Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Tweet Of The Day

Portable Arcade


Illustrator and designer Tyler Capps built a gaming machine into a custom made briefcase that can be folded up and carried. Inside is a fully functioning 1-4 player arcade machine.
Tyler now makes and sells these machines at Endboss Customs

See how he did it: Make

Burning Piano 2008

Acclaimed Japanese jazz pianist Yōsuke Yamashita plays a burning piano on the beach.



Read more:  Open Culture

Via

Yippee aye oh ki yay! Live the cowboy life in New Zealand

Sometimes a house just isn't enough. This replica old west town on 1000 acres in New Zealand gives you plenty of room to spread out and live the cowboy life you've always dreamed of. Mellonsfolly Ranch functions as a boutique hotel and there is a thriving Manuka honey business on the property.



Via things magazine

The Serene Dreamscapes Of Paul Milinski

3D artist Paul Milinski has created peaceful imaginary landscapes that will soothe your soul in troubled times.







See lots more here

Pic Of The Day



Via Memo of the Air who offers this description of the circus moth:
It looks like a cartoon 1920s traveling salesman costume. Or a French music-hall variety show impresario. Or a weapon designed to attract a child and explode when taken to show to the gang. Or a kind of fancy candy, though it probably tastes like dust on a metal screen door, like the moth I ate when I was four.

Monday, June 29, 2020

The Astra-Gnome Concept


The Astra-Gnome concept car was commissioned by American Motors and designed by Richard Arbib using a 1955 Nash Metropolitan chassis as its base. It was intended to represent what cars would look like in the far-off year of 2000.



More here

Via Weird Universe

Tweet Of The Day

R2D2 Sounds for bird mimicking

Use this sound file to teach your bird to mimic the Star Wars robot. (You might regret it.)



Thanks Bruce!

I'm Starting to Feel the Pain


Photographer Antoine d'Agata uses thermal imaging technology to visualise France's streets and hospitals at the peak of COVID-19


Images :  © Antoine d’Agata | Magnum Photos
Link

Via Everlasting Blort

Pic Of The Day

The feet of a baby lynx


Via TYWKIWDBI  


Your Highness Grandmother Pageant

Soviet grandmothers of Brighton Beach show that life is not over when you get older.


Your Highness Grandmother Pageant from Hailey Gates on Vimeo.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Animated Kitten (1968)

In 1968 a Russian team chose a cat as the subject of the first computer generated animation. Even that far back it must have been obvious that felines would one day rule the internet.



Via Miss Cellania

Virtual Tour of the Ghibli Museum

You can now take a virtual tour of Japan’s secretive Ghibli Museum on their YouTube channel. There are videos of the museum’s exterior, the Cafe and Theater, ceiling murals, stained glass, the elevator and spiral staircase and drawings made by, and tools used by, the studio’s artists.



Via lifehacker

Music For Sunday Morning

Indonesia’s Tricked Out Vespas

In Indonesia Rebel Riders modify their Vespas to the extreme to create unique vehicles.



Via kraftfuttermischwerk

Sunday Links


2300-Year-Old Scythian Woman's Boot Preserved in the Frozen Ground of the Altai Mountains (above)

Headline of the day: Humans forced to hide from sex addicted monkeys who set up HQ in disused cinema 

No Longer Trending: From the Rembrandt Effect to #sourdough

This week's house envy: designer David Pocknell's converted barn in Essex

The Crazy Story of Pittsburgh's Pirate Burger King: The first thing to note is that this particular Burger King was never going to win any awards.

I hope someone writes an obit like this for me: They did not die Make sure you read all the pages.

NASA Mars Helicopter Will Be Red Planet's 'Wright Brothers Moment'  Watch an animation depicting the test flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.

Amuse yourself: Paper Airplane Folding Instructions Via Imperica

Be Not Afraid: A satire of the personal diaries of Werner Herzog Via TMN

“Power tae the key workers” Mural art collective brings uplifting messages of positivity to the streets of Glasgow.

