Friday, January 15, 2010

Friday Fragments and Linkfest No. 14

Mommy's Idea
Hosted by Mrs4444.

I've less of my own fragments and more of the linkfest stuff to share this week. Don't forget to pop on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time when you're done here and check out all the other Fragmented Friday-ers!

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After watching all three extended version Lord Of The Rings movies this week David came to me at bedtime tonight and asked "Where's The Hobbit?" Amazingly enough I actually knew where one of our copies was. A few minutes later I could hear him giggling to himself as he read. To appreciate the true significance of this it's important to understand that David, aged 12 and 3/4, could count on one hand the number of full length novels he has read. And I know for a fact that one of them he started half-way through. I'm holding my breath and hoping this might be a turning point.

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At the end of December my good friend Jen and I went out to lunch at The Buddha Belly (the website is a work in progress), a restaurant in Terry Hills. The food was fabulous, we will be going back. Lots. But what I really liked about the place was the surroundings, you sit outside on wide covered verandahs overlooking gardens and a carp pond. A carp pond with the most enormous fish in it.

Carp Pond at The Buddha Belly

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Looking to donate towards disaster relief in Haiti? Posts with info on which organisations will do the best with your money can be found at Hoyden About Town, Bitch PhD, Shakesville and Greta Christina's Blog.

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Do you visit Astronomy Picture of the Day? I have it in my feed reader but I often leave it unread for weeks on end. Which is silly, because the images are awesome in the true sense of the word. Nebulas are probably my favourite astronomy images, galaxies come in a close second. As a teen I had a poster of the Horsehead Nebula in pride of place on the wall above my bed.
Orion's Horsehead Nebula
The Flame Nebula
Spiral galaxy M94

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TED talk - Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey

Click here if you can't see the embedded video
(via my cousin at slightlyodd.com)

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There's a lovely interview with Judith Kerr, author of the Mog books and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, at the Guardian.
(via Penthe at life or books?)

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Did everyone see the coconut shell carrying octopus? If not, well, you should. Now, I could just embed the video here, but instead I'm going to send you over to Save Your Breath For Running Ponies where you can watch the clip, read a bit about the research behind it and have a good giggle at the story at the end of the post. And then you can lose yourself for several hours rummaging through the archives and following a whole bunch of links to new and exciting places and filling up your feed reader with a whole bunch of new blogs. At any rate, that's what I did.

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Squirrel ingenuity at Twin Cities Naturalist.

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Ummm...yep, that's all I've got for now, do share your cool interweb finds in the comments!

12 comments:

Boozy Tooth said...

Getting your children to discover the joys of reading is something I may never realize. Shucks... it took me 40 years before I started reading Patricia Cornwell (one book... The Body Farm... and I was hooked). Congratulations to David for finding the truth at 12-3/4.

Koi (carp) are nasty dirty little creatures - all hungry gaping mouths, but they sure are impressive. I always liked them. Giant goldfish... what's not to love?

Off to watch the coconut shell carrying octopus! Ta-ta!

Yesterday, we donated to the Haitian Relief Fund through the American Red Cross. I encourage everyone to donate something, no matter how small an amount. Every bit counts and it all adds up. Thank you for mentioning this on your blog.

Eternal Lizdom said...

Now I'm totally hooked on the Astronomy Pic of the Day- how cool!!

I love when something inspires anyone to read- especially a kid!!

I love TED talks. I need to load a bunch to my Zen to watch/listen at work. When I tested that Droid a while back, there was a TED talk app and I loved it!!

4 Lettre Words said...

I love smart sea creatures!!

I hear they are supposed to make The Hobbit into a movie in the near future. Woohoo!

Helen McGinn said...

You know I went straight to the restaurant site, don't you? ;O) Unfortunately, the link wasn't working but I'll find it! I love astronomy too...will go check out the other websites. xx

mimbles said...

@Alix - I just assumed my kids would be like me with reading, voracious from a young age, but only Tom is turning out that way. It's been a bit hard not to badger the other two about it but I do keep hoping!

@Liz - I keep pointing Dave in the direction of APOD and TED too but haven't quite managed to hook him yet.

@Dina - Yep, The Hobbit is being directed by Guillermo del Toro and Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson are doing the screenplay. I believe it's going to be done as two films.

@Helen - Don't know why the link wouldn't work for you, but you're not missing out on anything really - all they have there is a few photos and a message saying the site is under development, no menu or anything.

Claudya Martinez said...

Linkfest sounds so suggestive.

jp said...

great post. I love the picture of your mum up there :)thanks for coming by my blog to comment.

Penny said...

the octopi are neat - I saw them earlier when they were featured on the Herald site. so interesting :)

cat said...

Oh I am sure the Hobbit will do the trick, if any book will ever do.

Anonymous said...

Lots of links there - looks like I've got some work to do this afternoon!

Killara girl said...

wow that's awesome that he's reading that book
i checked out your space pics...very cool. i was actually snagging a pic of a globe from there today and it say zoom in to see the world trade center. have to assume it was very old.
unfortunately i can't check out the restaurant :(

Mrs4444 said...

I love that your son is taking a walk into the world of books! I hope he likes it there; reading was always the way my own son escaped the world. These days, as a senior in high school, he doesn't have as much time for pleasure reading, but I'm glad he has the foundation of the love for books.

The TED video; a little over my head for tonight, but I loved the coconut-carrying octopus! Funny...