magpie's shiny things

Transportation

Moving back­wards, as far as we are con­cerned. Samoans are now driving
on the left. Why? The abil­i­ty to import cheap used cars from their
neighbors.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5861QV20090907

A sweet lit­tle bob­ber from a Norton Atlas. This can’t be bad.
http://www.bikeexif.com/norton-atlas-custom

For my next blue trin­ket I want this Bentley.
http://designyoutrust.com/2009/09/07/the-britto-bentley/

Presenting the Mosquito, an elec­tric bike that harkens more toward the
ped­al bike than the motor bike. Boat wor­thy wood­work too.
http://www.theblogpaper.co.uk/photos/technology/06sep09/mosquito

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Technology

If you’re both­ered by the fly­ing type of mos­qui­to you might need one
of these. The USB don­gle, the next rule 34 can­di­date? (Also Doug A is
a fun­ny guy.)
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/07/mosquito-repellent-finally-available-in-a-usb-stick/

Protecting the pwe­cious child­wen. Parental con­trol cen­sor­ing software
is just anoth­er mar­ket­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty. I am *so* not surprised.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5CjgMEdrwRm3JxeglUykMAHAYmAD9AGNVM00

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Design (and Food and Flash and Rummage and…)

Designer choco­lates. Pretty enough to eat.
http://www.whitezine.com/en/design/chocovic.html

The award for the best unob­tru­sive use of ani­ma­tion on a web­site goes
to… The United States Post Office? Click on the lit­tle tear tab.
(this is prob­a­bly a lim­it­ed time link)
http://www.usps.com/

Craig’s List ads should work like this. And CL adver­tis­ers should
dis­play their mer­chan­dise as well.
http://www.supermarketsarah.com/

Changzhi Lee’s school port­fo­lio is a charm­ing reuse of paper from
oth­er projects. His web site is love­ly as well, but flash prevents
linking.
http://designyoutrust.com/2009/09/08/sustainable-package-design-by-changzhi-lee/

Bugarian design­er Stefan Kirov ( 1915 — 2001) had an eye for col­or and
orna­men­ta­tion. Here one of my favorite sites (Colour Lovers) puts
togeth­er a cou­ple of palettes from his stamps and gives us an whole
lot more. It’s cheer­ful stuff for the first fog­gy morn­ing of fall.
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/09/07/the-colors-of-stefan-kanchev/

From the port­fo­lio of Massive Black an over­whelm­ing num­ber of
illus­tra­tions. There’s bound to be some­thing in here that will
per­fect­ly com­ple­ment your desk­top and sat­is­fy your freak­ish soul. (2
or 3 NSFW)
http://designfeedr.com/30-awesome-concept-art-and-illustration-pieces-from-the-massive-black-portfolio#more-2277

At least you have a cube. But then again you’re not going to get to
play those rockin’ 8‑bit games all day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tma/3884099080/

until tomor­row my dears,

Transport

The Boner-Brigade Bike. Custom paint by David Gwyther, a gent more
known for his skate decks. Be sure to click on the tiny next but­ton at
the top. check out his “mus­cle bike” as well.
http://www.deathspraycustom.com/index.php?/new-work/boner-brigade-bike/

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Science

If the sea rose 7 meters would your house become beach front property?
An inter­ac­tive map makes is pos­si­ble for you to check out the effects
on  your neigh­bor­hood. Use the box in the upper right hand cor­ner to
set a num­ber of meters to raise the oceans.
http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=43.3251,-101.6015&z=13&m=7

Google’s PageRank algo­rithm may be use­ful in fields out­side of search.
It’s pre­dic­tive abil­i­ties may mod­el a more uni­ver­sal set of linked
behav­iors. Biologists are using it to search for the key species in
ecosys­tem extinction.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/googlefoodwebs/

TED talk fans, here’s a spread­sheet of every TED talk published
through Sept, 2, 2009. Check out some of the ear­li­er talks that you
may have missed.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pjGlYH-8AK8ffDa6o2bYlXg&gid=0

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Culture and Literature

Cory Doctrow talks back to crit­ics of authors who put free eBook
ver­sions of their work on-line. C.D. and a num­ber of oth­ers have tried
it and liked their results. The late Charles Brown of Locus magazine
did­n’t like the idea and did­n’t think the var­i­ous exper­i­ments held any
mean­ing for pub­lish­ing as a whole.
http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/09/cory-doctorow-special-pleading.html

A house in Houston built from the ubiq­ui­tous ship­ping con­tain­er. Not
the usu­al stacked-block Soviet dorm style. In a more con­ge­nial climate
than Seattle it would be easy to live like this.
http://www.thecoolist.com/cordell-house-shipping-container-architecture/

A few notes on the ori­gin of Labor Day. Yes there were pic­nics, no you
did not get a paid holiday.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/33685

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Images

Derek Beacon’s edi­to­r­i­al illus­tra­tions are wit­ty and appealing.
http://www.illustrationweb.com/illustrators/home_large.asp?artist_id=3237

