January 17, 2009
Thinkin of a master plan
They acquired Polaroid's old equipment, factory and now seek your support. "The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimized components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name." They have just 12 months. 7 Challenges (to come). Sign up to be informed and help.
[kangol tip] [more inside]
miniature interiors
Carving a snuff bottle for painting. Types of snuff bottle painting: slide show. Step by step process of painting inside. A painting in its cultural setting. Some contemporary images: Tornado on the highway l aurora. With a special 90-degree-angle paintbrush used to paint inside glass or crystal objects, artists can achieve exquisitely unique paintings.Some of the painting tools used: the bamboo pen l writing brush l lily magnolia. [more inside]
MeFi guidelines expert assures me this is Best of the Web
Journalism and complex public issues - a British newspaper editor's travails
Studies In Getting Smacked
Three psychology experiments that raise ethics questions because of the danger they posed to the research assistants. (via) [more inside]
We are encased in a world of light and cloud
Hiroshi Sugimoto
"Developing a low-quality aesthetic is a sign of serious fine art." Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer most famous for blank seascapes and photos of empty theaters that aren't really empty. In a 2005 interview he talks about the relation of his work with Duchamp, Man Ray, and the mathematics faculty of Tokyo university. He won the 2001 Hasselblad prize and his photographs of plaster models of mathematical surfaces have appeared in the New York Times. But his work has never really broken out to a mass audience.
Until now.
The sounds of a tiny plastic Buddha
Nebraska-born musician Christiaan Virant was in Beijing performing drone-like ambient music with his Chinese collaborator Zhang Jian, under the name FM3 (mostly in Chinese); as pioneers of the electronic movement in China, most of their money came from sound installations at art galleries, which entailed wiring up rooms with sound equipment. Mulling a simpler and cheaper way of doing this, Virant was wandering around a Buddhist temple in southwest China when he spotted a little plastic box on the altar (one such possible example), piping out loops of the tinny, digitized chants played endlessly at such places. Intrigued, he found two of the devices in the temple gift shop and bought both. The idea of an instant sound installation was born. That was almost four years ago. [more inside]
illustration / comics
National salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter
Peanut butter recall - hundreds sick. Federal health authorities on Saturday urged consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods that contain peanut butter until authorities can learn more about a deadly outbreak of salmonella contamination. It appears that retail peanut butter in jars is safe. So far, more than 470 people have gotten sick in 43 states, and at least 90 had to be hospitalized. At least six deaths are being blamed on the outbreak which is believed to have started at a Blakely, Ga., facility owned by Peanut Corp. of America that ships peanut products to 85 food companies.
This site is starting to wear on me.
PAMELA IS THE DNA OF WORLD WIDE WEB!!
ULTIMATE GIRL AND CELIBRITY WOMAN -PAMELA ANDERSON - NETSCAPE 1.0 BABE Technology!
what the luck
OMG (SLYT)
This music video is MONEY.
"Money" is a completely AWESOME music video of a track by N.A.S.A. (North America South America), a DJ collective featuring Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon plus many famous guest artists, including, on this track alone, David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip. (Other tracks by N.A.S.A. feature the likes of Tom Waits, M.I.A., Gift of Gab and Kool Keith.) The video features the artwork of Shepard Fairey, who has been discussed previously here. The video was directed by Paul Griswold and Syd Garon (who also did this great video for DJ Qbert and this one for Dan the Automator, which features some nice Gilliamesque touches.)
The End of an Error.
With George W. Bush's presidency coming to a close David Letterman on last night's The Late Show bid farewell to his recurring segment "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" with a video montage [4:00] of clips. Another compilation of clips [4:49].
Purple Rain, Swedish Dansband Style
Billionaires have more sons
Billionaires have more grandchildren through their sons than through their daughters, because the status advantage is more reproductively valuable to the sons. Therefore, it would be adaptive for the mothers of their children to bear more sons than daughters. But surely that can't be; mothers can't control the sex of their children. Oh but so it is: billionaires have 60% male children. [more inside]
Help a Fellow Out
Making decisions, as we all know, is hard. One way to get out of them is to let other people make them for you. [more inside]
John Thurlow's Web Sites for Kids & Teachers
John Thurlow's Web Sites for Kids & Teachers. The Thinking page of this treasure trove of kid-safe sites includes links that are also appropriate for adults who just like to play around, such as Funderstanding's Roller Coast Simulation, and Lightness Perception and Lightness Illusions. [more inside]
The Great Pyramid of Giza was a Pulse Pump
The Great Pyramid of Giza was a Pulse Pump. (.com) You know, for free energy. Inspired by the work of Ram Pump inventor and "Pharoh's Pump" author Edward J. Kunkel, The Pharoh's Pump Foundation is dedicated to general pyramid pump awareness and answers many relevant questions. For instance: Is this Pharaoh's Pump stuff hallucinations of a raving maniac? [more inside]
Circumvention of Bell's Throttle Monster: three alternatives.
On November 20th, the CTRC made a landmark ruling that defeated the CAIP's plea to stop Bell's conjuration of the Deep Packet Throttle Monster. However all was not lost, as consumers of Bell's copper pipes can take solace in three recent developments that aim to reclaim the pipes for We, the little guy. hooray! [more inside]
Exponential, what it do?
Division: Work it out! - these girls be spittin the math.
Please enjoy the stone sculptures of Hirotoshi Itoh
When Polly is in Charge
"The animals all think he's Margaret when he speaks. He loves ordering them around and commanding them – it's very surprising. He's not frightened or scared of them at all.""Parrot mimics owner's voice to boss around her other pets "
So, how would I go about laundering money?
If the Government is running a larger than usual Ponzi scheme, then developing your own abilities to launder money cannot be far behind. So, how would I go about laundering money?
Survival in The Sky
Known as Black Box in the UK, Survival in the Sky was a four-episode 1996 series about commercial aviation accidents and the investigation of their causes. (Two additional episodes were filmed in 1998.) Not currently available on DVD, five of the six episodes are available in their entirety on YouTube (links within). [more inside]
Taibbi reviews Friedman's latest
A review of Thomas Friedman's latest book, Flat, Hot, and Crowded, by Matt Taibbi.
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