John Farrier's Blog Posts
I've having trouble verifying any information about this painting, but I'm posting it anyway. It's a hilarious take on the Madonna and Child motif in Western art. Madonna Ciccone is the pop singer who goes by just her first name "Madonna".
This oil on canvas painting was allegedly made by A. Palmer.
via Ace of Spades HQ
Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy is the first recipient of a new graduate studies program at Liverpool Hope University that focuses on the work of The Beatles:
I'll just leave this here. (via)
Link | University Website | Photo: AP
The launch of the unique MA in Beatles, Popular Music and Society was a world first when it took its first class. Zahalan-Kennedy was the first to accept her degree in person from the university.
The course looks at the studio sound and composition of the Beatles and how Liverpool helped to shape their music. The MA examines the significance of their music and how it helped to define identities, culture and society.
Mike Brocken, founder and leader of the Beatles MA at Liverpool Hope University, said the postgraduate degree makes Zahalan-Kennedy a member of a select group of popular music experts.
"Mary-Lu now joins an internationally recognized group of scholars of Popular Music Studies who are able to offer fresh and thought-provoking insights into the discipline of musicology."
I'll just leave this here. (via)
Link | University Website | Photo: AP
UPS saved a lot of money by eliminating left turns from its delivery routes. Would this practice be effective on a larger scale? At Smithsonian, Sarah Zielinski writes:
Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user taberandrew used under Creative Commons license
UPS minimizes left turns for its delivery trucks to save on fuel. (And it works, as the Mythbusters demonstrated last year.) In the 1960s, the state of Michigan designed an intersection known as the “Michigan left” that prevents people driving on side streets from making left turns onto a multi-laned divided road; if they wish to go left, they’ll first have to go right and then make a U-turn. And superstreets, or restricted crossing U-turns, which are found in some other parts of the country, such as North Carolina, work in a similar way, preventing left turns. It’s never really caught on, though, since it seems to be a big inconvenience.
However, a new study from North Carolina State University says that superstreets are actually more efficient than traditional intersections. The researchers collected data from three superstreets in North Carolina that had traffic lights and looked at travel time for both right and left turns as well as passing straight through. They also examined collision data from 13 superstreet intersections in that state that didn’t have traffic lights.
Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user taberandrew used under Creative Commons license
Your cat doesn't have a helmet? Why not? deviantART user Diarment made one for his cat Hugo. It's reminiscent of Princess Leia's slave girl costume, if Leia had been a cat.
Link via Super Punch
In a series that he calls Kim Jong Phil, artist Phillip Toledano depicted himself as a heroic leader, much as North Korea's propaganda art shows dictator Kim Jong-il. He explained that this is a natural thing for an artist to do:
It occurred to me that being an artist is a great deal like being a dictator.
Just like a dictator, I must live in a closed loop of self-delusion. A place where my words and ideas always ring true. A gilded daydream of grandiosity. There can be no room for doubt. I must be convinced that I have something vital to say. I must believe that the world is waiting in keen anticipation to hear my message.
Link via Crackajack
Previously on Phillip Toledano:
Bankrupt Offices Photography
Mr. Toledano
The Reluctant Father
In Redditch, UK, there's a recreation center next to a large crematorium. The latter generates a lot of heat, which is currently going to waste. So why not make use of it?
Link via DVICE | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Qfamily used under Creative Commons license
Redditch council in Worcestershire says it can save £14,500 a year by warming its new Abbey Stadium sports centre with heat from the crematorium's incinerators that would otherwise be lost.
The council, which says it is the first project of its kind in the UK, is holding briefings later this week with faith groups, funeral directors and members of the public to discuss the scheme.
But some local people are concerned. Simon Thomas, of Thomas Brothers funeral directors, said: "I don't know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it's a bit strange and eerie."
Link via DVICE | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user Qfamily used under Creative Commons license
Cartographer Daniel Huffman measured the propensity of six swear words in tweets by geographic location within the 48 contiguous states. So this map is actually adjusted for population. Redder areas swear a lot more than blacker areas.
Link via Geekologie
(Video Link)
If you're not familiar with the television show Dexter, this parody by the comedy company Landline TV will bring you up to speed in about a minute. Summing up the character Debra Morgan with the verbal statement "swear word" was an inspired touch.
via Urlesque | Official Website
Australian graffiti artist BUFFdiss works in masking tape. He's especially fond of making giants in public places so that people look like dolls in comparison. In the links, you can find an interview with him. BUFFdiss says that using masking tape permits him greater leeway with authorities who would object to the use of more permanent media.
Link via Make | Video | Photo: Mick Bradley
If you think that vegans are just people who avoid animal products, you have a rather incomplete understanding of a complex people with a unique history, culture, and physiology. Did you know that they have horns on their heads from which they emit anti-gravitons? It's true, as this page from the Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe attests.
Link via Boing Boing | Amazon Link
Sure, you could have an ordinary wall tentacle, but what fun is that? If you're going to really shock your mother-in-law, it needs to be in a traditional craft, such as embroidery. Craftster user jemimah made this solid work of embroidery using a technique called stumpwork. That involves working the fabric over a wire base to form a solid object.
Link via Geek Crafts
Tal Golesworthy has the typical engineer's mindset: he saw one solution to a problem and figured that he could do a better job. Specifically, his aortic root was growing so large that it would soon split. Golesworthy looked what the doctors were doing and knew that he could come up with a superior means of measuring a replacement:
What excited him was the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer-aided design (CAD). He believed that by combining these technologies with rapid prototyping (RP) techniques he could manufacture a tailor-made support that would act as an internal bandage to keep his aorta in place.[...]
’It seemed to me to be pretty obvious that you could scan the heart structure, model it with a CAD routine, then use RP to create a former on which to manufacture a device,’ explained Golesworthy. ’In a sense, conceptually, it was very simple to do. Actually engineering that was significantly more complex.’
The process of developing a scanning protocol proved to be difficult as the movement of the heart complicated the images and made their positions unclear. The engineers, working alongside medical radiographers, found that they had different perspectives. ’They wanted pictures that showed the structures in a way that their colleagues could understand. What we wanted were images with which we could take dimensions,’ said Golesworthy.
So Golesworthy and his colleagues developed a means of scanning the heart consistently at the same point in the cardiac cycle so that they could take accurate measurements of the component that they would need to synthesize. Once they had a computer model of what they needed, they made a functional one from polyethylene terephthalate, which is a common medical polymer.
Link via Popular Science | Photo: The Engineer
Artist Inger Carina made a crocheted gunbelt with matching three-dimensional revolvers. The only thing that she needs to add is some speedloaders.
Link via Dude Craft
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