The Moth Podcast is Killer Stuff

The free podcast from TheMoth.org is amazing. The one from March 22nd was simply riveting: a female sailor's brutal 20-minute tale of survival while lost at sea. Click title for direct .mp3 link or go to iTunes and download it, free! Fantastic episode!

World's Smallest Man Dies

Standing a mere 30 inches high, He Pingping was officially the world's shortest man until his unexpected death at the age of 21. A native of Mongolia, Pingping passed away of apparent heart trouble Monday in Italy, where he had traveled to make a television appearance.

He Pingping poses with the world's tallest man, Sultan Kösen

Thank you for making the world a weirder and more magical place simply by existing in it, Pingping!

In related news, Guinness World Record is expected to announce shortly the new record holder, most likely Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal.

In unrelated news, check out the latest thing in brain-computer interface!

Me-yow!

In our efforts to bring to you, dear reader, the most engaging sites on the Interwebz, we are willing to sacrifice our own precious time, sifting through the chaff so you don't have to.

This week, we consider the power of facial recognition and alteration apps. Granted, there are many sites that do interesting things with your photographs: age them, change their gender, morph them with those of celebrities. Recently, we checked out an app that promised to produce a composite image to answer the question: What will my baby look like?

Simply upload your own photograph, along with an image of your intended. The site even offers a number of celebrity photos, although it's hard to imagine how a photograph of Michael Jackson in the last years of his life would give any software an idea of what Michael Jackson's possible offspring might look like. With a single click, you can generate a baby photo.

How does this work? Well, you can be the judge.

Here is the composite of your humble content provider, and your humble content provider's boyfriend.



Well, who's to say? Granted, this photo does not resemble your humble content provider as a child, nor does it resemble your humble content provider's boyfriend as a child, nor does it resemble the children your humble content provider's boyfriend has already produced. Perhaps we can wait a few years and then compare.

But, for another perspective, we ran a second set of photographs into the app. This, then, is the answer to the question, "If my cat impregnated Angelina Jolie, what would the resultant offspring look like?"



Well, there you have it, folks. Little Catalina Jolie Gardencat doesn't share his mother's striking beauty or his father's furry face, but he's quite the charmer. Or, as your humble content provider's brother wondered, "Would this baby lick its private parts in public or adopt a lot of children?"