I am starting a new weekly entry - Wednesday's Weird Web-Thievery - a slot were I put the weird images that I find or get sent from time to time.

This one came in an email titled "Bucket Seat" - clever. No helmets, no worries! Low carbon footprint for that family.

I have inserted a read more so that you can access more of this series from the "Related Blogs" menu.

With the BP Deep Horizon Oil Well in the Gulf of Mexico effectively closed for now, the question has been asked of Terry from the legendary counter-pr twitter account BPGlobalPR, what is he going to do now.

Terry has posted on his website via twitter a comprehensive response which effectively sums up the reasons behind his campaign to bring old media spotlight onto the crisis using new social media techniques.

It is a beautifully crafted article that is quite motivating, and once again really highlights the power that is the new social media.

Lois the Corpse Flower is on the verge of blooming, and the world hold's it's collective breath, in more ways than one!

The corpse flower is so named because when in full bloom it smells like rotting meat meant to attract flies for pollination. The bloom only lasts for 3 days, and may only happen once during it's lifetime in capivity.

A native of the tropical forests of Sumartian, it was filmed for the first time by David Attenborough for his series the "The Private Life of Plants". Scientifically described for the first time in 1878, it has been cultivated in collections around the world ever since, but flowers rarely, so it is quite a hooplah when it does.
There are only 3 - 5 bloomings of this plant annually around the globe in the collections gardens, and right now we all have the chance to see this happening live, via the wonders of the internet.

Right now, in the halls of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Lois the corpse flower (botanically called the titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum - from Ancient Greek amorphos, "without form, misshapen" + phallos, "penis", and titan, "giant") is preparing to bloom. I, like many others around the world have been watching the live web feed for the last 24 hours waiting for something magical, somewhat thankful that smell does not yet transcend the internet.

This news just disturbs me, what is it about our society that feels that we must control and inflict our opinions on everything around us?

The issue of pest control is a complicated one. What is a pest? Is not the human race the biggest pest of them all by the very same definition?

The problem New Zealand has with the introduced possum is particularily polarising. To slaughter them or not to slaughter them, and how. There is a perceived risk of the transfer of TB to the bovine stock on forest fringes, therefore the possums must go. Not only this but they strip the native forest, and kill birdlife.

The current solution of 1080 poison control is, in my opinion, a total reflection on how the western society tends to deal with most things. With a heavy handed approach that has no consideration for total impact or possible long term effects on the issue at hand, but also the bigger picture regarding the inter-related nature of life. Not only do the possums die, but  also do the deer, the goats and birds. Basically everything that might stumble upon it. Not such a selective solution really.

Perhaps we are at a stage that if it is really that necessary to cull back the possum numbers, instead of polluting the rivers and the ground with this incredible toxic material we just go back to the old fashioned, reasonable 'price on the head'. If decent money is to be made from killing possums for their fur for instance, I am sure alot more folks would be out there engaged in the slaughter, and the numbers would decline quickly. Never under estimate the power of human greed. Long term I would imagine that this would have to be a lot cheaper a solution than helicopters, chemicals and legal battles.

This Fridays Music clip of the week is an old classic, Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up".
Why this? Simple really, to use it as an illustration of the impact of viral / guerilla marketing.

The phenomenon that is RickRolling came about a few years back and involves internet users being tricked to click on a link that redirects them to this old chestnut, the Rick Astley video. You then realise that you have been "Rick Rolled". Why this video, hard to find that out, but to date it has been estimated that at least 18 million US adults alone had seen the rickrolled clip.

Here is another installment in the Old Spice range of commercials.

This clip allows you to record your own Old Spice Man on a horse Voice mail message. It is very cool (if you are a girl - not so much for guys).

I am just trying to find out whether or not this is a real series for Old Spice, or a spoof connected to something else. It is hard to know what is real and what is not sometimes on the interwebs.

This is further to the classic Old Spice post a little while ago (click on the read more link to see the full article, and to the left you will see it in the Related Blogs menu).

Raising children can sometimes be a challenge.

With the global spread of family members quite normal, these days more and more families are without the immediate guidance of the older generation to provide a helping hand, and some wise words from the direct experience of raising children.

We certainly know from experience that some sort of instructional guide would have been most helpful in explaining what we ought to expect as we got to grips with caring for this precious new family member.

Here is a great 'how to' guide for new parents. This is probably not what we had in mind.

Click on the read more to see the somewhat 'interesting' advice.

Well isn't this interesting.  For all those naysayers about global warming here is a report from Nasa which says that infact, the world is warming up.

It does not say why the world is warming up, we wil lleave that for future blogs perhaps! There are some very interesting alternative theories to the much published greenhouse gas problem that has resulted in a new form of hidden taxation - The Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

From the article which can be found here (copy and paste people!) < http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/paper/gistemp2010_draft0601.pdf >:

We conclude that global temperature continued to rise rapidly in the past decade......there has been no reduction in the global warming trend of 0.15-0.20°C/decade that began in the late 1970s.

The yearly running mean global temperature has reached a new record in 2010, and all that despite the recent minimum of solar irradiance. The year on year graph for global temperatures is also pretty impressive.
Something to think about.

I just read a disturbing article regarding the release of the evil calicivirus into the New Zealand countryside yet again.

We all need to pay attention to this kind of carry on, for it is nothing less than biological warfare, with unknown long term impacts, on genetics and the food chain as a whole.

A couple of yers ago, the calicivirus went through our neighbourhood unknown to us. At the time we had a number of pet rabbits (quite by accident), all of whom had amazing personlities, quirks and opinions on what they liked or did not like. Quite a few of them had lived inside with us at various times throughout their lives, were very well toilet trained, and we all understood each other reasonably well.

Imagine our horror as one by one, over a period of a day a whole rabbit family of Mum and Dad, and their two grownup daughters all went into full organ failure. It was heartbreaking, and resulted in some intensive research.

Geez the Australians can be a brave bunch when they get a couple of tinnies into them.

That country is seriously a dangerous place, without getting up to mischief and weird adventures whilst drunk; let alone attempting to hitch a ride on the back of a 5 metre saltwater crocodile called Fatso at the local animal park.

But it was all ok as the dude just wanted to give him a pat. Nice!

Just found this in my vast youtube archives, and thought that I had better post it.

Classic kiwiana moment. Go Tuaman. The Tuamanator.

Massive heavy hitter. Great Boxer.Very nice guy that has had some trust issues over the years with far too many people taking advantage of his overall kind and gentle nature.

Not so flash on the spelling however. Like always he makes the best out of the situation. Click on the read more to see the rest of the story.