Things of note for the week ending Friday 10th April, 2015.
1. HOW DO SNAKES BEHAVE IN ZERO GRAVITY?
I know, it’s probably something you’ve been asking yourself all week. It’s OK. You’re not alone. It’s been on my mind as well. But you can now put your mind at rest.
According to Shobhit Sharma on Quora:
“A high number of animals, including snakes, have been subjected to a zero-g environment, either naturally or artificially. As results show, different animals react differently to this unknown territory. For example, tree frogs have been known to assume a nosedive position when the effects of gravity are removed. And even funnier, cats have been known to assume that they are falling over, so they just roll over and over, trying to orient themselves into a safe landing position.”
He goes on…
“But to keep the discussion limited to the behaviour of snakes, they have been known to exhibit some fairly interesting results in a zero gravity environment. They usually tend to have one of these two reactions: either they attack themselves or they coil themselves into a tight knot – like a bunch.
The roots of both of these behaviours are believed to be the snake’s response to the loss of its sense of proprioception, or the awareness of one’s body parts in relation to another. Being isolated from the effects of gravity, snakes are no longer able to differentiate their own body from a physical obstacle, which results in two possible effects:
- Snakes perceive their own body as an enemy, which makes them attack themselves.
- Snakes perceive their own body as another snake, which makes them try to bunch up against themselves as a result of a behaviour that is common to a stressed group of snakes.”
An outstanding bit of useless information.
Go and ‘up vote’ Shobit’s answer and say thank you for enlightening your Friday.
2. NEW ORANGE WEDNESDAY HACK
Sorry, not Orange Wednesdays. Meerkat Movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hurrah and hurrah again.
Get to the point, Whatters.
Remember how you could just go get an Orange PAYG SIM card purely for sending that one SMS every Wednesday? That’s gone now (thanks EE).
However, a very smart person has found a way to hack its replacement service from Compare the Meerkat. Resulting in you having to pay a mere £1.37 for a full year of 2-4-1 cinema tickets.
Perfect.
One imagines this loophole will close very shortly, so move fast.
3. TINTYPE HOLLYWOOD STAR SHOTS
New York photographer, Victoria Will, hung out at the Sundance Festival (in NY) and, using a blend of modern and historical techniques, captured some amazing photographs of Hollywood’s finest.
These are gorgeous.
You can see the entire set over on Hill’s website; they’re well worth a look.
4. THE ONLY APPLE WATCH REVIEW WORTH READING
Honestly, I think this Verge write up is pretty stellar. They come under a fair bit of fire for their approach to non-tech news and, well, irrespective of whether or not they deserve it, you can’t fault this work.
I’ve read it on mobile and desktop and the former is a better experience.
Related: if you’re sat there wondering ‘James, are you going to get an Apple Watch*?’ – the answer is a no. As some of you may already know, I have an [original] Pebble watch. I’ve had it for a little over a year now and the new version, Pebble Time, was recently announced on Kickstarter.
I backed the steel edition so, at some point over the summer, that’s the smartwatch I’ll be sporting.
Now you know.
*If you hear anyone say ‘iWatch’ – tut loudly, then correct them immediately.
5. THE ROCK DOES TAYLOR SWIFT
No. Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter at once.
What is WRONG with you?!
I’m talking about THIS:
The URL I am about to link you to contains two videos from the new show ‘Lip Sync Battle’ (the child of all those amazing skits from Tonight with Jimmy Fallon) and, well, it’s all kinds of awesome.
Go. Watch.
And have an amazing weekend!
Whatley out.
__________________________
Bonuses this week are as follows:
- Ted Baker with its cool Instagram campaign.
- Stephen Pirrie on Notifications vs Mindfulness.
- Like cocktails? Get £5 off your first order at Shaken Cocktails with this unique URL.
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Absolutely love those photos – and thank you for putting my mind at rest about snakes in zero g, that one had been bugging me 😉