by Bret

Our Daily Beard – 04/03/13

Honey, I’m home!

I’m more or less back on the internet now.

So; back to posting stuff and/or nonsense.

This tickled me hugely, though it’s really similar to an idea me and my girlfriend had and now will never get to do. Ours was called the Magna Cata, or something to that effect.

Basically, ZSL London Zoo have made a map of the cats in London and other parts of the world!

You go on the site and presto! There’s a map of where people’s cats live in the city- basically a visual survey. Genius! Cat census!

In their words: ‘Ever wondered about the tabby cats in Tottenham? Do white cats hail from White City? Or do you just want to know how many cats there are in Catford?’

Long story short, people can upload their cats to an online map, creative a survey of breeds and ages and so on in the various geological zones of the city. It’s a fun parallel to how animals are mapped by conservationists. Furthermore, it’s gone way beyond London in just a few days- Brazil, for example!

Cat Map Creator Filip Hnizdo said: “Our two new tigers are big cat news, but we think little cats are important too. Tigers are the world’s favourite animal, and an iconic species in every culture – we want to see just how important their smaller counterparts are to London’s residents. Cat Map is the one stop shop to find out how just how cat-mad Londoners are.”

Kudos Filip! Awesome idea, isn’t it? I love anything that’s both interesting and daft. Go on, upload your cat already. Put a photo, description, gender, age, colouring. I want to know just how surrounded we are.

This is all in honour of the new Tiger Territory exhibit at the zoo. The Zoo folks have added the two new tigers Jae Jae and Melati- they’re critically endangered so they deserve celebrity status. They’ve travelled more than 14,000 miles to be together from the US and Australia as part of the global conservation breeding programme. There’s only 300 left in the wild, so wine and Barry White CDs are on standby.

Have fun stalking cats!

 

 

[sociable]

The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 9

Hello there!

 

I don’t have ‘proper internet’ for the next few days, so I’m afraid there’ll be no Daily Beard.

Sorry! Should be back on Tuesday!

 

Until then, another, larger chunk of Sweetangel!

 

Mama Grave began chanting hymns,

Treaties to gods foreign to Saltpetre,

While her home filled with sweet smelling smoke.

“I will tell you how he survives,”

“For I know this man better than you do,”

“Mr. Poulter’s heart already broke.”

 

“He been living without his heart,”

“For so long that he don’t even miss it,”

“Though his body will realise soon.”

“What happened to him?” asked Turtle,

“My girl, Sweetangel done cruelty to him,”

“Took his wife by the light of bad moon.”

 

“I know that he lost someone dear,”

Longthorn admitted, “But he never said,”

“That he’d ever before been married.”

“Long time before now,” said Mama,

“Adam Poulter had beautiful woman,”

“But heavyful sadness she carried.”

 

Mama Grave told Poulter’s sad tale, 8

While she laid herbs and small stones in his chest,

And began stitching the bullet wound.

“His wife had an ill of the mind,”

“One day she just up and walked out the house,”

“And she got lost in Saltpetre’s womb.”

 

“No sign of her was ever found,”

“Maybe misled, maybe fled, maybe dead,”

“Sweetangel takes good people away.”

“But that’s just a myth,” said Longthorn,

“I know now that it’s just a lie we tell,”

“Easy to hear in the light of day.”

 

Longthorn felt himself grow angry,

“It’s not right that we blame a phantasm!”

“It’s the hearts of men that are rotten.”

“Poulter’s wife, poor Frog, and the rest,”

“They vanished by the nature of cities,”

“No spectre, just people forgotten!”

 

“Sweetangel is quite real,” she said,

“Though your words cut a trueness from the fog,”

“It is not a thing of flesh and bone.”

“People get lost, get hurt, get dead,”

“And the rest want to say it’s not their fault,”

“That there was naught that they could have done.”

 

“So they invented a demon,”

“To tell themselves that people just vanish,”

“And that lie is the worst sin of all.”

Mama Grave finished her stitching,

“Sweetangel is as real as you or me,”

“And the lies that help us to stand tall.”

 

 
[sociable]

Our Daily Beard – 28/02/13

Today, I got some lovely new screenshots of Star Trek: The Trekoning.

Or whatever it’s called.

First, a recap about the game itself.

 

So; you play as Kirk and Spock in a co-op movie cash-in extravaganza (far better than a regular vaganza) based on Abraham Lincoln’s flashing-light-effects-themed reboot.

It’s in good hands, especially for a movie tie-in- the hands of Digital Extremes (Bioshock 2, Dark Sector, The Darkness 2). The story should be solid too, between BAFTA award winner and God of War writer, Marianne Krawczyk, in collaboration with the writer/producers of the new Star Trek films, Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof.

Explore strange new (old) worlds and ships and see all the fancy things from the films, yada yada. Play as Kirk, a new young dynamic Kirk, not Shatner (though I’d buy a game just based around him pottering around LA getting into ego driven hijinks).

 

In case you’re wondering what Brian Miller, senior president of vice at Paramount Pictures and executive producer of ST:TVG, has to bleat on the matter:

“One of the great joys of video games is the opportunity to take audiences to places that are only hinted at in traditional film and TV projects,” whispered Bri Bri from his hiding place in a bustling German market. “Giving gamers the opportunity to explore the U.S.S. Enterprise is one of the more exciting aspects of our video game and one that we can’t wait to share with Star Trekfans and gamers worldwide.”

 

Anyway, silliness must end now, for Gorn is out there (yes, Gorn) and it’s high time we saw how serious these screenshots are. If you click them, they’ll get bigger:

 

 
[sociable]