Tag Archives | flickr

The Magic Donkey

The Flickr Panda vomiting interesing pics and rainbowsI love Flikr. I can spend hours looking for images, and I’m easily distracted by all the shiny new art I can find there. In particular, I find the absurd and surreal groups quite engrossing. What I didn’t know was that Flickr culture is so interesting.

One of my students showed me this page, which is simply titled Flicr: Panda, but I think we can all agree that it is pure AWESOMNESS! Come on, a panda that spews rainbows and a constant stream of “interesting photos”.

But how is the “interestingness” of a photo determined?

Enter the Magic Donkey. This is the term that refers to the algorithm that Flickr uses to determine if a photo is interesting enough to appear on the photos that appear on the home page. My impression is that many hard-core Flickr users would like to appear on the home page of the site. (Perhaps it would help with traffic, I don’t know.)

I enjoyed this explanation of it, for sure, and if you want to learn more, I’m sure the “secrets of explore” group can help.

Alltop and humor-blogs.com don’t have donkeys, magic or otherwise.

Assman’s Balloon — Giant Floating Rubber with Payload

Assman's Balloon

“A German meteorologist named Assman improved on the concept by using closed rubber balloons that would burst at high altitude, with the payload parachuting back down to earth.”
–Greg Gobel, Pioneering the Balloon

Too many jokes… About to assplode …

Watch out for the payload!

More excellent photos at the Library of Congress Flickr Pages. More “ass” “men” at humor-blogs.com