John appears in a Samsung commercial

John appears in a Samsung commercial which features a laptop that is small enough for a St.Bernard to wear it around his neck on an airplane.

Go to view videos and click on "Economy Class".

http://samcanhelp.samsungusa.com/samcanhelp/index.jsp

17 Pairs of Contradictory Proverbs

1. Look before you leap
He who hesitates is lost

2. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again
Don't beat your head against a brick wall

3. Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Out of sight, out of mind

4. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today
Don't cross the bridge until you come to it

5. Two heads are better than one
Paddle your own canoe

6. More haste less speed
Time waits for no man

7. You're never too old to learn
You can't teach an old dog new tricks

8. A word to the wise is sufficient
Talk is cheap

9. It's better to be safe than sorry
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

10. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

11. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
Nice guys finish last

12. Hitch your wagon to a star
Don't bite off more than you can chew

13. Many hands make light work
Too many cooks spoil the broth

14. Don't judge a book by its cover
Clothes make the man

15. The squeaking wheel gets the grease
Silence is golden

16. Birds of a feather flock together
Opposites attract

17. The pen is mightier than the sword
Actions speak louder than words

Will Wright on the Colbert Report

Minilogue/hitchikiers choice - Stop motion animating sketchbook

There seem to be alot of innovative homemade stop motion videos out there! This one is a music video that uses a sketchbook to create frames for the movie. I like the addition of the hand drawing the pictures.

Tony vs. Paul - two friends fight in stop motion

This is one of the best homemade stop motion endeavors I've seen in a long time! Well, with the exception of seeing the stop motion drums and piano, which I posted about earlier. In this video, Tony and Paul, best friends, have a fantastical fight.

Great Shopping in Seattle

I intend to continue adding to this list, but for now, here's a great place to shop in Seattle (if you're into Curiosities that is).
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
1001 Alaskan Way
Seattle, Wa. 98104
(206) 682-5844

Wanna make 3d things?

If you want to make slides for Viewmasters, or Lenticular images that move back and forth, it would be worth looking at this company, which specializes in both.

Image 3d

This is your brain on music

While I haven't yet read this particular book, the interviews I've heard with the author, might make it a facinating read about my favorite things: music + the brain.

Interestingly, I found this book on the shelf at a bookstore about a month ago, before I'd read or heard anything about it. Now it appears that there is quite a bit of hype surrounding it.

The author, David Levitin, is a neurobiologist who came from the music industry. He attempts to explain the way that the brain percieves music, why music sticks in your head, why you like the music you do, and how it truly is a universal language.

Some interesting reading on the subject:

The official site

David Levitin's official personal site

KQED
SanFrancisco's, Forum, explores the perception of music in the human brain with psychologist Daniel J. Levitin, author of "This is Your Brain on Music."
Host: Michael Krasny
http://www.kqed.org/programs/program-landing.jsp?progID=RD19

To The Best of Our Knowledge program "Mind, Music & Math" (aired October 2006)
In this interview, he tells us how composers and performers play with our expectations to keep the brain interested in music.
http://www.wpr.org/book/061022a.html

Wired article from August 23, 2006
Read the article

You can buy the book on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525949690/bookstorenow600-20

Business to Busines and Manufacturing resources

http://www.bikudo.com/

http://trial.selectory.com/landingpage_mf.aspx?registrationcode=goog0523

http://www.worldbuyers.com/

Rockin' Online Shopping!

Tis the season for shopping for pals! Check out these sites to find that perfect gift for me!!

Fun gift shopping
http://www.shopexit9.com/

I heart guts
Fabulous tees, stickers, etc, with the cutest guts!

TangoLand
Those super cute cat icons have an artist, and he has a website... and a store!
http://www.tangoland.com/


Fun Random Gifty gifts
http://www.fly-bird.net/

Drop In Science
Purchase those old filmstrips you remember from your youth, botanical and zoological educational posters, art, etc
http://www.droppinscience.net/index.html

Very cute artist
http://www.dalekart.com/main.htm

Vintage Fabrics
Repro Depot Fabrics

Keep the Faye
Fun products for home, auto, clothing, etc
My favorite product is their demerit badges
http://keepthefaye.com/

Mew Gallery
As of this posting, their shop has not yet opened... but, if their wares are as adorable as their site design, it promises to be good!
http://www.mewgallery.org/
(Their super cute webdesign was created by Nested Group)

Wallwords
For the decorator who would like to have words all over their wall. Alot of thsi looks super cheese, but with the right word combos... it could be fun!
http://wallwords.com/index.htm

"Space Wiggle" makes images 3d on the web

This method of presenting stereo images uses animated .gifs to rapidly switch between left and right images. For most of us the brain will impose a crude sense of dimensionality on a wildly wiggling scene.

