Anyone who has worked in an office with a shared coffee pot will immediately relate to this clever flowchart a reader submitted over at Passive Aggressive Notes.
Link
Anyone who has worked in an office with a shared coffee pot will immediately relate to this clever flowchart a reader submitted over at Passive Aggressive Notes.
Link
Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the need for more skilled blue-collar workers.
His purpose was to encourage support for industrial education through programs Rowe participates in, such as Go Build Alabama, I Make America, Discover Your Skills, and mikeroweWORKS. Read his entire testimony at the Discovery Channel site. Link -via reddit
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.
In a hundred different ways, we have slowly marginalized an entire category of critical professions, reshaping our expectations of a "good job" into something that no longer looks like work. A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber – if you can find one – is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we'll all be in need of both.
His purpose was to encourage support for industrial education through programs Rowe participates in, such as Go Build Alabama, I Make America, Discover Your Skills, and mikeroweWORKS. Read his entire testimony at the Discovery Channel site. Link -via reddit
Ben Greenman started making charts as an exercise to help him write a novel about a guy who makes charts. But it became a hobby. You'll find quite a few more to make you laugh at I Love Charts. Link -via Metafilter
The Lowrider Coloring Book by Dokument Press celebrates the lowriding culture that originated in the 1930s, peaked in Southwestern Latino neighborhoods in the 1950s and experienced an urban culture renaissance in the 1990s. The term "low rider" comes from the goal of lowering the vehicle as close to the pavement as possible. Cars were also reupholstered and given bright paint jobs, new chrome and rims. The illustrations in this coloring book are based on conversions by some of the biggest names in the culture.
I love this! DeviantART member MasterPlanner made a rainbow scarf, complete with a detachable Pop Tart Cat! You can buy one for $75 plus shipping- if there are any left. Link -via The Daily What
How Tie - $16.95
Are you looking for a practical and fun gift for your favorite graduate? Get them the How Tie from the NeatoShop. Don't worry that he doesn't know how to tie a tie. The instructions are printed right there on the front. All he needs to do is follow the instructions.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Apparel & Accessories!
Graduate students at the School of Visual Arts in New York City created an eighteen-hole golf course with each hole representing a particular phobia. Pictured above is Camille McMorrow's piece on the fear of taking tests. The exhibit will be up through this Saturday.
Link via Super Punch | Photo: Soo Ji Han
Previously: Miniature Golf Course in a Funeral Home Basement
The webcomic Pants Are Overrated (a sentiment that I heartily endorse) imagines Calvin 26 years after the end of Bill Watterson's comic. He's all grown and the father of a daughter (named, to continue the theme, after Francis Bacon). She can't sleep. Click on the link to read the rest.
http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/05_10_2011/hobbes-and-bacon via reddit
Megan Lara has created several images of geek icons reminiscent of the style of Art Nouveau illustrator Alphonse Mucha. This piece is part of a triptych also featuring Princess Peach and Samus Aran. In addition, Lara does tattoo designs, a medium that strikes me as quite appropriate for her style.
Artist Website via Fanboy
(Video Link)
Zero Charisma is a film project led by Katie Graham, Andrew Matthews, and Thomas Fernandes. They hope to raise $15,000 to turn the above trailer into a feature-length movie. Here's a synopsis of their story:
Scott Weidemeier spends his time in exactly three ways: working a menial job at a local donut shop, caring for his abusive grandmother, and running The Greatest Dungeons & Dragons Game of All Time. Though overbearing and short-tempered, Scott is a hero to his fellow players--that is, until neo-nerd hipster Miles Butler joins the game, fueling Scott's rampant insecurity and alienating him from his own players. Can Scott overcome his contempt for the mainstreaming of nerdery, or will this clash of the subcultures come to a head?
The best line from the trailer: "I weep for the women of your generation."
Link via Nerd Bastards
Would life make more sense if you suddenly realized that you're actually inside Super Mario Bros.?
Also: turtles can climb fences? If snapping turtles can do this and develop opposable thumbs, we're in trouble.
via Geekosystem | Photo: unknown
(Video Link)
This simple but beautiful video from Harvard University shows fifteen pendulums of increasing length swinging to and fro. Sometimes they appear to be in sync, but at other times, not. Here's why:
The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations. When all 15 pendulums are started together, they quickly fall out of sync—their relative phases continuously change because of their different periods of oscillation. However, after 60 seconds they will all have executed an integral number of oscillations and be back in sync again at that instant, ready to repeat the dance.
Link via Kottke
The students and faculty at Cornell's Biorobotics and Locomotion lab constructed the weird looking robot you see here dubbed Ranger. The bot set a new distance record for walking 40.5-miles on a single battery with a single charge. It took Ranger 30 hours, 49 minutes, and 2 seconds to walk that distance to take the record. The previous record was set by last year's Ranger at 14.3-miles. link
If I am honest, I don't get the reason you would need a six-wheeled off-road vehicle with a DJ booth hidden inside. I guess if you have to start literally playing the backwoods, this thing might come in handy. It can also be configured to handle projectors for movies as well. link
