Vegetable Instrument Workshop
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Yes I hereby proclaim this to be International Vegetable Music Week!
Tyler of Oddinstrument shared pics from his Vegetable Instrument Workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Attendees produced a number of auditory organics including a cucumber saxophone, coconut/carrot slide trumpet, and the butternut squash drum machine.
More:
Vegetable Orchestra performs
&
Carved carrot clarinet
Turkey head salt and pepper shakers
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Guy Michael Davis made these turkey head salt and pepper shakers. The seasonings come out their nostrils. His former studiomate, Katie Parker, told me that "all his animals come from either 'freshly dead' specimens or from freeze-dried taxidermy." They're $65 dollars on Etsy. Turkey Salt and Pepper Shaker Set
Animated time/temp RGB matrix display
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Nick Hall's made this very excellent time & temperature display - complete with weather animations -
The project uses 4 RGB LED Matrix Modules from Sparkfun Electronics, and is controlled by an Arduino microprocessor board with 16k RAM and Ethernet shield for internet connectivity to get time and weather data.Aah, the joy of LEDs - well done! [via Sparkfun] Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!The Arduino and LED modules made it pretty easy to stick together. I just need to find a cool box to put it in.
I am working on getting it scrolling tweets and messages!
iPod as cigarette case
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Someone has converted an old iPod into a cigarette case. "This is a lot cooler if you smoke"
Microsoft Blames Add-Ons For Browser Woes
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
darthcamaro writes "Running IE and been hacked? Don't blame Microsoft — at least that's what their security types are now arguing. 'One of the things we've seen in the last two years is that attackers aren't even go after the browser itself anymore,' Eric Lawrence, Security Program Manager on Microsoft's Internet Explorer team, said. 'The browser is becoming a harder target and there are many more browsers. So attackers are targeting add-ons.' This kinda makes sense since whether you're running IE, Firefox, Safari or Chrome you could still be at risk if there is a vulnerability in Flash, PDF, QuickTime or another popular add-on. Or does it?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Glue Society’s surreal installations and films
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Australian artists/pranksters/makers The Glue Society create surreal installations and performance pieces in the great outdoors. For example, they've built a chair rainbow on the frozen tundra, transformed a beach into a sunning paradise for sex dolls, and transformed Google Earth imagery into biblical scenes. Hi-Fructose's site features a selection of The Glue Factory's work, including videos. "What's New With The Glue Society"
Jim Woodring originals at Comic Art Collective
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
(JIVAS, by Jim Woodring, $1,200.00, 13" x 9.5"; watercolor and gouache on Fabriano Artistico paper; 2008.)
Artist Jim Woodring has a few pieces left for sale online at the Comic Art Collective.
Jim Woodring art
New Report: CIA lied about missionary plane shot down over Peru
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
The CIA Inspector General John Helgerson just issued a damning report that says the CIA lied about and covered up its involvement in a drug interception program with the Peruvian Airport. In 2001 the Peruvian Air Force used information the CIA gave them to shoot down a small plane loaded with US missionaries, causing the death of Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter Charity.
My prediction: no senior-level member of the CIA will be fired, punished, or imprisoned because of this. For one thing, they're untouchable. For another, the CIA needs all the people they have to run their own drug operations.
New Report: CIA lied about missionary plane shot down over Peru
Windows Embedded CE Spark Your Imagination contest
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
In March of 2008, the Windows Embedded Group launched the SPARK Your Imagination program. This was the first hobbyist-focused program for the Windows Embedded product family. Before the SPARK program, the software cost $1000 per seat and you had to go through a distributor to get it. Not very friendly to weekend code warriors and hard to compete with free/Linux hobbyist software.
On Oct 27th (just a few weeks back), Microsoft launched a contest to bring attention to the SPARK program. The contest is entitled SPARKs Will Fly. It is based on the same concept as The Imagine Cup in that it is round-based and built around a theme; in this case the theme is “Build the home of the future.” Microsoft will advance 50 people to Round 2 and give each of them a VIA Pico-ITX Artigo board ($500 worth of kit) to develop their idea. Microsoft will select 3 finalist from this 50. They’ll compete on stage at ESC Silicon Valley 2009 for the top prize. The winner takes home $15,000. Check it out, I hope a Maker wins!
Annie Leibovitz’s new book, At Work
November 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Earlier this week Carla and I went to the wonderful Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles to see photographer Annie Leibovitz read from her new book, At Work.
The purpose of this book, she said, was to let young photographers find out about photography, and to explain the stories behind the many amazing photographs she's taken in her 40+ year career as a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.
I wasn't expecting to be interested in the text of the book (and it is mostly text, not photos) but I found it to be immensely readable. At Work is not only a gossip lover's delight (she tells fun stories about all the famous people she'd photographed, like Hunter S. Thompson, The Rolling Stones, Queen Elizabeth, and Al Sharpton), its also an inspiration for anyone who does creative work and wants to continuously challenge themselves to become better at their craft.
Excerpt
I bought my first real camera in Japan, a Minolta SR-T 101. The first thing I did with it was take it on a climb up Mt. Fuji.Climbing Mt. Fuji is something every Japanese does at some point, but it’s harder than you might think. I was young, and I started up the mountain fast. I didn’t know about pacing. My brother Phil was even younger – he was thirteen – and he ran ahead of me. Phil disappeared. The camera felt like it weighed a ton. It was awkward. It got heavier the higher we went. After a while I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it, but just then a group of elderly Japanese women in dark robes came marching along in single file. They were chanting in an encouraging way and I fell in behind them. We passed Phil at the seventh way station. He was lying flat on his back.
When you climb Mt. Fuji you stay overnight at the eighth way station and get up in the morning so that you can reach the top at sunrise. It’s a glorious moment. Spiritually significant. When I got to the top I realized that the only film I had was the roll in the camera. I hadn’t thought much about the film situation. I photographed the sunrise with the two or three frames I had left.