Geliographic is a Russian stu­dio full of wicked­ly tal­ent­ed artists,
illus­tra­tors, and design­ers. Start with this wit­ty take on the ages
old genre of still life and con­tin­ue to explore.
http://www.geliografic.com/gallery.php?theme=5

These ads for Tame Ecuador Airlines make good use of the images
asso­ci­at­ed with each city to which Tame flies to pro­duce a visu­al pun
on fly­ing and appeal­ing images.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/creative-ad-fancy-wings

Most of us doo­dled in var­i­ous note­books dur­ing bor­ing class lectures.
Very few of us could pro­duce such a charm­ing illus­tra­tion as this
young Kuwaiti.
http://www.unstage.com/2009/09/illustrations-by-ahmed-alrefaie/

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Video

Continuing with the lined paper note­books theme. Cru de Ladies from
Mexico City pro­duced this ad for the icon­ic Scribe note­books. A happy
way to cel­e­brate the return of the school year.
http://vimeo.com/6203526

Transport

Unobtainable but bru­tal­ly lovely.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/aston-martin-77/3/

R51 spot­ted in Greece.
http://www.bikeexif.com/bmw-r51

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Technology

Open source hard­ware. How much stor­age for how lit­tle cash? Just in
case you have a yen to start up a cloud stor­age com­pa­ny. Or own a
tru­ly awe inspir­ing porn collection.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/02/how-much-for-67-terabytes-try-7867/

Opening up the Kindle. In this case run­ning Linux on it. I’m not sure
why you’d do this but it’s cool.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/09/02/photo-and-descriptio.html

The newest Manhattan Project allows you to look at what your favorite
lit­tle chunk of NYC looked like in 1609. It’s hard to think of bears
in cen­tral park. But they’re here/there.
http://themannahattaproject.org/

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Images

Ross Racine draws imag­i­nary sub­urbs. Clean black and white aerial
images that either live in your dreams or will give the 3am
heebie-jeebies.
http://www.rossracine.com/artwork/artwork.html

Zoetica Ebb write in Coilhouse about anoth­er one of her favorite books
from child­hood. Town in a Snuffbox. Once again the art­work in a
Russian chil­dren’s books astounds.
http://coilhouse.net/2009/09/02/prince-odoevskis-town-in-a-snuffbox/

Ray-Mel Cornelius paints roost­ers (among oth­er things.) Every bit as
regal as the uni­formed pigeons.
http://www.raymelcornelius.com/rooster-man‑3.html

Little Red Ridinghood as ani­mat­ed sta­tis­ti­cal illus­tra­tions. Or some
such. Just watch it. (And turn the vol­ume down if you’re in a cube.)
http://drawn.ca/2009/09/02/slagsmalsklubben-sponsored-by-destiny/

It’s a big list today. So many inter­est­ing things going on in the
world that beg to be logged.

Transport

German built H‑D side car rigs. Um, that’s weird.
http://mobec-international.com/range/harleycombo/53276097890f1cb09/o000.html

There’s been lots of talk about the 747 tanker being used to fight the
fires in LA County. Here’s a round up of links to pics, videos, and
oth­er stuff. (Also a cou­ple of the old­er fly­ing boat that is way
cool­er looking.)
http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2009/08/747-supertanker-makes-its-firefighting-debut-.html
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/evergreen-supertanker/
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/01/big-ass-flying-boats.html

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Culture (?)

News of the pur­chase of Marvel by Disney has the comics crowd howling.
Mostly in pain, but here’s a lit­tle of what’s lead­ing to laugh­ter in
the cheap seats.
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/top-10-disneymarvel-mashups

Do you remem­ber the fam­i­ly tree of rock-n-roll that Jack Black drew
for his stu­dents in School of Rock? Here’s a sim­i­lar effort that
describes the evo­lu­tion of sci-fi themes on pop TV.
http://io9.com/5347631/at-last-a-graph-that-explains-scifi-tv-after-star-trek

In case you need a refresh­er on the his­to­ry of rock, here’s a post
with a num­ber of genealo­gies includ­ing the famous blackboard.
http://www.fakeplasticrock.com/2008/07/09/the-genealogy-of-rock/

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eBooks and read­ers and copyright

iRiver’s US-bound read­er. Based on a Japanese mod­el with a built in
“comics mode.” Does this mean I can read graph­ic nov­els on it?
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/01/iriver-shows-off-its-us-e-book-reader/

Google teams up with Interead to bring us cool­er­books and cool-er
read­ers. No one doubt­ed that Google meant to get into the sale of
copy­right books to go with it’s Google Books initiative.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/02/google-widens-attack-on-amazon-kindle-partners-with-coolerbooks/

Tucows, the unfor­tu­nate­ly named Canadian ISP (and more) has provided
David Weinberger with a chance to address the Canadian copyright
con­sul­ta­tion. David W pro­vides a read­able refu­ta­tion to the”: strong
copy­right pro­vides an incen­tive to cre­ate, weak copy­right is a
dis-incentive” argument.
http://tucowsinc.com/news/2009/08/copyrights-creative-disincentive/

