magpie's shiny things

Transport

OCC goes green(again) This time with Schnieder Electric. There was a
video in the post but it’s been removed. Because, of course, OCC isn’t
in the bike build­ing busi­ness they’re in the real­i­ty TV business.
(Yes, I have an opinion.)
http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-news/orange-county-choppers-goes-greenhybrid-motorcycle-is-on-the-way-ar79269.html

So you’ll have to set­tle for this pho­to of the Siemans/OCC bike. Its
sil­ver and kind of cool.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/occ-goes-green-with-a-hybrid-chopper/

Meanwhile — here’s the first of two eye can­dy treats for today. This
Ducati is for sale. Really. The bonus won’t stretch that far. I’m
think­ing the look might do for the the Tiny Toy rebuild though.
http://www.bikeexif.com/thunderduc‑2–0

More real rac­ers. The Colorado Grand is a vin­tage car ral­ly that means
it when they say ral­ly. The sound track must be awesome.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/vintage-rally/

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Science and Technology

How to make all that under cov­er park­ing work for you. Solar pan­els on
top of car ports. Nice look, expen­sive, avail­able in Japan only for
now.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/16/japanese-company-sells-carports-with-solar-panel-roofs/

Also from Japan — touch­able holo­grams. There’s a video demonstration
of “rain” falling on a hand.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/17/touchable-holography.html

If that T Rex I told you about a cou­ple of days ago won’t fit in your
foy­er, you might want to wait until a skele­ton for this much smaller
Raptoex krieg­stei­ni comes up for auc­tion. Seems that T had a much
small­er ancestor.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/tinytrex/

I’ve been known to say that the next great war (as opposed to this
great police action) will fought over water. This mental_floss story
gives you an idea of what hap­pens when a big­ger nation/state/city
takes the water away from a small­er one.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/34713

Google Voice could­n’t find a home on the iPhone and exact­ly who made
the deci­sion and who accept­ed it are still being dis­cov­ered. A final
answer isn’t like­ly but two let­ters to the FCC (one each from Google
and Apple) make it clear that this deci­sion was not made by the lowly
folks who review and approve the fart apps.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/fcc-releases-confidential-details-of-google-voice-app-rejection.ars

No mat­ter what you think of Google’s book dig­i­tiz­ing project… The
Espresso Book Machine is what dig­i­tiz­ing pub­lic domain books is all
about. Lisa Gold pulls togeth­er the cov­er­age of the Google’s Print on
Demand machine. There’s one com­ing to Third Place Books in November.
http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/an-atm-for-books-google-partners-with-the-espresso-book-machine-to-print-public-domain-books-on-demand/

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Art, Illustration, and Photographs.

A trip to Japan. Juliana Wang’s con­certi­na book of ink draw­ings takes
you along. (The whole draw­ing is the fourth image in the set.)
http://julianawang.com/work/its-a-funny-place-japan/

A recipe as a car­toon. How to make Chai Tea. Smiling sauce pans are a bonus.
http://lucylou.livejournal.com/575537.html

Fiction and maps. Fiction as maps. Maps as fic­tion. Shane Watt draws
fic­tion­al maps. Or is it that he draws maps of fic­tion. Cue the
LitCrit crowd. Or read the inter­view and look at the pictures.
http://www.diskursdisko.de/2009/09/interview-shane-watt/

Charlie Roberts’ paint­ings of the chaos of artists’ stu­dios are
fright­en­ing­ly accu­rate — right down to the chee­rios box in the
windowsill.
http://www.booooooom.com/2009/09/16/charlie-roberts-artist-painter/

I’m leav­ing the flash based cat­a­log site of jew­el­er Jennifer Gehbauer
run­ning on the oth­er machine as inspi­ra­tion. Design You Trust has a
review and some images here.
http://designyoutrust.com/2009/09/18/2s-design/

No, that is not an illus­tra­tion of a car­toon dog float­ing on a calm
sea beneath a paper moon. It’s a photograph.
http://www.mccartyphotoworks.com/epostcard/epostcard_73.html

Here are 10 images from the Nostalgia series by South African Stefan
van Deventer. Evocative black and white.
http://definitivetouch.com/news/stefan-van-deventers-nostalgia/

