going Gaga for ferns!

So, the big news in the science world today is that a new genus of 19 ferns discovered in Central America have been named after Lady Gaga!

Reasons for naming the ferns are at least three-fold, according to the report from Duke University:

"We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression," said study leader Kathleen Pryer, a Duke University biology professor and director of the Duke Herbarium. "And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice."

At one stage of its life, the new genus Gaga has somewhat fluid definitions of gender and bears a striking resemblance to one of Gaga's famous costumes, a heart-shaped Armani Prive' costume with giant shoulders.

The clincher came when graduate student Fay-Wei Li scanned the DNA of the ferns being considered for the new genus. He found GAGA spelled out in the DNA base pairs as a signature that distinguishes this group of ferns from all others.

Awesome, non?

With that in mind, let's take a look at some pretty fern-y things:

//going Gaga for ferns!//

Mars rover: curiouser and curiouser

"We have successfully completed the brain transplant," is an actual quote from Curiosity Mission Manager Mike Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

And now that the rover Curiosity has had his brain surgery, he's ready for driving mode - and what an adventure awaits him! I wonder what kind of awesomes he will find on his quest. The peeps at NASA say he's ready to start his journey to Mount Sharp within the next couple of weeks, woooo, exciting!

Let's have a treasury to celebrate:

{curiouser and curiouser}

...and now, for the real celebration - get up and daaaaaaance!

Pokémon Battle Royale art show

I have never been to Minneapolis, and I don't know much about it. OK, I know nothing about it other than its location and that it's in Minnesota (I think).

But I wish I lived close-by so I could go visit this show which is currently on at the Light Grey Art Gallery. 151 artists have each chosen one of the original Pokémon to represent in their own style. I was a little too old to be into Pokémon when they first came out, but my brother Rich adored it/them, and still does.

How awesome would it be to be able to afford to fly us over to the US to go and see this show? He'd love it! Perhaps I'll just have to make do with getting him a print from the gallery shop instead.

If you're local, go check it out! For more information, see the exhibition details here.

Do you still like Pokémon? I hope I'm not the only one who feels too old for it...

the old school video game art show

There must be a great many reasons to visit California, not least the fact that my best bud James lives there with his lovely wife Jen (much to the frustration of poor Breakfast Club), but it would also be nice to visit the awesome-looking Gallery 1988 in Santa Monica. The current show in Gallery 1988 Venice is called The Old School Video Game Art Show and it looks amazing!

If you happen to be in California between now and 8th October, why not head over there and let me know what it's like!?

If you're not fortunate enough to be able to go in person, you can see all of the artworks in the show here. Some of my favourites are....

“Forget-me-not” by Andrew DeGraff

“Fruit Attack” by Aya Kakeda

“Clash of the 8-bit Titans” by Chris Tezber

“Work To Do” by Drake Brodhal

"Skeletor" by Chito Arellano aka KwestOne

“Pew! Pew!” by Michelle Legendre

"Zelda Endures” by N.C. Winters

“Faction” by Samuel Ho

which are your favourites?

a super commission

I've been busy making a very special birthday card for a friend at work today - her husband is turning 60 later this week, and is obsessed with superheroes and such, so I've been asked to make him a card "that he'll like"...

Now I'll be the first one to put my hands up and admit I'm a bit of a geek, but when it comes to making geeky stuff, I'm not all that great. I would far rather be drawing pictures of squirrels on bicycles or foxes wearing waistcoats, so this has been a bit of a challenge:

I've made a card with Wonderwoman and Batman paper figures, so hopefully that will suffice. In fact, I don't want it to suffice - I want him to love it! Partly because I always want people to like the things I make, but mainly because it took me ages!

Maybe in time I'll get a bit quicker at doing such fiddly stuff, and I certainly enjoyed making it. I just wish there were some badgers in there or something. Next time there definitely will be!

shall I compare thee to a Powerpuff Girl?

As far as compliments go, being told you remind someone of a Powerpuff Girl is pretty darn awesome!! After all, they're made of sugar and spice and everything nice... plus, of course, some Chemical X, to give them a bit of oomph.

When I was told by a friend yesterday that I was like a Powerpuff Girl, I have to admit I assumed she meant that I was like Buttercup - not because she is the tough one, but because she is a little aggresssive, very stubborn and her favourite colour is green. When listing my own characteristics, I can't deny that those traits would probably make the list.

Buttercup is the feisty one because, rather than 'sugar' or 'everything nice', her personality ingredient is 'spice', which I think is an EXCELLENT excuse to use
if
when I am told off for being too fiery!

To check the accuracy of this assumption, I thought I should probably take a quiz...

yay!

And then I got excited and made a pretty treasury on Etsy... double yay!

click image to be taken to the treasury

happy geek pride day!

25th May is Geek Pride Day, hooray!

On this magical day you can be super proud to be a geek (that is if you're not proud of it all the time!). To celebrate I have compiled a wonderfully geeky treasury...

And look at this, it's the Geek Manifesto, created on the first Geek Pride Day:

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
4. The right to associate with other nerds.
5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
7. The right to be out of style.
8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
9. The right to show off your geekiness.
10. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. To save and protect all geeky material.
5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a "museum of geekiness."
6. Don't be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Try to take over the world!

As well as Geek Pride Day, today is also Towel Day and Glorious 25th May. I know, crazy, eh?

Go on, embrace the geekdom, and while you're at it, why not hug a geek?!