Old Summer Houses of Saint Petersburg : Some of these lovely dachas were built before the revolution.

A game for your entertainment Adam Dant’s London Rebus 

Lie-Flat Economy Airplane Seats I would like to be able to stretch my legs on long flights (and I'm only 5ft tall)

Wanna see something totally off the wall? I’m a Flamingo Warning: Nasty Language!

Adorable! Dutch Illustrator Transforms Pets Into Disney Characters

Pod Life: Workstation Cabin

Bad Stock Photos of my Job Via Everlasting Blort

How the Virus Won - a  NYT Interactive

You've probably seen this already but it's pretty cool: Barcelona Opera House Plays First Post-Coronavirus Concert To Audience Of More Than 2000 Plants

Make a Martini With Your Freezer: A damn good martini, wedged between the frozen dumplings and pints of ice cream in your freezer.

A history of Cheers’ Sam and Diane, TV’s most riveting incompatible couple Via MeFi

A brief history of protest art from the 1940s until now - in pictures

How One Man Created The Biggest Virtual Pub Quiz In The World

How to make Royal Ascot's carrot cake 

The Bee Bed: Get your free plans for a horizontal hive here!

This Portable Washing Machine helps you avoid trips to the laundromat.

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Falling Cats

Why do cats who fall from 32 story buildings have fewer injuries than from lesser heights?



Via Weird Universe

Tweet of the Day



Thanks Bruce!

LEGO Relief Map


Cameron Bennett's quarantine project was building a topographical map of Idaho using accurate data and cartographic software. The assembly process took place over multiple weeks.
"Sanity breaks were required. Sore fingers ensued. This is much less playful than I remember."
Read more about how it was done.

Via Neatorama

A Better World


The dates you can change are in yellow. The dates you just changed are in pink. Click on one of them to change the past!

Via Imperica


Hearing "Jolene" for the first time

YouTubers Twinsthenewtrend are twin brothers who film their reactions to popular songs they've never heard before to show that music has no colour . Here they listen to Dolly Parton's Jolene for the first time.



Via  3 Quarks Daily

Boryana Ilieva’s poetic survey of cinematic architecture

Boryana Ilieva aka Floor Plan Croissant analyses the floor plans and decoration of film set interiors and renders them in watercolour paint.

Stranger Things (Will Byers’ House)
Available to buy as an art print (from £37) from Society6.
Ground and first floor of the London house in Phantom Thread
 Art prints available (£38) from Society6

How To Tell A Raven From A Crow


bird and moon 

New Walkers Poppadums

Well you can take me and my turban to the Kathmandu, chew my chapati, eat my vindaloo…



Via FB friend Simon.

Pic Of The Day


Friday, June 26, 2020

Hand-Illustrated Map Of the MET's Collections


New York illustrator John Kerschbaum created a condensed, incredibly detailed map of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibits for visitors to use to navigate their way through the museum.



Read More

Meadows Clear Up

A group of Scottish volunteers met at 5 am to clear up the rubbish from the previous day and use it to spell out the current Scottish Covid 19 death toll.

March March

“If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.”
 

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Mystery Of Medieval Blue Dye Finally Solved

The chrozophora tinctoria plant was used to produce the brilliant blue colour for illuminated manuscripts but the use of the plant in paints ended with the advent of the printing press. Until now chemists have been unable to reproduce the medieval pigment.



Link
Via Pasa Bon!

Iceland: The Land of Fire and Ice

Filmmaker devinspertramp and his team explore the stunning mountains, waterfalls, ice fields, and rock formations of Iceland.



Via 

Sand Drawing Robot

YouTuber and maker Ivan Miranda built a 30 pound robot using 50 miniature servos that writes messages in the sand.



Via Geekologie

A dragon reads a story to puppies !

This is too sweet for words!

The rise and fall of Blockbuster Video

In 2004 there were 9,094 Blockbuster locations worldwide. Now there is one. Only memories of the popcorn remain.

