Upon first glance these seem like normal insects. But when you pay closer attention, you will notice something which seems like it came straight out of a science fiction film.
Mike Libby creates these from insects & antique watch parts
How did insect lab begin? One day I found a dead intact beetle. I then located an old wristwatch, thinking of how the beetle also operated and looked like a little mechanical device and so decided to combine the two. After some time dissecting the beetle and outfitting it with watch parts and gears, I had a nice little sculpture. Where do you get your insects? I get safe non-endangered high quality specimens from all around the world; from Africa, China, New Guinea, Brazil, Texas etc. Though I do salvage insects that I find right at hand, the occasional bumblebee or dragonfly.
Woah, what is it with these people and animal cruelty? I discovered all these today, strangely enough!
Why won’t my parakeet eat my diarrhoea?
This was on Yahoo! questions, and became a popular search term on Google. When you type in “Why won’t…” Google will complete the sentence as indicate above due to numerous people using the search terms.
“Protesters led a procession of donkeys with the names of players accused of taking bribes to fix incidents during the fourth test against England stuck on the foreheads of the animals. Television pictures also showed Pakistanis pelting their team bus with rotten vegetables when it arrived at Lord’s in London on Sunday.”
I’m not usually one to go for starting campaigns and all that jazz, but heck – these people are just mean and inhumane.
I took this photo myself yes Meet Andy, definitely the cutest bird I have ever met. Seems a bit edgy in this photograph, but he’s such a sweety-pie – a big baby really.
I thought this was quite a funny photo. Though it needs a speech bubble or a caption. Any suggestions welcome!
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or replace with 3 cups broken chocolate chunks – I used 3 large Cadbury’s slabs broken into pieces which worked fantastic)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions
Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter or margarine in large microwaveable bowl. Zap in microwave on medium until chips are melted, about 3-5 minute, stirring once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired.
Pour into well-greased 8×8-inch glass baking dish. Refrigerate until set. (I’m a little impatient, so I stuck it in the freezer instead. Took about an hour to set properly)
Variations:
Instead of using plain chocolate (such as a Cadbury’s dairy milk slab), try peppermint chocolate. I made mine with bits of broken Marie Biscuits, which came out very nice.
I received these images in an e-mail, and had to search a while before I found the artist who creates these amazing miniature sculptures. You may notice the inscription “Dalton” on one of the pencils, which is how I managed to trace Dalton Ghetti.
Meet Dalton Ghetti, the amazing artist behind these mini sculptures. The 49 year old sculptor lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
This man has been carving pencil leads for over a quarter century, and he doesn’t sell these masterpieces! Says Dalton: “I don’t make any money from it but that’s not what it’s all about for me. However, I would love for a gallery owner in England to fly me over to put on a show”
Carving requires patience, as a virtue and also as a character trait of the artist. This extraordinary man is a prime example of super talent, combined with mind numbing patience. One of his pieces took 2.5 painstaking years to complete. His tools: razor blade, sewing needle & sculpting knife – no magnifying glass!
While at school he used to carve the wood of this friends’ pencils and give it to them as gifts. Later in life he started making sculptures from wood. After experimenting with several objects, he set his mind on the challenge “One day I had an eureka moment and decided to carve into the graphite of a pencil” says Dalton.
Needless to say these sculptures don’t always come our perfect, when he ends up breaking the sculptures while working on them. Keeping in mind the fragility of his canvas, ruining a piece, specially when it is almost completed can be very devastating and depressing.
He has however learnt to believe in himself, which gains him confidence with each pencil that he carves.
He also has a box with more than 100 sculptures that he has broken over the period of time and calls it “the cemetery collection”.
“People might think it’s weird I keep them but they’re interesting. I worked on them for months so they might be dead now but at one point I gave them life” explains Dalton.
Whoever said that patience is a virtue, neglected to note that, most of all, its an ART!
For those familiar with Photoshop, Pixlr has a very similar layout, with pretty much the same basic features – see screenshot below.
Pros:
- Installs quickly and easily as a Firefox add-on
- Editing an image is easy, yet the features are powerful (layering, cropping, resizing, effects, etc.)
- Completed images can be saved to your computer / published to the internet
- You can do a screen grab with Pixlr, edit it if you need to, and publish it
Cons:
- You cannot open all image formats, i.e. psd files used by Photoshop
- Not all Photoshop functionality is included in this editor
Summary:
All in all I think this is a great tool. In light of the cons, you cannot expect a free tool to do EVERYTHING, but Pixlrhas come pretty close! I love it, I use it often, and I would certainly recommend it!
Screenshot:
After deciding to write aboutPixlr, I decided to see what other people think of it. Here is a lovely in depth review.
I usually prefer Britain’s Got Talent above America’s Got Talent, but this, you have got to experience.
10 Year old Jackie Evancho got the most votes of all America’s Got Talent’s Youtube clips, and definitely with reason! The most amazing opera voice contained in a petite 10 year old girl. Absolutely breathtaking!
While on my way to holiday, I found this notice in a restroom at a fuel station…
For those who don’t know, the slogan of Engen is “Engen, with us you are number one”, but seems that the last few letters have been removed from this notice.
I forgot to mention yesterday that, after being married for just over 2 years, I have finally braved myself to go to home affair to apply for an ID & passport with my married surname! Now I just hold thumbs that I receive both document without any further hassle.
Last night was my first time at the drive in – unbelievable since I’m 27 already, and the drive-in is on the same road I take to work each day. We watched Toy Story -which was adorable and so funny (loved Buzz in Spanish mode ). And the second film was “death at a funeral” – what a load of crap. It was supposed to be a comedy, but I’d say it was a pretty pathetic attempt.
Oh and then lastly, I did start on the house work & finishing up of the washing, when I heard my washing machine making a strange noise. Sounded like it was falling apart. I could already envisage having to do washing by hand in the bath… I tried to investigate, and after nearly half an hour with both my arms emerged in the cold water, I finally found golf ball at the bottom of the machine! LOL. My husband had found it, and stuck it in his pocket, and obviously forgotten about it. I was just relieved that it wasn’t the machine that was broken!
Meet Andy, definitely the cutest bird I have ever met. Seems a bit edgy in this photograph, but he’s such a sweety-pie – a big baby really.
Meet Dalton Ghetti, the amazing artist behind these mini sculptures. The 49 year old sculptor lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
). And the second film was “death at a funeral” – what a load of crap. It was supposed to be a comedy, but I’d say it was a pretty pathetic attempt.