Examples here

Looking for a word? Know the definition?

Here's a great site for all those times when you've known how to describe the word, but you can't seem to find it! It's a reverse dictionary. Type in the word(s), or slight definition and wha-la!

http://onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Jesus Spotted on a Dogs Ass

Jesus spotted on a dogs ass... Remarkably, it really does look like Jesus! More so than those pitas and stuff that people think look like Mary or something.

Stop Motion Drums and Piano Music

The wonders of video / audio editing can prove to make a musician out of anyone!

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20529

VanityFair Article: Now they tell us - NeoCons blame incompetent Bush Administration

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

Read the Printable version of this Article at Vanity Fair

Jesus Christ... the musical

Will he survive?

Whales whales whales ... and Wholphins!

Dolphin reveals extra set of fins (legs)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15581204/

Study links whales and hippos
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6863348/

Narwhale (unicorn whale) Tusk acts as giant sensor
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10456798/

Wholphins really do exist! Wholphin mother has a baby - and it's gi-normous!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7508288/

Draw furniture out of thin air!

Basically, two of the Swedish firm, Front Design, principals use motion-capture technology to record exceedingly rough sketches, in 3-D space, of a chair, table, and lamp. The sketches are then converted into actual objects using rapid prototyping technology, in which lasers fuse layers of liquid plastic together. Voilà: nearly instant furniture.

www.frontdesign.se

Are you a bubblewrap junky like me?

Then this is a must-have for you!
Try 'manic mode'.
http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf
"Must have more"

BA Carnivorous Plant Society

An active group of plant enthusiasts.

http://bacps.org/

If a choir made the sound of a car...

it would sound like this...

Dominos are "in" apparently

There seems to be a motif Dominos in advertising and film lately.

Champion Sound - Fatboy Slim
House hold items as dominos makes for a somewhat interesting video experience.
http://www.nothing-to-see-here.com/champion-sound.php

Miller Beer Ad - People as Dominos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKIp-wLyV2k

Bravia Commercials

Fabulous new Bravia commercial:

http://www.bravia-advert.com/paint/thead/

http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/braviaextcommhigh.html

How movies should have ended...

Sometimes films to end how we think the should have... This site sets out to correct them. Some of them are pretty funny!
http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/index.html

Totally 80s Album Covers

http://motionographer.com/media/battle_adbands-w.mov

Looking for Trailer Trash Accessories?

http://www.trailertrashdoll.com/

Image Labeler Game

As a clever way to improve the image search function Google made the following game:

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

You and someone else on the internet and randomly paired and are given the same image. You enter as many different words to describe that image as you can. If your words and a word from your partner match then you "win" and move on. In the process they'll use all the winning words as keywords for the images when using the search function.

Spa-tini!

http://www.cureanailspa.com/

Lil' Superstar

Um... wow!

Illustrator: Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu is a New York-based Japanese illustrator. Though she initially honed her artistic chops in the PR field while living in Tokyo, Shimizu soon felt the creative pull and enrolled in New York's School of Visual Arts' MFA programme in illustration to pursue her dream to become an artist. She has been freelancing and teaching at SVA since graduation.

Check out her work : http://www.yukoart.com/

Illustrator: Jason Levesque

Featured on the SF Flavor Pill : Jason Levesque is a self-taught illustrator living in Norfolk, Virginia. His texture-rich portraits focus on the many facets of the female personality: boldness, nonchalance, sexiness, and beauty. Among his works you'll also find illustrations depicting his many creature creations ranging from vicious toothy bunny monsters to alluring lady octopuses.

