Transportation

From the cute to the creepy, with whistle stops at it-goes-faster-when-you-paint-it-like-this and dude-you-were-so-high. Scooter paint.

SFW, but pure sexy nonetheless. Just put it on the screen. Everything will be okay. More views of the Holden Efijy if you prefer something less feral. There are some rather lush interior shots.

From the category of: British TV we’ve never seen. Heartbeat, is a soapy looking 60’s nostalgia show. The bike ridden by local policeman is a Francis Barnett Cruiser. Nah, I’d never heard of it either. It’s pretty cool.

Food

I love marshmallows. I love caffeine. I probably should not have any of these.

I want my lunch to be this cool. And cute. And clever.

Art, Images, and Design

This turquoise wall with its metal tracery is part of Kunsthofpassage in Dresden — it’s been called a Rube Goldberg and something from Dr. Seuss’s days as a plumber. An amazing series of gutters and downspouts. Video of gutters and downspouts in Kunsthofpassage in the rain. (German narration.)

Laurie Lipton’s extraordinary machines take the claustrophobia induced by multiplying widgets, gadgets, and their assorted wiring and brings them to a whole new level of menace. Graphite on paper at one of L.A.‘s coolest galleries. The Illusion of Control Tower. The full set from her exhibit at La Luz de Jesus. Click on each item for a good look.

Animation

Sweet 1950’s junior-high science class style animation. Graboids. AKA Landsharks. Aversion to rain makes them rare in here in pugetopolis. (5:00)

alrighty then, off you go and don’t forget your lunch boxes.

Transportation

It’s not a bad looking bike — at all. H-D pitches to the youngsters. No blondes allowed?

A bit of French history, a pretty lady on a bike, and a Comiot tricycle.

Ralph Steadman illustrates Hunter Thompson on a Ducati. Perfect match.

The GSX 1100 designation has been with us for a very long time. This item from the 80’s is one of the reasons why.

Science

From WSU. Why the nice guys get voted off the island. Proper title of the paper: “The Desire to Expel Unselfish Members from the Group”. Humans are so weird.

Gaming

Point and click adventure games are always popular with the “I don’t wanna shoot more stuff” crowd. Mostly they’re based on various polygon rendering engines. But Cockroach is building some thing a little different. Clay and actual model making are used to create stop-motion sequences for The Dream Machine. A haunted apartment complex… and a game for grown ups. You can play a demo or sign up for the beta test of chapter one here.

Art, Images, and Design

I have a new comic in the RSS reader. Try this one with the flying car.

Humans make unintentional art by their actions. A collection of photographs of all of the contraband brought in to the USA via Kennedy International Airport from Nov 16 to Nov 20, 2009.

Food, visual puns, and nicely done letterpress work. Letterform does a series of sweet greeting cards.

Animation

We welcome our mysterious cat-head overlords? Um, demonic, teddy bears? I have no idea but it’s fun and goes well with too many lattes. (Video 0:57)

snack time!

Transportation

The weekend’s over, but there’s a new weekend just around the corner. Some of you are gonna need this. Hayes M1030 — bitchin’ off road machine. Multi-fuel, 2-foot fording depth, optional IR driving light! woohoo!

And one of these. Bufalino. Piaggio APE goes camper. Yuppers, I’ll take one.

Snicker. That’s some ballast you got there. Frighteningly close to home for some of us hack owners. And more Stan Mott car and bike art. Bonus photos at 2/3rds. Go Carts!

Science

Astronomer Seth Shostak proposes that we could increase our chances of finding intelligent life in the stars by expanding the type of intelligence we are looking for. Where should we look if we want to find alien artificial intelligence?

Slightly more earth bound news. Migration is a complex social function; not just a matter of everyone in the flock gets an urge for bright sunny beaches come October.

Art, Images, and Design

Tumblingerstrasse? Tag Tag? Super Paper? Still doesn’t mean anything to you? How about Hot Wheels stop-motion animation and graffiti?

These do not look like tattoos. But they are… I’m undecided about them but I value the reminder that ink on skin doesn’t have to conform to a look. More of Amanda Wachob’s work (click on abstract)

Utterly pointless animated gif. But there’s a monkey…

Animation

Sad news from Japan, Satochi Kon has passed away.

He gave us many films but none so wonderful as Tokyo Godfathers. A look at three misfits who find a bundle on Christmas Eve. T.G. long ago replaced It’s a Wonderful Life as our Christmas movie of choice. Earthy, humorous, and realistically hopeful. (Available on disc from netflix.)
American version of the Tokyo Godfathers trailer. Lame trailer, good movie.

oh so Monday around here, I hope your locale is a little less inundated.

