Thumbs and Ammo posits the idea: would it be funny to replace guns with thumbs up in stills from movies?
YES!
The Evolution of the $100 Bill
The US $100 bill from the pre-1860s to the newest of them.
A Tiny House That Can Be Built in a Day
"Abod is a sustainable home built from lightweight materials that can easily be delivered by truck, plane or ship. It’s made mostly of non-combustible materials so it carries a low risk of fire (a real concern in communities where kerosene lighting is common). And if the family ever needs to move, the home can be very easily relocated."
Ice Breaker in Antarctica's Ross Sea in Timelapse
Marine scientist Cassandra Brooks spent months on the enormous Nathaniel B. Palmer, an ice breaker in the Ross Sea, and she has this gorgeous and fascinating timelapse to prove it.
Thank you, Matt, for the find.
Logos for Famous Scientists
Mexico-based architecture student Alan Betancourt has done project of logos for already well-known scientists. Reminds me of one of my favorite T-Shirts out there from the Monsters of Grok (scientists and philosopher Concert T-Shirts).
Monsters of Grok
Papercraft Cars
Paper and papercraft are incredibly expressive and relatively easy, and in the hands of such masters as these... really impressive.
Designer Taras Lesko's build of a Pagani Zonda supercar. (the video includes loud music... so... be forewarned.)
German papercrafter Dimi created a full-sized Ford Mustang front end in his living room, using corrugated cardboard. (more awful music.)
This one though, a full-sized, complete on the inside and out one, from artist Jonathan Brand.
photo by Brian David Braun
POTD - Air by W.S. Mervin - Exclusive Video and Photos of the Former Poet Laureate
photo by Brian David Braun
Air
by W.S. Merwin
Naturally it is night.
Under the overturned lute with its
One string I am going my way
Which has a strange sound.
This way the dust, that way the dust.
I listen to both sides
But I keep right on.
I remember the leaves sitting in judgment
And then winter.
I remember the rain with its bundle of roads.
The rain taking all its roads.
Nowhere.
Young as I am, old as I am,
I forget tomorrow, the blind man.
I forget the life among the buried windows.
The eyes in the curtains.
The wall
Growing through the immortelles.
I forget silence
The owner of the smile.
This must be what I wanted to be doing,
Walking at night between the two deserts,
Singing.
Former poet laureate W.S. Merwin visit the Florida Studio Theatre and we are proud to have this exclusive video.
Vehicle Portraits by Brian David Braun
Florida-based photographer Brian David Braun has an interest in vehicles that manages to reveal the often hidden inner lives.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Daring and forward thinking hipster Shakespeare has been fashioned as a 'modern day playwright' with his edgy Shoreditch shirt and waistcoat look.
He has been given piercings on both ears, leaving questions about his sexuality unanswered.
An actor as well as a playwright, Shakespeare might have taken advantage of modern-day hair transplanting techniques to sport a full head of hair like numerous celebrity actors.
What Historical Figures Might Look Like in 2013
William Shakespeare, Henry VIII and Horatio Nelson were rendered as responsibly as possible in this project, commissioned by history TV channel Yesterday for its new series "The Secret Life Of...", had digital artists and historians working together to get the portraits a reasonable 2013 look.
Text and images from The Telegraph
ABOVE: ADMIRAL LORD NELSON
A Vice Admiral and dedicated navy officer, Nelson is dressed in a modern naval uniform.
In today's Navy, Nelson would spend more time deskbound and as such he would have gained a little weight which is reflected in the portrait.
To replace the right arm lost after being wounded in battle, he has been given a prosthetic to wear.
The Victoria Cross wasn't available during his time but had they been in existence, he would have qualified.
HENRY VIII
Renowned for being vain and lavish, King Henry has been given white veneers and hair plugs to hide his balding head.
Known to flaunt his wealth, is now out of his voluminous puffed sleeve velvet gown and in a tailored designer black suit, wearing a sparkling diamond ring and designer watch.
Instead of the cotton shirt fastened up to the chin he now sports an unbuttoned shirt Simon Cowell style and is very much the modern day lady killer.
An avid sportsman and known for being conceited he has been slimmed down. Henry's vanity would have ensured he would have retained the naturally muscly, rugby-player type figure he had in his youth.
Known for having spent a lot of time outdoors riding, hunting, and playing tennis, Henry VIII has also been given a tan.
Henry has exchanged his uncomfortable flat footed shoes for modern shoes with a heel.
MARIE ANTOINETTE
Her three-foot tall hair has been let down and her unusually high forehead concealed with a trendy fringe.
Known for her crooked teeth in her youth she has been given a full modern-day orthodontic treatment.
