Monday, August 31, 2020

Yikes!

This happened yesterday to a three year old child at a kite festival in Taiwan. At the 49 second mark things get really scary.






Pic Of The Day

“Driving School”, 1962

Link

Via

Theo Testing Food

There's a rat in the kitchen! The Rat Review is a YouTube channel featuring a well mannered rodent named Theo chomping down on snacks.  In the video below he tries a Wheat Thin.



Via: MetaFilter

Portrait of a Place: Korea (circa.)

"It’s another rainy day in Pyongyang and the long boulevards of utilitarian buildings have taken on a misty shade of grey. School children do daily exercises before saluting a portrait of Kim Jong-un and adults don lapel pins depicting their leader before a day’s work at the farm or factory."



Korea (circa) is the most recent film in the Portrait of a Place series by NOWNESS

Tweet Of The Day

The OceanMaker

A little bit of Monday morning sci-fi.



Via Memo Of The Air

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Tweet Of The Day

Via Everlasting Blort 

Music For Sunday Morning

Justin Townes Earle, an alt-country singer and songwriter who was a son of the country-rock firebrand Steve Earle, died last week at his home in Nashville. He was 38.  This performance makes me so sad.

 

Sunday Links

“Cottagecore” in Paris
For a decade or more I spent a lot of time in Paris and loved seeking out the private villa streets. In recent years I've moved on to other destinations but this post makes me nostalgic for the City Of Light and its hidden corners.

Ekaterina Busygina's architectural photos in South Korea These are quite incredible. Via Memo Of The Air

Searching for America’s 1930s post office murals – a photo essay

Africans Used To Hide Escape Maps From Slavery In Their Hairstyles:  Cornrows helped the African slave population by providing a discreet and easy to hide way to transfer and create maps in order to leave their captor’s place.

This cabin in Norway doubles as a viewpoint and ski jump

COVID-19 is turning us all into this:'A thing of its own': the man with five-metre-long hair, unwashed for 80 years

This vintage-style kart, repurposed from a Volkswagen beetle fender, is adorable.

Frog and Toad Tentatively Go Outside After Months In Self-Quarantine 

Parkulator shows what percentage of your town is defined as dedicated to car parking. Via Maps Mania

Made in Taiwan?  George Psalmanazar was a mysterious Frenchman who successfully posed as a native of Formosa (now modern Taiwan) and gave birth to a meticulously fabricated culture with bizarre customs, exotic fashions, and its own invented language.

The Convenient Truth of Rotisserie Chicken: A look at America’s favorite illogically cheap, ecologically dubious roasted chicken.

Beach volleyball from above

Find Your Home's Flood Factor  (United States)

A food revolution in the Falklands This is an interesting article. I found out I know nothing about these islands and that Mr. Nag is an expert. I didn't even know that the Falklands and the Maldives are one and the same.

Alexander The Great- Submariner Extraordinaire Via Everlasting Blort

Raise your glass to the world’s finest distillery architecture

Riccardo Maria Chiacchio I: "All clothes have been washed in the Mediterranean Sea and been exposed to the ashes of Mount Vesuvius. All clothes will preserve the memories I have given them. All subjects were born and raised in Napoli."

Speaking in Tongues

Splendour and Misery of Soviet Interiors Photographs by Evgenia Maximova

I learned something new this week: A "buttload" is apparently a formal unit of imperial measurement

This is for real: Popular Pandemics Magazine: Charisma! How do we eliminate the scourge? Chicken Playground Appeases Vegans  and more…Via Boing Boing

How COVID-19 Led To Soaring Divorce Rates In The US, Visualized 

Sometimes one needs a room of one's own. The Ultimate Backyard Extra Room: The Mjolk Shepherd's Hut

Taxidermy Gone Wild Via Memo Of The Air

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Pandemic

This is a powerful film. We are all in this together, people.


PANDEMIC from Autobahn on Vimeo.

The Impossible Chessboard Puzzle

An information puzzle with an interesting twist.

