Author: Duncan Toms

Twitter Explained

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Core Competency and Foundation

Twitter seems to be, first and foremost, an online haven where teenagers making drugs can telegraph secret code words to arrange gang fights and orgies. It also functions as a vehicle for teasing peers until they commit suicide. In order to become a “follower” on Twitter, teens first must flash their high-beam headlights at an oncoming motorist on the highway. Then, if that motorist flashes his or her high-beam headlights back in reply, the teen must kill the motorist in order to be initiated into “following” the online gang. The catch is that one can only use 140 sentences to plan a total of 140 events—that is, any combination of orgies, gang fights, suicides, and highway killings totaling 140 planned situations or activities.

via McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Truly Groundbreaking Marketing Research: Understanding Twitter..

Mother duck with fourteen nippers – 65/365

Posted on by Duncan Toms


Mother duck with fourteen nippers, originally uploaded by :Duncan.

On Friday we moved the mother and sixteen ducklings that we knew about out to the sunken garden at the school. Then this one was suddenly here this morning. She’d been behind another bush and managed not to be seen nesting these weeks. Of course, this family will have to be moved too, because there is not enough food in the small courtyard, and as they get bigger, the poop is noticeable. But while they are here, they are so much fun to watch on a break from work. It took them about half an hour to learn to climb the plank out of the pond. Even after watching their siblings do it, some were still leaping at the wall and bouncing back into the water. By mid afternoon, they had all learnt the way back up to mother.