sky machines

August 31, 2010

I wish my name were Knives


that's all

animal fact of the week: wasps can control your mind

Today's Animal Fact of the Week is that tiger moth caterpillars hear with their hair. I don't want a picture of this thing haunting my blog but you can click here to see one. Tiger moth caterpillars are deaf and blind, but they have long hairs that can sense vibration.

They can only hear one note, middle C, because that's the note their predators' wings make as they swoop toward them. Their predators are parasitic moths, and I'm not going to tell you about them because it's way too gross. Fine, if you really insist on knowing: the wasps lay eggs under the caterpillars' skin which hatch inside them and take over their bodies before eating them alive!

additional reading:
Alien Empire (first line: "Imagine being eaten alive - from the inside out!")
Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps

If you shave a tiger moth caterpillar it won't be able to hear anymore. Who would shave a caterpillar? A horse probably. Horses are terrible people.



So far, my hair has no known talents.

August 30, 2010

he haunts my nightmares

Reason I loved working in the adlab this summer #85: check out the music video we made!



So much pain, so much fun, so much fear of that guy with the drawn-on mustache.
You can see me in this video, if you have the vision of an Andean condor. It's going to be on the front page of YouTube tomorrow.

August 29, 2010

wearing my fiber content on my sleeve

This is what I wore today.

And yes, this is also my application photo for America's Next Top Model, thanks for asking. I'm bringing the "Awkward Lean and Smirk" to the masses.
I was feeling pretty awesome until halfway through the day I noticed this:

As personal wardrobe malfunctions go, this certainly doesn't top the time in kindergarten I pulled off my sweater on the playground and my shirt came off with it. That event boldly up-seated the day I tucked my dress into my underwear when I was four. But both incidents were put to shame when in third grade I wore a boat-neck sweater, and while I was playing tag with a boy I liked the neck of the sweater somehow became wider than my shoulders. Hopefully nothing ever tops that. Fashion is really hard.