Caracal – Desert Lynx
I am never surprised that you can learn something new. Last week I was at Exmoor Zoo and discovered a large cat, the caracal. I didn’t know such big cats existed.
The caracal (Caracal caracal), also known as the desert lynx, is a wild cat widely distributed across Africa, central Asia, and southwest Asia into India. In 2002, the IUCN listed the caracal as Least Concern, as it is widespread and relatively common. The felid is considered threatened in North Africa, and rare in the central Asian republics and India.
You don’t usually see them in zoos in the UK as they are not considered endangered. They are unusual in their appearance with their large ears.
I am no animal expert, nor even have a real interest, but do think I know what most of the big cats are, well I have used Mac OS X for the last few years. Having never heard of the caracal it makes you realise how diverse our planet is and how much there is to learn about it.
What is it with those glasses Ian?
What were you thinking Ian Hislop with those glasses?
I am guessing that back in the 1980s that those kinds of glasses were fashionable…
Ian was a on TV programme talking about Spitting Image.
Timelapse of extending a cruise ship
Impressed with this timelapse video of adding an extension to a cruise ship.
This is one big ship.
Via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/good-to-share/10598715/Timelapse-cruise-ship-transformation.html
Dragon Illusion
I remember printing out this dragon and making the illusion work a fair few years ago, though for some reason the more recent video calls it a T-Rex…
Looking at the original PDF I used, I can see now that it is slightly different. You can also see the dragon originates from 1998.
There are Christmas Markets and then there are Christmas Markets…
There are Christmas markets and then there are Christmas markets.
Over the last few years I have enjoyed browsing the Christmas market in Birmingham, disappointed I had missed the one in Bath by one day last Christmas.
If you want to be disappointed, then I suggest you visit the Christmas market in Weston-super-Mare.
Don’t expect to see lots of wooden huts selling handmade wooden toys. Nope. Nor are there stalls selling all manger of German delicacies.
There were three stalls.
A hook a duck fairground stall, where instead of ducks, you could hook a santa!
A wooden hut selling German style sausages as well as bacon butties.
A giant inflatable snow globe that you could have your picture taken in.
That was it!
Missed opportunity really, even if there wasn’t German stalls, I wonder if there were local craftspeople and farmers who would be interested in running stalls over the festive period?
Freaky Coffee Shop
Clever!
Okay, so it’s an advert for a film, but still….
Have I Got News for Who
Seriously…
Sometimes I just wonder, seriously…
So a royal baby has just been born and yes you kind of expect there to be some commemorative souvenirs. There will be mugs, plates and the usual colour pullouts in the papers.
Of course these are not really commemorative, just ways for companies and newspapers to make money.
There were some tweets on the Twitter that made you wonder what the PR companies were thinking when they posted them.
This image from Walls, makes you go, seriously…
Did Walls really think that people would be inspired to buy more ice cream as a result of seeing this image? If it was purely about saying congratulations, why on earth spend time and money creating this ice cream image, unless you thought it would raise your profile and make people buy more ice cream!
However for me, the one that me really go, seriously. was this toy.
What were Mothercare thinking when they released this Happy Land set…
Seriously were they expecting the under fives to recreate the royal birth in play?
Alongside this you could buy a toy London bus and a toy Queen. All to “help” replay the royal birth through toys.
Strangely though no toy photographers or paparazzi…
Where are the yellow lines now?
So there I was reading the BBC News and read this article on escalator etiquette, there is a link in the article to one of those chilling 1970s safety films.
The one thing I noticed that I remembered was the yellow lines and yellow warnings about staying within the yellow lines. I can’t recall if they still have these, I am pretty sure that they don’t anymore. Is that because they don’t work, or because they have worked out how to make escalators safer and less likely to crush blue welly boots!