Last Word

TGIF — now hop in your dog­mo­biles and speed out­ta here.
http://thelittlechimpsociety.com/adria/adria-fruitos-new-prints-at-inprint/

Transportation

This KTM con­cept bike is too future-freaky for com­fort. The TopSpeed
review does­n’t make much sense of the bike.
http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-news/amazing-ktm-concept-motorbike-ar79248.html

Old-skewl, shiny, prob­a­bly unrid­able. I don’t care. Drool wor­thy Indian.
http://www.bikeexif.com/indian-arrow-motorcycle

Czysz toots his own horn with the Motorcyclist cov­er­age of the I.C.E.
Prettiest of the electrics? Possibly.
http://www.motoczysz.com/rss_news_view.php?id=105

Speaking of elec­tric trans­port. News we nev­er need­ed to see. Trabant
returns — as an electric.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/electric-trabant/

——————-

Science and Technology

Congress Considers the future of NASA. Wired Science live blogs. Aside
— is the live blog­ging of tes­ti­mo­ny going to pro­vide an alter­na­tive to
offi­cial tran­scripts? Is this good or bad? Certainly in this case it
high­lights the con­trast between the rec­om­men­da­tions of experts and the
feel­ings of the meme­bers of the Committee.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/live-blog-congress-on-the-future-of-nasa/

The future of space explo­ration and extra-terrestrial sci­ence may be
in hands of small inde­pen­dent exper­i­menters like Armadillo Aerospace.
Simulated moon land­ings by their Scorpius vehi­cle saw them move one
step clos­er to the Northrop Grumman Lander Challenge grand prize.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/armadillo_aerospace/

Birds vs. Airplanes. The Bird Strike North America Conference is
get­ting unac­cus­tomed pub­lic­i­ty this year. Wired Science brings us a
round up of some promis­ing devel­op­ments in the bat­tle to keep birds
and planes fly­ing. At least click through for the nice blue bird
picture.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/09/bird-strike-conference/

Gene Therapy con­tin­ues to get press. Nature report­ed on the successful
cure of col­or­blind­ness in two monkeys.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/colortherapy/

——————-

Society

Chumming the waters. Medina is now track­ing all vehi­cles that enter
the city. Rich peo­ple are para­noid and, well, rich enough to do
some­thing about it.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009873854_medina16m.html

Medinites can now cel­e­brate their com­plete safe­ty with a skillfully
sabered bot­tle of cham­pagne. Do the West Pointers still do this at
weddings?
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/16/how-to-saber-a-bottl.html

——————-

Art, Illustration, and Images

The ques­tion of which pho­to print­er to buy comes up all the time.
Here’s the short sweet answer. Less that $500.
http://drawn.ca/2009/09/16/best-printer-home-studio/

Logo-rific LA ani­mat­ed as a pulpy PI movie. Ronald McDonald is the
vil­lain. The Michelin man the hard boiled detec­tive. Stills and clips.
You can be sure that I’ll let you know as soon as the full length vid
makes it’s way to the ‘nets.
http://creativity-online.com/news/h5-builds-the-world-of-logorama/138951

The Afflicted Yard is get­ting an out­door show­ing. I’ve aready pointed
you all to the book of pho­tographs of life in Kingston Jamaica as
doc­u­ment­ed by Peter Dean Rickards.  There a cou­ple of pho­tos in this
announce­ment that did­n’t make the book.
http://cafehabanablog.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/the-afflicted-yard/

Erotic art giv­en a sen­si­tive and real edge by street artist Mode2.
This is the set to show the judge when youw ant to make the
dis­tinc­tion between erot­ic art and porn. NSFW.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/no-eyed-dear/sets/72157621973413086/

Surreal short ani­ma­tion. Morbidly Gallic humor.
http://vimeo.com/muzorama

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On the Way out the Door

Stop motion, paper craft, Samuri Jack. You can not fail with this 15
sec­ond pro­mo for Cartoon Network.
http://drawn.ca/2009/09/16/samurai-jack-cutout-animation/

Transportation

The future(?) is all red and swoopy in these five exam­ples of
futur­is­tic design. I want a jet bike!