Check out Jason's work at: http://www.stuntkid.com/

Watch Surgery Live On The Internet

Now you can watch the latest surgical procedures via the powers of the internet.

http://or-live.com/

Papercraft food printed with edible inks at Chicago's Moto restaurant

Found on Boing Boing, linked from http://www.firstscience.com/SITE/ARTICLES/food.asp

Homaro Cantu, the chef at Chicago's Moto restaurant, makes dishes by printing flavored inks onto edible sheets of "paper" and combining this papercraft food with elements cooked from the inside out with lasers. He also plans to levitate meals "using superconductors and handheld ion particle guns."

Perhaps Cantu's greatest innovation at Moto is a modified Canon i560 inkjet printer (which he calls the "food replicator" in homage to Star Trek) that prints flavoured images onto edible paper. The print cartridges are filled with food-based "inks", including juiced carrots, tomatoes and purple potatoes, and the paper tray contains sheets of soybean and potato starch. The printouts are flavoured by dipping them in a powder of dehydrated soy sauce, squash, sugar, vegetables or sour cream, and then they are frozen, baked or fried.

The most common printed dish at Moto is the menu. It can literally whet your appetite by providing a taste test of what's on the menu: tear off and eat a picture of a cow and it will taste like filet mignon. Once you are done with your sampling, the menu can be torn up and thrown into a bowl of soup - but only once you've ordered your two-dimensional sushi which consists of photos of maki rolls sprinkled on the back with soy and seaweed flavouring.

Link (via Oh Gizmo) (Image thumbnail taken from a larger picture on FirstScience, credited to Stephen Orlick and Homaro Cantu)

See also: When the Sous-Chef Is an Inkjet (NYT)

Update: Joel sez, "Here is a photo-essay of a 17-course menu at Moto, from LTHForum, The Chicago Culinary Chat site."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:58:20 AM permalink | blogs' comments

Artists' Television Access

Artists' Television Access is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer, artist-run, experimental media arts gallery that has been in operation since 1984. ATA hosts a series of film and video screenings, exhibitions and performances by emerging and established artists and a weekly cable access television program.

http://www.atasite.org/

Darth Vader Is A Jerk-Pants

Burning Man / Animal Control on Current.tv

Great segments on what Burning Man is all about. Found here...

Current.tv and Burning Man

To find out more about Animal Control, click on the link with the date 8/30

New Interface Tool! Awesome

Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure.

Guinness - Evolution Grand Prix - Cannes 2006

http://www.llamamelola.com Category: Alcoholic Drinks Title: NOITULOVE Advertiser: GUINNESS Product or Service: GUINNESS Entrant Company, City: ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS.BBDO, London Country: UNITED KINGDOM Advertising Agency, City: ABBOTT MEAD VICKERS.BBDO, London Country: UNITED KINGDOM Creative Director: Paul Brazier Copywriter: Ian Heartfield Art Director: Matt Doman Agency Producer: Yvonne Chalkley Production Company, City: KLEINMAN PRODUCTIONS, London Country: UNITED KINGDOM Director: Danny Kleinman Producer: Jonnie Frankel Music: Peter Raeburn/Adam Bushell/Tom Kenyatta/Nick Foster Sound Design/Arrangement: Johnnie Burn (wave)/Peter Raeburn (soundtree)

It's A Tea-Partay, Yo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTU2He2BIc0

PikaPika: The lighting doodle project

Amazing! Looks like several kids who are using flashlights and other light sources to create animations with long exposures. The appear to have taken this around the world!

Pikapika

A Magic Freak!

The benefits of having a 14 year old bend you're ear, is that they know the secrets to finding all the great video obscurities!

Like the magician, who impales himself on a fence in front of innocent children and makes them cry:


Or spends his spring break walking on water:


Wow!

He-Man does 4 non-blondes

This has been out for a couple of years, but it's always worth reposting.

Designer's Directory

Ok Go's Tredmill Video

There's some wonderful choreography in this.

Crazy Frog Video

Oingo Boingo "Just Another Day" Video

Who's Line is it anyway? Great stuff.

With Richard Simmons

The Colour of My Sound

Very interesting study on the color of sound.

http://www.concretethestudio.com/colorofsound

Zero One Entertainment

http://zeroone.com/about.html
a Non-Profit, , Educational; Independent Film and Video Production Organization located in Phoenix, Arizona. Our purpose is to educate film/video enthusiasts, students, and professionals on how to get involved in the film and video industry by working with us on our projects.. We produce short films, music videos, and live events.