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Tweet Of The Day

How Georgia O'Keeffe Became Georgia O'Keeffe

This animated video tells us about the life and works of Georgia O’Keeffe, the mother of American Modernism.



Read more: Open Culture

SPACE: A SKATE ODYSSEY

This unique film blends skateboarding and archival footage to portray one woman's journey to set foot on the moon.


SPACE: A SKATE ODYSSEY from LONGNECK FILMS on Vimeo.

The first typewriter prototype was made with 11 piano keys


Journalist, Christopher Latham Sholes, dabbled in inventions on the side. He and Samuel W. Soulé, a mechanist, developed devices that numbered the pages of blank books. They shared their shop with a third inventor, Carlos Glidden, and the trio used the numbering machine as the basis for a personal lettering machine, now known as the typewriter.

 Original patent application


The patent for their machine was granted in 1868.
Read more: Literary Hub

How to Make Pop-up Book

The World According to Le Corbusier

Among modern architects, was any architect ever so modernity-minded as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret aka Le Corbusier?



Read more: Open Culture

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Tweet Of The Day

Extreme Pogo

Beyond Slow Motion put together this incredible video of a team of talented athletes from XPOGO.



Via The Awesomer

Humongous Corrugated Iron Creations


Image: CLAIRE VOON
Mechanic/artist Steven Clothier creates corrugated iron sculptures and signs in Tirau, New Zealand.


“Tirau was one of those lil’ wee towns that you pass through on the way elsewhere,” Clothier says. “It’s now become its own little destination because people come to actually look at the art. I think it has definitely helped this town.”
Read more: Atlas Obscura

Via PfRC

Trump's Insane Ramp Speech in Indie Folk Style

Thank you Josh Radnor, this is brilliant!


... So then I finish saluting my final salute, I said, “Thank goodness. Thank you very much.” Think of it. So essentially almost 600 times. Now the general says, “Sir, are you ready?” I said, “I’m ready General, where are we going now?” You have to understand I left early in the morning to get there. Now it’s sort of late in the afternoon. A lot of these fakers were with us. So they know. He said, ” Sir, we can now leave the stage.” I said, “Great general, let’s go, I’ll follow you,” and he goes like this, “Right here, sir,” and I walked off. The stage was higher than this one and the ramp was probably 10 yards long. I say, “General.” Now you got to understand, I have the whole corps of cadets looking at me and I want them to love their president, I did this big thing. I love them, I love them. They’re incredible, and they do. I said, “General, I’ve got myself a problem, general.”
Via MetaFilter

Swap Faces With Your Tattoo


Face Swap apps can be nightmare-inducing but they're also really hilarious.




More here

Jigsaw puzzles inspired by travel

I miss travelling, planning the trip, the anticipation, exploring new places or returning to one of my favourite destinations. Who knows when we'll feel safe enough to travel again?  In the meantime we can assemble these travel-inspired jigsaw puzzles to discover beautiful places and find some travel inspiration.

Link to the puzzle

Link to the puzzle
More here

Altered Painting Shows Which Founding Fathers Owned Slaves

Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull’s famous 1818 painting which hangs in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, has been virtually defaced by Arlen Parsa to show which of the founders’ (faces covered by red dots) were slaveowners. Only a handful did not own slaves.


Parsa writes: “There were no gentle slaveholders. Countless children were born into slavery and died after a relatively short lifespan never knowing freedom for even a minute.” Many of those children were fathered by their owners.
Read more: Open Culture

Monday, June 22, 2020

Ring Of Fire Eclipse Timelapse

On 21 June 2020, an annular solar eclipse occurred over Africa and Asia. The time-lapse video shows it as seen from Taiwan.

Charles Jones, Gardener & Photographer

Charles Harry Jones (1866-1959) c. 1904
When Charles Jones died in Lincolnshire in 1959, aged 92, without claiming his pension for many years and in a house without running water or electricity, almost no-one was aware that he was a photographer.

Pea Rival


Seedpods on the head of a Standard Rose

Read More

Now Is the Time

Fifty years ago 22-year-old Haida artist Robert Davidson carved the first new totem pole on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century.


