Saturday, April 30, 2011

Trash cans and electrical boxes turned into tiny skyscrapers





EVOL turns trash cans, electrical boxes, and more turned into tiny skyscrapers.

Star Wars nose art





Some of Dave Mott's Star Wars nose art.

GLaDOS given human form



By makani.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Sony's Project Shiphunt

At Sony's Project Shiphunt, you can search the world for sunken ships.

Tsunami stones

Tsunami stones in Japan:
Hundreds of so-called tsunami stones, some more than six centuries old, dot the coast of Japan, silent testimony to the past destruction that these lethal waves have frequented upon this earthquake-prone nation. But modern Japan, confident that advanced technology and higher seawalls would protect vulnerable areas, came to forget or ignore these ancient warnings, dooming it to repeat bitter experiences when the recent tsunami struck.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

"God's Gift Achiuwa"

St. John's basketball recruit is named God's Gift Achiuwa.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Course name inflation

Move over grade inflation, here's course name inflation:
the content of these courses is not as high-achieving as their names — the course-title equivalent of grade inflation. Algebra II is sometimes just Algebra I. And College Preparatory Biology can be just Biology.

The dark early days of Autopia

LA Magazine:
My parents both worked at the park in the summer of 1959, a year into their marriage and just four years after Disneyland opened. My dad was assigned to the cars of Autopia (back then kids would frequently knock out their teeth on steering wheels)

The shifting fortunes of carrots

From Fast Company's article about the efforts to market carrots like junk food:
The company has been around for nearly a century now, but it boomed in the 1990s, with a breakthrough product. A local grower named Mike Yurosek had become frustrated with all the waste in the carrot business. Supermarkets expected carrots to be a particular size, shape, and color. Anything else had to be sold for juice or processing or animal feed, or just thrown away. Yurosek wondered what would happen if he peeled the skin off the gnarly carrots, cut them into pieces, and sold them in bags. He made up a few test batches to show his buyers. One batch, cut into 1-inch bites and peeled round, he called "bunny balls." Another batch, peeled and cut 2 inches long, looked like little baby carrots.

Bunny balls never made it. But baby carrots were a hit. They transformed the whole industry. Soon, the big growers in Bakersfield were planting fields with baby carrots in mind, sowing three times more seeds per acre, so the carrots, packed densely together, would grow long and skinny, for the maximum number of 2-inch cuts. Yields and profits climbed. The really big deal, the thing nobody expected, was that baby carrots seemed to make Americans eat more carrots. In the decade after they were introduced, carrot consumption in the United States doubled.

Then a couple of years ago, after a decade of steady growth, Bolthouse's carrot sales went flat. Sales of baby carrots, the company's cash carrot, actually fell, sharply, and stayed down. Nobody knew why. This was a big problem.

...

Dunn put together a series of focus groups and surveys and discovered something interesting. People said they were eating as many carrots as they always had. But the numbers clearly showed they were buying fewer. What people meant, it turned out, was they were as likely as ever to keep carrots in the fridge. When the recession hit, though, they became more likely to buy regular carrots, instead of baby carrots, to save money. But people used to eating baby carrots weren't taking the time to wash and cut the regular ones. And unlike baby carrots, which dry out pretty quickly once a bag is opened, regular carrots keep a long time. So people were buying regular carrots and then not eating them, and not buying more until the carrots they had were finally gone or spoiled.

Rainbow-hued Sugamo Shinkin Bank







Sugamo Shinkin Bank by Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture + Design.

HD trailer for Tarsem's Immortals


Conan the Barbarian in the 20th Century



Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

GLaDOS is like a tied up woman hanging upside down



GLaDOS is like a straight-jacketed woman hanging upside down. More here.

Dexter-branded knives

Breeding animals for violence and domesticity



NatGeo article about scientists breeding rats and foxes for violence and domesticity.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Portal 2 as a Tiger Electronics game



Shane Parker imagines Portal 2 as a Tiger Electronics handheld.

Videotaping web searches

From an article about Donald Trump's unusual manner of commenting on blog posts:
One of my favourite passages in Nicole LaPorte’s DreamWorks biopic, The Men Who Would Be King, describes how Jeffrey Katzenberg had an intern carry out Internet searches on his behalf, videotaping the results so he could watch them later.