Storm King Art Centre

Where could one put outsized works that were almost invariably abstract to give them a chance of seeming to mean something? In nature! Storm King Art Centre in New Windsor, NYcontains what is perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the United States. Across Storm King’s open fields and rolling meadows are giant works by Sol LeWitt, Alice Aycock, Ursula von Rydingsvard; ensconced within the paths of a wood is smaller, earlier statuary by names grown obscure, as well as a weathered, trowel-nicked concrete slab by Mia Westerlund Roosen, a post-Minimalist sculptor well overdue for rediscovery.



Via 3 Quarks Daily

Jet Suit Flight Over Iceland

When I was a kid I thought we'd all be travelling this way by the year 2000 but so far Gravity Industries has created one of the world’s only working jet suits. Here's a video of a jet suit flight over Iceland.



Via The Awesomerl

The Prison Drawings of Frank Jones

Frank Jones, “Untitled (Puerto Rican German)” (circa 1960), colored
pencil on paper, 18.75 x 25 inches (all images courtesy of Shrine, New York)

African-American outsider artist Frank Jones (1900-1969) did remarkable drawings in colored pencil on paper while serving time at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

Frank Jones, “Untitled (number 602)” (circa 1960),
colored pencil on paper, 20.5 x 25 inches

Frank Jones – 114591 is an exhibition of nine of his drawings at Shrine (179 East Broadway, Lower East Side, Manhattan) through September 13. The show takes its title from the artist’s own prisoner number.

Read more

Friday, August 28, 2020

A Chinese scholar is domesticated by his cat

Great thread!


Via MetaFilter

Reasons To Time Travel Back To 2020


Wrong Hands

Bob Dylan's vocal range over time

View full size

Source

One Iconic Look

Tom and Lorenzo are fabulous and opinionated and have been sharing their thoughts on fashion, celebrity, television, film, pop culture and LGBTQ life for over a decade. In a series of posts tagged One Iconic Look they discuss what makes certain outfits in films (a black dress with pearls, perhaps) iconic?


Via MeFi

Incredible Volcano Expedition

In 2012 Geoff Mackley and Bradley Ambrose were the first people to get this close to Marum Volcano's  lava lake on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu. Wearing Fire Brigade breathing apparatus and heat proof proximity suits they were able to stand on the edge and view the incredible show for over 40 minutes.



Via Everlasting Blort

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Pic Of The Day


The very first Monarch butterfly to spread its wings, out of thousands, as the sun rises - Smithsonian Magazine


The Swingin' Rat Pack

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, and Sammy Davis, Jr. at the Kiel Opera House in St Louis, 1965. I didn't know Johnny Carson could sing like that.



Via Miss Cellania

Irrigation Systems From Above

Centre-pivot irrigation has created distinct circles within squares that, when seen from above, look like they belong on the walls of the MoMA. American architect Ronald Rael has launched an Instagram account spotlighting these irrigated circles.




View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Center Pivot Sprinkler (@centerpivotsprinkler) on



View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Center Pivot Sprinkler (@centerpivotsprinkler) on
See More: Gastro Obscura

I want to be hugged by this gorilla

Image: Tina Sokolovskaya

To raise awareness and funds for the critically endangered gorilla species, public artists Gillie and Marc Schattner have created the world's largest sculpture of the animal  in Hudson Yards. It can hold two to three humans in its hand. People are invited to sit in his hand and look up into his gentle face.

Link

Via TMN

Wandaland

A mixed-media biography of John Wanda, a fictional animation tycoon.


Wandaland from Richard Noble on Vimeo.

Tweet Of The Day


Via everlasting blort

Stop Motion/Timelapse Painting

I Paint” is a short film by Dutch artist Thijme Termaat. It combines time-lapse and stop-motion and took three years to complete. He used still pictures with no digital effects.



More: TwistedSifter

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Chromatic Adaptation

I like discovering how optical illusions fool the eye. Photographer, computational biologist, and science presenter Andrew Steele shows you how you can trick your brain into “adding” color to a black-and-white image.