Teased for her small breasts as a teenager, she has been given breast implants.
Known for being fashionable and changing clothes three times a day, Marie Antoinette is dressed in a modern designer dress. Reported to express how she was feeling through the accessories in her wig, she is wearing a flirty Philip Treacey style hat.
Her modern day portrait also shows the her fully-made up in colourful make-up.
Elizabeth I
A powerful no-nonsense female leader, Elizabeth might have straightened her hair in a powerful yet stylish short cropped style.
Known for her love of fashion, she would be more likely to wear a bespoke stylish and unique female suit made with rich colours and material.
Rarely pictured smiling, Queen Elizabeth exudes power in the modern day portrait, and hides her new veneers purchased to disguise her notoriously bad teeth.
Gorgeous Death Valley Startrail Timelapse
Gavin Heffernan and his group at Sunchaser Pictures returned to the California desert, specifically the mysterious racetrack playa of Death Valley, to create this gorgeous video using a technique Heffernan calls Starscaping: timelapse switching to long exposure star trails.
Solar-powered Plane Soaring above San Francisco Bay
The Solar Impulse, created by explorer Bertrand Piccard and engineer André Borschberg, can only fly when the weather is perfect. And it is endeavoring to make a cross-country flight from San Francisco to JFK Airport in New York City.
Gods of War (Luchadores) by Mark Laita
Mark Laita created this great series of portraits of Luchadores.
From wikipedia: Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries, for a form of professional wrestling that has developed within those countries. Although the term nowadays refers exclusively to professional wrestling, it was originally used in the same style as the English term "freestyle wrestling", referring to an amateur wrestling style without the restrictions of Greco-Roman wrestling.
Eerily Lit Landscape Photos
LA-based photographer Kevin Cooley in his Take Refuge series shoots long-exposure images with an analog 4×5 large format camera, each scene lit eerily but military-grade flares.
Brightly Colored Rope, 1.4 Million Feet of It, Piled Up in Madison Square Park
1.4 million feet of rope found on hundreds of miles up and down the east coast, was taken by New York-based artist Orly Genger and covered in more than 3,000 gallons of paint, knotted it and then piled it into these bright undulations in Madison Square Park for the summer.
Ibiza Lights
POTD - The Gate by Marie Howe
The Gate
BY MARIE HOWE
I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world
would be the space my brother's body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man
but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,
rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.
This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I'd say, What?
And he'd say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I'd say, What?
And he'd say, This, sort of looking around.
“The Gate” from What the Living Do by Marie Howe. © 1997 by Marie Howe. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
I am proud to have had Howe as a workshop teacher twice while in grad school. As much as she did teach me in those rooms about reading, and risk and voice, her work has taught me more.
Here recent interview on NPR with Krista Tippet has a lot of the insight and voice I remember so clearly.
Animate GIFs of Fighting Game Backgrounds
Redditor RudeBootie has an album of 125 fighting game backgrounds as GIFs.
Fight!
how many can you name in the comments?
5 things I learned about Productivity
Our first guest post from friend and colleague, Adrian Phillips.
This list is by no means the be all and end all of how to stay productive. Throughout my time developing web projects, managing digital brands and living with three cats, here are a few things I've learnt along the way that have helped me execute every time. Although this is primarily geared towards app / web development and planning (it's what I know), take what you will, there's definitely something for everyone here.
1. Write down your to-dos
As a Project / Product Manager, I've tried every digital to-do list software / app imaginable. Clear, Workflowy, Things, Wunderlist, Asana and many more. Now all these solutions are great in their own right and have their place in greater project management and workflows. However when it comes to managing day-to-day tasks I find the best way to get all your stuff done is to write it down at the start of every day, with little checkboxes on a good old fashioned piece of pen and paper.
By doing this, you force yourself to remember what the most important tasks are for the day. If you don't remember that you were supposed to do something, then it probably wasn't that important. I like to get really granular with my tasks so that I have more things to check off. There's nothing more satisfying than bringing pen to paper and checking items off. At the end of the day you feel a great sense of accomplishment looking at a piece of paper that has everything checked off. Finally if you find you aren't able to get stuff done the day before, no worries, you can always look back at your previous list and re-add them to today's current list. By doing this you evaluate if the item you're writing down again was that important in the first place.
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to writing materials, have to say I am a big fan of Whitelines line of products. I've become accustomed to sketching and writing on the light gray paper with white lines and haven't gone back since.
My writing implement of choice are usually Uni-Ball like pens as they are really inky and feel really great when I put pen to paper.