Filoli Home and Gardens

Located thirty miles south of San Francisco on the eastern slope of the Coast Range, the 654-acre Filoli estate contains as its central portion a historic house and sixteen acres of formal garden. The house was occupied from 1917 to 1936 as a private residence for its original owners, William Bowers Bourn II and his wife, Agnes Moody Bourn. In 1937 the property was sold to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth, who continued to maintain and enrich the estate. Mrs. Roth donated Filoli to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975.


Filoli Home and Gardens

The Power of Nightmares (3 parts) - Documentary

Created by the same people who brought us "The Century of the Self", this wonderful documentary explores the illusion of terror and politics.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Burning Man

The official site

Burning Man Beat Maps : Find things at Burning Man

San Francisco Events

SF Open Bizarre : The San Francisco Open Bazaar is an outdoor market located south of market, at 350 8th Street (at 8th and Harrison Streets) in downtown San Francisco.

Southern Fried Happiness at FarmerBrowns

This southern gourmet restaurant looks too good n tasty!

http://www.farmerbrownsf.com/index.html

Must try this out!

My Celebrity Twin?

If you load in a pic of yourself at this site http://www.myheritage.com/, it'll tell you who they think you most look like.

I came up looking most like Emma Watson.
Then Juliette Binoche and Reese Witherspoon.

Uh... Emma maybe. The others. Not so much i don't think.

Solar Sun Printing Paper

This place sells the refill paper for cheap!

Lenticular Photography - 3-d animated pictures

How Lentitucular works

Place located in HongKong - large orders prolly

Manufacturer located in Fresno

A Museum To Museums

NPR's Story on the subject

Museum of Online Museums! - Great resource for online museums!

The Dime Museum - Be sure to check out their links sections!

Recommended Reading list of freaks

The Freakatorium in NY NY

Guide to Whistling Records!

In The Realms of the Unreal - Documentary

The other night we watched this documentary about Henry Darger, a solitary janitor, living in a studio apartment in Chicago. Rarely did he leave his house or speak to anyone. Over the course of 40 years, he wrote a 10,000 page book called "In the realms of the unreal".

The film brings Henry Darger's rich fantasy world to life with animation, prose and anecdotes from the few people that Henry spoke to over the years. It explores both the loneliness of his reality and richness of his fantasy in sensitive ways.

The filmmaker is Jessica Yu, who has done many other documentaries.

"Who Killed the Electric Car?"

"Who Killed the Electric Car?" The movie that asks what happened to the electric cars that were built in the early 90s because California had issued a mandate that by 2000 we'd have 10% of our vehicles on the road be 0 emissions.

Reading Wired's August 2006 article about Tesla Motors, a company in Santa Clara independently creating a really styley electric car. This of course is very exciting-without the big car companies tethered to big oil, they can pretty much do what the market wants. There are supposedly a couple of other companies out there doing similar persuits, but i haven't researched for them yet.

A couple featured in the film "Who Killed the Electric Car", Stanford and Iris Ovshinsky, were the original creators of the electric auto battery featured in the film. GM bought their company and put the battery in their electric car, the EV, then they killed the car, and sold their controling interest in the company to Texaco. It was a complete sham. But they're a hyper creative couple, who are now creating ultra paper thin solar panels that you can toss up on your roof and run plugs down into your house. Look in the R&D section.

Mortified - Diary Readings!

Phenomena sweeping the nation, where people are reading excerpts from their teen year diaries to hilarious effect. The people who have launched the movement http://www.getmortified.com/index.html

"This American Life" is taping a segment on this phenomena

Beautiful Performance Art

The Sultans Elephant - a show only the French could invent, it's larger than life, wimsical, fantastical puppetry.

Shadowlight puppetry - Balinese puppetry at its most luscious!

"Sad song"

A beautiful acapella "Sad song".
http://www.fredoviola.com/the_sad_song.html

Documentary on local Hero (?) Frank Chu

Documentary on local Hero (?) Frank Chu
http://www.eightyfourfilms.com/lunch_inside_the_12_galaxies.htm

Various Sites of San Francisco

I've found a great site with the various sites of San Francisco on them. They are complete with maps, suggestions of sites, and places to dine etc. I like the format of the items on this site.

http://www.mustseesanfrancisco.com/site-map.htm

Other San Francisco tours - walking tours of the city:
http://www.sfcityguides.org/

Events in China Town
Ghost Tours in China Town

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat
by Oliver Sacks

I'm currently reading this book and it reads alot like reading episodes of the twilight zone. Many of these true storeis are pretty eerie.

