Morning Linkage (Dec 16)

Transportation

Electric-Spoofaloo. Tron Angry Birds. ‘Nuff said.

A medi­a­tion on what makes the Nurburgring spe­cial. It’s his­to­ry and it’s cre­ation in an era when rac­ing was about rac­ing and not prod­uct place­ment. Bonus shots of the ear­li­est con­struc­tion work.

Even the track maps had more charm back in the day. Le Mans ’55

Dubious Theories

Spencil Borchard has at least as cred­i­ble set of con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries as any of the oth­er freaks out there get­ting air time. Moon gophers indeed.

History

Last year, when I was on walk-about, I drove down the Ohio River from my home town (Pittsburgh) to the con­flu­ence with the Mississippi. There was noth­ing, or damn near noth­ing when I got there. The state park was closed and the road to the point washed out. So I crossed the riv­er and head­ed into Cairo, IL. I did not stop, I did not get out, and I did not take any pic­tures. You can prob­a­bly fig­ure out why by hav­ing a look at this small col­lec­tion of pic­tures tak­en by peo­ple who did stop.

And if you won­der how a once thriv­ing indus­tri­al town could have end­ed up in this state you can spend some time with the Reddit thread mentioned.

Art, Images, and Design

I like old fash­ioned sil­hou­ettes and I think this updat­ed ver­sion of the cutout sil­hou­ette may just have to find a place on one of my walls. Though I may have to use some oth­er mate­r­i­al for the back­ground as these are a bit twee.

How to make some­one else’s words your own. Tree of Codes is the text of The Street of Crocodiles remade. Die cut pages with most of their words stripped away allow a new nar­ra­tive to emerge. Pictures, a video of the cre­ator, and can­did reac­tions from read­ers when they open the book. (Yes I bought a copy imme­di­ate­ly after see­ing the vids.)

Animation

You know I love ani­ma­tion but who has the time and resources to get the soft­ware or buy the cam­eras and learn the rou­tines. What if all you need­ed was google docs? Seriously, three guys, three days, 450 pages. All google docs.

Morning Linkage (Dec 15)

Transportation

3 from Asphalt and Rubber this AM.

I seem to be all about the black bikes late­ly. And Ducati has got­ten the mes­sage. The dis­as­trous­ly white Diavel has got­ten a pre-release make-over and now comes in a much yum­mi­er Diamond Black. More rid­ing, less polishing.

And Aprilia has the per­fect Xmas gift for your fav boy-racer. The RSV4 car­bon fiber fair­ing kit. Perfect if you’re a bit more flush than most of us. 5K? Srsly? Damned pret­ty though.

I can­not explain the pic that goes with this post. Other than to assume that I am not the only who could use an appetite sup­pres­sant dur­ing the hol­i­day (over) feed­ing sea­son. But the news appears to be real. Paris Hilton has flung a bunch of mon­ey at a cred­i­ble 125GP team.

Toys and Maps

The unfor­tu­nate­ly named Fuck Yeah Cartography tum­blr. Many , many pages of maps. Some clever, some odd, some cheesy, some more art than maps. Links to the sources vary in their use­ful­ness but some lead on to won­der­lands of images and history.

It was inevitable. Foodie Lego. A vil­lage bak­ery and Parisian green gro­cers. I’m not sure the local four-year old is gonna be pleased to see either of these under the tree instead of the next Star Wars set, but I’m going to have a great time on Xmas.

Art. Images, and Design

A love­ly print of a line of pranc­ing dev­ils. Matt Forsythe.

Episode One — Robots in film. The usu­al sus­pects from the ear­ly days are here. Maria, Gort, Robbie. And few that are new to me. Tobor? He looks like fun.

Fruit and Veggie Alphadeath. Maybe a few too many deaths by knife but there’s not many oth­er ways you can mur­der an egg­plant. (Click through to flickr)

Animation

Made for Moleskine by Rogier Wieland. Cut paper ani­ma­tion of dates in a plan­ner. Bonus dinosaur appear­ance. (1:07 — the sound track is grat­ing and you don’t need it)

Morning Linkage (Dec 14)

Transportation

We’ve had some bad weath­er around here late­ly. Too much rain leads to sat­u­rat­ed ground which leads to mud and rock slides. Here’s one of the fab pics from the WA-DOT of some of the clear­ing activ­i­ty. This one is on Chuckanut Drive a bit north of here.

Something spe­cial for afi­ciona­dos of the small­er makes. A visu­al his­to­ry of KTM. Sadly with­out iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion for the bikes. Still fun.

Science

Perhaps all those flood myths in the mid­dle east have a basis in a pre­vi­ous round of glob­al warm­ing? Are the remains of a once thriv­ing civ­i­liza­tion damply wait­ing for us beneath the Persian Gulf.

Art, Design, and Images

A lit­tle over the top for most office recep­tion areas but if you have the need… TF2 sen­try gun. (WETA, of course)

Thomas Perkins draws trip­tych comics. Every day. On his three kids’ lunch bags. And he posts them for the rest of us to enjoy.

Animation

Is it even pos­si­ble that I did not post this the first time I saw it? BLU makes ani­ma­tion on build­ings. Really. The evo­lu­tion of life on earth.

There you go my dears, see you tomorrow.

Morning Linkage (Dec 13)

Transportation

That Enduro XT sure is cute. Well fet­tled too.

I was all set to show you the newest Fat Attack show bike when I acci­den­tal­ly clicked on the pre­vi­ous post link. Thank god. Or we all would have missed this beau­ty. 1928 Moto Guzzi racer.

And here’s that Fat Attack. H&R Erbacher The One. Just because a flat black hyper-bike is a good fit for a Monday.

Science

Completely, utter­ly squee. Red pan­das on live cam spon­sored by Firefox.

Art, Images, and Design

Entry point for Lee Misenheimer’s flickr stream. Curly lines make for both sin­is­ter and amus­ing creatures.

A change of pace from the usu­al water­col­or or pen and ink sketch­es. Quickly scrib­bled pas­tels give the col­or and shape of Autumn trees.

This is the nicest wed­ding invi­ta­tion I’ve seen in ages. And at the LeBrea Tar Pits. Couldn’t be more roman­tic.

Animation

I want to see this .… when it’s done. Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Morning Linkage (Dec 9)

Transportation

Because you real­ly need to know how engine ori­en­ta­tion of a Melkus affects the design of it’s rear hatch. A col­lec­tion of cut away draw­ings of cars. Thousands of them.

Bobbers, meh. Hondas, meh. On the oth­er hand — this maroon beau­ty does the thing up right.

le sigh. Really if you don’t get this…

Science

Once again we may dis­cov­er that there was once water where this now a desert.

Could I be any hap­pi­er? Animation and sea crea­tures. The Secret of the Stomatopod Strike.

Art, Images, and Design

Words and pic­tures. Such won­der­ful pic­tures. Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Simple, col­or­ful, images of ani­mals from Russian chil­dren’s books. Boris Kalaushin.

Someone is bound to com­plain that there images depict cru­el and dan­ger­ous treat­ment of chil­dren. I sug­gest instead that Jason Lee’s pic­tures of kids reflect n the fun and goofi­ness that chil­dren them­selves imagine.

off you go…