The latest adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge. This animated version takes advantage of 3D technology and has the potential to frighten very young children and some adults! There is a scene in the film involving a door knocker which brought screams of terror from a few children around us.

Inglorious Basterds is the new movie from Quentin Tarantino. It stars Brad Pitt and is released in the UK on the 21st August 2009. It currently has a star rating of 8.3 on the Internet Movie Database.

The movie tells the story of a group of American-Jewish soldiers known as “The Basterds”; the group is particularly brutal and spreads fear throughout the Third Reich as they gain a horrifying reputation for scalping and killing Nazis.

The Basterds eventually team up with a French-Jewish girl who runs a movie theatre in Paris which is frequented by members of the Nazi party. The Basterds decide to make the movie theatre their prime target in their quest to destroy members of the Nazi party.

There are a nine desktop wallpapers available, click the link below to have a look.

Inglorious Basterds Desktop Wallpapers

Official Site

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

Have you seen Terminator Salvation? What did you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments area below.

April is almost upon us and if you like to have your desktop wallpaper double up as a calendar, you might like to check out the one above by Craig Ferguson, which we think is really nice.

The photo was taken near the harbor in Hualien, Taiwan and features one of the torri gates.

You can download it from Craig’s site.

MixTape.me is a great new website which allows you to create playlists of your favourite songs. Not only that, it will incorporate the lyrics, notes and YouTube video into your playlists too.

The site is still in beta release but so far I have been very impressed with it. It is very simple to use and has a wide range of songs available (at the moment I am listening to Jegsy Dodd & The Original Sinners – who are they you might ask, ‘exactly’ is my answer!) to add to your playlists. Once a playlist has been created it is available for other members to listen to and you can take the code and embed it on your own site.

Here is one I made earlier – “Up North” – a mixtape featuring bands from the working class heartland of northern England; Liverpool and Manchester.

Every band I have searched for has had at least one song available, but I have experienced a few problems playing some of the tracks. This is to be expected in a beta release and hopefully the problems will be resolved as the site develops.

A great new site and one I will visit often.

MixTape.me

What do you think of my playlist? If you don’t listen to it all, at least have a listen to the Half Man Half Biscuit track – Joy Division Oven Gloves, and let me know what you think.

Meerkats are part of the mongoose family and are probably one of the cutest animals around. They live in large family groups which consist of about 20 – 30 meerkats at a time. The collective name for a group of meerkats is “mob”, “gang” or “clan”.

Within the group each adult meerkat has a job to perform – babysitter, teacher, hunter or the all important sentry. The sentry meerkat is always on the lookout for predators and sits up on its hind legs to scour the surrounding areas looking and listening for signs of a potential threat. The sentries comedic, but all important, behaviour is probably one of the reasons why meerkats have become so popular.

The other reason could be the BBC TV show Meerkat Manor, which captured the complexities of meerkat life in the harsh Kalahari desert for a clan of meerkats called The Whiskers. This proved to be a hugely popular and educational TV programme and has so far spanned three series.

Going underground

Meerkats live in large underground networks with multiple entrances. During the day they hunt for small animals such as lizards, snakes, scorpions, spiders, small mammals, millipedes and centipedes. Unlike humans, meerkats are immune to scorpion venom.

Whilst hunting, one of the meerkats will take on the role of sentry (usually for an hour at a time) while the others forage for food. If danger is spotted the sentry will alert the group by sounding a warning sound.

This behaviour is also adopted around the burrow – one or more meerkats will be on sentry duty whilst the rest of the group goes about its business. If danger is spotted the clan can take shelter underground until the threat has passed. The meerkat which spots a predator and sounds the warning bark is the first to reappear from the burrow to see if the danger has passed. The sentry meerkat will continue to bark until it is sure there is no threat. Once it becomes silent the rest of the gang know it is safe to come out of the burrow.

It is thought meerkat warning sounds may vary depending upon the type of threat being faced by the group.

The younger members of the group will often depend upon the babysitting duties of the older females. If a warning sound is heard the babysitters will take the youngsters underground for protection. If the danger follows, the babysitter is prepared to defend the young to the point of putting itself in danger. If it is not possible to gain access to the burrow the babysitter will lie on top of the younger meerkats to protect them.

Meerkat desktop wallpapers

We have two meerkat desktop wallpapers at the moment, the pictures were taken at Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool.

The elephant is the largest of all land mammals. There are two main species – the African Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). The African Elephant can be further divided into two subspecies – the African Bush Elephant (also known as the African Savanna Elephant) and the African Forest Elephant.

The most obvious way to identify elephants is by looking at the ears; the African Elephant has much larger ears than the Asian Elephant. The African Elephant is also much bigger than its Asian counterpart. African males can grow as tall as 3.64 meters (12ft) at the shoulder and weigh 5,455 kg (12,000 lbs). Females stand 3 meters high (10ft) and weigh around 4,000 kg (10,000 lbs).

Female elephants live most of their lives in tight family groups consisting only of females – mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts – and are led by the eldest female, the matriarch. Once a male elephant has left his natal group for good (usually around the age of fourteen), he will spend most of his time alone, only occasionnaly forming loose associations with other males in groups called bachelor herds.

Elephant numbers

Demand for ivory (which was at its height between 1970 and 1985) and the encroachment of human habitation has led to a sharp decline in elephant numbers across Africa and Asia. This has been particularly noticeable in the eastern region of Chad. As recently as 1970 the estimated elephant population in Chad was 400,000. By 2006 the number of elephants had dropped to about 10,000.

On a global scale the reduction in numbers has been just as dramatic. In 1930 there were between 5 and 10 million African elephants, by 1979 their were 1.3 million and in 2008 the figure was more like 500,000. The number of Asian elephants currently living in the wild is estimated to be 40,000 to 50,000.

On a more psotivie note, in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, the elephant population has been on the increase and this is causing problems for scientists hoping to find an alternative to culling in order to better manage the elephant population. By 2020 the numbers are expected to have risen from 14,000 to 28,000.

Elephant Desktop Wallpapers

The elephant wallpapers we have here feature African Bush Elephants (also known as African Savanna Elephants) photographed at Knowlsey Safari Park, near Liverpool.

At Knowsley Safari Park the herd consists of seven elephants; four females, one bull and two calves. The females were born in 1983, 1984 and 1987 (2) and arrived from Windsor Safari Park in 1993 (they were born in the wild in Zimbabwe). The names of the females are Buta, Shaba, Tana (Tots) and Juba (Jaba).

The bull (Nissim) was born in captivity in 1994 and is yet to father any calves. The two current calves were fathered by a bull named Kruger, who was later moved to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent (UK) to allow Nissim to mature. The calves were born in 2003 and are named Nala and Ashanti.

The herd lives in a 12 acre paddock which includes natural mud wallows, grazing areas and an elephant house. Members of the public can get close to the paddock or view the elephants from a purpose built platform (located behind the giraffe house).

FURTHER READING

Knowsley Safari Park
Knowsley Safari Park

Wikipedia
African Bush Elephant
African Savanna Elephant
African Forest Elephant

Other
Elephants Encylclopedia

The two pictures below were taken during summer 2008 but have only just made it out of the archives. We hope you like the two robin red breast desktop wallpapers below.

Here she is again, this time in black and white.

These three shots were taken during a recent bath time experience. The first one is “before” when she is becoming aware of what is about to happen, the second is taken during her bath and the third is taken during her favourite time of the whole experience – the hair dryer stage!