Just in time for Halloween

A remote control spider covered in fur with red eyes that light up and a spider-like
skitter.

I can't wait, especially after doing several "not remote enough" spider web face plants in the last couple of weeks. . .

Source: gear diary, http://www.geardiary.com/2007/10/15/big-news-on-the-robot-front/

And you thought pop-ups were bad?

Just going near the upper right corner of this web page causes it to rip apart, realistic tearing sounds and all. It is particularly nasty and cheesy effect - right out of a Bruce Campbell movie.

http://www.informationweek.com

Water Wall

Imagine a building made of water. It features liquid curtains for walls - curtains that not only can be programmed to display images or messages but can also sense an approaching object and automatically part to let it through.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/waterbuilding-0711.html

Art - past and future

John Helgeson, The Florentine

"I have been working with digital art for a decade and still find it to be the most fascinating medium that I know.... The artists I admire most are De Kooning, Franz Kline, Goya, Edvard Munch and Richard Diebenkorn."
http://moca.virtual.museum/helgeson/helgeson01.htm

all-in-one cooker, energy generator and fridge

An all-in-one cooker, energy generator and fridge could soon be improving quality of life in developing countries, thanks to an international project launched this week.

The £2m Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity (SCORE) project aims to work with rural communities in Africa and Asia, where access to power is limited, to develop a versatile domestic appliance powered by biomass that will significantly improve health and welfare.

The team hopes that the device will also promote economic growth and reduce poverty by enabling communities to take ownership of its development and establish businesses from its manufacture, repair and application.
link

May 1st

First day of May. Its celebration probably originated in the spring fertility festivals of India and Egypt. The festival of the Roman goddess of spring, Flora, was celebrated from Apr. 28 to May 3. In medieval England the chief feature of the celebration of May Day was the Maypole; this was decorated with flowers and streamers, the loose ends of which were held by dancers, who encircled the pole, weaving intricate patterns as they passed each other in the dance. These dances are still performed for exhibition purposes in England and the United States. The Second Socialist International in 1889 designated May Day as the holiday for labor, and since that time it has been the occasion for demonstrations, parades, and speeches among socialists and communists.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/MayDay
*My mother's birthday was May 1st. She loved all things "May": her birthday, emeralds, lilly of the valley, and being a maypole girl. Happy Birthday Mom, wishing you everything May.

About Vermeer

His manner of seeing is the basic excellence of Vermeer's art - the thing that sets it apart from the work of other men. Where others had a genius for drawing or for colouration, he had a genius for vision. One arrives, while studying his work carefully, at a feeling that he looked at things harder than others have looked at them. . . His almost perfect rendering was the outcome of perfect understanding.

The Pocket Book of Old Masters, edited by Herman J. Wechsler, p. 100 Vermeer, by Philip L. Hale

So much potential . . .

New Design for the Rain Water Catch could address the drinking water shortages in Africa and elsewhere.

The UN just released a report saying that harvesting rain water could solve Africa’s drinking water problems. The web business www.friendsofwater.com, a company working to address water issues, has located a design for a rain water catch that appears to meet the UN recommendations head-on.

I just love this sentence

Backward-hopping gum chewers who try to conjugate Latin verbs, for example, are far more likely to fall over than to swallow their gum.

Thinking Backward Some Curable and Incurable Consequences of Cognitive Busyness

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/%7Edtg/Gilbert%20&%20Osborne%20
(Thinking%20Backward).pdf

precocious, sensitive, inventive . . .

"There are a dozen or so characteristics of exceptionally creative persons."

Only a dozen?

http://clicks.robertgenn.com/child-within.php

Starry Night

A view from Hubble, courtesy of Nasa. It's a big universe - and it is full of art. For inspiration (and a little perspective) try the image galleries at http://www.space.com
which present images from satellites and telescopes - gives a whole new meaning to seeing "the big picture".

Boids of a Feather . . .

"Reynolds created a virtual flock of birds, called 'boids,' which flew according to three rules:

• Always avoid collisions with your neighbors;
• Always try to fly at the same speed as your neighbors;
• Always try to stay close to you neighbors.

These three rules were sufficient to create the emergence of flocking behavior."
Imitation of Life How Biology is Inspiring Computing, Nancy Forbes

On another, bird-like note:

Tiny flying Web server set to swarm
"A tiny helicopter that serves up a Web page over a wireless network has been made by UK scientists using off-the-shelf hardware.

The 70-gram prototype, is the first in a group of flying computers that are planned to one day combine swarm intelligence, the ability to maneuver like a flock of birds, and wireless computing, to process information the way cluster-based supercomputers do."
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1389516.htm

Murphy's Technology Laws

Just a few:

If the assumptions are wrong, so are the conclusions.

Try as you may, you can never tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks.

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he will believe you. Tell him the bench has wet paint on it , and he will touch it to make sure.

Timeless

Check out the beautiful interface, not to mention the beautiful art, at:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm.
The timeline includes multiple ways to navigate and lots of drilldown opportunities.

Grasping at Gables

I was not sure if this site was for real or tongue in cheek . . . which just shows how massively uncool I am.

http://www.fashionarchitecturetaste.com/2005/11/stroom.html

Troll the site, then go a read an article about the Blue House,
http://www.hughpearman.com/articles3/fat.html
then gasp with appreciation.

Southern Comfort

Carmel Squares
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cup nuts

Set oven at 350 and grease 9" by 9" pan. Put butter and sugar in saucepan and stir over heat until very smooth. Cool. Add unbeaten egg. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt; add vanilla. Mix well until smooth. Bake 30 to 40 minutes. Cook before cutting in squares. Makes about 36 small cookie squares.

Mrs. J. Burton LeBlanc
Mrs. Paul B. Walker
Mrs. A. P. Rabenhorst

from River Road Recipes

*I usually double this recipe and bake it in a 9 x 13 pan. For true decadence top with penuche or caramel icing.

"Build a little birdhouse in your soul"

They Might be Giants


Check out birdhouses created by designers.
http://www.birdhouse.gr.jp/hp/english/2_work/ind_work.htm

Eyes wide open . . .

Experience has pretty well convinced the working physicist that any idea of a nature which is not only difficult to interpret but which actively resists interpretation has not been justified as far as his past work is concerned, and therefore, to be an effective scientist, he must be naive, and even deliberately naive, in making the assumption that he is dealing with an honest God, and must ask his questions of the world as an honest man.

The Human Use of Human Beings - Cybernetics and Society
Norbert Wiener

Past Imperfect

Greek vases do conform to exact geometric laws, and that is why their perfection is so cold and lifeless. There is often more vitality and more joy in an unsophisticated peasant pot. The Japanese, indeed, often deliberately mar the perfect shape which evolves naturally on the potter's wheel, because they feel that true beauty is not so regular.

- Herbert Read, The Meaning of Art

Nature of the beast . . .

It is the mark of the educated man and proof of his culture that in every subject he looks for only so much precision as its nature permits.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 3