More: PetaPixel

The Safe Project

The Safe Project is one of the largest ecological experiments in the world. They are studying the effects of human activities on ecosystems and how much protection is needed to be effective.



At SAFE Acoustics you can listen to the soothing sounds of the rainforest in Borneo.

Via MeFi

Watch How Human Skin Heals

If the sight of blood makes you feel faint don't watch this time-lapse video of a wound healing.

TVTV: Preserving Guerilla Television

Top Value Television (TVTV) began in 1972 when a group of mediamakers, artists, and activists used newly available portable videotape equipment to document the 1972 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. This collective of "braless, blue-jeaned video freaks" set out to revolutionize not only how to capture the news, but also to transform the relationship between image producers and image consumers.


Preserving Guerrilla Television from BAMPFA Film Library on Vimeo.

Via Perfect for Roquefort Cheese

Tweet Of The Day

Read more about the musician

High Tech Noon

High Noon is one of my favourite movies. Seeing Kane wandering around town, searching for support against the bad guys, tugs at my heartstrings every time. Here it is remade with special effects.



Via Miss Cellania

Pic Of the Day


"2020 Funpocalypse Bingo Card" by Hugh D'Andrade
Via Rusty's Electric Dreams

Casey's Rubber Stamps

This short film from filmmakers Eric Maierson and Leandro Badalotti offers a glimpse into Casey’s intricate stamp-making process.


 
Via swissmiss

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Smoke Curtain Was Used To Hide Ships During Battle

This smoke was dispensed from aircraft during WW2 to create vertical smoke curtains that protected ships from attacks by other ships or coastal artillery. 



Via TwistedSifter

How To Eat An Entire Sunflower Head

I had no idea you could do this. Thanks YouTube!

Fake 10 Downing Street Door Is Perfect For A Selfie

Number 10 Downing Street is the headquarters of the Government of the United Kingdom and the official residence and office of the Prime Minister. For security reasons taking photos of oneself on the steps of the building is forbidden.  But just down the street is Adam House, also built by the architect of Number 10, that bears a striking resemblance to the government headquarters.

10 Adam Street

10 Downing Street
Go ahead, take a photo of yourself on the steps of 10 Adam Street and add an enigmatic comment about "tea with Boris".

More:  ianVisits 

Alpha Mech Pilot Program

Imagine a global racing league that would pit multiple world-class athletes in head-to-head competitions, through complex, technical obstacle courses, wearing giant, powered mech suits.  Prosthesis: Mech Racing has built the largest 4-legged exoskeleton on the planet.



More: Kickstarter

Coronation: Ai Weiwei's Film About The Wuhan Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to have begun in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in China’s Hubei province. In January the government put the area into the largest documented lockdown in human history. Artist Ai Weiwei had a team in Wuhan who filmed the city under his remote direction for the duration of the quarantine. Here is the trailer for Coronation:



More here

Monday, August 24, 2020

A Monolith In Melbourne?

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 uses AI from satellite images and crowdsourced data from Open Street Maps to fill in building details. Things got weird when someone accidentally entered height data for a Melbourne, Australia building as 212 storeys instead of 2. Players are apparently trying to land on its roof before the game is patched and the monolith disappears.


The images above are from this video of a tower landing made by Reddit user fulltimespy.

Via AI Weirdness 

Care For Some Embroidered Pizza?

It even has ooey gooey looking cheese!



Via kottke

Tweet of The Day

Cocktails for academics (but you can drink them too!)

Via Perfect For Roquefort Cheese 

DIY Giant Sidewalk Chalk

Show off your sidewalk art skills, write political slogans, draw a hopscotch grid, do whatever you want. It will all wash away.


