Suntory Whisky 3-D Printed Ice Cubes

Japanese ad agency TBWA\Hakuhodo used  a CNC router chilled at -7 degrees Celsius to carve the designs on these intricate 3-D printed ice cubes, created for Japan's Suntory Whisky. The agency used an app called Autodesk 123D to capture the 3-D images and prep them for printing.

The campaign was launched in 2014 and just won a Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus trophy at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand.

See more images and credits at Adweek

This Chart From 1790 Lays Out the Many Dangers of Alcoholism

Click here to see the interactive document detailing the effects of drinking particular alcoholic beverages.

In the 18th century alcohol was thought to stave off fevers and ease digestion so people drank a lot, starting with an eyeopener with breakfast and ending with a nightcap. People believed that this was a healthy practice and at one point you could not buy life insurance if you did not drink. In 1785 Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and physician, published an essay, “An Inquiry Into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind”.  He also drafted a dramatic illustration titled “A Moral and Physical Thermometer" that charted the medical conditions, criminal activities and punishments that could come from the frequent drinking of particular cocktails and liquors. People were shocked by his ideas and thought he was crazy.

“Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History” is on display in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives through January 10, 2016.

More: Smithsonian

Tracey Emin's Messy Bed at Tate Britain

My Bed, by British artist Tracey Emin, has gone on display at Tate Britain for the first time in 15 years. She had a breakdown in 1998 and stayed in bed for 4 days. She got up to have a glass of water and when she returned she was struck by the bed as a symbol of the decay of her life.



Emin would have liked the work to have a permanent home at Tate Britain but the gallery was outbid at the auction where it sold for £2.54m. The work was bought by the German businessman and collector Count Christian Duerckheim, who has loaned the artwork to the Tate for at least the next 10 years.
More: The Guardian

The Building of pont Raymond Barre sur le Rhône in 8-1/2 Minutes

When Bruce sent me this link I thought an 8-1/2 min video of a bridge being built might be a bit of a snore. But this one is actually pretty good, especially if watched in full screen mode. It's the Raymond Barre bridge over the Rhône.

Kirill Kovalenko's Crimean Beach Photos

Kirill Kovalenko's Crimean beach series was shot in an area of great political upheaval since its political annexation by Russia a year ago. Kovalenko chose the beaches because "they are considered to be an indicator of the intensity of the rhythm of life in this place".

Symmetry Breakfast

SymmetryBreakfast is an Instagram account and Tumblog dedicated to the breakfasts Michael Zee makes for his boyfriend Mark van Beek. One day he laid out a perfectly symmetrical breakfast by accident and liked it so much he decided to continue the theme and posted the results on social media. I'm sure the blog is a big hit with the OCD community. I like it too!

Via

Unlikely Friendship Between A Boy And A Bird

Australian photographer Cameron Bloom captures the friendship between his son Noah and a motherless baby bird he found outside their home. The bird, named Penguin, arrived at a difficult time in the family’s life. Bloom's photographs illustrate the relationship between Noah, the rest of the family and their unique companion.

More: Beautiful/Decay 

Amazing Nature Video

This is a beautifully-shot video of animals in their ongoing daily struggle to stay alive. Watch in full screen mode.


Thanks Bruce!

Hamilton Taxidermist Makes 'Cute Forever Friends' With Dead Rats

Hamilton, ON artist, Ankixa Risk, enjoys skinning rats. She started practising taxidermy about a decade ago. She presents the dead rodents in a variety of cunning poses like riding a bike, spray painting a wall or talking on the phone. She gets her subjects from reptile supply stores and after she or a student skins them, the meat from the animal is sent to reptile zoos to be served as dinner. If you're so inclined she will teach you how to turn a rat into a forever friend art project.

More: CBC Hamilton

The Ballad of Holland Island House

The Ballad of Holland Island House is a short animation that tells the story of the last house on a sinking island in the Chesapeake Bay from the point of view of the house itself. Animator Lynn Tomlinson uses an innovative clay-painting technique in which a thin layer of oil-based clay comes to life in each frame.

The Ballad of Holland Island House from Lynn Tomlinson on Vimeo.

The haunting music is performed by Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle.
Via: Kuriositas

LifePaint – Volvo's Invisible Light-Reflecting Paint.

