January 31, 2011
Electric Cereal Box
".A Coupling provides electricity via induction, which means the shelves have a coil with AC power running through it. The “printed coils” on the boxes allow inventory control and d"ata exchange presumably thanks to a low-power microcontroller."
via Hack a Day via Y Combinator
via Hack a Day via Y Combinator
January 30, 2011
January 28, 2011
Fast Animal - Slow Motion
"Flashes of light. Moments before impact a pressure wave in front of the claw causes the water to boil. The steam immediately implodes generating light and heat"
How a dog drinks water with a spoon:
Janjaweed
"A blanket term used to describe mostly armed gunmen in Darfur, western Sudan, and now eastern Chad... Since 2003 they have been one of the main players in the Darfur conflict, which has pitted the largely nomadic tribes against the sedentary population of the region in a battle over resource and land allocation" via
Photo via Citizen X
January 27, 2011
Neomelodic Mafia Music
"The best-known neomelodic artists are superstars in their local area. The most in-demand singers sometimes perform more than a dozen shows a day, and up to 700 in a year. It's like SXSW all year round for these guys. But instead of playing to hype-hungry music journalists and A&Rs they'll play to pre-teens at communion parties and pensioners at birthday celebrations. Although each performance is reasonably well paid, the artists don't always have a choice as to whether or not they play."
via Guardian.co.uk
January 26, 2011
Michelle Bachmann and Two Cupcakes
I like how the video ends as soon as her message begins. Also the eye popping: it is good:
via J-Walk Blog
via J-Walk Blog
Purkinje neuron
"A rat Purkinje neuron injected with a fluorescent dye. Purkinje neurons are the major output neurons of the cerebellum." via
Synaptastic!
via Riken Research
Synaptastic!
via Riken Research
Coronal Loops
"Coronal loops form the basic structure of the lower corona and transition region of the Sun. These highly structured and elegant loops are a direct consequence of the twisted solar magnetic flux within the solar body. The population of coronal loops can be directly linked with the solar cycle; it is for this reason coronal loops are often found with sunspots at their footpoints. The upwelling magnetic flux pushes through the photosphere, exposing the cooler plasma below. The contrast between the photosphere and the solar interior gives the impression of dark spots, or sunspots." via
via Nasa Images
via Nasa Images
January 25, 2011
Medvedev
"Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has said his forces will "liquidate" the people responsible for a bomb attack at a Moscow airport which killed 35 people. "
via AlJazeera English
via AlJazeera English
January 23, 2011
Culture 3
Bogart - verb
1. To keep something all for oneself, thus depriving anyone else of having any. A slang term derived from the last name of famous actor Humphrey Bogart because he often kept a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, seemingly never actually drawing on it or smoking it. Often used with weed or joints but can be applied to anything. i.e "Don't bogart that blunt man, pass that over here!"
This definition was supported by over 4161 people.
By Endymion Chiba, September 11, 2003 via Urbandictionary.com
1. To keep something all for oneself, thus depriving anyone else of having any. A slang term derived from the last name of famous actor Humphrey Bogart because he often kept a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, seemingly never actually drawing on it or smoking it. Often used with weed or joints but can be applied to anything. i.e "Don't bogart that blunt man, pass that over here!"
This definition was supported by over 4161 people.
By Endymion Chiba, September 11, 2003 via Urbandictionary.com
Culture 2
Say the following aloud:
Could I get that margarita on the rock-rock-rocks?
Could I get salt all around that rim-rim-rim-rim?
-Lyrics from "Bottoms Up" by Trey, feat. Nicky Minaj.
Could I get that margarita on the rock-rock-rocks?
Could I get salt all around that rim-rim-rim-rim?
-Lyrics from "Bottoms Up" by Trey, feat. Nicky Minaj.
Culture 1
Say the following aloud:
"Lets have some fun, this beat is sick,
I want to take a ride on your disco stick"
-Lyrics from LoveGame, Lady Gaga.
"Lets have some fun, this beat is sick,
I want to take a ride on your disco stick"
-Lyrics from LoveGame, Lady Gaga.
Sisyphus
And we think Sisyphus to have an inane hardship?
This is his life: to work honestly, with his body, for himself. Would he not, in a painting, be depicted roiling with lean muscle? Sweating? Gainfully employed?
