Super List
Still not sure if bumping a No.13 sign while avoiding a black cat under a ladder thinking about changing you boat’s name gives you bad luck??? Go give a look at Old Superstitions…you’ll find a collection of ones you’ve never heard of. It’ll just make your life a bit more complicated, not that I believe any of this…(paranoia sets in)…
Stuck in the Frame
What does a moment in time look like? Zoom by a park in the summer with a composite made from still images motion fragments. Look at the photos first to get an understanding of the concept, then go and get the full resolution video. Sit back and enjoy…
One a Day
The 365 Days Project, Otis F. Odder’s project in which an MP3 a day of mostly outsider, novelty, and oddball recordings are available for downloading.
I haven’t started yet, but I plan to listen to the whole thing…
Free Fiona
Fiona Apple’s new album Extraordinary Machine has been indefinately shelved by Sony. A few years in the making, it was probably deemed to un-commercial. Pop (all love) posted a link to a leaked file…hmmmm….sounds good, Fiona is headed into Fitzgerald-Holiday territory…Here is a mirror to the song, enjoy, before Sony comes after me!
Watchful Eye
The Human Locator analyses a camera feed in real time, sending detailed information about people’s location, size, and movements. This data is then used as input to control projections, video, graphic animations, and sound. The Human Locator offers a complex analysis procedure and precise controls for accurate tracking in a variety of conditions. The variables it outputs can be used in an infinite variety of ways, limited only by your imagination.
It’s rather freaky to know how many times a day you are being recorded and your conduct being studied! Beware, don’t pick your nose!
Folded Pulp
The NY Times recently did an article on Dr. David Huffman a former professor of computer science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a pioneer in computational origami. He did origami on his spare time and most people didn’t know about it. The designs he did on paper are awesome… I’ve been searching like mad for photos of his work and I only get the same 2 websites. I need more!
Behind the Door
If the internet had existed when I was a kid I would have probably ended up a criminal. Talk about knowledge… This was the Holy Grail for me: The Guide to Lock Picking. Written in 1991 by Ted the Tool, it is considered one of the best texts for beginners. I am starting today on my new career path!
Classical Confusion
I like to listen to classical music every now and then. Probably more then than now… anyway, it is really hard for me to tell the differences between instruments. Instruments of the Orchestra is a flash presentation showing you the positions of the instruments and a sample of the sound they make. Very cool… Now I can tell an Oboe from a flute… Be patient it takes a while to load.
Fast Lane
Having spent most of Sunday looking at F1 videos, I’ll tell you one thing: F1onboard is fabulous. They have some of the best videos were you can watch the action from inside the cars. Makes you feel like one of the drivers!
Rise and Fall
Flat Feet Pete has constructed a nifty tracker: A chart detailing the popularity of Yahoo’s images.
One Big Fat Dread
Long Time
Excellent lecture by Brian Eno on The Long Now. The Long Now Foundation seeks to promote “slower/better” thinking and to foster creativity in the framework of the next 10,000 years…
Some good parts:
On Music for Airports:
So I wanted to make a kind of music that would actually reduce your focus on this particular moment in time that you happened to be in and make you settle into time a little bit better.
On church bells:
Now being English of course I?m very interested in church bells, I don?t know how many of you know about change ringing, but it?s said by musicologists to be the only thing that the English ever invented in music, since everything else we borrowed from Italians or Africans or Elvis Presley.
On silence:
I heard there used to be jukeboxes in America that had one silent disc, so if you wanted a bit of peace, then you put your dime in and you dialled that number and you got three minutes of silence. I?d love to get a collection of those records wouldn?t that be fantastic! A jukebox where that?s all you had on, different varieties of silence.
On long term thinking:
…there?s a college in Oxford , which was built about five hundred years ago. The college is a big high building and it has very thick oak beams to support the ceiling. About twenty years ago those beams started to appear to be in such bad condition that it was necessary to replace them, so the dean of the college said to the head gardener – because Oxford has a lot of lands and forests, actually all over England ? ?We need a lot of oaks – what shall we do?? And the gardener said when they built that college they planted a grove of oaks, to replace those beams, and so they had been planted five hundred years in advance of their need.
