davidthompson

Friday Ephemera

Television without context. // 8mm cameras we have known and loved. // A $24,000 turntable. // Some jaunty speakers. // “I heard the pipes rumbling a bit, and suddenly hailstones the size of golf balls started exploding out of the toilet.” // Inside the Lego factory. // Unlikely office space. Shoreditch, East London. (h/t, Andy.) // Lunar transit of the Earth. // Hubblefest. // Brace for impact! Doin’ the spaceship shake. // “Manhattanhendge.” (h/t, Stephen Hicks.) // Typewriters of noted figures. // Detecting academic imposters. (h/t, Vitruvius.) // Extra tentacles. // Rendering things unseen: the flying spaghetti monster. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus.) // Fire hydrant collections. (h/t, Coudal.) // “How much tax would ‘the rich’ have to pay before it becomes fair?” // Myron Magnet on victimhood and responsibility: “It’s not what they’re doing to us. It’s what we’re not doing.” // Great moments in internet history. // Ryan. An animated short. (h/t, Drawn!) // And, via The Thin Man, Did You Ever…? (Unknown, 1933)

Friday Ephemera

Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham. // NASA wants your urine. For the toilets of tomorrow. // Wine in a can. // Toys for cats. // Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes. Part 2, 3, 4, 5. // Stephen Salmieri’s photographs of cadillacs. (h/t, Coudal.) // Build your own giant cardboard Ghandi. // 100 ways to draw manga eyes. // “My boots are all sticky.” // Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along. It’s tough being evil. // The Victim Privilege Checklist. (h/t, Anna.) // Communist Loser: James Kirchick on the delusional Eric Hobsbawm. // Cultural imperialism! // Latte art and assorted cakes. More. // The German Hosiery Museum. // World’s largest subwoofer. (h/t, Chastity Darling.) // Colour flipbook. // 696 book covers. // San Francisco panorama. // Skyscraper earthquake dampening. A 728-ton sphere should do it. // Dismantling old buildings, from the bottom up. // Ship graveyard. (h/t, Tim239.) // Steve Reich: Piano Phase. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Ms Ethel Waters.

Friday Ephemera

At last. David Cronenberg’s The Fly is now an opera. Get those tickets booked. // The Danvers State Insane Asylum. (h/t, Coudal.) // Tentacles. // Behold the amazing Shit Box™. Oh, don’t look so indignant. // Bubble-wrap calendar. Imagine the fun. // TomTom hidden features. (h/t, Andy.) // Ideal wheels. (h/t, Vloody Cloody.) // Indian comics from the 1970s. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // Off-duty superheroes. // Chess + boxing = chess boxing. // There are waves on Saturn’s rings. // Satellite imagery as art. // The art of the tracking shot. From Touch of Evil to Boogie Nights. // Das Rad. // The abbreviated Plan 9 from Outer Space. (h/t, Matt.) // PES: Western Spaghetti. // Caffeine usage, visualised. // Avoid cramping at crucial moments. // If you’re tunnelling to the other side of the Earth, you’ll be needing a map. // Neo-NeoCon on arguing politics. // Fabian Tassano on academic “progress”. // The art of Chris Appelhans. // The colour of money. // Translucent creatures. // Robot calligraphy. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Ray Charles. 

The Thrill of Costume

Steve Schofield photographs British science fiction fans who like to dress up.

I rather like the images, the discomfort and the hint of tragicomedy. But I’m less convinced by the predictable spiel about “globalisation and America’s ongoing ability to infiltrate all cultures via various channels of media.” Are we supposed to believe that these people are in some way being oppressed by international mass culture? Why don’t artists fret quite so much about the globalisation of, say, Chinese restaurants? Or doesn’t that count? And why does no-one want to dress up as Naomi Klein?

Via Coudal.

Friday Ephemera

The American Family Association experiences technical difficulties. // Sweden’s classroom esteem police. // Excuse me, sir - do you have any cigarette in your marijuana? // Medical mannequins. // Kubrick. // Abandoned hotels. (h/t, Things.) // Impressive swimming pools. (h/t, Coudal.) // Pencil sculptures. // A very large drawing. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // The Metzo School, Doetinchem. // Undersea internet cables. // The Amazon bookstore browser. With virtual shelves and everything. // Vintage comic book covers. // Vintage gay paperback covers. // Porn for the blind. (sfw) // Two decades of party flyers, 1987 - 2007. // Hey, mobile DJ. // 120 years of electronic music. // Faces and pocket contents, scanned. (h/t, Quipsologies.) // Octopus jewellery. Precious tentacles. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Ms Greta Keller.

Meddling with Forces

A mobile in a microwave – what could possibly go wrong? 

(h/t, Ace.)

Friday Ephemera

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms. Sergei Brukhonenko and the disembodied dog’s head. (1940) // Farming with dynamite. (1910) // From bull fights to ape rights. // Snow globes of note. // Rice paddy art. // Echochrome. A game of perspective. // The book of sleep. // The worst places to be a woman. // Dr Ahmad Al-Mub’i shares his thoughts on marriage. (h/t, Cookslaw.) // A map of the political blogosphere. // A timeline of internet memes. (h/t, Crooked Timber.) // Peter Risdon on Marxists, memes and benefit cheats. // Jihad on the dole. Your taxes at work. // Guardian hypocrisy shock. // Bill Blake on Grand Theft Auto IV. Missile launchers, temptation and vigilante strippers. // Photographed while driving. // “Come and play with us, Danny.” Kubrick analysed. // The art of the title sequence. // George Dyson on the birth of the computer. // Dish camouflage. // Big science. // The Tokyo Sky Tree. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // The aerodynamic Nubrella. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Flanagan and Allen.

Underneath

Matt Kirkland reveals the innards of some popular cuddly toys. Pooh, Elmo and Ernie are among the fluffy creatures stripped to their stumps and wires.

Children, avert your eyes. (h/t, Ace.) 

Friday Ephemera

Barbie goes Hitchcock. // The obsessive-compulsive action figure. Comes with hypo-allergenic towelette. (h/t, Coudal.) // A floor plan of 221b Baker Street. // Underneath Berlin: the CIA’s secret tunnel. // Ancient cities of colour. // Viva Calaca! Dia de los Muertos. (h/t, Drawn!) // The elasticity of flesh. // Not a huge fan of tattoos. This one isn’t swaying me. // Electro-adhesive wall-climbing robot. // Balls. The cute, incredible change-bot. // Björk: Wanderlust, in 3D. Glasses not included. // Drug smuggling submarines. // How torpedo tubes work. // Turkish remake of The Exorcist. Budget not included. // “Only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss matters of faith.” (h/t, Cookslaw.) // Robert Spencer on the jihad against free speech. // Mark Pagel on race, reciprocation and the kindness of strangers. // How many cannibals could your body feed? // Evolving bacteria. // Synaesthesia on demand. // Tetris tactics. // The web text highlighter. // The thrill of vending machines. Why not make your own? // And, via The Thin Man, it’s the Balkan Hot Step.

Telesurgical Origami

Here’s a thing. Japanese surgeon Dr Norihiko Ishikawa demonstrates the precision of the da Vinci Surgical System by using its remote-control robotic arms to indulge in a spot of origami. The object he’s making – a crane – is about the size of a penny.

Via Pink Tentacle.