Some of the book can be difficult to read. Sacks is obviously very well read and he often illustrates his stories with obscure references or expects you to be acquainted with his Neurological and Psychological predecessors. It's often led me to consult the WWW to understand the references he's making.

Nopa Resaurant

560 Divisidaro (@Hayes), SF
415-864-8643
nopasf.com

A couple weeks ago Monica, Melanie and I went to Nopa Resaurant, the Western Addition's newest addition.

Instead of something conventionally starchy, like bread, they serve radishes and sea salt. The food was tastey, we sampled 3 appetizers and an entree split amongst us. However, I found the food and ambience (former laundry mat retrofitted with clean lines and sterile high ceilings) to be rather conventional in ways that you would come to expect from a yuppy urban hipster restaurant. I'd certainly go again, but in a city of similar restaurant types, there's little that differentiates this one from other yuppy hipster joints here in SF.

RocketBird

This guy straps a mini-jet engine to each leg, dons a special flight

suit, then jumps from a hot air balloon and flies until the fuel runs

out. (Then pops his chute.)

The video (if it doesn't load automatically) is named RocketBird.

http://www.bird-man.com/?n=windtunnel&nose=6

Smuin Ballet

Toby and I made a visit to the Smuin Ballet... It was the first ballet I'd been to in a while and it reminded me of how much I miss dance performances.

The pieces performed were the Bluegrass/Slyde and Zorro!
The Smuin Ballet proved themselves to be wonderfully technical and exceedingly original without being unapproachable. Wonderful set designs, and the use of a pole afixed to a lazy susanne which allowed the dancers to do maintain movement without exertion on the set. Background music was bluegrass banjoy and bass composed by Bella Fleck. It really was wonderful.

Flower Arangements

In preparation of creating some floral arrangements for Virginia's wedding, I've been doing some research.

• Floral Design Instruction 101

Oranguatans - Documentary

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has been working in the rescuing of orangutans for several years now. http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/index.php

The BBC is currently working with them to put together a documentary on orangutan conservation. http://www.cockroach.org.uk/

This group is also working with both the SOS and BOS to dev a training video for plantation owners to help them figure out what to do when they encounter an orangutan.

More Museum Madness

Met a couple the other day who works in the museum exhibits creation industry! The company they work for is Acadamy Studios. Thousands of threads of conversations came out of this, which leads to some fascinating links:

• The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago - http://www.imss.org/
• The Soane Museum, London - http://www.soane.org/index.html is a museum created by the victorian era collector, Sir John Sloane. Dusty and full of wacky stuff jam packed!
  
• Alexis Rockman - Fascinating artist who's mother worked at the Natural History Museum in New York . Following this thread led me to the Natural History Museum of New York reading about their diorama exhibits! There's a book about those dioramas and everything. From the books author : Stephen Quinn, Senior Project Manager in the Department of Exhibition, oversees all aspects of new diorama creation, and apprenticed under several diorama-art masters at the Museum such as Raymond deLucia, Robert Kane, and David J. Schwendeman. In the book, Mr. Quinn introduces the explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind these three-dimensional marvels and explains how their collaborations make the displays so lifelike.
• Jessica Joslin - artist

Saving Sites

I'm always interested in finding ways to save.

These sites have great calculators and tips:

• http://choosetosave.org/
• http://dinkytown.net/

Nicks Band

http://www.freewebs.com/thewcb/

Jonestown documentary

John and I saw this documentary film on Jonestown. It was riviting and incredibly well edited.

Created by Stanley Nelson, founder of Firelight Media.
As this was part of the San Francisco Film Festival (put on by the San Francisco Film Society), the director Stanley Nelson held a Q&A. As part of this Q&A he brought in Jim Jones Jr. (Jim Jones' son - adopted).

