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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Vinyl Killer



Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Vinyl Killer

Yokomono - the Staalplaat Mono Erosive Surround Sound Installation.


url

Yokomono consists of 10 small car-shaped record players, a corresponding set of FM radios and two mixing desks. The cars, known as "vinyl killers," have been customised with wireless FM transmitters. As they spin around the vinyl, they transmit their signal to the FM radios tuned to a special Yokomono frequency. This transmission is then mixed, edited and manipulated in real-time by members of the Staalplaat Soundsystem.




(image credit: staalplaat.org)

Today's pictures & links:
Click to enlarge images.

Ingenuity


(photo by Alexander Dzhantimirov)

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Stephane Halleux Futuristic Art Deco

Stephane Halleux now has a book available for purchase on this site





We wrote about his work before, but we urge you to check for updates often, every sculpture is whimsical and unique.

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Singularity... soon

This is the computer simulation of the rat's brain
(upper layer and one column only)


(image courtesy Alain Herzog/EPFL)

Pretty complex... but read this article about "The Blue Brain" supercomputer - the first model of the brain that has been built from the bottom-up.

The first slice of brain containing approximately 10,000 neurons has been built and it runs - "Now we just have to scale it up", says Henry Markram, the Father of the Machine.

How about self-consiousness? "If we build this brain right, it will do everything"

Quite a long cry from these computing blocks from 1948:



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As good place to read your news as any


(original unknown)

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Mixed fresh links for today:

San Francisco in 2180 - [futurist] - via
The Worst spider I have ever seen - [photo] - via
7 Insane Conspiracies that actually happened - [weird]
Editor's Pick: Portrait Photography - [photos]
Jeff VanderMeer: Interview and latest free download - [books]
Size of Alaska, in comparison - [interesting]
You don't want to do this - [wow video]
SciFi Placement Agency - [fun video]
Spies! Take notice: how to fake accents - [wow video]

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New Issue of the "IdeaFixa" magazine

IdeaFixa is an international magazine about design, photography, illustration and visual arts. (some nsfw; ignore "log-in" on front page)


(art by Nelson Balaban)

Don't miss a showcase of works of Kris Kuksi in this issue!

In the same dark surrealism vein is the work of Erlend Mork. He's got a couple of new images up recently, here is one called 'Experiment":
(the other one is called "End Credits")


(image credit: Erlend Mork)

Similarly sophisticated "portraits" from Random Elements:
(thanks Kimo Easterwood)


(image credit: Random Elements)

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Art Deco Bus Design

This goes well with our "Vintage Concept Buses" article

Wonderful retro-future site "Modern Mechanix" has scans of this Drive Movie Bus from 1935




(image credit: Modern Mechanix)

Check also the "First Robot in History" on same site.

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Putin, bye-bye!

Not a president any more.



Reading the "Book of the Good Deeds":









Dmitry Medvedev: Russia's new president -




(images credit: AP Photo, Dmitry Astakhov)

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Make your cakes quick enough to properly greet unwanted guests:

Ads for Planetaria Mixer:







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Mystery model

Zeppelin? Aircraft Carrier?



UPDATE: (info thanks to the miniatures page)

US Navy actually built zeppelin aircraft carriers (see our recent article):
USS Macon (info) and USS Akron ZRS-4 (shown below: these tiny dots at the bottom are people)





Akron could carry four airplanes, Macon five, and the further models were designed to carry up to 22 airplanes!

All culminating perhaps in this idea:
(see full info at this page)


(image credit: modernmechanix)

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Azumanga Daioh for a pet



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COMMENTS:

4 Comments:

Blogger Kyle said...

Azumanga FTW.

___  
Anonymous Major Wood said...

Does anyone know what that spider is? It isn't quite as horrifying as an Australian Clock Spider, but it's pretty close.

___  
Blogger alvarhillo said...

Did you know the USSMacon was a aircraft carryer dirigible?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_%28ZRS-5%29

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

alvarhillo, thanks for the info, updated

___  

Post a Comment

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  • When I was younger, I was fascinated by the airships and zeppelins of the early part of the 20th Century. In fact, I have a book called "Zeppelin: The German Airship Story", which touched on their rise and fall. I am struck by the fact that they could never seem to get the design of these monsters right, and the majority of them crashed to Earth or burned up. If you can find a copy of this book, snag it. It's very fascinating.