“How much are you willing to sacrifice? How much are you willing to gain?” he says to us.
January 22, 2011
January 21, 2011
10 Billion Particle Universe Simulation
From the Planck Institute's Millenium Simulation.
"The Millennium Run used more than 10 billion particles to trace the evolution of the matter distribution in a cubic region of the Universe over 2 billion light-years on a side. It kept busy the principal supercomputer at the Max Planck Society's Supercomputing Centre in Garching, Germany for more than a month"
For context 1 Mpc/h = Megaparsec. 1 Mpc/H =1,000,000 parsecs. A parsec is "a unit of length, equal to just under 31 trillion (31×1012) kilometres (about 19 trillion miles)... or about 3.26 light-years(via). The line below is therefore about 400,000,000 light years longs.
This contained 10^9 (10,000,000,000) particles. The human brain has 10^15 (10,000,000,000,000,000) potential synapses. That is over 1 million times more synapses then particles in this simulation. .
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/
"The Millennium Run used more than 10 billion particles to trace the evolution of the matter distribution in a cubic region of the Universe over 2 billion light-years on a side. It kept busy the principal supercomputer at the Max Planck Society's Supercomputing Centre in Garching, Germany for more than a month"
For context 1 Mpc/h = Megaparsec. 1 Mpc/H =1,000,000 parsecs. A parsec is "a unit of length, equal to just under 31 trillion (31×1012) kilometres (about 19 trillion miles)... or about 3.26 light-years(via). The line below is therefore about 400,000,000 light years longs.
This contained 10^9 (10,000,000,000) particles. The human brain has 10^15 (10,000,000,000,000,000) potential synapses. That is over 1 million times more synapses then particles in this simulation. .
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/
January 20, 2011
Customs
"The court gave no reasons for its decision not to hear the case, which is its custom." via cbc
WTF? "Custom" like some "cute" little custom: "oh, Mortals, citizens, you must be content to listen to our decrees, for they are Just. We are diligent, and they are just. They are true. Question them not, for our decisions are true and just."
I think of Sparta, and the Ephors (etymology = "one who oversees")
I think of this:
Spartan boys who showed excellent promise and seemed to be future leaders participated in a tradition called Crypteia. It was a way to prove their skills and prowess.
The practice of Crypteia, involved the following: "Every autumn, according to Plutarch (Life of Lycurgus, 28, 3–7), the Spartan ephors (classical Greek Ἔφοροι) would pro forma declare war on the helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a helot without fear of blood guilt. The Cryptes were sent out into the countryside with only a knife to survive on their skills and cunning with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed."
"a helot" was a brutually suppressed "population group", in some form of serf-bondage to Sparta. Apparently they had quite a miserable life: the Spartans "assign to the Helots every shameful task leading to disgrace. For they ordained that each one of them must wear a dogskin cap and wrap himself in skins and receive a stipulated number of beatings every year regardless of any wrongdoing, so that they would never forget they were slaves. Moreover, if any exceeded the vigour proper to a slave's condition, they made death the penalty; and they allotted a punishment to those controlling them if they failed."
I imagine if the most promising graduates from Oxford or Cambridge, each year being given a shotgun, and a horse, and being told: you can kill as many Illegals as you can see. The Prime Minister killed 23 when he was their age.
Apparently the Spartans might also have practised "population control on then", and there are records that 2,000 were killed in one ambush/event:
"The helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most high spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished."
Why shouldn't we know the reason the Supreme Court didn't persecute Harper for breaking his own law?
via Wikipedia Helots, Ephors,
WTF? "Custom" like some "cute" little custom: "oh, Mortals, citizens, you must be content to listen to our decrees, for they are Just. We are diligent, and they are just. They are true. Question them not, for our decisions are true and just."
I think of Sparta, and the Ephors (etymology = "one who oversees")
I think of this:
Spartan boys who showed excellent promise and seemed to be future leaders participated in a tradition called Crypteia. It was a way to prove their skills and prowess.
The practice of Crypteia, involved the following: "Every autumn, according to Plutarch (Life of Lycurgus, 28, 3–7), the Spartan ephors (classical Greek Ἔφοροι) would pro forma declare war on the helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a helot without fear of blood guilt. The Cryptes were sent out into the countryside with only a knife to survive on their skills and cunning with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed."
