Image roundup

A few gems from Reddit:



Dust storm in Kuwait March 25, 2011 (might want to watch with the sound off).



"My only professional ambition is to get a desk where no one can see my computer monitor other than me" from Some eCards.




Ant pushing a drop of water.



Ermine, I think.



Anyone can put a fairy door on an upright surface. How about a door convincingly placed on the ground?

*Previously: Move over fairy doors. Here's tiny elevators.

Insect zoo

Insect exhibit by Andrew Simonov.

*Buy insects in amber at Amazon.

Here's what happens when you fill an ant colony with concrete

Here's what happens when you fill an ant colony with concrete and then excavate the results. Apparently the segments is from this longer film about ants:



Via.

*Buy ant farms at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. I choose to assume this is not a hoax - - Mazda is recalling thousands of recent models because spiders like to build webs in their cannister vent lines.

2. Scary story about Ivan Lendl's dogs.

3. Allegedly, the Phoenix, Arizona police department greatly exaggerated the number of kidnappings in the city in order to obtain more federal money.

Micromachina - - if we drove around in giant bugs

Some of Scott Bain's Micromachina sculptures:

MICROMACHINA examines what makes the insect world tick, and considers our attempts to control nature and the consequences. Humanity’s blatant disregard for nature, where profit comes before life, will ultimately be our undoing. Pesticides, herbicides, genetic modification and massive urban expansion push the fine balance of life toward disaster. There has to be a point, when mother nature will say ‘too far’, and rid the earth of its biggest pest... us.

Once the stuff of science fiction, today flying and crawling insects are used by the military, fitted with audio and video devices. This exhibition experiments using real taxidermy beetles as mechanised shells, to show how we mistreat our fellow inhabitants, forcing them to do our will.

Via.

*Buy insects in amber at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Tura Satana tribute (safe for work).

2. One more thing you learned in school that is not true - - South American Army Ants don't devour large mammals, let alone people. Via.

3. My wonderful coupon ninja wife is quite diligent in entering contests. And it just paid off courtesy of My Coke Rewards:

You have won a PlayStation Move Prize Pack which will include: 1 PlayStation 3 system, 1 DualShock controller, 2 PlayStation Move motion controllers, 1 PlayStation Eye camera, 1 SingStar Dance game and 2 SingStar Microphones!

It never even occurred to me that I would one day own the system. Anyone have suggestions for games? I'm thinking Red Dead Redemption for me, and Marvel vs. Capcom to play with my boys.

Link roundup

1. The BBTS has plush Angry Birds and Thundercats figures available for preorder.

2. Animated gif of a pillow taking out a cat.

3. Watch as a Deinopis/Gladiator Spider weaves a net, hovers over the ground, and then thrusts the net down to catch a cricket. (Whatever creature you've seen in horror movies, nature has created something worse.)

Link roundup

1. Check out the remarkable face on this caterpillar. (I don't think it's photoshopped?)

2. Lady on a motorbike.

3. Anyone received a letter like this? Anthem Blue Cross sent us a letter that simply says, "Our records show that your child may not have received an immunization that is included in a recently updated shot schedule. We've included a postcard that serves as a reminder to schedule an appointment with your child's health care provider." The letter does not tell us which shot they think we might have missed. And the "postcard" is a promotional insert from Pfizer that emphasizes the importance of vaccines.

This gets my vote as weirdest-looking bug on the planet

Bocydium Globulare. Via this collection of strange-looking bugs.