I posted the initial photos and interview with him when I was still running BME -- the whole point behind him in my opinion is a sort of Montreal street punk nihilism... I think it really upset people that there wasn't a deep story being shared.

Shows like "Miami Ink" have given tattoos a stigma where people expect there to be a deep personal story behind everything... Many people seem to need there to be a profound "justification" in body modifications, but often, even for extreme work, there's no long weepy excuse.

Personally, I don't see that as a problem, and if anything, I'd suggest that the need for an explanation (especially in unusual work) that tattooing is "wrong" in people's minds (even tattooed people) and needs to be wrapped in these justifications to make them permissible.

There are lots and lots of gyroplane kits and plans out there, and tons of homebuilt ones all around the world.

http://www.gyroplanepassion.com/TheGyros.html
etc...

I'm actually far more impressed by the Nigerian helicopter made out of junk that did the blog rounds last October.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-working-helicopters-from-junk-313408.php

Regarding tongue stretching, that's generally done by breaking down or removing the sublingual frenum. It's sometimes done as a neccessary surgery for people who are "tongue tied", and makes about 1/2" to 1 1/2" of difference depending on the degree.

When I was running ModBlog, I posted a number of long tongued people (warning -- other content on the site is NSFW):

http://modblog.bmezine.com/2006/03/21/long-tongue-olympics/
http://modblog.bmezine.com/2006/02/12/now-thats-what-i-call-a-tongue/
http://modblog.bmezine.com/2006/03/08/another-long-pierced-tongue/

My Porsche has a similar paintjob...
http://www.zentastic.com/blog/2006/10/25/more-photos/

I suspect the suspicion is correct, but that pattern isn't random; it's in the mold and should be the same every time, and it's certainly plausible that it's the same between models.

www.thispeanutlookslikeaduck.com

This is most definitely "trained" behavior... Factory art, but done by animals.

If you watch the various other elephant art videos online, you'll see that the elephants paint the EXACT same drawing over and over and over. It's very impressive training, but it's not art, and I doubt the elephant is aware of what it's drawn... The representational images are also very different from the art that elephants create when left to their own devices.

As someone with a magnetic implant I'll confirm that the magnetic perception totally integrates into existing senses. I don't see magnetic fields literally because it's just a vibrating magnet in my fingertip, but I feel both the form of EM fields, their strength, and the way they move (different types of fields have a different "texture" because they vibrate differently). In my mind they're effectively physical objects and when I close my eyes, I definitely see/imagine them there as I touched them... I'd be very surprised if birds' perception wasn't similarly integrated.

I find it somewhat amusing that, as far as I can tell from searching my records, no permission was sought for the use of the many copyrighted photos from BMEZINE.COM that are used to illustrate this project... (Not that I really mind in this case -- I just thought it was funny)