Syfy’s ‘Robot Combat League’ Makes Major Tech Dream Come True
By Brian Anthony Hernandez from Mashable.com: Robot Combat League, the Syfy network’s new reality series pitting 12 expensive, 8-feet-tall humanoid machines against each other in tournament-style face-offs, ends Tuesday night (4/23/13) with the final two robots. And while this season lasted only three months, it has been years in the making. “I really couldn’t believe […]
Stampsy: Use easy touch tools to create and share beautiful online experiences
The Stamspy app looks like a great way to share slideshows of portfolio images, advertising and more. Here’s how it works: Stamp: A Stamp is the unit of content you create on Stampsy. It can have up to 10 pages. A background grid helps you create well-balanced designs. Tools: Add images, enter text, arrange them […]
The Surgical Robot That Can Roam Around Inside Your Abdomen Like a Frog
By Jason Bittel from Slate.com: From the chest-burster in Alien to the bellybutton bot in The Matrix, most of us are a wee bit squeamish about the whole thing-crawling-around-inside-you experience. And if thoughts of parasites playing poker in your body cavity already keep you up at night, this article probably isn’t for you—because scientists are […]
The Two Most Important Words in Business
By Robert A. Eckert from the Harvard Business Review: When I arrived at Mattel, the company was losing almost a million dollars a day, the bonus pool was empty, and equity awards were underwater. I believed that those challenges were surmountable. On my first day, at a “town hall” gathering in the cafeteria, I said, […]
Mo Costandi on science writing: a good story conveys wonderment
From the Guardian UK: Our series to accompany the 2013 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize asks top science writers about their craft. Today, we talk to neuroscience writer and blogger Mo Costandi. What’s a good science story? Something that makes me think, “Wow, that’s amazing!”. That is, stories about exciting new research that reveals some […]
Hacker Heroes: 6 Women Who Have Changed Technology
By The Daily Muse Editor at The Daily Muse: When you think about women in tech, you probably instantly think Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook, and Marissa Mayer, President and CEO of Yahoo!. But there are plenty more women you should know about—women whose names you may have never heard before, but who truly shaped […]
Did drinking insane amounts of coffee make these artists great?
By Mason Currey at Slate.com: Coffee! It is the great uniting force of my Daily Rituals book. It’s what brings together Beethoven and Proust, Glenn Gould and Francis Bacon, Jean-Paul Sartre and Gustav Mahler. This should hardly be surprising. Caffeine is the rare drug that has a powerful salutary effect—it aids focus and attention, wards […]
The Secret to Keeping Phone Calls Short and Sweet
From The Daily Muse: Whether you’re talking to a long-winded colleague, a not-so-interesting prospective partner, or a hyper-curious friend-of-a-friend who wants to learn about your career, there are times when it just seems impossible to get off the phone. But take it from me: Your time is precious, and it’s definitely worth mastering this art. […]
Victorian “Cobweb” Valentine
The Victorians popularized the “cobweb” valentine of intricately cut paper; I made this one-of-a-kind 21st century version in 2012. (Visit this article for an exhibit description of the Metropolitan Museum in New York’s historical collection.) I began with the red heart with its Valentine’s Day message, adhering it to light cardboard for stiffness. Topping that […]
Dash, the world’s first foldable, programmable, origami robot that you can build yourself
From the Dash Robotics website: Dash is the world’s first foldable, programmable, origami robot that you can build yourself! Inspired by nature, Dash runs like the world’s fastest animals. Dash fits in the palm of your hand and is so lightweight that you can run him off of tables or even buildings and he just […]
Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 3 of 3
I’m attending the Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 3 of 3. I’m summarizing the talks rather than going into detail to avoid infringing on the presenters’ copyrights. Today’s presentations focus on code. Extremely informative! Fractal CSS: There Is No Breakpoint, by Ben Callahan Major Approaches Single CSS File Multiple […]
Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 2 of 3
I’m attending the Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 2 of 3. I’m summarizing the talks rather than going into detail to avoid infringing on the presenters’ copyrights. Mobile Development on a Shoestring Connection by Jenifer Hanen How do we design and develop for varying data and bandwidth scenarios? Is […]
Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 1 of 3
I’m attending the Environments for Humans online Responsive Web Design Summit 2013 – Day 1 of 3. Great, informative talks! Today is mostly for developers, but I’m getting a lot out of it. A recurring point is that you should design/develop completely differently for different devices, including: images optimized for different screen sizes/resolutions, testing on […]
Boston Marathon Tragedy
No clever words or fancy designs today, folks. Here’s a beautiful commentary from Patton Oswalt: Boston. Fucking horrible. I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.” But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect […]
From dribbble: Free responsive wireframes (GIF)
From Chris Bannister at dribbble: So after the extremely amazing reception that I received off you guys with these wireframes it’s time that I say thanks for all the love. The amount of people that requested the psd [Photoshop file] was surprising and overwhelming and as I promised you can download them here. I’d like […]
