Thursday, May 31, 2018

The Visual Taxonomy of Van Gogh

 Curious Charts has fit Van Gogh's nearly 900 paintings in a single chart, organized by subject matter.





See their Kickstarter
Via

Little Edie Beale, Fashion Icon?

YouTube channel, The Ultimate Fashion History, analyzes the fashion impact of Little Edie Beale, the legendary eccentric recluse from the Maysles brothers' documentary Grey Gardens.



Via  Boing Boing

Open Sesame

UK company Sesame Access conceals wheelchair lifts within ordinary-looking staircases.



Via  Urbanist

Insufferable Eaters

If you go out to eat with a group of people you can be assured that at least one of your tablemates will fall into one of Olivia de Recat's Insufferable Eater categories. (de Recat admits to being a Subber).





More here

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Squirrel Transformed Into Ninja Warrior

In two weeks this squirrel was trained to complete an impressive obstacle course to reach a food reward.



Via TwistedSifter

True Facts : Carnivorous Plants

Cuckoo Block Berlin

German artist Guido Zimmerman creates cuckoo clocks in the Brutalist style. They present a contemporary view of urban living and compelling architecture.



Via Boing Boing

Tend

A father becomes preoccupied with the fire he keeps burning for his daughter. In doing so, he loses sight of the most important thing in his world, the daughter for whom he keeps the flames burning.


Tend from Animade on Vimeo.

Via WePresent

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

This Device Resuscitated Canaries in Coal Mines (Circa 1896)


Carbon monoxide gas forms underground during a mine fire or after an explosion, placing miners in peril. Canaries are more sensitive to the than humans are. After a mine fire or explosion, mine rescuers would descend into the mine, carrying a canary in a cage. If the canary exhibited signs of distress the miners would evacuate before they were affected by the gas. The lives of many miners were saved but the canaries perished. Inventors came up with a humane device that revived the affected birds:
"The circular door of the cage "would be kept open and had a grill to prevent the canary [from] escaping. Once the canary showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning the door would be closed and a valve opened, allowing oxygen from the tank on top to be released and revive the canary."
This practice continued for almost 100 years, until birds were replaced by technology in 1986.

Link
Via 

US National Parks Face Off In Sunset Battle

Sunset in Saguaro National Park, Arizona, USA
from Nate Hovee/Shutterstock.com
On May 5th, the Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona shared a photo featuring a sunset overlooking a field of cacti with the caption  “Did you know @saguaronationalpark has the best sunsets in the world?” Not to be outdone, Joshua Tree National Park in southern California responded “Best sunsets in the world? Lol suuuuure.” Other parks joined the fray.

thewildgroves
White Sands National Monument
ig_photofthedayYosemite National Park

I think the photos show that all these National Parks have excellent sunsets.

More here

Via

In Bloom, A Botanical Space Flight

In August, 2017 Japanese conceptual flower studio AMKK aka Makoto Azuma  launched a bouquet into the stratosphere. The Exobiotanica project will allow the structure of the earth and its atmosphere to effectively arrange the flowers.



More here 

Monday, May 28, 2018

A Visual History of Light

400,000 years ago, humans and Neanderthals discovered fire. This ignited a relationship between people and photons that changed the course of mankind—and continues to evolve to this day.


A Visual History of Light from The Atlantic on Vimeo.

Via  The Curious Brain

Would you wear a muzzle at work?

A new accessory called BloxVox muffles your phone conversations in an open office.



Via bookofjoe

Stories Written In Scent

Edition is a London-based label by Canadian-born perfumer Timothy Han that creates scents, based on the stories of literary greats, that build and change throughout the day.



In the collection to date, there is Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’, Yukio Mishima’s ‘The Decay of the Angel’ and the soon-to-be-released ‘Against Nature’ by Joris-Karl Huysmans.

They're kind of pricey. I guess I'll have to be content with my natural fragrance of wet dog and garlic for now.

More here 

Manhattanhenge is almost here

This phenomenon occurs twice a year when the sun sets directly in line with Manhattan's grid. This year, Manhattanhenge will be on view on Wednesday, 30 May at 8:12 pm and Thursday, 12 July 8:20 pm.



You have to be on the grid of Manhattan to see the event. Astrophysicist Jacqueline Faherty, senior scientist at the AMNH, shares advice for anyone who wants to see it for themselves:
“It is all about the angle. If you go off the grid by even a degree you will be out of alignment. You can watch from beyond the grid, in Brooklyn for instance. As long as you can see all the way across Manhattan to New Jersey, you will catch the event.”