LifePaint is a unique reflective safety spray. Invisible by daylight, it shines brightly in the glare of car headlights. Making the invisible, visible and preventing accidents.

Via [BB-Blog]

The Eiffel Tower Viewed from Paris Windows

The Eiffel Tower is an iconic symbol of Paris and is visible from almost everywhere in the city. British photographer Jasper White's series Tour Eiffel was photographed over four months through the windows of private residences scattered across Paris. He provides a unique perspective on one of the world's most recognized architectural wonders.

More: Feature Shoot

Thanks Bruce!

3D Landscapes Made Out Of Old Postcards

Italian artist Caterina Rossato creates landscapes out of old postcards, layering together cut-out images and applying them to wood to form 3D sculptures of beautiful scenes from around the world.

More: Creative Boom

Chameleons Have The Fastest Tongues On The Planet

Earth Unplugged filmed a panther chameleon unfurling its tongue at an unfortunate cricket at 1,500 frames a second.



Link

Bitches Brew

This memo, sent by record producer Teo Macero to executives at Columbia Records, expresses concern about the title Miles Davis had chosen for his new album. I guess Miles got his way and Bitches Brew was released to the public four months later and sold more than half a million copies.



Via Letters of Note

Reindeer People Of Mongolia

Photographer Hamid Sardar-Afkhami travelled to outer Mongolia to document the Dukha, an ancient group of people of Turk descent who are dependent on reindeer for their way of life. In addition to milk and cheese, the reindeer provide transportation for hunting. They're ridden to hunt wild elk and boar.

The Dukha tribe is quickly disappearing. Only about 44 Dukha families remain, or between 200 to 400 people. In the 1970s, it's estimated that there was a population of about 2,000 reindeer but that number has since dwindled to about 600.

More: My Modern Met

Via Blort

Paint Job

I didn't know that many sculptures of ancient Greek and Rome had originally been painted to make them more life-like. Madrid artist/art director Nico Ordozgoiti added colour to classic and neoclassic sculptures to illustrate what some of those artists might have had in mind.

Link

Thanks Bruce!

Bangkok's 'Mexican' Gangsters

Inspired by Mexican gangsters young Thai men are identifying as Cholos. But the Bangkok gangs,
despite sporting clothes, tattoos, and hairstyles that emulate real homies, are a much more benign crew than their Mexican counterparts. They hold down real jobs and don't go in for drug dealing or violence. They're in it mainly for the fashion.



Link
Thanks Bruce!

The Weird And Wonderful World Of Mexican Pulp Art

Pulp Drunk was a recent exhibition of post-war Mexican paperback cover art. The covers were a celebration of pop culture that included violence, crime, mystery, psychedelia and sci-fi details.

More: Beautiful/Decay 

Via

Ali Jardine's Surreal Silhouettes

Ali Jardine creates surreal photos of her children, Pippin and Gabe, and she does it all on her iPhone. 

Originally a painter, Jardine found her true calling as an artist when she started playing with Instagram and other photo apps on her mobile device.

More: @alijardine

Via

Lost & Found

KLM’s Lost & Found team at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is on a mission to reunite lost items as soon as possible with their legitimate owner so special forces have been hired…


Thanks Bruce!

The Corned Beef Sandwich That Ignited a Scandal In Congress

Half a century ago on the morning of the launch of Gemini 3, NASA’s first-ever two-man space mission, Pilot John Young brought aboard a corned beef sandwich that ignited a scandal in Congress. Young had tucked it into his pocket as a joke. When he went to take a bite of the sandwich it began to fall apart and crumbs went everywhere. The food NASA had sent along on Gemini 3 used a gelatin coating to prevent such a thing from happening. All of NASA’s Gemini missions were intended to evaluate various details of sending astronauts into space—including the beginnings of NASA’s specially designed space food.

Photo: CollectSpace/Raymond K. Cunningham, Jr.

The corned beef sandwich incident led to a House of Representatives appropriations committee investigation. Representative George Shipley of Illinois said, “My thought is that…to have one of the astronauts slip a sandwich aboard the vehicle, frankly, is just a little bit disgusting.