Here's what you need:

Materials:

  • 2 Pringles cans
  • Plaster of Paris
  • Duct tape
  • Tempura paint (optional, make sure it's washable and non toxic)
  • Water
  • Empty milk jug (not pictured)
Tools:
  • Bucket
  • Stir stick
  • Plastic cups (for scooping/measuring)
  • Cutting device
  • Can Opener


 Instructables tells you how to do it. Get started.

Via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk

Wild London



This delightful Animals Of London map by artist and graphic designer Dex shows the true extent of the capital's wild side. It includes animals from fiction, films, pub names, historic events, art installations and London landmarks — and 20% of each copy purchased goes to the London Wildlife Trust.



Via Londonist

Skeleton Contraption Designed To Scare Criminals Into Confessing Their Crimes

What if, instead of an ordinary detective, the suspect of a crime would be questioned by a skeleton with glowing red eyes?

Image: Google Patents
Unfortunately this skeleton-based interrogator was never built so we don't know how effective it might have been.

More:Bored Panda

Via Memo Of The Air

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Edges Where Man Meets Water

Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos

Four decades of seascapes by photographer Harry Gruyaert.
"Harry Gruyaert ignores the grammar of center and edge, finds the blurred boundaries of overlapping life, the places where one thing has begun to be another thing. He photographs processes, not results. He photographs moments caught in transition."
Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos

Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos


Link

Via Perfect For Roquefort Cheese

Nail-Scratching Genuine-Tapestry Weave

Tsumekaki hon tsuzure ori is a traditional Japanese tapestry weaving technique. The weavers file perfectly-spaced jagged edges in their fingernails. The video below shows how they use their nails as weaving tools.

Tweet of The Day

Via Everlasting Blort

Fork

 In this surreal film by Fabrice Le Nezet  a museumgoer lets her imagination run wild.



Via

Sunday Links


Delft-Style Weaponry by Artist Helena Hauss Contrasts Fragility with Strength and Destruction (photo above)

City Guesser - Can you guess what city you're in? This game is seriously addictive.

This is kind of sweet: Alex Trebek serves Regis Philbin a sandwich Via MeFi

On The Market: Schindler’s Lovell Beach House, 1929 in Newport Beach, an example of the International Style in Southern California. Via

Hey cockroach hold my smoke!

Escape to the enchanting Italian village of Panicale, one of Umbria's magical hill towns. It looks idyllic.

Meet the world’s first hijab-wearing champion wrestler: At five-feet tall and around 94 lbs, the 20-year-old doesn’t look like your typical wrestling star.

Getting sick of the feline domination ot the internet? Here are 30 Lovely Vintage Jack Russell Photographs

Let's House Hunt for that All-American Utopian Commune.  12 listings that would be perfect your very own socially-distanced utopia in 2020.

In October Closer to Van Eyck, a new website devoted to the Ghent Altarpiece, will be launched that will include more detailed images of the restoration work on the15th-century altarpiece by painters Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck.

The Sifter is a searchable database to assist people with food related questions. At present it includes over 5,000 authors and 5,000 works with details about the authors and about the contents of the works.

The Bubble House Eleven Domes. Twenty rooms. 1,050m2 floor space over three levels poised on 5,109m2. Via Rusty's Electric Dreams

A great thread by @JayHulmePoet: A few days ago I got a message from a priest like "do you wanna come and visit this church?" There was one odd thing about it though, he sent me the church name, and the post code - and that was it. No street name, no village, no... Nothing. Via MeFi

Font fans will appreciate this: Typeset In The Future | Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies h/t to my Facebook pal Hal who turned me on to this.

The story of the Roanoke colonists who vanished without a trace from North Carolina in the late 16th century has always intrigued me. Now it appears that the 'mystery is over' Via Neatorama

How to behave in church via everlasting blort

Prisoners Share What Surprised Them About The World After Getting Out Via Miss Cellania

"Shifting Nests" Is a Concept for Tiny Homes on Vacant Urban Lots

The Sheep Of The Sea is a species of sea slug that has the unusual ability to photosynthesize.

stoxart (@stoxart): Stock charts reimagined as landscapes.The stock market never looked so beautiful.

