5/27 Moment of Zen: Southbound Pachyderm

Swim Trunks?

The story of Rajan just gets more remarkable the farther you follow it. Rajan, a 60 year old elephant who lives with his slightly younger mahout (elephant driver), Nasru, on Havelock Island, just off the coast of India. Rajan and Nasru have become fixtures along the Havelock's beaches, going for their daily swims.

Click the picture to see more pictures of Rajan and Nasru in the water and read more about their story. Both are remarkable, not just for Cesare Naldi's stunning, award-winning shots of them in and out of the water, but for how well they illustrate the intense bond that can be created between elephant and human.

5/25 Moment of Zen: ICNF Bombing

More News You Didn't Hear

Two weeks ago, on May 11, a bomb went off in Florida in a crowded building. Even though no one was hurt, you would think this would be news, with our heightened anxiety about terrorist attacks - the bomb discovered in Times Square on May 1 didn't even have to go off to become major national news.

I guess no one's interested when the place being bombed is a mosque.

The bomb, which went off during evening prayers at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida in Jacksonville, is being investigated as a "possible hate crime" and is thought to have been planted at least partially as a response to the appointment of Parvaz Ahmed, who attends services at the Center, to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. However, this is not the first time in recent history that prayer services in the same location have been interrupted. On April 4th, a white man walked in during services and started yelling, "Stop this blaspheming!" before being removed.

5/24 Moment of Zen: SeaDump 2010

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

With pollution in the Atlantic getting so much press these days, let's not forget the havoc we wreak in farther distant seas as well. What amounts to one of the world's largest landfills lives afloat the Pacific Ocean about a 1000 miles offshore from anywhere. About 10 million mi² composed of trash from at least three continents, approximately 80% of which washes out from land, the Garbage Patch is formed by a pattern of converging ocean currents called the North Pacific Gyre.

The Garbage Patch, for all its concentration, presents a difficult cleanup. It does not cohere into an "island of trash" but instead floats lots of pieces of debris in close quarters, largely under the surface. Additionally, floating matter of this becomes an unhealthy habitat for a number of marine species, which further complicates cleanup.

Click the picture above to read more from the National Science Foundation about the Garbage patch, or click here to read what Mother Nature News has to say.

On a related note, here's an article from the UK's Guardian newspaper about efforts underway to have the term "ecocide"—referring to actions which lead to the large-scale destruction of an ecosystem—recognized and established as a crime (to be tried by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands) on par with genocide. The Guardian also has a photojournal of its Top 10 ecocides.

5/21 Moment of Zen: Pac Man's Dirty 30

Happy Birthday, Pac Man!

Thirty years ago in Japan, Pac Man was born. At the time of its release, the maze-chase game was a novel idea. The most popular arcade games (the only way to play video games at the time) were simple space shooter games, notably Space Invaders. The equally iconic Ms. Pac-Man, just like yours truly, was released about a year later, sometime in 1981. The games have become some of the most recognizable iconography of the early 1980s and inspired all sorts of goofy things, including Urban Pacman, played with real people.

To commemmorate Pac-Man's 30th birthday, Google has made its first interactive doodle, a fully playable mini Pac-Man maze around the letters in the search engine's name. Insert Coin now at Google.*

*no coin actually required

5/19 Moment of Zen: The Hypothetical Library

The Hypothetical Library: Real Covers, Imaginary Books

Beyond the hexagonal chambers of Borges' total library (not to mention all of his references to books that don't exist), beyond the breeding books in the wilds of the library at Terry Pratchett's Unseen University, is the Hypothetical Library. This blog, run by advertising exectutive Charlie Orr, who also designs covers for extant books, solicits ideas and titles for nonexistant books from notable authors, and designs covers for them. Since starting things up in February of this year, Orr has put up a new cover for a hypothetical book about once a week.

This week's cover, for Neil Gaiman's If You Read This Book The World Will End, features a vintage lock to prevent you from reading the book and thus ending the world. Gaiman (author of Coraline, comic series The Sandman, and American Gods) said he had trouble with the idea of presenting an idea for a book he would never write, noting, "The trouble with imagining a book I would never write is that when I think of it, I think 'but I could WRITE that...'"

Click the picture above to read more about Gaiman's vision for his verboten, nonexistant book and to see other covers for books that could exist, but don't.

5/18 Moment of Zen: Mission Segway

The New Mid-Life Crisis Mobile?

Unsure about your direction in life? Simply lose a bet? Why not follow the great tradition of trekking across the country? And while you're at it, add a modern twist: Do it on a Segway. Click the picture to follow to the blog of three guys segwaying across the US.
(h/t Olivia F.)

5/17 Moment of Zen: Gold to Go

Gold Vending Machines

No, it's not a brand name - this new vending machine prototype, called "Gold to Go" was installed last week in the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE, actually spits out gold. An earlier prototype is in place in the Frankfurt, Germany airport, which only vends 1g or 10g bars and updates its prices about once an hour. The new model in Abu Dhabi accepts cash and credit card and dispenses 24k gold in 1g, 5g and 10g bars in addition to collectible gold coins from Canada, Australia and South Africa. The gold prices are updated online every few minutes and the machine takes about a 30% markup.