Penguin gets lost

A Magellanic Penguin has left his own kind in the south of Chile to travel north to Peru, where he is attempting to integrate into a community of Humboldt Penguins. "Conditions in the park are not the ones it is used to. They usually seek out their own species, and it could suffer discrimination," reports biologist David Orisco. "It would be better for it to go to Chile". For more, see Confused penguin strays 5,000km

Can't Stop The Ming

John Waters has brought shame on the Irish nation.

Lonely Albert

The BBC News has run a report on Albert the Albatross: No romance for lovesick albatross. He is this albatross who somehow crossed the doldrums at the equator and then rode the trade winds to the Shetlands and the Outer Hebrides, places that in their bleakness must remind him of his South Atlantic home. Albert is lonely because he is the only albatross in the northern hemisphere. He lives with gannets, and every year during the breeding season, he does what he would do if he were at home - he builds a little nest and he waits for a lady albatross to take a shine to it and him. And he waits in vain.

I saw him once on the television. It was very poignant.

Gamers Unite!

Even if you think the invasion of Iraq was a ghastly mistake for which we will all be paying for many years to come, you can retain a certain sympathy for the soldiers of occupying power, particularly when they are fellow role playing gamers. Apparently gamers within the US military in Iraq are organising a June convention in the shadows of Ur that they have evocatively called Ziggurat Con.

They are apparently looking for people to donate gamebooks and, particular, dice, with those little polyhedrons being in astonishingly short supply. Helping fellow gamers would normally trump politics, but I notice that they are not playing any Call of Cthulhu or Over The Edge, so they can shag off. I am nevertheless entertained by the convention having a session of Starship Troopers. Would you like to know more?

(story from an ILX thread on roleplaying games)

Shallow

Thanks to Mr Chris Gilmour for directing me to SexyMSP.com . It's like Amihotornot, except the people are all Members of the Scottish Parliament.

I can't imagine this working in Ireland.

Real burgers. Real fresh

I don't know if I am getting old, but I have started being really annoyed by the fatuous slogans by parties and candidates in this year's election.

Konono No.1 versus the Event People

Hey look, Konono No.1 are coming to Dublin and playing a free gig down in the docklands area. I have already mentioned these people: CONGOTRONICS

I suspect that this concert will be totally rammed with trend and event people. Cockfarmers. I have nevertheless entered the ticket raffle, even though this involves telling the organisers all kinds of things that are basically none of their business.

Visiting the "Batavia"

Maybe you have read Mike Dash's Batavia's Graveyard and as a result know all about history's bloodiest mutiny (and-the-mad-religious-maniac-who-led-it). Maybe you are also going to the Frank's APA 100th issue meetup in Amsterdam.

If so, then you will be able to travel to Lelystad, where they have a replica of the Batavia. I gather this modern retourship made the round trip to Australia a couple of years ago. I wonder did they also replicate the sanitary facilities the orginal ship had (I'm thinking in particular of the rope left hanging in the water (you will either remember this or you won't)).

In other Mike Dash news, I have started reading Thug, which is about the Thuggee cult in 19th century India. Apparently they weren't actually religious maniacs, they just liked killing people and stealing all their money.

Icebear Knut To Write Book

It says here: Celebrity polar bear Knut gets book deal

Some might be sceptical of Knut's ability to write a whole book all on his own, but he is already publishing a blog: Knuts Blog

Iperartuarpok Okk Orutit

An unusual birthday present.