Now Is the Time from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

A New Life

This reminds me of the Choose You Own Adventure series my sons liked when they were little. Like those books Angela He's love story game offers the player choices that determine the character's actions and the plot's outcome. ($2.99US)



Link
Via Imperica

Sunday Links


Sunday morning trompe l’oeil: "Revolution" by John Pugh in Ottawa, Illinois  (above) Thanks Bruce!

A doorway inspired by the dazzle camouflage scheme used extensively in World War I. Via PfRC

Squid Lamps At $4500 each I'd have to sell my house to buy them but then I'd have no place to plug them in. Via Everlasting Blort

When Emile Leray crashed his Citroen in the middle of  the Moroccan desert he knew he'd have to do something drastic if he wanted to get out alive so he built a working motorbike from the wrecked car.

City of Solitude For 76 days, 9 million people in Wuhan slept, ate, and waited inside the largest quarantine in human history. Via hypnophant

A history of door handles Often overlooked but where would we be without them? Thanks Bruce!

Dear Grateful Dead: Illustrated Letters from Deadheads To The Band 

Looking for something different to watch? Here’s a link to French films on Netflix

This week's house envy is in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Built in 1770 it is the oldest example of the one-and-one-half storey Neo-classical wood structure that was typical of early settlement dwellings in this area. Check it out.

I have a strong affection for both shepherd's pie and The Ivy so I'm definitely going to pin this one: The Ivy's Shepherd's pie, perhaps the ultimate comfort food

In the 1970s and 80s the Sea Gull Cellar Bar in Mendocino was famous for its live jazz performances. Here's a set from 1974 featuring Judy Mayhan Kiyoshi 
Tokunaga and John GilmoreVia Memo Of The Air

For history lovers: Who Lived in Your House?

 Tuk Tuk racing is a thing and it's awesome  Thanks Bruce!

A Visual Guide to the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus: What scientists know about the inner workings of the pathogen that has infected the world.

James Bond’s Cigarettes

How Giant Ships Are Built Almost everything at this shipyard exists at enormous scale and vessels are constructed over years.

Surveillance. Harassment. A live cockroach delivery. US attorneys have charged six former eBay workers in association with an outrageous cyberstalking campaign.  eBay Execs Made Life Hell for Critics

Step inside the wild world of competitive Pâté en Croûte

@danbarker spent an afternoon photographing the locations on the UK version of Monopoly

Archives Algeriennes retraces the history of Algeria through videos dating back to 1896. Via MeFi

Leftover Veggies? Maque choux is a fancy name for a dish that’s really the perfect opportunity to use up the odds and ends in your fridge.

Saving Africa’s Stunning Painted Dogs Via Miss Cellania

When the the wetland they inhabited was parched by drought and threatened by wildfires these wild platypuses were sheltered at a zoo in Sydney. The Return of the Platypuses

What happens when a restaurant critic turns chef? "Bloody hell. It wasn’t that he confited his own duck and cured his own duck ham. I expected that. It was that he whipped up his own mayo with his own parsley oil. The breadcrumbs had 10 ingredients. The only thing he didn’t do was gene splice himself with a duck and lay the bloody egg. As to how he got the frying of that egg so right, he refused to say."



Music For Sunday Morning

Saturday, June 20, 2020

A full-page ad in the Oklahoma Eagle is meant to be turned into a protest poster.



Via The Morning News

Belgium's Flower Carpet Miniaturized

Filmmaker Joerg Daiber takes us to Brussels where he uses a tilt-shift effect to create a miniaturized version of the creation of the city's famous biennial Flower Carpet.



More here

Craft thy own Bayeux Tapestry

Craft thy own Bayeux Tapestry
Slay mischievous beasts
Rule the kingdom
Rotate, resize, clone…

Programmers Leonard Allain-Launay and Mathieu Thoretton and software engineer Maria Cosmina Etegan created this historic tale construction kit that allows you to choose a background and an appropriate medieval font to create your own updated version of the Bayeux Tapestry.