To oblivion and back In 1929, the last sea otter in British Columbia was shot dead. Now they're back. And they're hungry. Via MeFi

An Egg Dressed for Every Occasion 

Music For Sunday Morning

Friday, August 21, 2020

2-Month Journey on an Icebreaker In a 5 Minute Timelapsei



Via TwistedSifter

On The Rocks Official Trailer

This was written and directed by Sofia Coppola, one of my favourite directors.

Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement

A video essay about film form from Every Frame a Painting  (Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou).

 

Via Duck Soup

Urban Farm On A Rooftop

An urban farm has been created by landscape architecture
and urban design firm LANDPROCESS

Thammasat University Rooftop Farm (TURF) uses 236,806 sq. ft. of normally wasted rooftop space in Bangkok, Thailand as a public space that produces food while incorporating renewable energy, organic waste, and water management. The terraced gardens were inspired by traditional rice terraces.



Read more here

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Stressful Times For the Tower Of London's Ravenmaster?


Six ravens (plus a spare) have guarded the Tower of London since the 1600s. Legend has it the monarchy and the country will fall if  the resident ravens leave the fortress. Few tourists have been visiting the site and the birds apparently are bored and have been flying off to seek excitement.

Read more: The Guardian

Tweet of The Day

A drone over Beirut after explosion

On August 4 Beirut's busy city center was torn to pieces, killing at least 180 people and wounding more than 6,000. The lives of many were changed forever.

Where Racist and Oppressive Statues Go to Die

Image: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

There has been a huge debate in America about Confederate statues and monuments. Do these artifacts glorify a racist past? Should they be destroyed or would that be an attempt to erase history? A permanent exhibition titled "Unveiled. Berlin and its Monuments" at the Spandau Citadel Museum in Germany reshapes how controversial statues and monuments are viewed:
"A monument is not a descriptive account of history, but instead a historical artifact that tells a story about power. In a setting that invites scrutiny, visitors can study Berlin’s monuments to grasp more clearly who had power and how that power was used."

More: Atlas Obscura

The IMAX of the 1890s

“We live in an environment where there are moving images constantly around us. But in 1897, this was startling and new and completely revolutionary. It was a different way of looking at the world.”



From the Museum of Modern Art, a comparison of Biograph 68mm film vs. Edison film.

Via bookofjoe

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Dungeons and Diversity

Everybody can be a hero. Strata Miniatures has created miniature Dungeons & Diversity heroes in wheelchairs. The goal is to create more inclusive miniatures for those playing their tabletop games.


The figures are available as downloadable STL files for 3D printing or as resin/metal casts. 25% of sales goes to support work with the physically challenged.

Via Boing Boing

Chainmail For A Giant

Blacksmith Timothy Dyck forged 250 circles then riveted them together to make the world's largest chainmail. The finished piece weighs 1600 lbs and is over 11 feet tall!



The Awesomer

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Surreal, audacious, unfinished

Stone Cut is a profile of the Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo, who, for 40 years, has made finishing Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia his life’s work.


Constructed Views: Stone Cut from NOWNESS on Vimeo.

Via Aeon Videos




Pic Of The Day

"The Hectics" (Indian band, 1959)

Can you guess who the lead singer is?  Via TYWKIWDBI  

It's amazing what this guy can do with with pen, ruler and paper!

Nathan Cox creates impressive optical illusions with just pen, ruler and paper.



Via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk

Good Morning!

Via @madamejujujive 

岚 The Mist Over Mountains

This video uses noise algorithms to generate mountains, clouds, mists, textures, and changes of the seasons.


岚 THE MIST OVER MOUNTAINS from Particle on Vimeo.

Monday, August 17, 2020

Haunting images from an empire, just before its collapse

The ‘Fayum portraits’ were funerary paintings, fashioned while their subjects were alive, and placed over their mummified bodies upon burial.



More: Aeon Videos

Pic Of The Day

Sughra Raza. Charles River Esplanade. Boston, August, 2020.


