Daily Archives: October 24, 2013

Oct 24 2013

Jim Henson’s Muppet Computer – 1969

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“The machine possesses supreme intelligence, a faultless memory, and a beautiful soul,” H14 says of himself, before vaporizing a cute little bird who just happens to fly by — and promptly correcting the bit about the beautiful soul. You see, H14 can nuke even the cutest of birds without batting an electrical eyelash, and that’s nothing but a good thing. As “mere mortals wallow in a sea of emotionalism,” it can concentrate on the task at hand: “digesting oceans of information in a single all-encompassing gulp.”

Oct 24 2013

The Octopus Tree of Oregon

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The Octopus Tree is a massive Sitka spruce located a few hundred feet from Cape Meares Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, in the U.S. The tree is shaped like an inverted octopus with branches growing like giant tentacles from its 50-foot base. The tree has no central trunk. Instead, six candelabra limbs extend horizontally from the base as much as 16 feet before turning upward. The tree’s unusual shape, according to local historians and Tillamook tribal descendants, comes from the ravages of the wind, but it could also have been man-made.