I snapped a photo of this sticker in one of the restrooms at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco's Mission District. There used to be one just like it posted above a small hole in the wall in the other restroom. That sticker was removed though once the hole was patched to, er, block the camera's lens.
I started our interview sessions with geostationary satellites—those in orbit above Earth's equator that have the remarkable property of matching the period at which Earth rotates. As a result, these satellites look stationary to someone on Earth. They are extremely useful for communications, because transmitting and receiving antennas on Earth don't have to track them. In a 1945 article, “Extra-terrestrial Relays,” published in Wireless World, Clarke proposed that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. I asked Clarke whether he'd ever suspected that these satellites would one day prove to be so valuable to telecommunications.Link
He laughed. “I'm often asked why I didn't try to patent the idea of communications satellites. My answer is always, ‘A patent is really a license to be sued.' ”
Osian Batyka-Williams's cutlery chair makes lovely use of the mountains of discarded restaurant cutlery. Though, as Make notes, it could probably use a cushion or two.
Link
(via Make)
Link to Mike Disher's turntable page, Link to OpenRoad.TV's forum (Thanks, Jim Wirth!)About 5 years ago I decided to try my hand at building a custom turntable. Turntables and mechanical watch and clock movements fascinate me. I view them as functional pieces of kinetic art. I based my turntable design on the legendary Rega P3, and I created a new, custom acrylic plinth and a set of feet. I also devised a way to hide the motor, and I improved the motor mounting system. The plinth rests on small silicone dots, providing added isolation. The result was a very modern looking table. I called it the P3 Skeleton. Skeleton is a watchmaking term for a movement in which material is removed from the plates and bridges to reveal the inner workings. A fellow audio enthusiast saw this table at my house and offered to buy it on the spot. I did not sell it, but I was happy that others appreciated my work.
The Eyeclops contains two circuit boards: one is the real, functional board while the other is a sticker with an image of some circuitry printed on it. Apparently this is an attempt to compensate for the now-puny electronics that go into kids' toys. Makes me nostalgic for the days of my old vacuum-tube Atari that took up the entire family room." Link
See also:
Geeking out over velcro-like fasteners in infant wares
Magnified shots of ziploc seals
Investors then goosed their returns through leverage, the oldest strategy around. They made $100 million bets with only $1 million of their own money and $99 million in debt. If the value of the investment rose to just $101 million, the investors would double their money. Home buyers did the same thing, by putting little money down on new houses, notes Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com. The Fed under Alan Greenspan helped make it all possible, sharply reducing interest rates, to prevent a double-dip recession after the technology bust of 2000, and then keeping them low for several years...Link (via The ConsumeristMany of these bets were not huge, but were so highly leveraged that any losses became magnified. If that $100 million investment I described above were to lose just $1 million of its value, the investor who put up only $1 million would lose everything.
Link (via Link
In the Trashy Bags workshop a dozen tailors and seamstresses sit at manual sewing machines stitching together old plastic sachets. In west Africa tap water is not fit to drink so millions of half-litre "pure water" sachets costing only the equivalent of 2p are discarded by thirsty consumers every day. A storage room overflows with more than three million sachets that have been collected and cleaned ready for recycling...Local people arrive at the Trashy Bags workshop carrying sacks stuffed with thousands of the sachets on their heads. They exchange 1,000 sachets for £2 – good money in a country where the average person earns only £254 a year.
"I collect sachets because I am jobless and this gives me money," said Hadiza Ishmael, a 55-year-old grandmother who had just arrived with 4,000 sachets. "It also makes the place look nicer."
I really liked this one -- I've been following the series since she started. Lafferty is a one-woman podcasting machine, singlehandedly blowing the doors off of what's possible in alternative publishing. Link (Thanks, PG!)
See also:
Mur Lafferty's Heaven: free audiobook of existential comedy
Lafferty's new podiobook: Earth (Heaven, part 3)
Playing for Keeps: Mur Lafferty's science fiction superhero podcast
Link (Thanks, Tavie!)
I just found out that my favorite comic series of all time, Elfquest, has announced an initiative to celebrate their 30th anniversary, wherein, by the end of the year, EVERY issue ever will be available online for free.It's hard to describe it, but it's an amazing body of work. It was one of the first independently published comics in the world and one of the most successful. The core story is about a group of elves from outer space who ride wolves - it sounds crazy when I say it, you just have to read it.
This is a 30 year old universe (older than me!) so there are spinoffs and side-stories and rarities that even I, as a hard-core fan, have never gotten to read. And soon I will be able to enjoy every single shred of it. For free. Just 'cuz.
The internet is beyond words in its capacity to make me happy.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Certainly one of the most creative concepts I’ve seen in a long time. What a kick ass idea. Here’s more pictures and information about the artist if