More here 

The Closet

How did that half naked guy end up in my closet? This advert for the French video channel Canal+  answers the question:



Via

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Makita's Rechargeable Coffee Maker


Tool company Makita sold their first coffee maker in 2015. This machine uses the same types of batteries as its power tools and looks like it could take a kicking and keep on brewing.

You can purchase it here.

Link

London Enraged

Each Saturday, Spitalfields Life treats us to one of Adam Dant’s Maps Of London & Beyond. This week Dant maps the venerable London tradition of riots in his elegant cartography of public disturbances from AD60 until the present day.

Click here to enlarge image


More here 

Field Commander Leonard Cohen

Canadian poet Leonard Cohen visited Cuba in 1961when the revolution was just a couple of years old and things were chaotic and uncertain. His Havana adventures have been chronicled in a new Drawn & Recorded season. The T Bone Burnett-narrated series of shorts illustrates “modern myths of music.”


 Drew Christie on Vimeo.

In the clip below from Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen the poet recites “The Last Tourist in Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward” from Flowers for Hitler:



More here

Via

Food Waste Revolution

Japanese designer Kosuke Araki aims to bring more awareness (and less plastic) to the table by turning food scraps into “something beautiful and precious.”
He documented the food waste that he produced over several weeks:


He uses techniques rooted in Japanese culture to create beautiful tableware out of food that would otherwise be tossed in the garbage.



More here 

Via 

Mr. Blues Dog

This 3 year old, german shepherd/malinois mix loves to belt out the blues when he hears the piano. He's also on very expensive medication so his owners set up a Patreon page so he could sing for his supper (or meds).



Via

Music For Sunday Morning

Sunday Links


The Art of the Japanese Stencil-Cutter

Want to see what your Twitter timeline would've looked like 10 years ago today, if you followed all the same people you do now? 

A Photo Trip to Southeast Alaska 

The Most Dangerous Cities in the World interactive map shows the 50 cities across the globe with the highest homicide rates in 2017.

Genesis Tour Manager Recalls His Role in One of Rock's Most Embarrassing Moments Via

7,600 Edvard Munch Drawings Now Available to Discover Online

Doctors explain Michael Jackson's impossible dance move 

25 Best Closing Lines in Literature I never saw any of them again — except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them. - The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

There's an entire Instagram page dedicated to that infamous JCREW gingham shirt

Investigating One of the Oldest Private Detective Agencies in Paris: The Duluc Detective might sound like something you’d perhaps expect to find within the pages of a Georges Simenon Inspector Maigret novel, but it is in fact a real working private investigation firm.

19 Authors and Their Typewriters 

The Simpsons reenactments of 12 iconic and historic photos

What Happened in Vegas  The days, weeks, and months after the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

@tasteofstreep  Via

Roxy, the Long Island Railroad Dog With a Lifetime Pass Via

Modernist Estates: A visit to Le Corbusier’s La Tourette which currently houses a Dominican community of 11 friars. Via

I thought I had The World’s Oldest Mattress but apparently this one is older.

Searching for Melania Trump’s Childhood Home Also home of the "Top Shit Burger" - apparently it's delicious.

Inside The Apartments Of Rosario Candela, The Man Who Built Luxury Living Into NYC's Skyline

A $5 Shower Curtain Does Wonders for Diffusing Light

How Conservators Remove Tape From 19th-Century Art

The American backyard as we know it didn't exist until after World War II

Friday, May 25, 2018

Depiction of a same sex couple c. 1805-1815


Among the dozens of works on display in a new show at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is one that is possibly the first depiction of a same sex couple—the silhouettes of Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant of Weybridge, Vermont, entwined in braided human hair that is also shaped into a heart.

More here 

The Wonders Within Your Head

This infographic from the December 6, 1938 issue of LOOK magazine looks at different areas of the brain as a workplace.


Micro-robots have built the world's smallest house


Researchers from the Femto-ST Institute have used micro-robots to assemble the world's smallest house, which stands just 0.015 millimetres high.


It's the perfect abode for a microorganism but a little cramped for the rest of us.

More here 

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Mother Road Revisited


Photographer Natalie Slater set off in a 1964 Shasta trailer with a collection of old postcard photos of Route 66. Her rephotography project, Mother Road Revisited,  follows the highway from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA, correlating the old  images with current locations.


An Introduction to Mother Road Revisited from Natalie Slater on Vimeo.

More here
Via


Faces of Frida

Accessible via the Google Arts & Culture app and website, Faces of Frida is the largest collection of artworks and objects related to Kahlo ever compiled.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

How Good Are You At Recognizing Faces?