Via 3 Quarks Daily

True Facts: The Hummingbird Warrior

The hummingbird feeder in my garden is a constant source of entertainment. I'll never look at these tiny creatures in quite the same way after watching this video.



Via Miss Cellania

Katharine Hepburn as Joan of Arc 1934

This 4K digital restoration of a 1934 screen test of Katharine Hepburn as Saint Joan of Arc is also a test of Technicolor’s latest three-strip subtractive color process.



Read More

Via Kottke

COVID-19 Tattoos

People are getting coronavirus-themed tattoos that represent everything we’ve been living with in the past months.






More here

Bring Back Giant Flying Boats

In 1943, Saunders-Roe, an iconic British aircraft builder, began planning for the future by drafting a design for a truly next-generation flying boat. It would soon become apparent that Saunders-Roe’s flying boat airliner had been designed for a future that never existed.



Via  Memo Of The Air

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Pic Of The Day




Via Memo Of The Air

Sequence

This animation by scientist Dan Munro and filmmaker Jin Angdoo shows how a string of amino acids link together to build protein.


SEQUENCE from Jin Angdoo on Vimeo.

Via Laughing Squid

Sunday Links

 KAREN CHAI/KITCHEN CONFIDANTE
Wow! The Mesmerizing Geometry of Malaysia's Most Complex Cakes (above)

Charming photos of Hong Kong Shop Cats Via Everlasting Blort

From My Home To Yours Bruce Springsteen plays records from his personal collection and shares his thoughts about the times we're living in, direct from his home in New Jersey.

Colouring London is a free knowledge exchange platform, designed by University College London to collate, collect, generate, visualise, and make accessible, statistical data for every building in London. Via Perfect for Roquefort Cheese

This week's house envy is this small perfect house in Nova Scotia. If it were an hour closer to Halifax I would have snatched it right up.

Water Women: South Korea’s Iconic Female Divers Are Captured in Life-Size Portraits by Hyung S. Kim Via everlasting blort

Underwater Italian Town  submerged in an artificial lake near Tuscany, Italy may soon reemerge.

When We All Have Pocket Telephones (1923)

Inside a Michigan prison, an elaborate meal to honor George Floyd using flimsy plastic knives, a single microwave and empty popcorn bags.

Thames Tunnel: The World’s First Tunnel Under a River An interesting story via Miss Cellania

I've discovered a new sport: competitive lockpicking Thanks Bruce!

Denmark’s seaweed thatching is being revived : An average eelgrass roof is more than 1m thick and weighs 35 to 40 tonnes. It won't burn because there's so much salt in the straw.

Alinea Made A Coronavirus-Themed Dish. It’s Not Going Over Well 

Times art critic, Jason Farago, leads a guided tour through his favorite woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai, the most famous Japanese artist of the 19th century.

Look at these lovely convertibles!

The Curve is a National Film Board collection of approximately 30 projects by more than 40 Canadian creators that will give voice to those touched by the pandemic, in communities from west to east and far into the North. Read more: NFB Blog

Get Lost in a Tardigrade Corn Maze 

Feeling crafty? Paperdiorama is a free website with very cool models that you can download, print and assemble. Via PasaBon

Explore NYC in the 1930s and 1940s with this street view photo map

Social robots are here to manage our emotions Robin is an emotional-support robot for hospitalized children. Thanks Bruce!

Thomas Jefferson’s renowned dinners were the work of legions of enslaved chefs and kitchen hands. Here is a rare recipe from one of them

Queen Mary’s Dolls' House was built by the leading British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and includes contributions from over 1,500 of the finest artists, craftsmen and manufacturers of the early twentieth century. I saw it a few years ago and it was truly impressive.

Cat Furniture Designed by an Architect I love these but they will have to remain the stuff of dreams until I win a lottery.

5 Months of the Virus in New York City: A photographic timeline of a historic half-year.

There Actually WAS a Sweeney Todd Barbershop On Fleet Street