Up, Up, Up and Away
Today is the launch of SpaceShipOne. If all goes well it will be the first private spacecraft to go into space.
Extra! Extra!
I read the news like a maniac every morning and afternoon, just wanting to have a glimpse of what is happening… It usually takes several minutes of reading different sources to gather what the day’s important news are (you can’t trust one source, right?). The Newsmap offers this in a glance. It gathers its headers from the excellent Google News and displays it in a graphic manner. The size of the font determines its importance. Ahh, no use explaining this, go see it!
Detailed Universe
Buddhist mandalas are extremely detailed drawings made of carefully layered sand. It takes many days to complete one, and once it is done it is quickly dismantled. The Ackland Art Museum has posted a detailed photo album of the process. Don’t sneeze anywhere near the monks!
Small Aircraft
I’ve been wanting to post this for a while but the server was down…
This is a B52 replica RC model with 8 real turbines…Watch the videos and photos!
It’s Only Letters
Ever seen any ASCII films? A while back someone made an ASCII version of the matrix shootout (check out his other movies). Now it is taken to the extreme: Deep ASCII, a full length conversion of the classic porno film Deep Throat. It is remotely NSFW…
Old Static
And you thought that electronic music started in the 70′s. Right. 120 Years of Electronic Music feaures instruments used to make music from 1870 – 1990. So quit listening to Jeff Mills and get some underground 1920′s rarity. Not that any exist…
Twist and Pull
For a wine drinker a good corkscrew is as important as the wine they are uncorking… So may I present you The Virtual Corkscrew Museum, a place where you’ll find a huge variety of corkscrews…some useful, some beautiful, some very rare.
The Colors
Talk about a useful utility for designers:
Pantone to RGB and Hex
Cardboard Cutouts
In July 1917, two young girls claimed to have taken photographs of real life fairies at their garden… Sir Arthur Conan Doyle defended the photographs saying they were real, and that fairies really existed. Many years later one of the girls confessed the photos were fake, but that she had really seen the fairies… Interesting story of how a game can turn into a huge hoax.
Forgotten
What is it with old bikes that draws your attention?
Brand Old
Ok, I’ve had it… What’s up with this retro design bullshit?
Rollei makers of the “I’ve seen this camera in a wedding” camera are launching a remake in digital form. Ahhh how cute! The stupidest thing is that in order to advance to the next shot you have to rotate a crank on the side just like the original! Unbelievable.
Nostalgia is not a niche market anymore. People would restore old things and praise the beauty and timelessness of their objects. Now they sell old. It’s baby boomers’ way of not getting old. Get the classic look for $19,99!
And don’t get me started on cars: the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mini, etc. What made these cars and products great was their contribution to good design, affordability, and form follows function. None of the remakes feature any of this. The Mini and Beetle are about twice the size of the originals!
Hold on… I am not saying that everything has to be designed from scratch. Inspiration is the word. Learn from the original… The times change and so do our products and uses… go underneath the skin and don’t copy the rotten carcass.
The Rumble
Dr. Mark Whittle has taken the cosmic background radiation of the universe and made a series of sounds…they are inaudible to the human ear because they are 50 octaves lower than one can handle…Engadget worked on the files and made them higher, thus giving us the great opportunity to hear what they sound like.
This reminds me of the post of the lowest bass ever!
Puff, You’re Gone!
Want to be invisible? That’s exactly what these guys are trying to pull off. I’d say it still is at least a decade away, but watch the videos and you’ll start believing…
24 Frames
WYSIWYG
Sony has introduced the future in navigation systems…Instead of following a map seen from a top perspective, the user can see a real-time 3D reproduction of the street you are in…With one of these I could get a GTA flashback and start running over people!
Fast and Furious
Strap a wireless camera to a rocket and you get the RocketCam!
Untouchable
Talk about a great invention: The “Brief Safe”
Forget hardcore locks, encryption, or codes…Protect your valuables with burglar-proof skid marks! (via Attu)
Dancing Sculptures
Magnetism is like magic, a force which you cannot see that produces amazing effects. When combined with magnetic fluid the shapes can be dazzling. Just imagine for a while the shapes that the Earth’s magnetosphere could produce!
