Due to the Euro-centric tendencies of most map projections we tend to have the wrong idea of the African continent’s size relative to other land masses. At 30,301,1596 square kilometers, African is a vast continent. As demonstrated on this map from The Times atlas, it is considerably larger than China, the USA, Western Europe, India, Argentina and the British Isles combined! (Hat-tip to Normblog for the link.)
From an installation by Kay Hassan. Part of his mid-career retrospective exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Photo by Christo Doherty
Check this out over at boingboing…
“Artist Francesca Lanzavecchia shows off her Lightmate: ‘Can electric
energy fill the void of human absence?
LightMates are soft anthropomorphic pillows and warming lamps. This
awfully attractive creature heats, lights and provides company. Their
different sizes answer to everyone’s need of heat; a mate to hug or a
huge companion you can lay on.’”
Link directly to her site here.
I had to laugh when I saw this FANTASTIC video game commercial advertising Mercenaries 2… Time’s Lev Grossman thinks it’s the best VG commercial of the year…
…most [video game commercials] are forgettable. What do you want, they’re ads. But sometimes you see one that just rips off your head and thrusts its awesomeness down your neck. I’m thinking of the “Mad World” spot for Gears of War, for example.
But check out this one. I don’t have any special interest in playing Mercenaries 2…. I caught this ad while I was watching clips on adultswim.com, and dang. It’s the white-boy rap-singing video-game jingle of the summer…
Check out the original article at GamePolitics.com here.
Mercs 2 TV ad - Oh No You Didn’t
Aaron Sorkin, the wunderkind Hollywood scriptwriter who was responsible for the first four seasons of the TV smash hit The West Wing (and a slate of successful feature films, including A Few Good Men and Malice) has been commissioned to write a script about how Facebook was invented. As Alice Fishburn dryly notes, Facebook is now "a phenomenon even bigger than the White House."
Aaron Sorkin - as seen on his Facebook page
However it seems that familiarity with the subject was not a requirement for Sorkin getting the job. The Hollywood luminary got his researcher to get up a Facebook page so that Sorkin can "find out what Facebook is." His researcher had to do this for him because, as Sorkin admits/boasts, his Grandmother - who has been dead for 33 years - knows more about the Internet than he does . . .
On his page he appeals for help from Facebook users:
I honestly don’t know how this works, which is why I’m here. If anyone has any questions I’d be happy to answer them as best I can. If anyone has any comments I’m glad to listen. And if anyone has any Facebook stories I think they might be helpful
Can this be for real? Or is it just a publicity scam that uses Facebook and Facebook users to market a film about Facebook? I’m looking at the page now and it has already generated 38 topics and has 262 questions posted for Aaron to answer. Hey, I thought he was asking the questions?