Got a question for the Old Spice man? Want to comment on his amazing abs? Do it. Reach out on Twitter, facebook, or your personal blog. He will find it and respond. You can follow the action on Twitter or on the Old Spice brand channel.

They have made a ton of these already, and Mustafa continues to be utterly charming. The man is a complete professional. Which of course is why I am so interested. Because after 15 years in the advertising industry, I deeply appreciate this kind of dedication and excellent creative. Yep.

UPDATE: Making the Old Spice response videos. They have made over 150 so far (June 14)!

Oh and he sent real flowers in real life to Alyssa Milano! I love this campaign.

I am in love with it.

I want to marry it.

UPDATE, June 15: Throwing in the towel. Don’t get excited, though – towel not actually thrown.

Reporting in the journal Animal Behaviour, the Steele team showed that when squirrels are certain that they are being watched, they will actively seek to deceive the would-be thieves. They’ll dig a hole, pretend to push an acorn in, and then cover it over, all the while keeping the prized seed hidden in their mouth. “Deceptive caching involves some pretty serious decision making,” Dr. Steele said. “It meets the criteria of tactical deception, which previously was thought to only occur in primates.”

And many other squirrel facts of interest in Nut? What Nut? The Squirrel Outwits to Survive.

Pelicans receive fish at the London Zoo

Pelicans have been perfect since the early Oligocene, according to a newly published analysis of a fossilized bill, and partial skull and neck. The study’s lead author, Antoine Louchart, doesn’t actually want to commit to that interpretation, but the 30-million-year old fossil he reports on is so similar to today’s pelican species that it would be classified in the Pelecanus genus.

Study at J Ornithol

…Richard Feynman argued that, in reality, the bouncing beads would not be capable of doing meaningful work. Feynman showed that, since the entire system operates at the same temperature, a pawl would occasionally slip off the wheel. As a result, the system would generate zero net movement.

Now, physicist Devaraj van der Meer from the University of Twente and his colleagues have demonstrated that such a machine can in fact spin the paddles forward only, generating a positive net movement … The key challenge was getting the vanes to move in the forward direction only, which the scientists achieved with – somewhat surprisingly – duct tape….

Is there anything duct tape can’t do? Besides break the second law of thermodynamics, I mean.

Newly created machine on Vimeo. Write-up at PhysOrg.com: Experiment finally proves 100-year-old thought experiment is possible .

I know some wonderfully creative people who really know how to get stuff done. Over the weekend, I volunteered some time to help them produce 48 Hour Magazine, and it’s already available at MagCloud. It was a crazy idea and a wonderful thing to be involved with – and I can’t wait til the next one!

Update: CBS has issued a cease-and-desist letter claiming infringement on “48 Hours.” Mat Honan is collecting information about the process and the coverage.

Update June 15: State of the case, with links to other recent coverage

This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books. Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally.

Of course, everything really clever has already been done:

The second-place in AARP “U@50″ contest, in 2007, itself explicitly inspired by an award-winning ad made in Argentina for candidate Lopez Murphy.

Wonderful embroidery portraits from Naomi Cayne. She also touches on koalas, robots, and bicycles.

This is a fun reel, showing how heavily chroma keying is used in productions. It also has a very soothing score, a song called “Lionheart,” from Emancipator’s album “Soon it will be cold enough.”

One of the things I like about this video is that the creator, Stargate Studios (who has made effects sequences for dozens of television shows, films, and other commercial video projects), makes it so easy to find the music. Also that Emancipator makes it so easy to buy their albums and individual songs from their own website. You know, and that the effects house is called Stargate.

Hubert Duprat provided caddis flies with flakes of gold and semiprecious stones to use for building their larvae cases. They usually use grains of sand, particles of mineral or plant material, or bits of fish bone or crustacean shell, but they will use whatever is nearby and suitable to incorporate into their silk-bonded cases (although some are more flexible than others in what they will use). Here is a video and more information about the project, including some remarks by critic and philosopher Christian Besson about behavior and intent.

Women have to invent for themselves ways to do things that men do not. Most magic instruction is designed for men with jackets. Women’s clothes don’t have pockets and women can’t reach into their breast pockets.

Sometimes it just becomes a competition to see who can pee the highest, and generally women don’t want to get involved in that.

Why is this question always asked? Yeesh. Sociological, economic, political and biological reasons.

Read the whole article.

Update February 27 2010: I happened to see this item again today, and – alas! – saw this message: “This item is no longer available.”

Update June 2010: No longer an active page now, either. :(

This brief biographical sketch was done for Ada Lovelace Day, organized by my good buddy Suw Charman. I think I in was a pub at the time. And this is but a small and not very important part of it. Go and read the rest!

7 tonnes 2 by Nicolas Deveaux (Cube)

This is just a tiny part of this enchanting animation. See the whole thing at Cube Creative.

The Public Health prize went to Dr. Elena Bodnar, who here straps a portion of a bra she designed (it converts into a pair of gas masks) to the face of Wolfgang Ketterle. More

Luke Jerram’s translucent glass artworks were designed with the help of scientific photographs and leading virologists. More

Shostak talked about the history and mission of the SETI project, and took lots of questions from a largely excited and completely sympathetic audience. I can’t really do justice to Shostak’s talk. If you’ve followed SETI at all, frankly, there was not a lot of new information, but I hadn’t quite realized what an engaging speaker he is ad lib.

And he took potshots at dolphins, Neptune, San Mateo, college education, the impoverished prisoners of the 4 dimensions we experience, people with navels, AND the post office. I mean, in a nice way, but I can’t help saying, you know, the post office has a really hard job. It’s like DNA, when you think about it, especially if you really love your Netflix subscription, as I do – so many things can go wrong it’s kind of amazing what a good job they do.

Anyway, if you get a chance to see him in an interactive environment, go!

So he has a plan.

And I think he can make it work. Read his whole presentation here, and share it if you feel inclined.

Full disclosure: I have mixed feelings about donating to out-of-state campaigns—I sure didn’t like what happened with Prop 8 in California last year—but Sean is doing more than running for office himself. He’s also pioneering methods for direct communication between voters and candidates, and urging transparency in campaign funding. And I happen to agree with a lot of what he’d work on if elected.

Whether or not you choose to get involved, keep an eye on Sean Tevis. He’s doing something wonderful.

But there is so very much more. Batman, Mickey Mouse, Mario. And a variety of birds and skulls. Go there.