Kickstarter fund for internet full of prawn stars
ORDINARILY, “cloud computing” is a phrase that turns even the most seasoned IT nerd off – but a new Kickstarter campaign is a cloud with a difference – it’s full of shrimp.
Yep, The Shrimp Cloud is exactly what it sounds like: a terabyte of two million prawn pictures you can access “anywhere, anytime and on any device”.
Why? “[To fulfil] my quest to bring shrimp into the modern age,” says its creator, Eric Dennis.
“Looking at millions of shrimp pictures has [a] similar effect to seeing the Grand Canyon,” he adds. Yes, really.
With $1,300 (£850) pledged so far, Dennis has already more than funded his “Shrimp” project, for which he hoped to raise $100m. So far, he has created a shrimp font and shrimp t-shirt, plus The Shrimp Club, where all his backers are immortalised in the form of… you guessed it.
Pass the thousand-island dressing…
■ Forget David Cameron versus Ed Miliband, there’s a new candidate in town leading the polls in the popularity stakes. In what can only be described as a damning indictment of politics today, Britons think a dog is more trustworthy than any of the current candidates who could potentially become Prime Minister in May.
Nearly three-quarters of the public would trust man’s best friend to run the country over Cameron, Nick Clegg, Miliband or Nigel Farage. In this dog-eat-dog world, the online survey of 1,000 Brits by TNS and Pickup biscuits, found fictional dogs Lassie and Gromit were more trusted than any other leader – by a very long margin. The two characters were voted most trustworthy by 35 per cent, while just 14 per cent chose Cameron and less than 10 per cent went for any other leader. Perhaps its Lassie’s ability to eat a bacon sandwich more elegantly than party leaders, or her willingness to appear in parliamentary debates? She would also be good at rescuing policies that have been kicked into the long grass/down wells. Gromit was also a favourite (insert Miliband joke here), presumably gaining big backing from the British cheese and sheep farming industries. Of course, Gromit also recognises the importance of tech innovation for economic growth. They’re not the only fictional characters entering the political arena either. Another poll reveals the cartoon characters people most associate with each party leader. David Cameron becomes Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races, Ed Miliband becomes Mr Bean and Nick Clegg is Fred from Scooby Doo…. which works out well.