More: Open Culture

It was a dream come true when I saw the actual tapestry. See my Bayeux related link trove.

How Fast Can a Vaccine Be Made?

From TED-Ed, a video that answers a timely question:



Via Open Culture

Friday, June 19, 2020

The Tournament:The Power of Community

The Tournament is a documentary short by Sam Vint.
"My son Isaac started playing para ice hockey in 2016. He loved every second of it, even though he had absolutely no idea how to play hockey. He had never watched a “stand-up hockey” game (which is what we in the para ice hockey world call able-bodied hockey)."


Read more: NFB Blog

Tweet Of The Day

Tea time!
Via Everlasting Blort 

Barbican, 1969

Following the destruction to this area of London during World War II, this development scheme was an enormous undertaking that aimed to bring life back to the city by providing housing, shops and cultural amenities to  about 7,000 people.



I find that area of London very unappealing, mostly highrise office towers, but the history of the Barbican Estate is interesting.

Via Aeon

Dreams

Here's a bit of loveliness for you :

Huge Artwork Pays Homage to Doctor Killed By COVID-19

Street Artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada created a large-scale mural in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, an area hard hit by COVID-19, to honor Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo who was killed by the virus.



More here

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

About that heart-shaped honeycomb

A very interesting thread showing how a tale about a heart-shaped honeycomb image was woven on the internet through the folk process over nearly 7 years.

International Eraser Museum

John Sousa's instagram account (@internationalerasermuseum) features his personal collection of vintage erasers and it evokes remarkably strong emotions in me. I'd forgotten how strong my eraser preferences were when I was in elementary school. I was indifferent to most brands but I loved Pink Pearl (unfortunately not part of the collection) and Art Gum. My eraser hatred was reserved for the dual-toned World eraser which claimed to erase both ink and pencil but which actually tore the paper to shreds.

Hated by me

Loved by me


Via Pasabon

Tweet Of The Day

Via RUSTY'S ELECTRIC DREAMS 

RIP Bob

The pet that inspired the book series and film A Street Cat Named Bob has died aged 14.

James Bowen with Bob in 2013.
Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer
James Bowen met Bob in 2007 during his battle with drug addiction when he found the cat abandoned and injured. He began taking the ginger cat, often seen wearing a scarf, with him when busking or selling The Big Issue in London. Bowen then wrote a book about their relationship, titled A Street Cat Named Bob, which became a smash hit and was made into a film in 2016 in which Bob played himself alongside six lookalikes.


I was so pleased when I ran into James with Bob on his shoulder near Covent Garden in London a number of years ago!

Pic Of The Day

photo by Leshon Lee

"The names of those killed by racism and police brutality are written along Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis."

Via

Age Against The Machine

Wannabe ia a docu-drama about a group of elderly women who form a Spice Girls tribute band to earn a quick buck when one friend can’t pay the bills.


Wannabe from Dorothy Allen-Pickard on Vimeo.

Burn -'em-Up Barnes, King of the Dirt Tracks (1934)

Burn 'Em Up Barnes is a 1934  movie serial produced and distributed by Mascot Pictures. It was a remake of the 1921 silent film of the same name.



Thanks Bruce!

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Curb Side, Baby

Nashville Public Library uses rapping mice to explain how you can get the books you love without stepping out of your car.



Cats' Killer Senses

ZeFrank shares the work of Dr. Alexis Noel whose specialty is adhesion and gripping with soft tissues.



Via Miss Cellania

Masks Printed With Your Own Face

I went to a BLM rally a few days ago and people were greeting me but I had no idea who some of them were because they were wearing hats, sunglasses and masks. If they had been wearing these masks created by San Francisco designer Danielle Baskin I wouldn't have had this problem.


Via Laughing Squid

Accent Expert Reviews British Accents in Movies

Accent chameleon Amy Walker critiques British accents performed by American actors in movies.



Via Doobybrain

Monday, June 15, 2020

Tweet Of The Day

BMW Balance Bicycle

I love this custom no pedal balance bike inspired by the look of BMW K75 motorcycle. It was designed and made out of steel tubes by Roel van Heur.



