[Well, now, that’s a thing of beauty. -egg]
This very beautiful working Stirling-engine steam-car model was made by the Germany company Böhm Stirling-Technik and sells for $500.
(Thanks, Francesco!)
[This is AWESOME. -egg]
In the latest episode of The Midnight Archive, the show’s creator Ronni Thomas shares his own collection of 19th century 3D devil tissues. Also known as diableries, they’re a particularly unique species of hand-painted color stereogram depicting “Satan’s daily life in hell,” as Thomas says. “Stereoscopic Terror“
World wrapped in plastic: 1948 cling-film ad:
This 1948 ad for Viking’s “VisQueen” plastic film paints a utopian vision of a world where everything is entombed in airtight plastic layers, rendering it sterile and impervious to the world’s depredations and imperfections. My grandmother practiced this sort of mummification in her living room and most of the kitchen until all her grandchildren were well past adolescence.
A plastic cover for everything!
Interactive “Starry Night” adds a touch of movement:
Petros Vrellis created this interactive, animated version of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, where the viewer can send impressions swirling with a touch. [Creative Applications] Previously.
[Wow, so cool. -egg]
Chased by the Light
This project is a zen masterpiece. It is also a behavior-modifiying challenge for all digital photographers: Look instead of click.
In the 1990s veteran magazine photographer Jim Brandenbrug gave himself an impossible assignment: “For 90 days between the autumn equinox and winter solstice I would make only one photograph a day. There would be no second exposure, no second chance.” A single exposure, a single click per day! He was using film, and he was photographing wildlife, including elusive animals in the north woods in upper Minnesota. Film is unforgiving. For amateur and professional alike getting even an acceptable photo in these conditions with one shot requires relying on the Force. Yet Brandenburg found, or made, one beauty after another. Most mortals would need a hundred shots to get one like these. The 90 images stand strong each on their own, but the complete symphony is one of the most impressive acts of mindfulness I’ve seen.
(The full set of images were also published in a smaller format in the November 1997 issue of National Geographic.)
Besides the book, there is now an iPad app.
— KK
Chased by the Light
Jim Brandenburg
1998, 104 pages
$35
Available from Amazon
App $10
Sample Excerpts
I sensed there would be lessons learned. There were, but not always those I had imagined. Some were merely lessons remembered, recapturing things I had forgotten, such as remaining open to chance, and that, in nature, not all beauty is giant in scale. One such lesson occurred on October 15th, the twenty-third day. It was late and I despaired of capturing anything of value. The day was dark and gloomy; my mood reflected the weather. I wandered through the dripping forest all day long. Tired, hungry , and wet, I was near tears. I was mentally beating myself for having passed up several deer portraits and the chance to photograph a playful otter. None of those scenes spoke to me at the time.
But perhaps because I was patient, and perhaps because, as natives do on a vision quest, I had reached my physical limits, I became open to the possibility revealed by a single red maple leaf floating on a dark-water pond. My spirits rose the instant I saw it, and although the day was very late and what little light there had been was fleeing rapidly, I studied the scene from every angle. Finally, unsure of my choice, I made the shot anyway, thankful at least that the long day had ended. Once more I was surprised by the result. The image seems to have a lyrical quality, with a rhythm in the long grass.
[Very nice. -egg]
Above is video of the incredible Serpent Twins, two slithering vehicles created by the incredibly talented maker couple Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate. You may recall that Jon and Kyrsten are the creators of such exquisite biomechanical transports as the Golden Mean snail car that I wrote about in MAKE here and the zippy Electrobyte trilobite car. The Serpent Twins are in the running for the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition grand prize of $10,000 that will be awarded to the best “innovative mechanical project that utilizes ball bearings, roller bearings, linear bearings or any form of full ceramic or ceramic hybrid bearings anywhere in the application.” Jon and Kyrsten say that if they win they’ll use the prize money to “buy a stacker trailer to transport our beasts to events like Maker Faire, schools, and festivals to inspire the next generation of artists, engineers and makers.” All I can say is that they have my vote.
More about the The Serpent Twins
“REK is a bookcase that grows with your book collection,” writes Reinier De Jong Design on its official website. “The more books the bigger the bookcase gets. The zigzag shaped parts slide in and out to accomodate books in the resulting voids. REK will always be full, regardless of the quantity of books. Also the books can be arranged according to their sizes. The narrow spaces are excellent for magazines.”
Price is “on request”, unfortunately, which suggests I’ll be sticking with my cheapo Billies for the time being.
REK bookcase [via Jessamyn West]
Mark Jenkins’s public sculptures of mannequins in distress:
Sculptor Mark Jenkins’s “City” series is comprised of lifelike mannequins placed in public spaces in odd postures, often in seeming distress or danger, usually with a broadly humorous undertone. They’re pretty funny stuff. Shown here: “Barcelona Trashgirl.”
(via kikirikipics)
[Hahahahaaha!]
An undercover police officer in Sussex, England, shadowed a suspicious character through the streets a small market town for 20 minutes, following directions passed to him by a CCTV operator who guided him towards the suspect. After 20 minutes, the CCTV operator realized that the “suspicious character” was the police officer himself.
The operator directed the officer, who was on foot patrol, as he followed the “suspect” on camera last month, telling his colleague on the ground that he was “hot on his heels”.
The officer spent around 20 minutes giving chase before a sergeant came into the CCTV control room, recognised the “suspect” and laughed hysterically at the mistake…
“The CCTV operator soon had the suspect on camera and everywhere he saw the male the keen PC was on his heels – radioing in to say he was in the same street…”
He added: “Every time the man darted in to another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway, but every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see there was no trace.”
CCTV police officer ‘chased himself’ after being mistaken for burglar
(via Neatorama)
Mexican Banda bandits blamed for school tuba thievery: The Los Angeles Times reports that two more $6,000 King brass sousaphones (marching band tubas) have been burgled from an LA county high school this week, in an extended run of thefts over recent months blamed on “the popularity of Mexican banda music.”