"a helot" was a brutually suppressed "population group", in some form of serf-bondage to Sparta. Apparently they had quite a miserable life: the Spartans "assign to the Helots every shameful task leading to disgrace. For they ordained that each one of them must wear a dogskin cap and wrap himself in skins and receive a stipulated number of beatings every year regardless of any wrongdoing, so that they would never forget they were slaves. Moreover, if any exceeded the vigour proper to a slave's condition, they made death the penalty; and they allotted a punishment to those controlling them if they failed."
I imagine if the most promising graduates from Oxford or Cambridge, each year being given a shotgun, and a horse, and being told: you can kill as many Illegals as you can see. The Prime Minister killed 23 when he was their age.
Apparently the Spartans might also have practised "population control on then", and there are records that 2,000 were killed in one ambush/event:
"The helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most high spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished."
Why shouldn't we know the reason the Supreme Court didn't persecute Harper for breaking his own law?
via Wikipedia Helots, Ephors,
January 19, 2011
Philippe Malouin
Designer Philippe Malouin, Montreal born, lives in London:
Ballpoint Stool:
Hanger Chair: 
Monarc:
Tent Sofa
http://www.philippemalouin.com/
Ballpoint Stool:
Hanger Chair: 
Tent Sofa
http://www.philippemalouin.com/
January 18, 2011
Hornetboy1970
Hornetboy1970 showing us various hornet's and wasp's nests.
What I can't understand is why he was photographed holding a camera, and wearing a shirt with mirrored letters. Strange:
Temple of The Crab Nebula
"Up where?" We ask, and easily you point fingers upwards. But your finger is really rather inaccurate. I can't see what you are pointing at, your hand is shaking slightly, and my eyes are worse then yours, so I can't see as far.
You respond "there" to my renewed question, pointing more resolutely, yet still inaccurately. Inexplicably wordless upon the co-ordinates. Are you pointing at the clouds ? Or the Heliosheath? Or the Stars? Is this what you are pointing at?
If you were pointing at this, I would be inclined to believe you. But suspicion now falls upon your Pillars of Salt and Water to Wine. These are really (you must be honest) banal compared to The Crab Nebula.
You respond "there" to my renewed question, pointing more resolutely, yet still inaccurately. Inexplicably wordless upon the co-ordinates. Are you pointing at the clouds ? Or the Heliosheath? Or the Stars? Is this what you are pointing at?
The ability to turn Water into Wine is at hand: Go outside while it is raining. Falling upon the Vineyard. Watering it. Let the grapes grow. Harvest the grapes. Processed by Vinters. Voila. Is the Farmer, then also a Child of God?
Your Sodium Pillars are rather brittle, when the Scientists in their Presses from human ashes create Diamond's. ("LifeGem Memorials of Chicago charges $4,000 to $22,000 for a synthetic diamond that a family member can wear when you are gone, made from the carbon you leave behind" via)
If you were pointing at The Crab Nebula (or some such mass of of energy) surely your Temples and Churches would look differently.
This all compels me to assume you aren't really pointing at the Crab Nebula.
Where are you pointing?
P.S.
What would a Temple to The Crab Nebula look like? A good architectural competition.
January 17, 2011
Blue Whale Rib Cage
That sea beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream
- Paradise Lost by Milton, as quoted by Herman Melville in Moby Dick
January 16, 2011
Vonnegut
From a letter he wrote:
Guard yourself at all times. A lot of people believe that beauty is some kind of conspiracy -- along with friendly laughter and peace.
Cheers.
Kurt Vonnegut
via Letters of Note
Guard yourself at all times. A lot of people believe that beauty is some kind of conspiracy -- along with friendly laughter and peace.
Cheers.
Kurt Vonnegut
via Letters of Note
January 14, 2011
January 12, 2011
January 11, 2011
Glock Sales Surge
F'd up:
"...Instead of hurting sales, the [recent Arizona] massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix.
"We're at double our volume over what we usually do," Wolff said two days after the shooting spree that also left 14 wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition.
from The Washington Post
via J-Walk Blog
January 10, 2011
January 9, 2011
January 8, 2011
January 5, 2011
January 3, 2011
Elagabalus
"A six horse chariot carried the divinity, the horses huge and flawlessly white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the god himself were the charioteer. Elagabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his god."
via.
via.
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