"Super-recognizer" is a term coined by researchers at Harvard and University College London to describe people who are uncommonly skilled at face perception. The ability to recognize faces seems to exist on a spectrum, with the 2 percent of the population who are super-recognizers on one end, and prosopagnosiacs — that is, the 2 percent who are unable to recognize familiar faces (including their own) — at the other. Take the quiz to find out where you fall on the spectrum.

Via

Get creative with mini cinder blocks

Turn your desk into a miniature construction site with Mini Materials Miniature Cinder Blocks

Death Valley 8K

This video from More Than Just Parks is too beautiful for words. Just watch it.


DEATH VALLEY 8K from More Than Just Parks on Vimeo.

Via

The Shingles Song

The ads for the shingles vaccine were so terrifying I toddled off to the doctor for the shot. It's really not a laughing matter but this song is cute.



Via

Drawings Of Linear Ideas


Beginning with notebook sketches in 1900, Polish architect Wacław Szpakowski dedicated much of his free time to hand-drawing elaborate mazes and patterns using only a single line.
"Seen today, Szpakowski’s work anticipates seriality, accelerated temporalities and the increasing density of visual memory. Resembling circuitries or digitally generated diagrams, the motifs of Szpakowski’s drawings evoke the new technologies of image production that affect perception, heightening the crisis of attention. Exploring the dichotomy of a focused and distracted, decentered gaze, Szpakowski’s project can be understood as a critique of the changing modalities of vision."


Images: Miguel Abreu Gallery

More here  and here

Via

Two Lynx in Ontario Have Intense Conversation

Lisa Golightly's Paintings Evoke Nostalgia

Portland-based painter Lisa Golightly takes familiar scenarios and abstracts them, producing figurative portraits thick with brush strokes of acrylic and nostalgia.





 More here

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

The Father of Industrial Design

The shape and look of the objects we handle doesn't just happen. It happens by design.  Raymond Loewy was known as "the man who changed the face of industrial design."

The Pride Shield

LGBT people around the world are targets of violence. This PSA by Fondation Émergence shows how 193 pride flags (one for each country) can end the epidemic of crimes against sex and gender minorities.



Via 


Wrong Hands

Harriet Ogden's Costume Designs


Costume designer Harriet Ogden's graduate collection at the ECA performance costume show featured designs for Puccini's Madam Butterfly. Her creations are modern but incorporate traditional Japanese techniques such as Shibori and Sashiko.





More: Thread, Fashion and Costume

Sociable Weaver Birds of South Africa

Male weaver birds are brilliant architects that build elaborate nests to attract mates. These photos show how they have woven grass, leaves, twigs and roots into love shacks on telephone poles. When wet the nests become so heavy that they drag the poles down.





Via  Present and Correct

Uplift

Uplift is a soothing, spiralling solar-powered sculpture. It is made from recyclable materials and operates entirely by renewable means.


Uplift from Tom Lawton on Vimeo.


More

Via

How ice cream cones are made



Thanks Bruce!

Monday, May 21, 2018

China’s Village of Real-Life Rapunzels

For thousands of years, the Yao women of Huangluo Village have believed that long hair symbolizes beauty, wealth and longevity and women in the village only cut their hair once in a lifetime when they are ready for adulthood and marriage. 
 

Via

Energy Transfer Between Coupled Pendulums

Each one almost completely stops as its momentum moves to the other one.

Football's Bayeux Tapestry


The FIFA World Cup 2018 launch trailer is an embroidered history of football that is the product of months of work undertaken by The London Embroidery Studio and animator Nicos Livesey.
It takes its influence from the Bayeux Tapestry and the graphics of historical posters from the Soviet Union.



More: It's Nice That 

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Avocado Pickles

I am a fan of the avocado but they seem to go from unripe to an overripe squishy brown mess in the blink of an eye. This looks like a solution to the avocado timing dilemma. Not sure how long they last in the pickling solution but that's a moot point in this household.



 Recipe here 

You've Heard of a Murder of Crows. How About a Crow Funeral?

Music For Sunday Morning

I may have posted this before.

Sunday Links


Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo: A Historic Insane Asylum Turned Hotel 

The Late Tom Wolfe and the Hunter S. Thompson Letters "Dear Tom… You worthless scumsucking bastard. I just got your letter of Feb 25 from Le Grande Hotel in Roma, you swine!"

Street Leak is a Spotify playlist dedicated to amazing street performers.  via

1927 documentary on how to dial a telephone

The latest from the "True Stories" series by cartoonist Lauren eLL (Lorenzo) Previously

American Airlines expands list of banned emotional support animals  Starting July 1, passengers on American Airlines flights will be prohibited from flying with frogs, hedgehogs, and goats even if they are therapy animals.