Leonhard Euler honoured by Google doodle
Leonhard Euler, the influential Swiss mathematician, has had the 306th anniversary of his birth honoured by Google with the publishing of an interactive Google doodle. Euler was arguably the most important mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time. He introduced most modern mathematical terminology and notation and was also […]
From A List Apart: A response to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s condescending “Seven Rules for Managing Creative People”
By Cennydd Bowles from A List Apart: Childish, inaccurate, bizarre, and condescending? Perhaps—but you can’t just ignore articles like that. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s Seven Rules for Managing Creative People1 has caused some serious ripples. The article sets lofty standards for missing the point, misrepresenting creative industries to the point of infantilization. At its nadir—“Creatives enjoy making […]
“I love these guys, they make data fun: Zehnder Communications”
By Nancy Sharon Collins from DesignEnvy: New Orleans has two seasons: hurricane and festival. That’s it. Take your pick. Zehnder Communications—my favorite cross-media agency here—has recently announced “State of the Listen” (#TheStateOfTheListen or SOTL) to track social media buzz for everything from festivals, such as Tales of the Cocktail and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, to worldwide events like […]
Wired.com’s Weekly Picks of Stunning Architecture: Aqua Tower, Chicago
Reflective glass makes a beautiful facade, but it can be deadly for birds, which often can’t tell the glass from the sky or trees it reflects. Studio Gang Architects designed their Aqua Tower with that in mind: the undulating concrete terraces not only provide balcony space for residents, but help restrict the angle the reflections […]
Free fonts from Fontfabric.com
Free fonts from Fontfabric.com [Full article with many more fonts]
Tiny Injectable LEDs Manipulate the Brain With Light
Tiny, glowing probes packed with LEDs and sensors are scientists’ newest tool for measuring and manipulating the brain and other living tissues. They’re flexible, they can operate wirelessly, and yes, they’re small enough to fit through the eye of a needle. This kind of device could potentially improve researchers’ ability to influence neural activity in live animals […]
Transitional Interfaces and Design UX
By Pasquale D’Silva from Medium.com Designers love to sweat the details. Much time is spent pixel-fucking buttons, form styles, setting type, & getting those icons as sharp as a tack. A+, great job, don’t stop you guys. …but there’s little consideration about how it all fits together outside of a static comp. You tap a […]
If you use “Save for Web” in Photoshop, how do you place your fingers to press the keyboard shortcut?
“Save For Web” Claws. Everyone has one. [Full article]
Typography from House Industries: “Alphabets & Things”
Worthe Numerals as fonts or Photo-Lettering settings. Step right up to Barnum over your photos in the Photo-Lettering App. [Full article]
Silk brocade kimono
I sewed this classic robe using a modern pattern, which I altered for a custom fit. The outer layer is heavy silk in a woven pattern that recalls brush calligraphy. The lining is lightweight black silk, a difficult material to work with.
Long Exposure Photos of Glowsticks in Waterfalls
“Neon Luminance” is a beautiful long-exposure photo series by Kris Abildgaard of San Francisco-based multimedia company From The Lenz where landscapes (like waterfalls) are lit up by glowsticks and other forms of light such as road flares, headlamps, and moonlight. He says, “…each shot took a while because we would have to wait for the […]
Distance to Mars in Pixels
[Interactive graphic]
The Creative Process
The horrible truth.
Flashmob Recreates Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” in a Dutch Shopping Mall
The European banking sector may still be on shaky footing. But it’s not stopping European banks from putting together a good flashmob. Last year, the Spanish bank, Banco Sabadell, brought together 100 professional musicians and singers to perform the anthem of the European Union — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Symphony No. 9. And movingly so. It […]
The Daily Dish: A Petri Dish Painting for Every Day of 2013
Artist Klari Reis will be posting a new Petri dish painting every day this year at The Daily Dish 2013. According to Reis’ Facebook page, the paintings are created using reflective epoxy polymer and are an attempt to “explore our complex relationship with today’s biotechnological industry.” [Full article]
Responsive Typography is a Physical Discipline, But Your Computer Doesn’t Know It (Yet)
By Nick Sherman in Typography & Web Fonts via A List Apart: For ideal typography, web designers need to know as much as possible about each user’s reading environment. That may seem obvious, but the act of specifying web typography is currently like ordering slices of pizza without knowing how large the slices are or what […]
Japanese Scientists Develop System That Can Visualize Dreams Based on Brain Activity
Scientists in Japan have developed a dream decoding system that can create a visualization of a person’s dream. Developed by researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani and his Kyoto-based team, the system uses a functional MRI to analyze brain activity and a learning algorithm to create visualizations from the brain data. While the researchers report that the system […]
Russian Landmarks Imagined as Small Parts of Much Larger Buildings in Architecture Museum Ad Campaign
