Friday Ephemera

Lightning. // Lolly pies. // Nicolay Aldunin’s miniatures. // Touch screens with temporary bumps. // Humungous 3-D projection. (h/t, Andy) // How to listen to satellites. (h/t, Coudal) // The Russian Space Museum. // Robot baseball. // Brain surgery with sound. // “Transparent aluminium.” // Luminescent trainers. // Remember Tron…? // 1980s sax solos, rated and compared. // Cat ladders. (h/t, Freeborn John) // Slime moulds. // Infrared trees. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s The Comedian Harmonists. 

Comments

[mlrosty]

"Nikolay Aldunin… managed to shoe a flea, carved portraits of Russian authors on rice grains and constructed a microscopic miniature of the Eiffel Tower."

The sewing needle camel train is amazing.

http://englishrussia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/10256-3.jpg

[TimT]

Man, our cats don't need ladders. There's this mattress that stands in the hallway on its end, and they'll just climb it vertically until they're sitting on the top.

[James S]

Tim T -You have a mattress in your hallway? Is it a load bearing mattress?

mlrosty -I like the tiny tank sitting on an apple seed:

http://englishrussia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/10256-1.jpg

[Anna]

David, thanks for the sax solos link. Hilarious. Whatever happened to dramatic sax solos? Did techno kill them off?

[David]

I think the Eighties killed them off.

[TimT]

Kenny G, with psychotic single-mindedness, murdered them.

[James S]

I blame Hazel O'Connor.

[carbon based lifeform]

The lolly fruit pies look pretty good. I was expecting bacon for some reason…

[David]

I’m sure the basic design can be adapted for salted meats. Or an audacious blob of pâté.

[Spiny Norman]

I could be exaggerating a bit, but I think we can thank (blame?) the rash of 80s sax solos (appropriate and otherwise) on Supertramp from the late 70s. I certainly can't imagine that band without the sax.

[Mr Eugenides]

Yes, but a website on 80s sax solos that doesn't mention Baker Street? Is this a joke?

[Alan Kellogg]

About those slime mold photos. That news site has no idea what it's talking about. What the page shows is a mix of slime molds and fungi, which are not the same thing. last I checked there were some five different slime mold kingdoms; one of which might be related to the ancestor of the fungi, and another related to the ancestor of animals.

And yes, animals and fungi are still restricted to a single kingdom each.

[Candice]

Thanks for sharing the Tron trailer. This movie might actually be good, as I had a little spark of joy in my heart when Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is seen in the Encom world. First thoughts of "Gods, not *another* remake!" turned to "This looks like it might be cool."

Shame about it being an IMAX 3-D only joint.