magpie's shiny things

Bonus Easter Sunday Edition

For no par­tic­u­lar rea­son in no par­tic­u­lar order:

Extreme cute­ness. Little lost robot.
Reported:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/11/adorable-robots-get-where-theyre-going-with-human-help/
Creator’s site:
http://www.tweenbots.com/

Micheal Velliquette — cut paper art. Shiny.
http://www.velliquette.com/Site/SlideShow_assets/SlideShow.html?lang=en

For the 7 year old in all of us. Do want.
http://www.cookiemag.com/homefront/decor/2008/11/london_greenhouse?slide=2#showSlide

Why I could­n’t go to the gym on Wednesday. They took my lit­tle iPod shuffle.
http://sleepmachine.tumblr.com/post/95168434/buzzp-via-cache-gawker-com

more tomor­row,

Yet anoth­er stu­pid car design that posits groovy graph­ics as the
solu­tion to — well I don’t know exact­ly what. Usually these things are
pitched at girls/women. Cars as acces­so­ry. (The pug thing is just
cute.)
http://www.core77.com/blog/competition/this_just_inbox_moy_concept_car_by_elvis_tomljenovic_pugzee_by_dave_cortes_13151.asp

Hugh McLeod has anoth­er print com­ing out. Don’t like his style enough
to fork out for one but his irony kills me.
Big ver­sion here:
http://www.gapingvoid.com/ws0904%20jpeg.jpg
Post and pric­ing here:
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004909.html

If I ever have to do a Dale Evans gig I want this dress.
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/custom_circus_dress_from_ramon.html

I’ve been fol­low­ing the reac­tions to the UK’s real­ly dreadful
“war-on-terror” ad campaigns.
Start here with the first reports of the originals.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/london-cops-reach-ne.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/30/dumbest-salvo-yet-in.html

A col­lec­tion of the remix­es here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/26/remixes-of-the-paran.html
And my per­son­al favorite:
http://www.spacetoast.net/STP/culture/london/sheet_road_cctv_remix1.jpg

Someone must want this thing in their den. Not me.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/10/unruly-nephews-buy-this-life-sized-velociraptor-head/

Area 51 and the SR-71-Blackbird. Interviews with engi­neers and others
that worked there.
http://www.latimes.com/la-mag-april052009-backstory,0,786384.story

That’s all for this week.

Good Morning All,

Design inno­va­tion meets skin art.
http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/stunning_tattoo_gun_13135.asp

Big pic­ture stuns again with pho­tos of the L’Aquila earthquake.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/the_laquila_earthquake.html

Best case mod I’ve seen in a while. The con­struc­tion qual­i­ty is
insane­ly great. (The orig­i­nal Russian site is down.)
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/08/the-ultimate-wall-e-case-mod/

For those of you fol­low­ing the Kindle text-to-speech issue, there is
cov­er­age of yes­ter­day’s protests of the Authors’ Guild on EFF.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/protest-kindle-drm

Sweet bit of pho­to­shop for the WWF.
http://www.cpluv.com/www/feeditem/7494

How to make a 45RPM record. (From BBC there’s an ad first.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7973950.stm

More tomor­row,

Slow morn­ing.

Easter bun­ny cute­ness. Not for the bam­bi lovers in the crowd. Be sure
to click on all the views!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22149195

I’m a total whore for let­ter­press. Two DIY press designs reviewed.
Verdict — well not really.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/07/how-to-build-your-ow.html

Just added this blog to the rota­tion. We’ll see what it brings. (If
noth­ing else I like the design. I think it’s from Smashing Magazine -
tell­tale S in the bot­tom right cor­ner. Could be wrong.)
http://craftfail.com/?p=31

For play. Using a “rub­ber band” inter­face to explore words and their
connections:
http://www.visuwords.com/
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Reporting on Reading Rights and the National Federations of the
Blind’s protest of Amazon’s cav­ing to the Author’s Guild over the
text-to-speech fea­ture of the kin­dle. Show some love. Write a letter.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/06/reading-rights-coali.html

Best round up of the report­ing on the Google books set­tle­ment. I’m
still work­ing my way through the links here.
http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/the-controversy-over-google
‑book-search/

more tomor­row,