    Great article! Looks like they finally got it right!
    Read more

  • There are still airship hangars at Cardington in the UK. Check out the pictures on their web-site: http://www.controltowers.co.uk/C/Cardington.htm
    You cannot believe the immensity of them unless you've been there, as I have. The pictures just don't do them justice
    Read more

  • These are the Cardington hangars on Google Earth: http://tinyurl.com/3dc4k3
    Read more

  • Yes, Zeppelins certainly will become a familiar site in the skies over San Francisco! BTW, we're Airship Ventures, not Airship Adventures as you credit us on a couple of the images.
    www.airshipventures.com
    airshipventures.blogspot.com
    Read more

  • one of the tallest buildings in Europe is an aqua spa in the hangar of a bankrupt modern zeppelin construction factory: http://www.tropical-islands.de/de/presse/pressefotos.html

    and the central market in Riga is one of the biggest dayly markets in Europe and is in the old zeppelin hangars from the early 20th century
    Read more

  • Thank you for the link; what a great collection of images!

    The mooring mast on top of the Empire State Building seems to have been a publicity gimmick more than anything else. Certainly, it wasn't very well thought out: it was far too windy up there to be viable. Still, I did like seeing it in use in Sky Captain.
    Read more

  • We still have new, ACTIVE airships here in Elizabeth City, NC. Production and maintenance is on the old Weeksville Naval LTA Base. http://elizcity.com/weeksnas/
    http://www.newbegun.com/tour/Airship_Hanger.php
    http://www.newbegun.com/tour/Bicycling_02.php
    Read more

  • thank you all... wonderful info
    Read more

  • The real Problem with Airships is, that Helium is extremely rare. As a tecnician at the Zeppelin Yard in Friedrichshafen explained to me, there is only about enough helium to fill two of the once proposed "Cargolifter" Airships. Until we synthesize a light gas we probably wont see alot of these Dreams come true.
    Read more

  • Airships are still wonderful ships and could be on the way back. See my 2006 post that covers much of what's on here: http://www.creationrobot.com/2006/03/airships-they-are-coming-slowly-from-many-different-companies-and-countries/
    Read more

  • yes the gas is a problem but not the rare is the point ,but the priece.
    the cost of one fill for the cargolifter is more expensive than the rest of the zeppelin.

    sry for my bad english. ^.^
    Read more

  • Thank you, Creation Robot - great link!
    Read more

  • Hey there great article just blogged about it at Airshipworld. Here ist the Link: Dark Roasted Airships

    Regards

    Andreas
    --
    Editor of Airshipworld
    --------------------------------------------------------
    Visit the Airshipworld Blog at
    http://airshipworld.blogspot.com
    --------------------------------------------------------
    Read more

  • Thank you Andreas, we'll keep a close look on your site.
    Read more

  • The problem with airships of the past was that they were ahead of their time. The problem was materials and the flotation gas.

    The outer materials used to "protect" the skins of these beasts turned out to be the same formulation used for solid rockets today.

    The gas normally was helium, but Germany chose to use Hydrogen because the only source of helium was the USA.

    The structure of these beasts were typically made out of Aluminum, a fairly new metal not quite mastered. A lot of structural failures occurred because engineers assumed Aluminum was lightweight iron, which it wasn't. Aluminum, while strong, has different characteristics, which require different engineering considerations. Hence the designs were always flawed.

    Today we have carbon fiber based composites, super adhesives, light-weight fabrics and polymers, and a far superior knowledge of metals.

    There is one problem, however, there is a finite supply of helium, and once it's gone, it's gone. It's so light, it just leaves our atmosphere.
    Read more

  • Hi Avi,

    I'm looking for a higher resolution copy of your image titled "USS Macon over New York, in 1931."
    ussmacon3.jpg

    I'd like to make a print to put up in my living room.

    Could you help me out or direct me to the source?

    cheers,
    Kosta
    Read more

  • Try this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uss-akron-manhattan.jpg
    Read more

  • The crowbar/headcrab image is a reference to the game Half-Life.
    Read more

  • I posted the image of people on stilts to spydentify to see if anybody there knows what it is:

    http://spydentify.com/#177
    Read more

  • Wüstenrot, Germany
    Read more

  • @gordon freeman: This is in Vienna, Austria. Wüstenrot is a company :)
    Read more

  • the last is made by Genevieve Gauckler :
    http://www.g2works.com/
    Read more

  • The colourful moon image is by Neil Carboni http://ncarboni.home.att.net/Astrophotography.html
    (I saw it the other day on the venerable APOD, here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060907.html)

    I hadn't really thought, until now, about how odd it is that the moon seems to be a completely monochrome world. What the picture shows is, in fact, the slight variations in colour exaggerated.
    Read more

  • The forked Volkswagen is a part of the Royal Deluxe (google it) performance in Iceland.
    My photo of the same car:
    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/2104794414_bc0be46924.jpg
    Read more

  • The location is Madrid and the group is strange fruit. An australian street theater group. The performance is called "on the field" I see it and I liked a lot
    Read more

  • great info, thanks - updated the page.
    Read more

  • I've live in Macau for almost 14 years now and I can assure you that the Grand Lisboa is an architectural eye-sore.
    Read more

  • The problem being with Faberge jewel art is that a lot of it got destroyed in the Bolshevik uprising, as did a lot of great russian designs...

