada Grande is the home of a unique species of pit viper known as The Golden Lancehead (photo).
Why is this snake so dangerous? I’ll let Smithsonian explain:
Often, snakes stalk their prey, bite and wait for the venom to do its work before tracking the prey down again. But the golden lancehead vipers can’t track the birds they bite—so instead they evolved incredibly potent and efficient venom three to five times stronger than any mainland snake’s—capable of killing most prey (and melting human flesh) almost instantly.
That’s right, you just read the words ‘melting human flesh’ – from snake venom. If one of these things bit you, you’d have up to six hours to get off the island and to a hospital. Up to. It could kill you in an hour. You just don’t know. Terrifying. But amazing.
Oh, and the island also happens to contain highest density of snakes on the planet; a staggering five Golden Lanceheads per square metre.
Mental.
Anyway, while researching this it seems like there’s been a ton of coverage before. I’d never heard of it and thought it was crazy-ass awesome. SNAKE ISLAND. IT’S AN ACTUAL THING.
Brilliant.
PS. Here’s a VICE documentary I found on it too. Enjoy.
3. I’M A PIECE OF LUGGAGE! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Ever wonder what your luggage has to go through every time you check it in at the airport? The fact is: it gets to enjoy the best rollercoaster you’ve never been on.
4. FACEBOOK M
Surely you must’ve heard about this by now? No? Fine. Remember Facebook’s whole ‘the future is in our messenger app‘ pitch? Well, here’s another chapter in that story: Facebook M.
To use Facebook’s own words:
M is a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf. It’s powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by people. Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf. It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more.
Obviously only at test stage right now but it’s clearly doing well enough to show it off like this. I’d give it a year, tops, before you get to play with this…
5. VISION(ARY)
If you’ve seen AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON then you’ve seen Paul Bettany’s turn as The Vision. If you haven’t seen AOU then spoiler alert: Paul Bettany plays a character by the name of Vision.
In the comic books he looks like this:
And in the film he looks a little bit like this:
Which means at some point, Mr Bettany had to look like this:
Visionary, right? Ha ha ha ha ha… I kill me.
Whatevs. I thought it was cool.
And Entertainment Weekly has a cute little video to go along with it.
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LOOK! IT’S THE NEW TESTIMONIAL SECTION!
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“Almost everything item I see in FTOF are items I hadn’t seen before. And even when they are, they’re [given with] an aspect, or view, or news I hadn’t previously seen.”
– Roy Calfas
“It makes me smile and think. Thanks for writing it.”
– Finlay Edridge
“I get a lot of newsletters. I delete a lot of newsletters. Yours is the only one I ACTUALLY READ. Before deleting.”
– Karin Robinson
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Bonuses this week are, in memory of one of my favourite websites of old, a[nother] Tab Dump of what I’m reading/looking at right now (at 01:35 on Saturday morning)…
- Wal-Mart (in the UK, you know them as ASDA (keep that in mind for a minute)) is going to STOP selling Assault Rifles – y’know, so if you just nip out for some carrots and fancy picking up a weapon designed for killing lots of people in large numbers, your luck has run out. The fact that this was even a thing in the first place is beyond all known comprehension.
- Three pages (remarkably similar to how FTOF first started).
- Man on Fire AS MASTERPIECE (good point re: True Romance too).
- Japan’s annual Pikachu dance.
- Fake Apple Store as Art.
- I’m gonna getcha.
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And that’s me. I’m spent.
See you next week, chums.
Whatley out, x.
Snake Island was a HUGE hit with both my husband & 4 year old!