The DS106 Shrink

This video was made by the bots on the web, I received it after Colin, the Gifadog, had died that summer. It captured much of his last year. I only had to make minor adjustments to the video. He will be missed and remembered by many. It was a privilege to have shared 15 years of my life with him. 

RIP Gifadog

Yesterday’s Daily Create asked us to:

“You’re about to start your own tour/travel guide company. What’s your company going to be named? Show us what kind of trips/holidays you’ll be offering to your clients? Show us your poster.”

Where better to go than our very own 106 exoplanet! I have been working on this for a while - such a simple change but it was not easy to work out how to do it!

“Now we can all go to Kepler 106 - where our shadow will always have company!”

Just playing with Dr Seuss and Comic Life. (click on image for better res)

I made a quick sketch first and then tried it it on Comic Life. 

A story in two images and in two sentences: We live, we die. (Click in the images for full effect)

I give you: ‘Frank Let The Dogs Out’ a dogged doggie band! 

“...while these photos would be very amusing if the photographer had stumbled across such incidents, the simple fact of the matter is that these animals do not engage in these behaviours naturally; These photos have almost certainly been staged, and have almost certainly resulted in the animal being distressed, injured, or worse.”. The cruel cost of cute 

Something did not feel right about the photos. So I went clicking. 

The tweet that was used for today’s daily create was my first port of call. The thread is so long that I could not get to the end of it. Some of it rude, some of it funny, but mostly quite disturbing. The photos have no attribution in the tweet and it is captioned with a funny remark. I found the likely origin of the tweet in the Daily Mail - a UK paper not of the most high brow kind. 

I offer here the same note the article quoted at the start of this post offers:

“Note: While this article will consider the harm caused by unscrupulous photographers, we will not share their photos as a matter of principle. While links to the offending material will be provided for context, every effort has been made to ensure that the photographs used in this article are from reputable sources.”

I did read the article and it seems the name of the photographer is Hendy Mp. He has had quite a lot of coverage with these photos. Yet, not all is as it seems: 

“A Frog Riding a Beetle: Is This a Real Wildlife Photo or a Bunch of BS?”

Says PetaPixel in 2015.

And here is a quote from one of the experts the article consulted:

“I can’t stand these images. To someone very familiar with frogs, it’s really sad to see the poor frog in this situation. I don’t believe that these photos are of a naturally occurring situation. To me, they appear to be highly staged, and there is evidence that the frog is distressed. Frogs are so amazing without being used as props, it’s upsetting that they felt it necessary.”

And there were other articles explaining that ‘fake nature photography’ with fancy discovery stories by famous photographers is a ‘thing’ and that it is thought that some even use string and kill the animals to create the cute photos. It seems some have even won prizes for these feats of unethical photography. 

TIL  that humans will do anything to get internet famous. Nah. I knew that all along. 

I am glad I decided to click on the tweet and spend a little time looking at what was behind the photos; even if there is only a tiny chance that some of what I read is happening to rare frogs and other internet desirable animals, I will not disseminate the photos as a matter of principle. 

Instead I will have an ‘ethically sourced picture of a cute red-eyed tree frog by Brian Gratwicke’ be my daily create today. I did Mosh it!