2. Have a plan for every meeting
There's nothing worse than walking into a meeting and the meeting organizer says something to the effect of, "Um, so today we're going to be discussing Feature X, so let's talk about it. Who has some thoughts they'd like to share?" There really is nothing worse than a meeting with no direction. You're almost guaranteed to not make any meaningful decisions and waste a good hour of your life you're never going to get back. Using the above example, there should be some discussion points prepared around what the issues or questions were surrounding "Feature X".
Now I'm not saying you have a detailed agenda that you distribute to everyone breaking down absolutely everything that's going to be discussed (though in large meetings this can be helpful). What I like to do is knock up a high level list of what is being discussed and throw it up on a whiteboard or in a shareable Google Doc for everyone to consume. I then assign my own personal timeline to each of the items in the list so I know when it's time to move the discussion forward. Stick to that timeline and stop people from waffling on. Remember, it's your meeting, take control of it.
Stick to that timeline and stop people from waffling on.
3. Don't get hung up on the tools, work with what you know
I've fallen into this trap many, many times when it comes to planning or developing web projects. Most recently I was looking for a new way to "mind map" out an idea I had. Wanting to map this idea out in a "really cool way" I went on the hunt for some nifty mind mapping software. Before I knew it I had tested 3 different products and gotten absolutely nothing done. After a couple of hours of dicking about I eventually decided to just drop into Adobe Illustrator and put the mind map down in an easy to understand format in less than 30 minutes. I'll be the first to admit that Illustrator is absolutely the wrong tool for the job when it comes to doing user flows and mind maps. Yet because I knew all the shortcuts, had years of experience in it, I was able to complete what I needed to in no time at all.
Now some of you might say it's great to grow and learn new tools and extend one's skill set. However when it comes to staying productive and knocking things out it's best to use whatever you're familiar with to get the task done.
As an aside, during my time wasting I found this great read from LifeHacker about what its users thought were the best tools for mind mapping.
...when it comes to staying productive and knocking things out it's best to use whatever you're familiar with to get the task done...
4. "No Distraction" time
On my work adventures I've found that most people really love meetings, especially unproductive ones. Everyday I would find myself getting invited to meetings nearl leaving sad 30 minute to 1 hour gaps in my calendar to get any "actual" work done. This is a productivity no-no. If you want to actually get any work done, in any job I'd highly suggest carving out "No Distraction" time. If you're in a large organization, you can do a bunch of different things, my favorite, and simplest is to go into your calendar and block out a few hours of "Actual Work" time. That way assistants, managers see you as unavailable on their calendars when they try to invite you to their meetings. Now this may seem obnoxious but folks have seen me using this practice and begun to adopt it themselves.
If you're working in a small company or start up, this is much easier. You simply communicate to one another and say "I'm going to crank out this feature for the next few hours, let me know if something urgent comes up." Then throw on some headphones and get to it. Of course, this becomes much trickier when you're working from home and you have a cat sit directly on your keyboard. In the event of animals I would also apply a closed door policy so the little buggers cannot surprise you when you're in the middle of a breakthrough.
When it comes to writing / coding, I'm a big fan of apps that have a full screen mode. By going full screen, you really do minimize the temptation to click on that "Chrome" icon in your dock or jump to that tempting browser window peeking off to the side. Now that I think of it, there's probably a whole other post here about how to optimize your OS X environment to get writing / coding done… To be continued.
5. You are not alone
One of the most obvious steps on this list is also the hardest, having the foresight to step away from what you're doing and ask for help. If you're like me, you'll more than often find yourself grueling over details and stubbornly not giving up until you finish what you're trying to do. The result is a lot of wasted time, getting pissed off and never actually finishing what you set out to do. Rather than sit there and stew, I highly recommend, getting up, grabbing a coffee (or tea) and reaching out to someone. The internet has somewhat advanced since it first began so reach out to the online community or whoever you think can help you with your issue.
If you're a developer, there are tons of IRC communities on Freenode.net to help answer questions about tools and software. Stackoverflow is a great resource when it comes to asking questions from your peers (do a search first as someone may have already asked it). Twitter, Facebook, Internet Messaging, can also be an extremely helpful source for advice. Of course nothing else tops having a discussion with a real live human being, so don't be shy, get up and grab a coffee with a friend or colleague and get his / her perspective.
Of course nothing else tops having a discussion with a real live human being
Orcas Attacking Sperm Whale Caught on Camera
Photographer Shawn Heinrichs off the coast of Sri Lanka captured a world's first: photographs of a pod of killer whales attacking a pod of sperm whales.
"The attack was violent and disturbing as the panicked Sperm Whales were clearly no match for speed and maneuverability of the orcas.”
Google Earth Music Video for Strip Steve's "Hood"
Made entirely of Google Earth footage, here is the new video from Strip Steve for track "Hood"