Though they both felt that it answered the question of why 906 people would 'drink the kool-aid', i felt that it was lacked in resolving that question. In many instances opening up other questions. However, I believe that it told this story with a degree of sensitivity and emotional truth that I had not seen in a Jonestown documentary before.

Hamsa Lila

http://www.hamsalila.com/

Starsky & Hutch

Fun Fun Fun

Gotta love Starsky & Hutch the movie.

Michael Pollan Speaks on the economies of food

Michael Pollan, author of one of my favorite books,
"The Botany of Desire", Examining the tulip, potato, cannabis, and apple, Pollan studies the relationship between people and the natural world through the history of four plants. He now has a new book called "The Omnivores Dillema", where he explores the implications of modern society's cornucopia of food choices on our health and the health of the planet.

Wednesday, April 26, we saw him speak at the Herbst Theater's City Arts and Lectures Series.

Some notes from this:

• The Slow Food Movement - runs counter to fast food ideas. Makes a case for eating locally produced foods by taking the time to enjoy your food.
• 
  

Flip Book Animation Festival? Right on! & Stitchilicious

Of course there should be a flipbook animation festival!
http://www.flipbookfestival.com/

Great place to learn to sew in SF.
http://stitchlounge.com/

Maker Faire makes for good fun

John, Toby Rene and I went to the Maker Faire yesterday. Turned out to be a great time.

Some of the coolest things we saw:

• Shannon O'hare :: Extremely interesting guy working over at the Shipyard building a victorian styled moving house for the playa this year.
  
• Frogwatch :: http://www.nwf.org/frogwatchUSA/ Frogwatch USA is a frog and toad monitoring program that gives YOU the opportunity to help scientists conserve amphibians!
• Because we can :: http://becausewecan.org/ A couple located in Oakland who created a design and production company using an automated CNC fabrication techniques. You bring the ideas, and they'll produce them for you.
• IPswap :: Have an idea for improving your mp3 player, cellphone, pda, etc? Join this community. Post your idea, choose a developer, negotiate terms and make beautiful software together. They've got about 200 developers right now and virtually no community yet, but then, they've just begun.
• Blurb :: For $29.99, you can upload your pix and text and create a real book. The books i saw were very high quality. I met with Samuel Leshnick (sr. designer) who walked me through their process... they've just started off and they haven't released their first product yet (due out in may)
• Eccentric Genius :: Kaden of eccentric genius ...er he is the eccentric genius, describing himself as, "I build antiques from...er...somewhere else. A parallel universe where Leonardo Da Vinci, John Cleese and Jimmy Neutron spend every Tuesday night playing poker with Sherlock Holmes, and the Victorian era 'gentleman inventor' still toils diligently in his potting shed laboratory." He builds everyday modern things based on victorian technologies. Like a guilentine carrot chopper.
• Monome :: Honestly, i still am not sure i understand what this is all about. it seems to be another way to interface with a program.
• Alavs : Autonomous Light Air Vessels :: Through a defined research process we designed objects that behave and respond in specific ways and are part of a networked system that emphasizes autonomous and flocking behavior. There are two main components: feeding and flocking. Somehow this is connected to The Art Center in Pasadena, Ca.
• CalCars :: CalCars is a non-profit startup formed by entrepreneurs, engineers, environmentalists and consumers. Our projects tackle national security, jobs and global warming -- at the same time. We promote plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). PHEVs are like regular hybrids but with larger batteries and the ability to re-charge from a standard outlet (mostly at night). They're the best of both worlds: local travel is electric, yet the vehicle has unlimited gasoline range.
• Onomylabs Inc. :: They're building new ways to interact with visuals. With a table that can be spun, rotated, moved up and down allowing you to interact with the images on the table. This was interesting to a limited degree. I find that Reactrix makes a more interesting way to interact tangibly with images.
• Phill Ross : Artist :: The artworks he makes are created through the design and construction of controlled environmental spaces. In these environments he nurtures and transforms a variety of living species into sculptural artifacts, much as one might train the growth of a Bonsai tree. Wacky musrooms and biospheres in sealed glass.
• Technical Video Rental :: Rent movies on technical or artsy crafty stuff.
• http://www.jenine.net :: This woman makes insanely beautiful glass beads and then strings them into a very large neck piece! They're gorgeous.
  

