The spotlight grabbing squirrel – yet another “Meme” for our times?

– or marmot, or was that a gopher?

OK, it’s so ‘last week’ now, but we are all the way down in New Zealand, and I only just noticed it. The following picture first appeared on the National Geographic’s site in the Photo section, and soon after it captured the imagination of the world, taking the blogosphere and global media by storm. <-I can’t believe I just wrote that.

According to Melissa Brandt, this is what happened, “My husband and I were exploring Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park-Canada when we stopped for a timed picture of the two of us. We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready to take the picture when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intriqued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot! A once in a lifetime moment! We were laughing about this little guy for days!!”

There are numerous arguments and debates popping up as to whether the original pic had been photoshopped or not, and even some very serious discussion on the taxomy of said ‘rodentis’h creature – is it a squirrel or gopher? Boing Boing has some hilarious and heated comments posted under their item on the little rascal.

However, it doesn’t end there. The photo-crashing squirrel is now popping up everywhere…….

For even more of this furry frivolity (and if you really don’t have anything better to to do), check out Buzzfeed where you can see more of the little bugger than you could ever want in a whole lifetime.

So, it looks like the squirrel is this month’s ‘Susan Boyle‘ and wins the global internet sensation, ‘Meme of the Moment’ Award.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns up on it’s own syndicated TV show called “Squirrel’s got Talent” singing a duet with Ms Susan Boyle!

Ukraine’s Got Talent – no really – just watch the Sand Artist!

After all of the fuss over Susan Boyle, it’s easy to forget that other countries also have their own national versions of the ever popular international franchise. There really is a ‘Ukraine’s Got Talent’, and this clip is amazing – yes, it’s over 8 minutes long, and in this era of short, sharp sound bites that may sound like an eternity, but you owe it to yourself to watch this.

Think Rolf Harris, but instead of an old bearded Australian with paste brushes and buckets of paint slapping it around on big canvases, this is Kseniya Simonova, a talented young woman doing the most amazing ‘animations’ with sand on glass.

It is beautiful but very sad, and seems to have some real historical significance to the audience. I want to find out more about the actual story this amazing artist is telling, so if anyone can enlighten me, please do.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Paul Halsall for his comment upon the ‘story’ being told by this artist. He has more specific information about the ‘sand artist’ and the ravages that the Second World War inflicted upon the Ukranian people on his own blog, so check out his post and updates here.

The Susan Boyle ‘phenomenon’ – what’s new?

Nothing  –  numerous psychologists know enough about human behaviour to manipulate and engage people.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last 8 days, you’ll know about, and have viewed the clip from last weekend’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ episode. This online video is now arguably the most watched online video clip ever – recent estimates state that the incredibly talented Susan Boyle has had nearly 50 million views in a week – this is based upon the number of people who have viewed the clip on YouTube and other online video sharing sites.