Stalking Venus

And it looks like this (click for bigger version)…

Introducing the Mazda Kaan concept vehicle…

“The MAZDA KAAN is an electric race car designed to compete in the E1 races, the pinnacle of international motorsports in terms of technology and popularity. In 2025, California freeways have been resurfaced with a sub-level electro-conductive polymer that powers the electric cars of the modern world. MAZDA’s patented electronic tire system uses this technology to power the KAAN to reach 250 mph with no harmful emissions!

“The vehicles are piloted by individual drivers but teams are made up of thirty cars, all on the track together. Using strategies similar to those in cycling peletons, the tighter the group sticks together, the more aerodynamic and powerful it becomes.

“Inspiration for the KAAN comes from electric fields and textures seen in nature, particularly those in a lightning bolt. The car is uniquely designed around its powerful electric wheels while the cockpit acts as a capsule to safely house the driver, allowing for tighter peloton formations and a team victory.

Do you think someone at Mazda R&D watched Speed Racer perchance? (Actually, it’s an entry for a vehicle design contest called Motorsports 2025. See the outrageously futuristic entries here).

It has been announced by sports minister Makhenkesi Stofile that the Springbok emblem will now play second fiddle to the King Protea as South Africa’s national rugby emblem.

“We are not killing the Springbok”, he said. “We are affirming it”.

I think it’s really stupid to change the emblem. Everything about our rugby team has something to do with the Springbok. Whenever you’re at a game, whether it’s at the stadium or on TV, you can hear people yelling “Go bokke!”.

We have a national pride around our rugby team that is deeply embedded in the Springbok emblem. The Springbok embodies speed, agility and sleekness. Springboks are not easy prey, and can escape from some of the biggest predators by using their direction-altering jump.

The King Protea is a flower for christ’s sake! Can you imagine people yelling “Go blomme!” or “Come on petal!” as Breyton breaks for the tri-line?

Ridiculous.

I’m sick of racial politics being brought to bear on every single aspect of South African life. When is it going to stop? Are we going to have to remove the word “black” from the dictionary? Maybe we should cancel rugby altogether - after all, people played the game during the apartheid era! Shocking! It should be banned!

It’s getting to the point in this country where even ordering coffee can be tricky. “I’d like it black as the ace of spades” is going to have to become “I’d like my coffee gender-neutral and racially unbiased please. Sorry, what’s that you say? You don’t know what that means? Well… then just give me a café latté please. No! Wait, don’t arrest me! I said café not… argh!”

… another one zapped by the thought police.

Once again the Big Picture over at Boston.com (oh how we praise thine incredibleness!) has come up with a series of photographs that are literally jaw-dropping.

California has been plagued by wildfires, and this is a collection of some of the best photographs from the series of fires that have devastated the area, including some (like the one above) from as little as three days ago.

Click through to the Big Picture and check them out. Stunning and tragic.

The TV execs at Fox are officially at the bottom of the entertainment barrel and trying to claw their way out through it into hitherto unexplored realms of reality TV hell.

Fox Television is busy filming a new reality show called, Smile, you’re under arrest. The way it works is straightforward. They find someone with an outstanding arrest warrant - for unpaid parking tickets, let’s say.

Once they have the victim, they set him up in such a way as to make it seem like his life is suddenly taking a huge change in course for the better. Then, at the end of the show, just when the dupe has been wound up until he’s ready to explode with gratitude and joy, he gets arrested and tossed in jail.

“One of three set-ups just shot in Arizona features the cops luring a criminal to a movie set with the promise of making him an extra and paying him a couple hundred dollars. An elaborate film set is staged and filming begins on a faux movie. The set-up continues as the director then gets mad at the lead actor, fires him and replaces him with the law-breaking extra.

“The scene escalates with the fake director introducing the mark to a supposed studio mogul and continuing to create this dream-comes-true sequence. Finally, all the participants are revealed as officers of the law, and the criminal is apprehended (before signing waivers to let the footage be used in the show).

“Other scenarios include a fake fashion shoot where the subject thinks he is about to become a supermodel and another in which the mark becomes an auto racer, a set-up which ends when a police car comes up behind him on a race track to pull him over. Yes, sounds like a hoot. Not.

Source: Broadcastling & Cable via Boing Boing

The Order of the Stick web comic is one of my favourite web diversions. I have fond memories of being a Dungeons and Dragons basement dork back in the days before I knew about exciting things like women, the outdoors, socialising, sport, sunlight,  and… Well, most things.

The Order of the Stick is a web comic that follows a group of adventurers who are characters in a D&D game. They are vaguely aware of this, and have to do things according to the D&D rules.

For anyone who knows anything about roleplaying games (not the S&M sort!), this comic is definitely worth a look. Every strip from the very first one to today’s particularly amusing episode is online, so check it out!

Holy crap is all I can say.

Update: It’s fake! Thanks for letting us know Deems!