Nil Mānel

Nil Mānel (Copyright (cc) B Kahuna)

GALLE, Sri Lanka -- Close up of a Nil Mānel (Nympheae Stelleta) flower at The Fortress resort in Galle.

Captured on 20^th March 2010, using a Canon EOS 30D (EF 50mm 1:1.8 II) on aperture priority (f/4.5) with a resulting shutter speed of 1/40^th of second and ISO 200. 

Vase of Nil Mānel

Vase of Nil Mānel (Copyright (cc) 2010 Vandoofus)

GALLE, Sri Lanka -- An ornamental vase with Nil Mānel (Nympheae Stelleta), the national flower of Sri Lanka, at The Fortress resort in Galle. In English, Nil Mānel is often rendered as "blue lotus" or "blue water lily".

Captured on 20^th March 2010, using a Canon EOS 30D (EF 50mm 1:1.8 II) on manual exposure (aperture f/2.2, shutter 1/250^th of a second, ISO 200). 

Kahuna Ushers in New Era of Buffoonery

REPUBLIC OF BOSTON, Former Massachusetts -- At an impromptu briefing held a short while ago, Kahuna announced sweeping changes to the Circus, suspiciously coinciding with the Ides of March.  Calling the timing purely circumstantial, He downplayed rumors of resorting to brute force à la Junius Brutus.

Getting down to business, Kahuna proclaimed that the blog had been refreshed with an elegant new template designed by Google's Tina Chen.  This, He said was one of the several designs launched along with the new Blogger Template Designer, currently available for Blogger in Draft.  Kahuna claimed that He was pottering about with the widget template for most of Pi Day, which fell on Sunday, 14^th March.  He added that the fruit of his labors was best viewed in Firefox, suggesting that Internet Explorer was liable to make a hash of things.

Kahuna also took the opportunity to announce that He had acted autonomously and invited three new clowns to join the Circus:  The Cheese Justice, the Admiral and the Genie.  Brief, defamatory biographies follow:

The Cheese Justice: Well versed in the art of tort and litigation, the Cheese Justice enjoys a cultured dairy product or two when not defending her clown client, St Vandoofus.  She is certainly not hesitant to feed him to savage wild animals when he gets out of line, which is most of the time.

The Admiral: With ballistic weapons, cacti and Haddockisms at her disposal, the Admiral effortlessly commandeers entire venues at a moment's notice, leaving the staff quavering in their boots.  She conducts research in ichthyology during her spare time and is determined to make Vandoofus walk the plank into shark-infested waters.

The Genie: When he's not busy dreaming, playing chess or beating the crap out of people for the heck of it, the Genie operates a no-nonsense business model ("rub me and I shall give you wishes according to how good you look").   He is currently waiting for an excuse to pick a fight with Kahuna.

Closing his rambling keynote, Kahuna expressed confidence that the latest contingent of clowns would usher in a new era of buffoonery as never before seen upon this Earth.  On that provocative note, we end this post. 

Let the games begin.

Sambar in the Mist

Sambar in the Mist (Copyright (cc) B Kahuna 2006) 

HORTON PLAINS, Sri Lanka -- A Sri Lankan Sambar Deer (Rusa unicolor unicolor) frolicks as the mist rolls in near the car park at the Horton Plains National Park.

Captured on 29^th July 2006 with a Canon EOD 30D (EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 II) on Landscape Mode resulting in an aperture of f/8.0 and a shutter speed of 1/160^th of a second. 

The Turing Misadventures: Part 2 - The Huggles Doughnut Conundrum

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Late last year, a number of clowns gathered for dinner amidst much pandemonium. St Vandoofus, Darth Teddy, Timmy, The Monster and Her Royal Highness were among the assembled contingent. Kahuna was notably absent from the proceedings citing a suspicious and completely unverifiable prior engagement.

Given the already high Clown Factor, the event had rapidly descended into madness when the topic of conversation had been hijacked by known deviant Timmy and taken, kicking and screaming, into a candidly anatomical discussion of Huggles. At least of the more interesting parts of Huggles. While Huggles, blissfully asleep down under was unaware of his rising popularity at the time, Her Royal Highness had not been amused by the topic of conversation and had offered stiff resistance. However, not unsurprisingly, the prurient interest had prevailed and the highly questionable use of doughnuts had been proposed by Timmy as a unit of measurement of the length of the male endowment. The precise doughnut number for Huggles had not been accurately deduced despite a rather uplifting discussion. Nonetheless, there had been broad consensus that this would indeed be a large number.

Several weeks afterward, just prior to his arrival in this part of the world, Huggles was told of the doughnut conundrum by Kahuna. Being a large clown and unaware of his own doughnut number, Huggles made inquiries from Kahuna. This led to a hurried consultation between Kahuna and St Vandoofus:

Kahuna (K): Huggles wants to know how many doughnuts.
Vandoofus (V): Depends on the width of the doughnut.
K: In international standard doughnuts?
V: Also depends on the cream filling.
K: In the doughnut?
V: Yes.

It quickly became obvious that not even a team of huskies enticed by an extra ration of stew could have salvaged that conversation. Huggles had to contend with disappointment.

During a subsequent dinner at Chutney's mooted by Her Royal Highness to celebrate Huggles's birthday, Kahuna caused chaos by arranging the supply of doughnuts to the venue. Due to an apparent topological malfunction at the bakery, some of the doughnuts arrived as non-toroidal manifolds causing further chaos, and attracted highly inappropriate suggestions for making them holy once more. The wait staff of the establishment were no doubt traumatized by the spectacle of Darth Teddy brandishing a toroidal doughnut in his attempt to measure Huggles.

It is suspected that Kahuna was aided an abetted by the all-powerful Admiral in sourcing doughnuts. Operating in kernel mode and able to summon the general manager with a single system call, the Admiral demonstrated wide powers at the venue. These included the power to commandeer the restaurant, in nautical tradition, and reverse payment transactions, much to the irritation of Her Royal Highness.

However, despite all efforts, the doughnut number for Huggles has remained elusive. Kahuna finally consulted God to demystify the situation and broached the topic:

Kahuna (K): How many doughnuts can you put on your dick?
God (G): Around 1000.

It seemed that God was certainly well-endowed and not shy about it either. However, God did not seem entirely convinced about Huggles:

K: How many doughnuts can Huggles put on his dick?
G: Not as many as you might think.

And so we have come full circle. On that dodgy and highly inconclusive note, we take your leave for today.

Rush it's Snowing!

Skis on Wheels (Copyright © 2010 The Monster)

KELANIYA, Sri Lanka -- Captured here is a 3-wheeled friend who is seen sporting his new skis and honking frantically while rushing at a top speed of 35 kmph on his way to the Colombo ski resort, after reports of snow in Colombo due to the temperatures dropping just below 30° Celsius the previous day.

de Havilland Mosquito

 

 
de Havilland Mosquito (Copyright (cc) 2005 B Kahuna)

DUXFORD, United Kingdom -- A World War II de Havilland Mosquito B.35 bomber (serial TA719) parked at the Imperial War Museum.

The "Mossie" consisted of a mostly plywood airframe and was also known as "The Wooden Wonder" and "The Timber Terror". It had a top speed of 415 mph (668 km/h) and a service ceiling of 37,000 feet. TA719 was built in 1945 and retired in the 1960s.

Captured on 15^th September 2005 with a Sony CyberShot DSC-V1 on aperture priority (f/3.2) and a resultant shutter speed of 1/30^th of a second.

TA719 is now on display within AirSpace at Duxford.