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Random Things that Made Me Smile

Plushy microbes. There are sev­er­al sets avail­able but this one seems
the ide­al gift for some­one you don’t quite like.
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/main/venereals/

Cookie dough and ice cream are both good. Cookie dough and ice cream
togeth­er are great. Cookie dough and ice cream togeth­er shaped like
gyoza are… incred­i­bly clever.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/icecreamgyoza

An exten­sive gallery of beau­ti­ful chick­en coops. Mine is look­ing quite
tawdry by comparison.
http://www.mypetchicken.com/about-chickens/chicken-pictures/Chicken-coop-X127.aspx

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Images

Masakatsu Sashie’s orbs are float­ing col­lec­tion of life and living
space. Japanese sur­re­al­ism well done.
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/09/orb-paintings-by-masakatsu-sashie/

A selec­tion from Samantha Zaza’s large port­fo­lio. In this case, her
regal pigeons in uni­form. Yes, this is what pigeons see when they look
in the men­tal mirror.
http://cyanatrendland.com/2009/08/31/pigeons-in-uniform/

If I had a win­ery I would want July Macuda’s naive paint­ings for my
bot­tle labels.
http://www.pincelvirtual.cl/

Something new. A video trail­er for a book, Scott Westerfeld’s latest
YA Leviathan. Visually it’s much steam-punky good­ness. The voice over
is all wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYiw5vkQFPw

Technology and a lit­tle Transportation

Skype is an impor­tant part of the ‘net ecol­o­gy espe­cial­ly in parts of
the world where phone taps are ubiq­ui­tous. Various pro­grams have been
writ­ten to allow inter­cept­ing and record­ing VOIP. Now the programmer
who wrote one of them has released his code to the pub­lic. Interesting
results.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/skype-trojan/

If you are the fam­i­ly IT depart­ment you should book mark this page. It
con­tains about half of the flow charts devel­oped by Morris Rosenthal
for trou­bleshoot­ing PC hard­ware. If your fam­i­ly is par­tic­u­lar­ly hard
on lap­tops or par­tic­u­lar­ly demand­ing you might want to buy the book.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/pcrepair.htm

He’s also got a set for repair­ing cars. All avail­able on line.
http://www.ifitjams.com/

We often make fun of twit­ter and it’s users. But it has become an
impor­tant plat­form for devel­op­ment. Here’s a list of 10 mash-ups.
http://www.inspiredm.com/2009/08/31/the-most-creative-10-websites-and-apps-built-on-top-of-twitter/

The most pleas­ant of the batch is an ani­mat­ed stream search. Enter a
term in the box in the low­er left hand cor­ner. Click on the
magnifier/search icon. Rolling your mouse over the blue birds gets you
the con­tents of the tweet that each is car­ry­ing. (I’ve set the initial
search to moto GP.) Or you can just watch the lit­tle birds flitter
past. It’s kind of restful.
http://toriseye.quodis.com/#moto%20GP

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News and Culture

What ever your opin­ion of Ted Kennedy, the Big Picture’s col­lec­tion of
images from his life and the trib­utes and memo­ri­als to his life is a
visu­al his­to­ry of one of the most pow­er­ful fam­i­lies in America.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/senator_ted_kennedy_19322009.html

I haven’t read an adult/literary nov­el in ages. Writing in the WSJ,
Lev Grossman looks at why I and so many oth­ers are aban­don­ing the
Modern Novel and what we’re read­ing instead.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html

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Images

Today is water­col­or artist day.

Drawn looks at “The Art of Ponyo.” Hayao Miyazaki’s char­ac­ter studies
are done in watercolor.Miyazaki’s choose of medi­um under­lies the
com­mon look to all of Studio Ghibli’s productions.
http://drawn.ca/2009/08/28/ponyo/

This paint­ing of the Bloor Bridge is just one Herry Afrin’s lovely
urban landscapes.
http://www.herryarifin.com/index_files/Page2313.htm

Howie Tsui’s car­toon­ish take on tra­di­tion­al Japanese paint­ing is both
beau­ti­ful and horrifying.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/31/howie-tsuis-asianwes.html

He’s not using water­col­ors but… Luc Grateau does speed por­traits of
the denizens of the Paris Metro on metro tick­ets. The site includes
exam­ples of his work and a news report on his paint­ing. The video is
in french but you don’t need to under­stand the voice over to enjoy the
story.
http://viacomit.net/2009/08/30/subway-ticket-portraits-by-luc-grateau/

Awesome pic­ture of the day. Space shut­tle lift-off at night.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1458.html

New com­ic that I will be watch­ing. Spacemen, robots, and ger­bils!  (No
feed at the moment — so I’ll put it on my watch list and let you know
when there are new installments.)
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=comic&id=50969&page=1

Enjoy the day,