Transportation

Engine porn. Full view of the gear driven cams on an awesome little Benelli.

Perfectly, post-apocalyptically Vespa.

Nice lines on this yellow Honda cafe. The light drizzling of water drops does not hurt the look of these shots.

Gaming and Culture

SEGA has a yakuza based game for play station. How good is it? Jake Adelstein asked 3 “guys” to have a look. Other than the red shirt…

Art, Images, and Design

Elsa Lanchester was the original Bride of Frankenstein. Madeline Khan will always be my favorite BoF, but you have lots of images to choose from in this round-up by Wicked Halo. NSFW — erotic monster nudity.

Animation

We’ve all done it; let our sense of dread overwhelm our common sense, and been embarrassedly chagrined at our silliness in the end. Smoothly animated with soft sculptures and quirky cardboard, Something Taken, Something Left Behind, reminds us that children aren’t the only ones given to irrational catastrophizing. (Video, 10:14)

off you go into the rainy weekend…

Transportation

Kinda unfinished looking. The Merlin starts with an old flat head and adds a couple of moped parts, some stuff from the back room at the push-bike shop down the street, and bits dented sheet metal from who knows where. Appealing in its rawness.

What to do with the inevitable rusting away of certain bits of that cheap scooter you bought. Bobber Passport. Check out the engraved velocity stack. Woo.

If I had a bike this pretty I’d let it eat in the kitchen too. Moto Guzzi Airone 250.

Data Geeking

First up — all the Dr Who espisodes and their (approx) place in the time line of the universe. As you’d expect the comments are FULL of rancorous disagreement and the picking of the tiniest nits. None the less, a prodigious feat of data scraping.

Two sets of graphics from Phillip Howard at Michigan State. The illusion of diversity in food. Soda pop and organics are big business and the consolidation of the little brands under the umbrella of the giants continues. Soda pop and other bottled/canned drinks. Who owns the organic labels. Buying up the independents.

Art, Images, and Design

Alice Feagan — commercial illustration in cut paper, this one for the cover of a weekly food guide … and a private piece celebrating summer at the lake.

Three new pieces from Alberto Cerriteno. That sweet tooth doesn’t look so sweet.

Excerpts from Sir William Hamilton’s Campi Phelgraei describing his observations of the volcanic activity of Mt. Vesuvius in the 1760’s and 1770’s. Engravings by Pietro Fabris.

Animation can show us the world from a different height. Lucille finds herself overwhelmed by her visit to the guitar shop.

thursday, chicken for lunch?

Transportation

Another tiny custom CB100 out of SE Asia. This one from Deus Canggu in Bali.

Scott Flying Squirrel. Best bike name ever and innovative design too. Liquid cooling from the 1920’s. A couple of other Scott bikes here as well.

From Japan a TX650 custom. The lines of the subtly brown tank are dreamy.

Documentation of monumental moments in bad taste. Nick Glies makes a living photographing the insides (and outsides) of private jets. Ownership is, of course, not disclosed.

Technology

Tablets for Christmas this year. With the launch of the iPad this spring the tablet has reached the middle american radar. Best Buy is gearing up for the Xmas season by promoting the tablet as a perfect gift.

Among the many contenders is likely to be this HTC slated to run Google’s chrome.

Food

Cooking in a milk can? Steam cooking for messy, stew meals. Yum.

Art, Images, and Design

A quick and dirty overview of the art of Sci-Fi. Lauren Panepinto who is the Art Director for Orbit Books shows you some examples and explains why and how they go about enticing you to pick up and read. Lots of links to lots of artists. Be sure to check the comments for even more art and links.

From the Long Now blog, a fine example of Panepinto’s two rules for great Sci-Fi art. Commentary on this split society image?

In the late 1970’s Andy Levin spent his non-working hours photographing the everyman experience of Coney Island. The NYT’s Lens blog brings 18 of these fine black and white photos back.

And now, many years later, Levin returns to Coney Island and publishes Coney Island Baby. Color photos of the same place, in a very different time. (NSFW — one aggressively nude image)

enjoy the heat — eat lunch outside today

Transportation

Save this up for the third week in September — you’re gonna need a new desktop/wallpaper and this Ural in the far north will be just the thing.

This one’s gonna be flagged on the score sheet for inappropriate use of Red Bull. Thought he copper work is first-rate on this Triumph.

Absolutely perfect. 1965 CA77 Honda. So well done, such a charming bike.

Science and Pictures

BBC provides another set of nice visualization tools. How big is that? Start here with an image that helps you to understand the size of the Eastern Pacific Garbage patch. If it was centered on Seattle, the eastern edge would reach Fargo. Seriously. Lots of other places, times, and object to look at.

