Russian photographer (and Photoshopper) Sergey Larenkov merges WWII-era photos with contemporary shots of identical locations in Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Leningrad, and other European cities, to haunting effect. Many entries filled with images in sets organized by city at his livejournal. — Read the rest
Scott Underwood says: "My grandparents had this toy at their house since before I was born. This is a battery-operated mechanical toy from the early '60s. He shakes a drink, takes a gulp, then his face turns red, After a while, smoke comes out his ears — you can see it after his last drink in this clip." — Read the rest
George Hart of Make: Online says, "A twisted torus is a donut which twists as it closes on itself." Besides making me hungry for a Krispy Kreme, this twisted torus makes me want to ask one of my MakerBot-owning pals to print out a bunch of parts so I can try to build one myself. — Read the rest
The Snails, parted from one another by the cruel hand of man, found themselves in distant lands. Beginning a long and perilous journey home, each tuned into the ancestral ley, the viae gastropoda, which despite its name is truly understood only by those of Clan Helix, Wanderers of the Gardens. — Read the rest
New York painter and graphic designer Scott Albrecht has a show of new work opening August 27 at San Francisco's Curiosity Shoppe. I wasn't familiar with Albrecht's work until now, but I find his fine art, typography, and woodworking to be very warm, rich, and modern. — Read the rest
If you can't have a brain in a jar, the next best thing may be a knitted brain in a frame. The beauty above is handmade by Emily of aKNITomy and available for sale at the Boing Boing Bazaar in the Makers Market. — Read the rest
When the Space Shuttle program ends, where will they retire? A slew of museums and NASA facilities are applying for the opportunity to house one of the vehicles for public display. The Discovery is headed for the Smithsonian, but NASA has delayed the decision on Atlantis and Endeavour. — Read the rest
Herman Miller's Lifework blog today turns the company's impeccable eye to a design object most of us take for granted: The lowly pencil. Blogger Brian Greene highlights five models, from the Mirado Black Warrior (probably the closest pencil in the bunch to the iconic, schoolbus-yellow Ticonderoga #2) to the exotic mechanical Kuru Toga, which "has a tiny clutch mechanism built into the point, and as you write, the pressure from writing and then lifting the pencil off the paper engages the clutch mechanism that rotates the lead for you. — Read the rest
A man in Sundsvall, Sweden with a gash in his leg got sick of waiting in the emergency room so he sewed up his own leg. Now that's the DIY spirit! The hospital reported him to the cops. From The Local:
"They had set out a needle and thread and so I decided to take the matter into my hands," he said.
Following its dismal keyboard-less iClone, RIM's taken another stab at the touchscreen revolution with the BlackBerry Torch. Combining a full-on QWERTY keyboard, expansive capacitative touchscreen and a new version of its operating system, it hopes the new phone will reel in Apple and Android's technical advantages without alienating BlackBerry stalwarts. — Read the rest
"Although music is halal, promoting and
teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime
of the Islamic Republic. It's better that our dear youth spend their
valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill
their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music."— — Read the rest
Above, a dreamy, ambient music video for the Icelandic band For a Minor Reflection's song, "A Moll," on their new album "Höldum í átt að óreiðu." No, I don't know how to pronounce it.
Flooding along the river that sweeps from North Korea down to South Korea is carrying active land mines downstream. The phenomenon is blamed for the death of at least one South Korean citizen this week. Authorities are distributing pamphlets with photos of the North Korean mines, and warning villagers and vacationers to stay out of streams and beaches.
Popville is a sweet, slender little pop-up book that illustrates the growth of a town from a single farmhouse to a thriving city in a series of stylized scenes that build, one upon the next, through a window cut out of the center of the page, so that each development literally overlays the ones beneath. — Read the rest
This Food Safety News article revealed two things I did not know: First, that ordinary wheat flour became a "new" potential carrier of pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella last year, after Nestlé raw cookie dough was blamed for infecting 72 people in 30 states with O157:H7. — Read the rest
"Stones must be of medium size, according to the penal code: Not so big that one or two could kill the person, but not so small that you would call it a pebble. In other words, about the size of a tangerine. — Read the rest
The seasonal Monsoon rains in Pakistan this summer have been extraordinarily heavy. Entire villages have been washed away, over a thousand people have died, and some 2.5 million people are affected by the resulting floods. Lack of safe drinking water and fears of a cholera outbreak are now big concerns. — Read the rest
Impressive home movie version of King Kong, done by kids in the 1970s.
The classic tale of Kong, retold by kids in Hyannis, MA & Riverside, CT in 1978, complete with stop-motion animated dinosaurs, log scene, and panic in the streets!