Vincent Fournier, space agencies
Fournier’s work focuses on the interiors of Chinese, Russian and US space agencies — and also includes some remarkable images of astronaut training grounds that, appropriately, look completely out of this world.
(via kottke)
nanodragster
A team at Rice University built a nanocar dragster.
To make the new nanodragster, Tour’s team started with a previously built, off-the-shelf short axle and front wheel unit in their lab, which is sort of a nano-Monster Garage. They then chemically hooked this up to a pair of aligned hydrocarbon molecules called phenylene-ethynylene-the vehicle’s chassis. The rear axle came next and finally the buckyball wheels went on.
from the spam
Chameleon clarified swam faster some monster problem can olie knew olie went swimming though stunned what each hen with heads became was even dragon was cute hint this could safe child and she meant knapsack with headed mess and now burbled back the stone eave him saw was she did told where had lacking the and accurately actually come and yellow was futile the sharp want him about seventeen
People, in order
(Via Perception Parallel)
Smog
There are three things I am sad that I lost when my computer crashed in December 2007.
1) A piece I did for an NPR grant that had the last lucid recording of my Grandmother in it. She now has severe dementia and doesn’t remember me so well.
2) an hour-and-a-half recording I did of two friends discussing the best movies of 2007.
3) a twenty page (and counting) exposition on the band Smog, going through every album and song, writing down fierce connections and a time line.
Felicitations, Phil,
on your natal anniversary. Now you are a big boy and can wear long trousers.
O Empire Wide and Glorious
I have started a new image based blog about Texas.
The Ides of March
Aside from my day job of hunting down a venue for our next big get-together, I’ve suddenly arranged to house three ‘flockers in my studio apartment this spring.
So let me take this moment to formally invite any and all other ‘flockers to show up in San Francisco the second weekend of March. Heck, stay through the third week if you want. Bring a sleeping bag and you can sleep on my floor. If enough of you join us, I have several friends living within a four-block radius I’m sure I can bribe or blackmail accordingly.
It won’t be the real thing we’re planning for this summer, but it’s sure to be a good time.
Film Fest ’09
This past summer I spent about three weeks building a set for a local film festival. We had about two hundred dollars and big dreams. (This isn’t including the 65 dollar parking ticket I got in Hollywood when I left my car for less than five minutes to grab the gobo used in the second shot.)
Alifib
Indie+Relief
Tomorrow, January 20th, a group of 135 independent Mac and iPhone developers will be donating the sales for the day to assist Haiti in their recovery from last week’s earthquake. Each company is listed with their main application and what charity they will be donating to. My company, BitBQ, will be participating and donating to Doctors Without Borders.
There’s a lot of great software on that page, as well as great charities. If you’re the in market for any of it, tomorrow would be a great day to buy it. You get software, Haitians get help.
math monkeys
A German team of neurobiologists has found that rhesus macaques can engage in abstract mathematical reasoning using specific brain cells dedicated to the comprehension of math rules and relationships.
“Even simple mathematical operations are highly abstract mental operations on quantities that are governed by overarching concepts and principles,” explained study co-author Andreas Nieder, a professor in the department of animal physiology at the University of Tubingen’s Institute of Neurobiology. “Monkeys can adopt abstract mathematical rules, and they can switch between them.”
“That means they understand very fundamental, non-symbolic mathematical principles, such as ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’,” Neider added. His team traced this ability to neurons in the prefrontal cortex region of the primate brain — an area that appears to be devoted to encoding the basic rules of math.
Keeping House
Rick told how he let the housekeeper go, and it set me to thinking. At times I’ve wondered whether for for a household to run happily, it’s best if there is someone whose primary job it is to do the bulk of the shopping and the washing-up and the home repairs and the tedious aspects of the yard maintenance and so on. You know. That stuff.
I think such people used to be called servants, and it’s no longer a popular profession. Nor is housewifery. And I have my own problems both with hiring help and helping myself.
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Weekly Picture 175
Memorial Billboard, Highway 71, Austin, TX 1.6.2010
quote out of context
“It was like a shaved weenie dog, with raccoon feet, a possum tail and a possum head,” recalled Vincent. “[It had] been inbred way too many times or something.”
from the department of typos
Have succeeded in building strong partnerships with beers…
Submitted to my manager as part of my annual performance review.
“Bad pinhole,” she said.
Fuji 200 C-41 developed in expired Fomadon LQN for 10 minutes. Presoaked and rinsed in water.
“Why do I keep trying?” my Flickr friend asked. ” I just can’t make myself stop wasting film on this whole pinhole thing.”
The ensuing conversation is a long one, I warn you, but it’s a good one. You might enjoy reading it even if you’re not into the whole pinhole thing. People talk about what constitutes waste, about learning by experimenting, about what film is made of, about how to save money on food, about pinhole cameras — and about paranormal phenomena.
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dear clusterflock
How was your Monday?
quote out of context
“Now,” he says with a chuckle, “I can fail in even more spectacular ways.”
nevermore
A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer’s birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.
“I’m confused, befuddled,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
the first legal male prostitute
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you’re not a prostitute. You’re a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that’s required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They’re much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can’t necessarily say, “Oh, it’s just a job.” You actually have to say it’s a passion. I think it’s the same situation as with anything that happens when you break apart a social institution. There has to be some kind of change in terminology to describe persons like myself. And it’s more of a civil rights thing now. Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, “I want to do this for a living.” And be protected under law to do it. It’s just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I’m doing the same. I’m actually standing up now, and hopefully I can be supported by the male community and be understood as a person. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms.
Congratulations.
(via marginal revolution)
from the internet
Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn’t here.
This Feels Like a Misallocation of Resources
An Albuquerque-based religious group is sending solar-powered audible Bibles to Haiti:
These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.
Called the “Proclaimer,” the audio Bible delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”, the Faith Comes By Hearing group said.
According to their website, the Proclaimer is “self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”
I don’t even want to know what they cost.
This Is A Metaphor For Something
Part of me expects that skull to start cracking wise like an animatronic Disney attraction.
(via)
I’ve never heard 137 people in one small space be so quiet