The Solar Dynamic Observatory app on my iPhone is one of my favorite 2-minute time wasters. SDO now provides this image of the erupting sun with the lines of magnetic force drawn in. Confusing, swirling, wow.

Sex, drugs, and motos. “The results suggest motorcycles fulfill an appetitive need, activating an important node in the dopamine reward system.” Details of the MRI testing and words from the investigator James Loughead.

Food

It wouldn’t be summer without cocktails on the veranda. But should you go off to some swanky veranda that has a bartender to prepare your cocktails or would you be better off staying home on your own comfy little patch of open air? To hunt prey of the appropriate species/gender you’ll probably need to go to one of those public spots but if you’ve already got a trophy or are simply tired of hunting you could do a lot worse than staying in (outside). Staying home is cheaper too. How much cheaper? Ask the cocktail calculator.

Art, Images, and Design

Playing with your food. Edible crayons that really color. Lush food photography too.

I want some Monster Friends. Posters.

Transportation

Gaze Longingly at These Buicks of Yore. Well at the first three or four anyway. Classic designs. After the 60’s Wildcat it all goes down hill.

The Zaeta 530. Now (or soon) available in street legal two-up trim. There’s a nice video that features arty footage of horses, followed by the Zaeta and a Porsche doing some serious drifting in the dirt.

The Wilson II. Extreme and probably unridable but omg the pipes…

Notable especially for its origins. Mohammed Shojaie’s Ostoure (‘Legend’ in Persian) concept bike.  Much of the artist’s other work is included in Bloom, an Iranian on-line racing game.

Science

Jack Horkheimer — the Star Gazer — passed away late last week.  For some background and a taste of his humor have a look at this Profile column from the Jan 06 edition of Astronomy. (PDF)

Looking back at earth from space. Wired Science presents a gallery of images of algal blooms. Damn we live on a beautiful planet.

Art, Images, and Design

Only one artist this morning. But this overview of Alex Varanese’s work including the wonderful Alt1977 retro-futurism project will give you a good start to your week.

off you go kiddies.

Transportation

Cherry picked from the various flickr tags and a couple of collector websites. Dark Roast Blend brings you Classic Trash Trucks. Including a Dempsey Dumpmaster seen all over Western PA during my childhood and origin of the term Dempsey Dumpster for a drop box. I didn’t know they had any other name until I was in my 20s.

“If the H1 were a lad, it would be the sort of boy you desperately hoped your daughter wouldn’t bring home. Fast, noisy, dangerous — and such brilliant fun to be with.” A nice write up about one of the first hooligan bikes. A pleasant stroll down memory lane for one or two of my fav boys.

Rumors, teasers, photo galleries. It’s all here. Now if KTM would just give us a date and a price for the little 125 stunter we’d all be happy.

Ancient Cultures and Archeology

We’re so used to the view of classical Greece as a white marble paradise that we build our own great monuments to look like them. Um, not so fast. The Washington Post examines the origin of the classical look …

… and Colour Lovers gives us a look at what those cold classical figures actually looked like in glorious color. (Oh my eyes)

Art, Images, and Design

The take away from this collection of Japanese subway posters is — don’t take up more than your fair share of space, remember your umbrella, and don’t drop your chewing gum on the floor. M’kay? I love the graphics.

I enjoy the daily image or two from Covered, a blog that posts classic comic book covers re-drawn by contemporary artists. Some days they’re nice but unremarkable. Some days you get this wonderful reworking of a Tin-Tin cover.

Hours and hours of looking and dreaming. Over 100 maps, new, old, and sometimes incomprehensible.

Black & white Hong Kong. Photographs by Fan Ho. I am particularly taken by the images collected in “The Living Theater”

move along now, you have things to do.

Transportation

I’m at it again with the tiny customs. This non-NA model Honda JX110 impresses with a handmade muffler.

At the other extreme. large, low and very long. An Indian with a nod towards the bicycles of the 20’s.

The title says it all. Engine Porn. A well done photo of the RD33 engine put into such Soviet planes as the MiG29.

Science

The Earth and the moon, together. As seen looking back from the Messenger spacecraft.

Audio

What if GMO plants were used to create something other than food? Artist David Benque proposes modification and selective breeding to add custom acoustics to a forest

More artificial sounds — what happens when you slow one of those terrible songs by the boy phenom Justin Bieber by 800? You end up with something that sounds like a Brian Eno airport experience. But it’s weirdly soothing.

Art, Images, and Design

Porto. A collection of random images taken by Miss K and published by the street art blog Stick 2 Target.

Animation

Visual aphorisms. 3.5 seconds.

Dinner:  Keep calm and carry out