From LaughingSquid.com: Russian landmarks appear to extend deep underground as if they are the architectural equivalent of icebergs in this clever ad campaign for the Schusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow. The campaign is by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi Russia. [Full article]
“Moon Gate” at the 2012 Burning Man Festival
Moon gates symbolizing the full moon, birth and renewal are common in classical Chinese buildings and gardens. For the 2012 Burning Man festival—the theme of which was “Fertility 2.0”—I worked with nine other artists from the Liminal Labs theme camp to design and build this 12-foot-high steel moon gate. Our architects, in various places around […]
Nine Things The Squirrels Are Up To These Days
From BuzzFeed.com: Photographer Nancy Rose builds tiny sets in her back yard for squirrels to interact with. Then she lies in wait and takes hundreds of frames as they run around the sets. Anyway, this is what Nancy’s squirrels are up to these days. (Click on images for larger size.) [Full article] 1. Amateur leaf-painting […]
“Anthropocene”: Google Maps Imagery Rearranged into Compositions That Look Like Persian Rugs
From LaughingSquid.com: For his series, Irish artist David Thomas Smith created intricate abstract patterns out of Google Maps imagery of cities, industrial installations, and other man-made landscapes. The uncanny resemblance of the compositions to handwoven rugs is no accident—Smith was inspired in part by Persian and Afghan rug design. “Anthropocene” is on display at the […]
Mobile phones: 40 years of handsets in pictures
From the Guardian UK: As we reach the 40th anniversary of the first public mobile phone call, we look back at four decades of innovation, from the “brick” handsets of the 1970s and 1980s to today’s smartphones. Expert Mike Short says: “Since its first use 40 years ago, the mobile phone has completely changed our […]
Draw on an egg (or anything spherical) with this computer controlled art robot
From EggBot.com: The Egg-Bot is an open-source art robot that can draw on spherical or egg-shaped objects from the size of a ping pong ball size to that of a small grapefruit — roughly 1.25 to 4.25 inches in diameter (4-10 cm). Super adjustable; designed to draw on all kinds of things that are normally “impossible” […]
Dazzling Ultra HD Aerial Video of the San Francisco Bay Area
From LaughingSquid.com: San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the rocky Northern California coastline are revealed in this dazzling montage of 4K Ultra HD aerial footage by production company Teton Gravity Research. Be sure to watch the stunning night photography in the latter half of the video. Teton Gravity Research created the video as a test of its […]
Play-Doh 3D Printer
Sadly, this is an April Fool’s joke, but if only! The Play-Doh 3D Printer and accompanying iPlay-Doh 3D App allow users to design 3D objects on an iPad and print them using up to three different colors of Play-Doh. The printer is primarily crank powered, and is available for purchase at ThinkGeek. Your kid’s first […]
What convicts can teach us about branding
By Mike Kammerling of London-based Tinder + Sparks. In September 2009, Neil Stansfield of Northamptonshire was jailed for over two years for buying own-brand, non-organic supermarket food, repackaging it as well-sourced organic produce and selling it on at a huge markup to highly reputable food retailers. On the one hand what he did was a […]
Test Your Trademark
From David Airey’s excellent blog: How good is it legally? Patent lawyer Frederick Breitenfeld offered some help back in the 50s. According to this, Frederick Breitenfeld was a member of the bar of the state of New York; associate member of the United States Trademark Association (now the International Trademark Association); and member of the […]
Amazon’s Cloud Drive Takes on Dropbox with File Syncing
From Mashable.com by Samantha Murphy Is Amazon gunning to replace Dropbox and Google Drive? Its latest file-syncing feature for its Cloud Drive service may indicate so. The online retailer announced on Monday users of its Cloud Drive Desktop app will now be able to access files such as music, movies and documents across multiple computers […]
Renaissance portraits recreated as photographs
From LaughingSquid.com: Florence-based photographer Mark Abouzeid faithfully recreated Renaissance portraits as photographs in his 2012 photo series “The New New World.” [Full article]
Nature by Numbers: A movie inspired by numbers, geometry and nature
A movie inspired by numbers, geometry and nature, by Cristóbal Vila. Go to www.etereaestudios.com for more info about the movie. Music by Wim Mertens – “Often a Bird” from the album “Jardin Clos”, 1996 – © Usura – Published by Usura 2010
Geekster Eggs: 13 Wonderfully Geeky Easter Eggs
From Mashable.com: While most geeks are probably more involved with digital Easter eggs, decorated chicken ova are still popular forms of nerdy expression. We’ve rounded up 13 of the best Easter eggs we could find, and present them here for you, our gentle readers. Amongst them you’ll see familiar faces and homages to Mass Effect, […]
“Paintwork”: cyberpunk++ stories of killer augmented reality mechas and QR code graffiti writers
By Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing.net Tim Maughan and friends produced a short film based on his excellent story “Paintwork,” which is about graffiti and augmented reality (see my earlier review). It was a project for New Scientist’s Arc Magazine. [Full article]
Will 3D Printing Fuel Art and Jewelry Forgery?
From StumbleUpon.com: While debate rages over using 3D printers to make guns or gun parts, technologies for other possible abuses are emerging — including the ability to cheaply copy and reproduce works of art and jewelry. A few days ago at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, 3D-printer company MakerBot introduced the other […]