Friday, April 22, 2011

"Gang tattoo leads to a murder conviction"

LAT:
Inked on the pudgy chest of a young Pico Rivera gangster who had been picked up and released on a minor offense was the scene of a 2004 liquor store slaying that had stumped Lloyd for more than four years.

Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.

As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias "Chopper" was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Green Lantern Dunny



Green Lantern custom Dunny with removable ring and scratchbuilt lantern by Ian Ziobrowski.

Hidden garage door in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco





Folding garage door:
Magic! This apartment building in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco has recently been remodeled to include four precious car parking spaces while maintaining the historical Victorian facade. See Beausoleil Architect's website www.beausoleil-architects.com for more information on the technical details and the talented people who made it possible.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hiding quantity with a false bottom

Noxzema now has two fewer ounces than it used to, but comes in the same size container - - which features a false bottom to disguise the smaller amount of product.

Rabbi with a blowtorch

The WSJ:
When Rabbi Naftali Marrus does his spring cleaning, he doesn't use a mop. He rolls with the Inferno.

The Inferno is a three-and-a-half-foot-long propane torch Rabbi Marrus uses during the critical days before Passover to scour commercial kitchens catering to observant Jews and obliterate the smallest particles of bread and other leavened foods, which are forbidden during the holiday that commemorates the Jews' flight from Egypt.

Portal 2 moments



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Citizen Eco Drive Satellite Wave + Appleseed



Citizen's Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE:
Debuting in Autumn 2011

Time from Outer Space
For 2011, CITIZEN introduces “Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE,” a limited edition watch with a totally new timekeeping system. This next-generation timepiece searches for the closest of the 24 navigation satellites that orbit the earth. It captures the day, date and time signals the satellite emits from space, 20,000 kilometers above the earth. Since the satellite signals are controlled by atomic clocks, this watch’s timekeeping is ultra precise. Each of the 24 navigation satellites orbits the earth once every twelve hours, so that this watch receives the signals from any open space, even in the boundless Western Pacific or atop the world’s highest peak.

The metal ring embedded in the glass bezel seems to float in outer space, like a satellite in planetary orbit. The round case, which appears to be independent of the lugs, suggests the image of the earth. These design elements resonate with the technological combination of light power and time/calendar data received from outer space to keep this watch on time, always. The spiral parts visible from the sides of the glass bezel are both a design motif, suggesting the radio waves that link this watch with outer space, and visible symbols of the light waves that provide Eco-Drive an inexhaustible source of energy. The three-dimensional forms on the watch face evoke the futuristic image of spaceship engines.

2011 will, thus, be the year in which time signals link wrist and outer space in an unprecedented experience. Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE will bring ultra-precise timekeeping to whatever human beings do, wherever they are on the face of the earth. It is purely powered by light.
Specifications
-Calibre H990
-Satellite Timekeeping System (Reception Area: Worldwide)
-Perpetual Calendar
-World Time in 26 Cities
-Ceramic + Stainless Steel Case
* The final design and specifications are subject to change without notice.
* Pricing and production volumes to be determined.
From the promotional video:
CITIZEN X APPLESEED XIII

This film is the result of collaboration between CITIZEN and the animated series APPLESEED XIII. Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE draws its energy from light and receives signals from navigation satellites to display accurate time. Through the medium of animation, one of Japan’s leading cultural exports, the film encapsulates the world view that inspired this watch.
Dawn breaks over Olympus, a solar-powered city of the future.
Time signals stream down from space.
The leading characters of APPLESEED XIII, Deunan and Briareos, sprint through the city. The hands of Eco-Drive SATELLITE WAVE on their arms move in unison as they receive accurate time signals from navigation satellites. Time signals stream down from space to every corner of the earth.








Monday, April 18, 2011

Street soccer foosball table





Street soccer-themed foosball table by I Have Pop for Nike.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments



NASA:
NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Red Bull kite-skiing




Red Bull Ragnarok:
Red Bull Ragnarok in Hardangervidda, Norway, is an endurance snow kite competition at Europe's biggest mountain plateau.

This isn't your average day in the park, the challenging 63 mile (100 km) long track has tough natural obstacles with huge mountain climbs and descents.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Gray Fox/Cyber Ninja cosplay






Gray Fox/Cyber Ninja cosplay by Omi Gibson.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011