More:  First We Feast

Le plus vieil arbre de Paris

In the 5th arrondissement the oldest tree in Paris grows in the Square René Viviani. This gnarled black locust was planted in 1601. The tree is so old that it bends under the weight of its branches and relies on a cement structure for support. A team of gardeners care for it, removing dead wood and trimming the ivy that encircles it.

I've spent many peaceful hours in the square and in the adjacent medieval church, Saint-Julien-le-pauvre, one of the oldest buildings in the city.



More: Paris ZigZag

White Out, A Film About Winter

White Out is a stop motion animated film about winter by Jeff Scher made from 2,250 watercolor paintings on paper.



Music by Shay Lynch.

Via Boing Boing

Titanic Kitty Condo

At nearly 6' long and 4' tall, this 3-level condo has a scratch post, 6 kitty windows, 3 "play tunnels", and a cozy private enclosure at the top.

Moving a giant cat scratching post into my house would mean getting rid of a sofa but if it makes Joyce happy why would I quibble about something as trivial as having a place to sit?

You can purchase it here for $1999.00 (Yikes!)

Via I Have Seen The Whole Of The Internet

Subconscious Cinema

A dream sequence supercut created by Dreamscience.

Subconscious Cinema from Dreamscience on Vimeo.

Via The Curious Brain

Akira Kurosawa, Composer Of Motion

This video by Tony Zhou shows how director Akira Kurosawa used movement in his films to tell a story.



Via Kottke

World's Most Expensive Chocolate Easter Bunny

This 5kg Easter bunny sculpture made from 75% Tanzania Origin chocolate with solitaire diamond eyes looks good enough to eat but at £33,000 and 548,000 calories it would be a very costly Easter nosh.
But it's not as extravagant as it sounds - after chowing down you'd still have the diamond bunny eyes valued at £25,000.

Link
Via Blog on a Toothpick

Matthias Jung's Surreal Homes

German designer Matthias Jung makes beautifully surreal houses that I would love to live in. They are actually collages pieced together from photographs of buildings and landscapes that he rearranges in weird and wonderful ways. Jung calls them "architectural poems.

Via Gizmodo

Family of Crafters Crochet Intricate Tiny Animals

Su Ami is a Vietnamese family craft collective that crochets tiny perfect animals. At their Etsy shop you will find a menagerie of adorable detailed creatures including turtles, whales, owls, and unicorns. Su Ami captures the animals’ defining features, like a swan’s elegant beak and a lion’s majestic mane. They make fluffy little dogs from the ends of embroidery thread. The craft of making miniature stuffed animals is called amigurumi.

More: My Modern Met

Via 

Janet Echelman's Giant Net Sculptures

American artist Janet Echelman creates giant suspended permanent sculptures that respond to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight.

Echelman is working on a 700-foot-long sculpture that will be suspended over Vancouver next month. She is seeking funding via Kickstarter to make it happenVia 

Thanks Bruce!

Pre-Raphaelite Paintings at Red House

Red House was the home of artist William Morris between 1860 and 1865 and he is where he entertained his friends, many of them important Pre-Raphaelite artists. These friends helped decorate walls, ceilings and items of furniture at the house with colourful wall paintings and decorative patterns inspired by their love of the medieval past.  Over the years, under private ownership much of his original decoration had been covered over with panelling, wallpaper or paint.

In 2013 experts discovered an entire wall painting concealed behind a cupboard at Red House. It began as an attempt to restore one blurry image that had been hidden for a century behind a large built-in wardrobe on William Morris's bedroom wall. The mural is believed to be the joint work of famous pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his wife Elizabeth Siddal, Ford Madox Brown and Morris. It depicts Biblical characters: the figures of Adam and Eve (with the serpent), Noah (holding a miniature ark), Rachel and Jacob (with a ladder) and is designed to resemble a hanging tapestry with the illusion of folds.

When I heard the story I was eager to see the painting and finally got to visit the Red House this past week.


See more at the National Trust site.

Paintings are by blind painter John Bramblitt

These paintings are by American painter John Bramblitt who lost his sight at the age of 30 as a result of seizures. He relies on touch and texture to create stunningly vivid paintings.

Album on Imgur

Here is a video about Bramblitt:



Thanks Bruce!