Things in Miniature

The Art Institute of Chicago's Thorne Miniature rooms

Greatest Natural History Museums of all time

The greatest natural history museums of all time due to their fantastic dioramas, and things in bottles. :)






















The Milwaukee Public Museum

The history of the museum on their site states:
"The tradition of innovative exhibits, dubbed "The Milwaukee Style," began with the work of Carl Akeley, the "father" of modern taxidermy who started his career in Milwaukee. Although others had included props and backgrounds in cases holding taxidermy specimens, Akeley's muskrat colony, completed in 1890, is considered the museum world's first total habitat diorama."

On their website, be sure to check out their "Exhibitions" section. I particularly love the section entitled "Sense of wonder" which features "More than 1,000 rarely seen specimens from the Museum's collection of 6 million are displayed, ranging in size from a pine cone seed to a 36-foot-long skeleton of a Humpback Whale."

The Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vt.

John and I visited the Fairbanks Museum in 2004, and it was as if it hadn't been touched in 100 years. A fantastic example of Victorian curiosity, collecting and museum exhibition of that era.

On our trip to St. Johnsbury, we also visited The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum a library and art gallery.

The Field Museum of Chicago
This was once the mecca of museums, and in part still remains so. Though many collections have given way to the 'discovery museum' style of curation.

Victorian Age has it's curiosities

Victorian Parlors
"The typical parlour, which, to our way of thinking, was a chaotic arrangement, was crammed to capacity with furniture and ornaments. Leaders of popular taste suggested that this room lent itself to ornamentation more than any other mainly because it offered hospitality and amusement. The objects which it contained advertised lifestyle and social status."

Victorian age literature was influenced by the 'information technology' of the time and became more picturesque.
"At the same time, developments in visual technology made it possible to see more and in new ways. Nineteenth century optical devices, creating illusions of various sorts, were invented near the beginning of the century: the thaumatrope, the phenakistoscope, the zoetrope, the stroboscope, the kaleidoscope, the diorama, and the stereoscope. Other inventions — such as the camera lucida, the graphic telescope, the binocular telescope, the binocular microscope, the stereopticon, and the kinetoscope — projected, recorded, or magnified images. Most important, the photographic camera provided an entirely new way of recording objects and people and transformed many areas of life and work."

The diorama provided people with new and more realistic ways of illustrating worlds many would not see personally. Site devoted to the collection of the victorian diorama.
International Committee for museums and collections of natural history

The Centre for Victorian Studies Resources on victorian age items

Showbooks and Optical Toys from EVE the virtual exhibition

Project Guttenberg

Project Guttenberg

I found this very cool site that hosts a 18,000 book collection online where you can download books - some of them very rare!

I found a book that was mentioned in Orchid Fever called:

The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay by Arthur Phillip

Published in 1789

Ashes and Snow

In February, John and I visited this photography show traveling in a cargo container cathedral that had arrived in Santa Monica.

Ashes and Snow

Great Quotes - Mark Twain

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."
"Don't let schooling interfere with your education."
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."
"Golf is a good walk spoiled."
"Grief can take care if itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."
"I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell - you see, I have friends in both places."
"It is easier to stay out than get out."
"It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."
"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul."
"Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired."
"Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins."
"Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident."
"Necessity is the mother of taking chances."
"Such is the human race, often it seems a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat."
"Once you've put one of his [Henry James] books down, you simply can't pick it up again."
"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
"The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice."
More quotes

Great Quotes - Rudyard Kipling

"San Francisco is a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty."

"For the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

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Orchid Fever

Just finished reading the book:


ORCHID FEVER
A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy
by Eric Hansen

A fabulously enjoyable read about the fanaticism of orchid collecting and the bizarre 'conservation' policies set forth by CITES.








Some interesting items mentioned in his book:

• Grammatophyllum Speciosum - the largest orchid species. This epiphyte weighs 1/2 ton and can be 40' circumfrence
  
• Sphagnum Moss Strip Mining
• The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay by Arthur Phillip Published in 1789
• Kew Gardens of London
  
• Sir Joseph Banks - the botonist who accompanied Cook on his voyages and would eventually start Kew Gardens
• Dr. Gunnar Seidenfaden Danish diplomat, explorer, naturalist, and expert in tropical Asiatic orchids died on 9 February 2001
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad published 1902