How to Hack Your Way to the Perfect Burger Enhance flavour, eliminate soggy buns, and end slippery lettuce slides.

The Refined, Scandalous Art of Japan's Traditional Woodblock Tabloids 

Lost, stolen, blown up and fed to pigs: Their whereabouts may be a mystery. But these treasures by the likes of Leonardo, Caravaggio and Jan van Eyck could still turn up.

Arshile Gorky's Muse Recalls Their First Date I want to read Arshile Gorky: The Plow and the Song, which will be published later this month.

A Mad Men Era Guide to Bar Hopping in New York City

Save Family Photos  On a mission to save and share family stories, one photo at a time

This Canadian Home is like a Fairy Tale I've never been partial to A-frames but this one is kind of cool.

Victoria and Albert Museum holds the only known copy of a complete inventory of 'Entartete Kunst' (or Degenerate Art) confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions in Germany, mostly during 1937 and 1938. via

If Some of Literature’s Most Complicated Male Characters Were Just Reasonable People Instead

A Tour of Small-Town Sicily This article brings back memories of a wonderful vacation in Sicily many years ago.

How Gerrymandered is Your State?

A 300 year old folly hidden in a wood that you can sleep in Hidden away in a private wood is a 300 year old folly, Queen Anne’s Summerhouse. Queen Anne never visited it, but you can.

“It was never a question of making a fashion story": Jules Moskovtchenko's honest depiction of London's pearlies

The Pasta Sauce Hailed as the World's Best Is Surprisingly Easy to Make at Home 

Evelyn Waugh's Gloucestershire home goes on the market for £3m: Piers Court has just landed on the market for the first time since 2004.

10 haunted theatres you can visit

Open-Plan Homes Might Not Be Great For Entertaining Schumacher Homes’ “messy kitchen”  approach hides one kitchen behind another.

The Best Hotels in the World 2018

Ever wondered where cashew nuts come from? Now you know why they're so expensive.

Kai Piha - History of Waikiki

Saturday, May 19, 2018

101 Mass Shootings Mapped

ABC 15's interactive map of all the 101 mass shootings in the USA this year. Heartbreaking.

Click here for interactive map


Via Maps Mania

Magnet Collisions

This video of magnets colliding in slow motion is kind of mesmerizing.



Via Miss Cellania

All These Voices

When a young Nazi soldier encounters a theater-troupe of survivors celebrating the end of WWII, he must come to terms with his role in their grief.


ALL THESE VOICES from David Henry Gerson on Vimeo.

Via  Kuriositas

Friday, May 18, 2018

AURA, a luminous experience at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica

Views of Japan 1913-1915

Fascinating footage of Tokyo more than a century ago from the Eye film collection.



Via TwistedSifter

The first-ever performance of "Purple Rain"

Prince performed this benefit concert for the Minneapolis Dance Theatre on August 3, 1983.



Via TYWKIWDBI 

Squirrel King?

Photo: Craig Luttman

The tangling of tails in rodents is a phenomenon known as a “rat king.” Recently six baby squirrels were found in Elkhorn, Nebraska with their tails hopelessly entwined. A resident heard them screaming on a sap-covered tree in a neighbour's yard:
“The squirrels weren’t moving in unison, they all wanted to go in opposite directions,” he said. “It was like a game of tug-of-war. They looked tired and stressed out, and I figured they weren’t gonna make it—they were gonna die.” 
Nebraska Wildlife Rehab were eventually able to to untangle the rodent sextuplets and they are expected to be released into the wild in a few weeks.

Time-lapse Tattoo

A time-lapse video of French artist LEWISINK creating a geometric tattoo.



Via Boing Boing

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Commodity City

Commodity City, an observational documentary by Jessica Kingdon, explores the daily lives of vendors who work in  China's Yiwu Markets, the largest wholesale consumer market in the world.


COMMODITY CITY from Jessica Kingdon on Vimeo.

Via

The Colourful Inhabitants of Lembeh Strait

Venezuelan underwater photographer Alexis Golding's photographs of the species that inhabit  Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait are mesmerizing.




See more on Golding's Instagram
Via Fubiz Media

Optimism

Kelli Anderson and Maria Popova present American poet Jane Hirshfeld's Optimism as a papercraft stop motion video. The author reads her poem.


Optimism from kellianderson on Vimeo.

Via swissmiss

Surreal multiple exposed photographs of London’s East End

Chris Dorley-Brown is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and archivist. His photographs of street corners in East London are composed of multiple exposures that, at first glance, look like oil paintings.





More: Creative Boom