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Hello my Kidz!

Today we're going to look at statistics. This video talks about how our society is increasingly exponential. It's exciting or terrifying depending on your perspective. We are living in interesting times!

These types of statistics have had a material impact on my life. Witness the discussion at the dinner table with Mrs. Spanky:

Me: Me sweet little potato peeling, did ya know dat dere are more of dem dere honors students in India than all da students in dis here US of A?

Mrs. Spanky: You daft booger, here's a statistical for ye: dere's 9 in 10 that I'm gonna clock ya with dis frying pan unless ya shut yer gob. Eat your mush.

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Wear Green!

Phunkidz, it's important that you know where you come from and celebrate your roots. Despite his swarthy skin and dark hair Mr. Spanky does have Irish blood running through his veins, believe it or not. It isn't just the potato cravings or his affinity for woolly sheep either. Witness the discussion with Mrs. Spanky at the breakfast table:

• Me: "Aye begora! I found a wee leprechaun in me oatmeal dis mornin'."
• Mrs: "You're a daft booger for sure--eat your mush."

If that isn't proof enough then I'll eat a bucket of shamrocks.

Alert Irish reader LO found a charming vid that is just in time for St Paddy's day, which, coincidentally, is next Tuesday. Watch out for Irishmen crossing the street: they're sometimes staggering.

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The World's Ugliest Cat

WARNING: If you've recently eaten you may want to wait until you have digested your meal before proceeding.

Mr. Spanky does not get up in the morning looking for things like you'll find in this post. Unfortunately, it is still my duty to alert Phunkidz readers to the weird, wacky, and well, no, it's just plain weird.

Hiyaaah! This is one ugly cat. It looks like a cross between a bad wig and a hairless rat. Check out the movie on the site link below to see Ugly Bat Boy in action--creepy.

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Skittles: Viral the Rainbow

Mr. Spanky adores the new and clever--it's hard tearing himself away from the mirror to scour the web for things like this but he needs to cater to the hordes of phanz that dog the blog. To whit, I just stumbled upon a very clever marketing campaign from the folks who make those little fruit-flavored sugary chewy unnaturally-colored thingees that have that mysterious faint chemical aftertaste.

It uses Facebook to allow people to talk about, comment on, and add to a few ads, fun little apps, and pictures that have been posted. Interesting to see a campaign seeded by the company and then virally taking off with people that can participate. Witness the 585,109 (and counting) fans that are linked to this page and the 1,571 comments they've posted. Whoever the marketing firm is that dreamed this one up gets Mr. Spanky's Golden Award of Brain and a license to print free money.

I especially loved the Tailor ad. There are four guys wearing suits: check out all three mirrors.

Scratch This!

The other day my curious and creative son and I stumbled across Scratch. Not the regular scratch as in your head, your armpits, or tis but a... Rather, a phun program to create your own stories and games. It has built-in characters, sounds, costumes, and motion.

It's snap together blocks make programming even complex instructions simple and fool-proof. We started simply by having a knight run around bouncing off the edge of the screen. Then we added the dragon, then some simple hit detection to see if the dragon breathed on the knight. It built up over the course of an hour or so into a fun game!

In our game, DragonFire, you are a dragon who has been relentlessly pestered by knights. Your job is to cook Sir Buttkin by breathing fire on him 5 times. Beware Sir Buttkin's friends, who are shooting arrows that could pierce your delicate skin. Enjoy!

If you make your own Scratch game, make a comment in the Phunkidz blog with a link to your game!

A real unicorn

Most of you kidz should be familiar with the "mythical" unicorn. That fantasy creature that looks like a horse but has a single ivory horn growing from the middle of its forehead. Often seen in the company of elves and other woodland sprites it is said that only a human that is young female virgin can approach or even ride the beast. Mr. Spanky says "Bull!" Sure, scientists and other xenobiologists have searched far and wide for such a creature. Mr. Spanky says "Meh." They're just looking in the wrong place. Horse-like, hah!

Alert reader GO has brought to my attention an article from the Economist where they talk about Dr. W.F. Dove who has fashioned his own unicorn. Horns are not embedded in the skull, rather they start out as buds on the flesh. Dr. Dove understood this and in 1933 created his own unicorn. The lesson here, kidz, is to experiment on animals for phun and profit!*

What did Dr. Dove's unicorn look like? Click the link below to find out.

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*Mr. Spanky really doesn't endorse animal experiments so please do not perform chemical tests, transplants, DNA-alteration, substance abuse, or junk food binges with any animals. Just think, you wouldn't want any of those things to happen to you, right? Ok, except for the junk food binging.

Going Hunting

Sometimes you come across something so indescribably cute that you get overloaded on the sugar. Luckily, the surprise ending makes up for it all. Check out this YouTube video of Kate Micucci singing "Dear Deer" on her ukelele.

From Ukelele Hunt: There’s little doubt of the link between the ukulele and comic actors. From Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, through Steve Martin to Adam Sandler and William H Macy. The latest in the list is Kate Micucci...

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