    Smirnoff.

    O.k, not much but still one great thing was nearly permanently destroyed.

    But thats the price you pay with the scar of Communism.
    Read more

  • Will, yea they destroyed Smirnoff but kept the vodka... of pretty ugly variety.
    Read more

  • Well what’s some peasant’s life worth anyway, spend it all on jewelry and let the people starve
    Read more

  • I completely agree with you
    Read more

  • Har! Yes, the life of the peasant was ever so much better under Communism.
    Read more

  • I ended up doing a school project on these eggs-at first, I thought I'm simply be discussing pretty jewely egg things made by some guy in Russia. But there's a lot more history involved. It amazes me how the royal family could spend so much money on a couple eggs every easter and still let Russia's desolate people waste away.
    I mean, wow. Had they used the money for materials and whatnot to make them to feed and provide other kinds of care to their people, they might have saved a lot of lives.
    Read more

  • The sad fact about Communism is that it replaced one rigid class system with another. The history of Communism was every bit as bad as Feudalism, and in many cases worse. The common people did not reap any benefits despite all the rhetoric handed down from on high. The ruling elite had a disproportionate amount of wealth as compared to the proletariat. As such, it was far from a classless society. Did the Romanov's have an obscenely lavish lifestyle compared to the peasants? Yes, but so did every Soviet leader except for maybe Lenin. Some may argue that the Soviet Union was never really a pure communist state as per the writings of Marx. That may be true, but Marx was too much of an idealist and failed to properly deal with human nature, and the desire of the individual to differentiate from the crowd. So, the theory works on paper, but can never work in reality.

    As for the eggs, they are a beautiful example of the ingenuity and creativity of the Russian people.
    Read more

  • Jim-Bob:

    Good insight, which I believe to be entirely correct. It's hard to summarize the whole chapter of history or ideology, but you did it remarkably well. Cheers!
    Read more

  • It's brought up in the linked page, but the Chinese beach pictures are in Busan, Korea. I was there in August.

    http://www.daehanmindecline.com/digital/20070826b.html
    Read more

  • that "car" chase was priceless. godzilla and mothra vs. king gidorah, and are they building a gundam?
    Read more

  • the abbey road shot looks heavily shopped, just look at the white line where ringo should be, are you sure it's not from the b3ta abbey road kit?
    http://www.b3takit.co.uk/page1.htm

    the psd version has a layer with the beatles removed
    Read more

  • vmos - the abbey road photo is actually from the original shoot - link provided there :)
    Read more

  • The Car stunt can be in Oman (from the 'hats' of these guys).
    Read more

  • Real-world Cat Weasel. Cool!
    Read more

  • Where is the turning torso?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Torso

    At least worth mentioning IMO.
    Read more

  • The Globe too:
    http://www.arkema-inc.com/index.cfm?pag=723
    Read more

  • What about the "Marilyn" tower in Mississauga?
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2006/03/29/tor-condo-tower060329.html
    Read more

  • also avaz twist tower in sarajevo/bosnia / herzegovina

    http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9485/attrg6.jpg

    http://www.sa-c.info/updateImg/avaz_twist_tower_wSZICim.jpg
    Read more

  • These buildings are pretentious, hideous and inhuman.
    Read more

  • I forgot to add: fascist. I am reminded of the Hitler/Speer's 'visionary' plans for Berlin.
    Read more

  • Len, you might like the "hobbit" houses then better - see here
    Read more

  • Ecological tower in Siberia, Khanty Mansiysk - is crazy project! All population of city is 65 000 persons. Around - a wild taiga.
    Read more

  • they are some kickass buildings
    Read more

  • >also avaz twist tower in sarajevo/bosnia / herzegovina

    It is just a skyscraper, and while it may be big news in Bosnia and a marvelous nationalism piece for you, we have many in developed countries.

    Also, this is about MOST ELEGANT PROPOSED SKYSCRAPERS

    The Avas does not fit the category of "proposed"
    Read more


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