Okay, all the green­ers want us to know that the future is public
trans­porta­tion. Maybe if they can make all the bus­es as cool as these
bus shel­ters. Erm, adver­tis­ing is promi­nent fea­ture in all of them.
The future looks an awful lot the present.

Graham Parker and his bud­dy Stewart Cauley has got­ten their hands on a
trove of pho­tographs from the 1917 Beekman Street sub­way col­lapse in
NYC. They’ve uploaded them to Panorama and mapped the loca­tions using
the nota­tions on the pics. Fascinating.

—————–

Technology and Society

Google’s Public Policy blog announces DataLiberation.org. Freeing your
data from the cloud keep­ers. The com­par­i­son to rent­ing an apart­ment in
the first ‘graph push­es the anal­o­gy fur­ther than usu­al — to good
effect IMO.

Books car­ried by back­pack­ers are care­ful­ly cho­sen with an eye to
weight vs. ben­e­fit. Here’s a set of sug­ges­tions for books that
qual­i­fy. Motorcyclist choose almost as care­ful­ly. What would you add
to the list?

Ars Technica’s review of Scribblenauts is enough to con­vince me to dig
out my old DS in prepa­ra­tion for the next long plane trip.

xkcd con­tem­plates a Scribblenauts ver­sion of real­i­ty. <face­book> Like
</facebook>

The Wizard of Oz is 70 years old. Wow. I was trau­ma­tized by those
damned mon­keys as a child. Now I wish I have my own fly­ing monkey
army. SunFiltered offers a cou­ple of links.

Do your­self a favor and give this Eric Clapton ver­sion of Somewhere
Over the Rainbow a lis­ten. A palate cleanser if you will.

————

Fashion and Design

Dorothy need­ed ruby slip­pers to get home. I’m lik­ing these from Ahmet
Baytar bet­ter than the sequined orig­i­nals. (Link to my site because
the design­er’s site is unlink­able flash.)

Inspiration for girls who are going to get what they need and don’t
feel like putting up with a fairy god­moth­er to do it.
http://insomnio.org/post/188578223/the-gun-and-the-girl

Color and pat­tern inspi­ra­tion for the day. Batik.

———————–

Video(s) of the Day

Don’t be like this guy.

Or this pig. (Or sing like Nureyev.)

More mup­pet creepi­ness here.

Transportation

The good moto stuff first. Another yum­my bike on Bike EXIF. They’re
hit­ting my sweet spot late­ly. And it *races*.

Outrageously luxe big V‑8s are a pas­sion of mine. Here’s anoth­er entry
for my imag­i­nary garage.

Sadly yet anoth­er exot­ic is get­ting the elec­tric treat­ment. Come-on
folks, these cars were nev­er meant to hum along silent­ly in the I‑405
24/7 traf­fic jam. It’s ugly to boot.

The mir­rors at Lamborgini head­quar­ters are all bro­ken, That’s the only
expla­na­tion for all the odd angles and planes on this Reventon. I like
it any­way and these ren­der­ings seri­ous­ly rock.

Motoring old style. From Millie Motts a set of scans from Delaware
Motorist mag­a­zine 1934. The expla­na­tion of syn­chro­nized traf­fic lights
is excel­lent. (Click for bigger.)

—————————-

Technology

I want this book, just because I love any­thing about ‘how it’s made’.

———————–

Science

The best DIY space project ever? Get your very own pho­tos from 18
miles up. For less than $150. Maybe cheap­er, I’m sure we have a couple
of extra beer cool­ers lay­ing around.

Green Porno is back. Seriously good infor­ma­tion on reproductive
biol­o­gy with clever paper cos­tumes and the dead sexy Isabella
Rossellini. NSFW unless you want to have a very interesting
con­ver­sa­tion with the nice girl from HR about your sex­u­al orientation.
(Tentacle fetish anyone?)

For sale, one T. Rex skele­ton. No longer being used by orig­i­nal owner.

———————–

Style

It’s fash­ion week in NYC. Here’s a quick look at some high­lights. I
like the laid back atti­tude we’re seeing.