Via 

Stop-motion Dance Video

Video creator Blackhand used an X-Acto knife and 1400 pieces of paper, to cut out silhouettes for this stop-motion animation.



Via Awesomer

Stop and Search

 If you're black in the UK, the police are 10 times more likely to stop and search you. How would they feel if it was the other way around?


Stop and Search - Short Film from Harry Jackson on Vimeo.

Via Imperica

AS ABOVE

AS ABOVE was made of one single shot filmed on the 8mm2 (0.3 square inch) surface of a chemical reaction. It shows the fine balance between destruction and creation. (It's also very calming,)


AS ABOVE from Roman Hill on Vimeo.

Via Damn Interesting

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Painted Rugs Seem To Leap From the Canvas.

I love these gorgeous hyperrealistic paintings of ornate rugs by Madrid-based artist Antonio Santín.





More: Colossal

Tammy and the T-Rex

An evil scientist implants the brain of Michael, a murdered high school student, into a Tyrannosaurus. He escapes and wreaks vengeance on his high school. No, I'm not making this up. Here's the trailer. 



See more: The Grue
Via Everlasting Blort

New Animated Version of 'Where Do the Children Play'

This new video for the 1970 hit ‘Where Do The Children Play?’ by Yusuf/Cat Stevens was created by Chris Hopewell & Black Dog Films.



The set for the video was made with recycled materials, including trash that was found in the ocean.
Via Laughing Squid

Sunday Links


Fact-Checking at The Atlantic (image above) Via The Chawed Rosin

Which country has had the best COVID-19 response? I bet you didn't say Mongolia. Thanks Bruce!

What Happens to All the Un-Hugged Hugs? Sweet.

Infiltrating England's Dark Satanic Mills via Things Magazine

Paramount Unproduced Properties 1983-1997 : In the fifteen years between 1983 and 1997, Paramount Pictures catalogued around 1,000 unproduced properties. Via PfRC

The Curious Mystery of Charles Jamison, the living unknown soldier.

On Dying Alone: A Doctor Reaches Out To Bridge The COVID Divide This is such a sad story. Thanks Bruce!

Ellen Hoverkamp's Wonderful Floral Photography

Good luck charms reflect world cultures: Four-leaf clovers in Ireland. Painted dala horses in Sweden. Chinese golden toads. Egyptian scarabs.

How We Drink Now: Eight writers discuss drinking during lockdown.

I could be quite comfortable in this historic Gloucestershire home - if I had a staff of ten.

Bad Diet & Bad Hair Destroy Human Civilization  by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb  Aline ponders Trump's hair: "How long must it take to construct that look in the morning? Do other people have to work on it? Who are they? How can we find them?"

How to Feed Crowds in a Protest or Pandemic? The Sikhs Know Gurdwaras — the places of worship for Sikhs — have large kitchens, ample numbers of volunteers and regular food donations from community members. Some gurdwaras serve more than 100,000 people every day.

Explore the healing effects of fresh spring water, mud baths, and saunas as advertised by spas and wellness resorts in the 20th Century.

Trash Metal Fabrications builds cool pop culture-themed fireplaces, patio stoves and grills from recycled materials. Via

You’ve Been Making Paella All Wrong Don't mess with the integrity of traditional Valencia paella.

Symptom is a collection of photos by Argentinian photographer Magali Agnello that inadvertently chronicled her experience and feelings with bipolar disorder.

In a remote area of Maine, the Wakeman family maintains the traditions of island shepherding, the cycles of which have been largely unchanged for centuries. The lamb in a bucket is absolutely adorable. Link

What Is Time? This timeline traces our evolving understanding of time through a history of observations in culture, physics, timekeeping and biology. Thanks Bruce!

 Make these frozen desserts. So simple and they look delicious.

London's Rock 'N' Roll Plaques

Something cute to leave with you: The Incredible Jelly Donut Juicer Via Memo Of The Air