davidthompson

Friday Ephemera

Do you own an ICBM silo? // Silo makeovers. // USB-powered chainsaw. // A 3-D map of Hong Kong. (h/t, Coudal) // Could you make a toaster from scratch? // A chess set made of vacuum tubes. // Clothing made of leaves. // Origami dollars. // Socialist grades. // Hitchens on evil. // Unusually limber. // LCD monitor porn. It’s curved, it’s big and it’s $8,000. // Fancy a pair of toe shoes? // Modern mega-churches. // Deep zoom the Moon. // Someone didn’t like the Battlestar finale. // The SR-71 Blackbird. A piece of aeronautic art. (h/t, Maggie’s Farm) // More experimental aircraft. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Richard Cheese.

Friday Ephemera

Ravishing bacteria. // What aliens are watching. // Make your own Klingon forehead ridges. (h/t, Candice) // The Kremlin, revealed. // The internet in space. // Michio Kaku’s cosmology cheat sheet. // The latest crop of rice paddy art. // Sheep crackers. // Dark Zoo. (h/t, Coudal) // Monochrome pigs. // Animals that glow. // A world of weeping. // Penthouse poverty. // In praise of the wheel. // Disney and Dali. // Building with glass. // Snowboarding, dude. // Bad movies of note. Flash Gordon, bad? (h/t, Things) // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Andy Bright. 

The Whale That Exploded

No, seriously. See for yourselves. 

I quote:

In January 2004, the carcass of a 50-ton sperm whale explodes in a Taiwanese city centre. [National Geographic Channel] examines the physics and the biology of this 100,000-pound animal whose body was destroyed by its own internal forces. On the way to Tainan University for research, the whale exploded due to volatile gas build up in the abdomen.

At this point, further comment seems unwise. It would only lead to jokes involving the ending of Watchmen and “volatile gas build-ups.”

This One Time...

Here’s a short animation by Cal Arts student Nelson Boles. Like many good yarns, it’s about a boy, his, er, dog and… a big, terrible thing. The ending’s a little abrupt, but I do like the sound design and air of oddity.

Via Drawn!

Friday Ephemera

There’s something lurking in the sewer. Worms, apparently. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) // Have you examined your ant lately? // Our insect overlords. // Challenging stairs. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) // Art made from chewing gum. // Art made from bacon. // Bacon haikus. // Do you see blue and green? // Feats of skill and madness. (h/t, Coudal) // Edit solo. // The 50 greatest film trailers? // Destroying a planet isn’t as easy as you’d think. // Dioramas of Normandy, 1944. // The jellyfish are coming. // Fish sculptures. // Cat Ladies. // The CandyFab 6000. // A castle made of paper. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s the return of Señor Coconut. 

Heaven and Hell (in a Lift)

Marco Brambilla’s Civilization is a video mural created for the lifts of New York’s Standard Hotel. Assembled from hundreds of loops of found and original footage, the mural depicts an ascent from hell, via purgatory, to heaven (and a less heartening journey for those going down to the lobby). Think Dante’s Divine Comedy, or Hieronymus Bosch with cameos by Princess Leia, General Zod and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. 

High definition here. Via Coudal. 

Friday Ephemera

Morphine syrup, asthma cigarettes and cocaine toothache drops. // Red wine powder. // Milky vodka. // Moscow Cat Theatre. (h/t, Coudal) // Search Flickr by colour. // Sixty Symbols. // Geometric sculptures. // The bulbdial clock. // Apocalypse porn. // Mars, seen from orbit. // Robots of yore. // Deco-Gundam fights crime, looks fabulous. // Synaesthesia. // On maths and jellyfish. // Plotline similarities. // The politics of intelligence. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Ms Liz Brady.

Tubing

A Boy and his Tuba is a series of improbable cover versions. As the name suggests, all parts of each song are performed with a tuba, with assorted loops, grunts and distortions manipulated live. Here’s New Order’s Blue Monday. Stay with it, it may surprise you.

Hardware enthusiasts may want to watch this behind-the-scenes clip, which explains the mysteries of envelope filters and the importance of gaffer tape.

Via Coudal. 

Friday Ephemera

It’s raining tadpoles in Ishikawa prefecture. // Schoolboy versus meteorite. // Sydney panorama. (h/t, Coudal) // The Rorschach alphabet. // Steampunk watches. // The Barbie store, Shanghai. // Hygienic robot hands. // Brown sugar bacon waffles. // A dress made of meat. (h/t, Mr Eugenides) // Beef jerky underpants. // Tactical corsets. // Goat towers. // More Communist monuments. // 40 years ago, hairless apes did something very clever. // Remember the Uniqlo grid? Here’s the Uniqlo calendar. // The baffling adventures of Unko-san, the lucky faecal fairy. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Señor Coconut. 

Symmetry

More from the Shorpy Photo Archive.   

 

Kay Jewelry Co., 407 Seventh Street N.W, Washington, D.C. Circa 1919.