On a more for­mal note, there are still milliners. Uma Turan is a Brit
with an eye for for hap­py flip­pan­cy in hats.

The MOMA store is always a good go-to for a styl­ish gift when you
refuse to suc­cumb the Bed, Bath, and Beyond Registry thing. Here are a
cou­ple of speech bal­loon plates that will make some­one smile.

————-

Images

Warren Ellis point­ed to this col­lec­tion of hand-colored pho­tographs
from Russia tak­en in 1896. There is no nar­ra­tive to accom­pa­ny the
images, mak­ing them alien and suggestive.

We’ve lost the Polaroid. Sigh. Here’s a set of por­traits done by Hana
Davies using the Polaroid as a col­lage ele­ments. All of her work
pleas­es me. NSFW — nudes.

A mas­ter of impromp­tu sketch­ing. Wil Wong draws Toronto en plein aire.

Do the Time Warp is back. Deviant Art’s chal­lenge to illus­tra­tors, Now
and Then self portraits.Done most­ly by high school­ers and
20-somethings, more mature view­ers will find both the Thens and the
Nows  poignant reminders of the uni­ver­sal nature of grow­ing up. Alice
chose 12 of her favorites and post­ed them at Modern Met.

Amy Crehore has repost­ed her Demon Ukulele. The horned demon on the
head­stock is sneer­ing sweet­ly — if that’s pos­si­ble. Amy’s site is
unfor­tu­nate­ly NSFW — artist nudes.

A classy young lady who would go on to be one of the most pow­er­ful in
the world. Her charm is unmis­tak­able. Jacqueline Bouvier.

back to the salt mines, the lot if you.

-lara-

Transportation

The Atom Bomb Doctor Who. Naming con­ven­tion remains a mys­tery but the
bike is yummy.

1861 United does a series of pun­ning ads for Yamaha. Love ’em.

For a retro moto look, an album cov­er.

——————-

Science

The Benthic Rover does for the ocean floor what Spirit and Opportunity
are doing for Mars. Only cool­er, and there’s video.

————–

Society

We all know the dan­gers of spy ware but did you imag­ine that Sears and
K‑Mart would be gross offend­ers? Just sign up for a few spe­cial deals,
get $10 — and reveal your kinks, online phar­ma­cy orders, and bank
bal­ance to the retail giants.

UT Austin’s fresh­ly dig­i­tized Poe archives. Search for” raven” and
find sheet music, illus­tra­tions, and manuscripts.

I trav­el; I look at rivers and dams. I might change my mind and plan a
world tour based on vis­it­ing these 10 coolest play­grounds.

——————–

Design

Microwave pop­corn bags have no style what-so-ever. This award winning
con­cept could change that. Stylin’ and delicious.

I like yel­low, maybe not this much yel­low, but DHL gets a lot out of
yel­low. Or in this case a lot into yel­low.

————————-

Art, Images, and Illustration

Modern sculp­tures invade the grounds of Versailles. The pur­ple
crus­taceans are awesome.

More whim­si­cal and charm­ing from under the sea. Meomi’s house
fea­tures the new Octonauts adven­ture. And a cou­ple of thou­sand other
bits of cot­ton can­dy —  mouse around.

Jessica Fortner’s illus­tra­tions are the end result of a long, exacting
process that com­bines mod­el build­ing with pho­to com­post­ing. Her
newest, the first in the“My Woodlands, My Nightmare” series, is at the
top of her blog. Scrolling down will show you how she did it. (And,
no, a bear under and umbrel­la is not in the least bit night­mar­ish. A
few of the ear­li­er pieces are)

Monday seems to be visu­al irony day. Here David Trautrimas paints
unique hous­es based on com­mon gadgets.

La Carrera Panamericana, rac­ing at it’s most bru­tal­ly unsophisticated.
Photographed by Coop. In black and White. 600+ images. Day-waster.

More black and white good­ness. The LIFE archives serve up a slide show
of New York City in the 1940’s.

———————

Video

Making your day just a lit­tle hap­pi­er. 8 ani­ma­tors pro­vide a roller
coast­er ride for a lit­tle rab­bity fel­low set  to a pop song from New
Zealand. (SFW + audio)

until tomor­row comrades,