Posted by Alex in Pictures on July 11, 2006 at 5:30 pm
In a field near Sandwich in Kent, UK, local model maker Alan Gibbs fires up his steam engine which then powers an Apple Mac computer:
At a table, curator Rob Tufnell is using an Apple Mac powered by the engine. For this is the Steam Powered Internet Machine: the latest deeply eccentric project from Turner-prizewinning artist Jeremy Deller and his collaborator Alan Kane. "We were thinking about something that connects the industrial revolution and the digital revolution," said Deller. Kane added: "They are worlds apart but there’s also a proximity. The steam age and the digital age are not so far apart."
There’s a marvellous impracticality to the machine. But it does work – unlike the disused Richborough power station, whose cooling towers loom, and the abandoned wind turbine at the end of the field. "We like inverting economics," said Kane, adding, perhaps unnecessarily: "This is a very uneconomic way of having a portable computer."
From a very interesting NY Times article by Barry Bearak and Stephanie Sinclair:
The drought has since passed, but the poverty remains, as does the widespread custom of early marriage. Some Afghans readily use their daughters to settle debts and assuage disputes. Polygamy is practiced. A man named Mohammed Fazal, 45, told Sinclair that village elders had urged him to take his second wife, 13-year-old Majabin, in lieu of money owed him by the girl’s father. The two men had been gambling at cards while also ingesting opium and hashish. …
On the day she witnessed the engagement party of 11-year-old Ghulam Haider to 40-year-old Faiz Mohammed, Sinclair discreetly took the girl aside. "What are you feeling today?" the photographer asked. "Nothing," the bewildered girl answered. "I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?"
And here I was thinking that we liberated Afghanistan. Silly me!
German designers Oliver Keller and Tillman Schlootz designed this concept vehicle called Hyanide for the 2006 Michelin Challenge Design:
Named for its supposed resemblance to a crouching hyena, the Hyanide is designed to run on a flexible rubber tread that spans the machine’s entire underside. So if any part of the bottom is touching the ground, the Hyanide should be able to move, no matter how deep the quagmire, no matter how rough the terrain. The tank-like tread consists of 77 identical segments—each made from hard plastic covered with tire rubber —held together by Kevlar rope. Each segment flexes independently, making the tread significantly more limber than if its components were rigid. Not only does this setup help with traction, but it would allow the tank- cum-motorcycle to corner like no other vehicle.
Posted by Alex in Pictures on July 11, 2006 at 5:27 pm
From Earth Picture of the Day:
The above photo showing a bizarre arc of lightning was captured near in southeastern France, near Menton, on May 10, 2006. Since the ground is charged opposite that of a cloud base, and will not discharge to itself, it’s likely that this picture is showing two cloud-to-ground strokes. Perpsective makes it appear as though a single lightning bolt is arching above the hill top.
Posted by Alex in Politics on July 11, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Identical twin brothers rule a country, for the first time ever in modern days:
Polish President Lech Kaczynski has appointed his twin brother, Jaroslaw, as prime minister, the president’s office has said. … The development will make the Kaczynski brothers the world’s only twins to hold the two highest posts in any country.
oh, the wretched. the worst thing about this whole debacle, as my husband later informed me, is that i TOLD Violet to "go play with the peanut butter." she liked to roll the jar around in the kitchen. unfortunately, big sister figured out how to open the jar and pile the entire contents onto the little one’s head. it was very hard to convince them that they should never do this again when i was laughing and crying and taking a million pictures.
From flickr user Smile Jennarator’s photostream, captioned:
He found a blue crayon on the floor today that his sister dropped….and daddy was so proud of himself for teaching him not to eat crayons, HA! I had to take his picture before I cleaned him up….and no, he didn’t get sick!
This photograph, being auctioned at eBay, depicts two US military pilots dressed up in strange, Flash Gordon-like helmets and goggles performing some sort of communication experiment. We think.
Posted by Alex in Music on July 11, 2006 at 11:05 am
You can now buy a guitar pick made from 4.5 billion years-old meteorite:
The world’s first custom guitar pick made from 4.5 billion year old meteorites. Oh, and by the way, they sound GREAT on any guitar. Pick one up today. They make the perfect "one of a kind" gift for the guitar player that has it all.
Why use a $0.99 spoon when you can spend $30 to get a self-stirring coffee mug? This Hammacher Schlemmer mug has a propeller at the bottom that can stir the content of the mug at 3,000 rpm at a touch of a button.
Duck Young Kong designed this prototype keyboard food tray for those of us who work and eat at the same time:
Home workers spend a lot of time at their worktables. They even eat their meals in front of the computer to keep doing their work. However, there is not enough space on the desk for their food because of other many office supplies. This food tray is fitted onto any keyboards which occupy a lot of space on the desk, so user can eat their food during working without any interruptions of their work.
Wim van Eck built this pacman game, where a human player can play against real crickets, for his graduation project.
In his project he build a Pacman game, in that the player can play Pacman against real crickets, that controls the ghosts in the Pacman maze. By doing this he analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of real-time behaviour of live animals in comparison to behavior-generating code in computer games.
Interesting about this idea in my opinion is, that through the use of real life elements in a game, the game gets unpredictable. It happens once to him that during playing the game one cricket piled his skin. Because of the new and white skin of the cricket, the color detecting system of the game could not detect the cricket for certain period. During this period the cricket was a real ghost for the system.
Watch as this Corvette thief tried to get away from the cops, driving as fast as 165 mph, when he slammed into a big rig, was thrown out of the car, and lived to tell about it (and go to jail for it).
RSS
Comments Off
