Amazing stuff. I like art which successfully mixes features on the large levels and on smaller levels. It's actually pretty unusual.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Kris Kuksi sculptures
Kris Kuksi sculptures.
Amazing stuff. I like art which successfully mixes features on the large levels and on smaller levels. It's actually pretty unusual.
Amazing stuff. I like art which successfully mixes features on the large levels and on smaller levels. It's actually pretty unusual.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Superman Saves Home From Foreclosure
Superman Saves Home From Foreclosure, article.
A freak find of the world's most collectible comic book, the first occurrence of Superman in Action Comics no. 1.
Jade moods
I was out to a very nice lunch with Jade and her mom, and took these snaps.
Sadly the smiley one is shaken, I guess they can't yet build anti-shake into the minuscule cameras in phones (iPhone 4). I hadn't thought of that, I've gotten used to be able to take indoors snapshots even with a compact camera.
Sadly the smiley one is shaken, I guess they can't yet build anti-shake into the minuscule cameras in phones (iPhone 4). I hadn't thought of that, I've gotten used to be able to take indoors snapshots even with a compact camera.
Freedom of work thought
Here's a thought: if somebody paid you a life-long grant to do whatever kind of work you'd like, what would you do?
It has to be something that some people are actually earning money on, it can't be "watching sports" or "drinking cocktails".
It has to be something that some people are actually earning money on, it can't be "watching sports" or "drinking cocktails".
Monday, August 02, 2010
Destruction in slowmotion
Here's something for the real men, Tommy found this video of things being destroyed (and other things) in slow motion.
I like the double wammy of the egg in the mouse trap.
And how people smash stone with their hand is... well, it must be mind-over-matter.
Anyway, it's amazing how much poetry there can be in such mundane matters if shown right.
I like the double wammy of the egg in the mouse trap.
And how people smash stone with their hand is... well, it must be mind-over-matter.
Anyway, it's amazing how much poetry there can be in such mundane matters if shown right.
iPad as "mini-Mac"
With apologies to my most macho and pragmatic readers, I find this really cute and beautiful. With the Hexapose stand and the Apple wireless keyboard, the iPad, visually at least, turns into a "mini-Mac".
Is it a good replacement for a laptop? It depends. For example, so far it does not have any really good software for working on Office files, if you depend on a lot of formatting like tables and such. But for pure writing and most web use, and many other uses, it's great. And doubtlessly, the software situation will be very different in a year or two.
A laptop is more flexible and powerful, but it is twice or thrice the price, it's twice as heavy, twice as big, and, well, it's simply not an iPad when you take it off the stand.
If you don't like this, you don't. If you do, well, you know who you are, and don't need my convincing. :-)
Is it a good replacement for a laptop? It depends. For example, so far it does not have any really good software for working on Office files, if you depend on a lot of formatting like tables and such. But for pure writing and most web use, and many other uses, it's great. And doubtlessly, the software situation will be very different in a year or two.
A laptop is more flexible and powerful, but it is twice or thrice the price, it's twice as heavy, twice as big, and, well, it's simply not an iPad when you take it off the stand.
If you don't like this, you don't. If you do, well, you know who you are, and don't need my convincing. :-)
I also like that Hexapose holds the 'pad higher than most stands.
10 Things You Might Not Know About SUPERMAN
10 Things You Might Not Know About Superman, article.
... And perhaps more than many people really care to know.
I knew some of it, due to my being an avid reader of Superman as a kid.
In later years, I think the series lost most of the Sense Of The Fantastic it had once. One who did resurrect much of that was Alan Moore, but he did it mostly in his books for America's Best Comics, notably in Tom Strong and Top Ten. And also in his stories with Supreme, from Image Comics.
For example, Tom Strong met an alternate Self who had literally ran across the galaxy to meet him, using planets as humans may use stepping stones to cross a stream! I think that's just such a totally ludicrous idea that it has a poetic beauty.
... And perhaps more than many people really care to know.
I knew some of it, due to my being an avid reader of Superman as a kid.
In later years, I think the series lost most of the Sense Of The Fantastic it had once. One who did resurrect much of that was Alan Moore, but he did it mostly in his books for America's Best Comics, notably in Tom Strong and Top Ten. And also in his stories with Supreme, from Image Comics.
For example, Tom Strong met an alternate Self who had literally ran across the galaxy to meet him, using planets as humans may use stepping stones to cross a stream! I think that's just such a totally ludicrous idea that it has a poetic beauty.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Sculptures
Unusual sculptures.
I like the horses, not the least the lines from them.
I like the horses, not the least the lines from them.
"Sayaka Kajita Ganz created these wild horse sculptures from trash-picked objects like plastic utensils, toys, and metals."
The Sunday paper
As an experiment, I have subscribed (via the local newspaper shop) to the Sunday Times. I am wondering, how the heck do people read this thing!? Plus the daily papers, plus other reading material etc etc? When I have been on a course various places, I have always been one of the fastest students, but I would say such a Sunday paper would take me until next Sunday to read. And I don't mean reading every dang article, just the more relevant stuff.
I think people cheat somehow. :-)
I think people cheat somehow. :-)
Moby-Dick, or The Whale
On audiobook, I am reading Moby-Dick, due to recommendation in the books of Jed McKenna who claims it's a parable of awakening, and to my surprise I'm finding it quite enjoyable, even entertaining. You may be aware that the book has the reputation of being "the one book everybody wants to have read, but that nobody wants to read", so I expected it to be long-winded and dry. So far, I don't find it so.
"Reading" in audio, I got curious about the spelling of the names in the book, and I realized I could surely get the text as ebook too for little or nothing, and so it was. Both Kindle and iBooks have several editions. (Oddly, iBooks US has more than double the number of iBooks UK.)
But this is funny, see these price variations in this iBooks screenshot: from zero dollars, all the way to $14! Hah! This shows the oddity of selling things, particularly digitally: the value is all in our heads. A price is simple whatever you can get an agreement upon between buyer and seller. In western countries, haggling is frowned upon in normal shops unlike in the East and Middle East, so we tend to have an idea of prices as being something set, a natural quantity.
By the way, on audiobook, it shows its length: a full twenty-four hours, some versions more than that! But there is also a dramatized version on iTunes, at less than two hours... I wonder at sheer gall it takes to make an abbreviation that is that dramatic. You must really be quite certain that you know what a book is all about and what the author meant with each passage.
More by the by, a note on ebook reading software: Kindle software on iPad has six choices of text size, and iBooks has eleven. I think the differentiation in those sizes is too crude. In contrast, the excellent Instapaper software (exports articles to iPhone or iPad) has twenty sizes to choose from, and I can find precisely the size which I find most comfortable at the moment, depending on the material and how tired I am, etc. This is not the case with iBooks and Kindle, where I often wish for a size in-between two options. I wonder if it is lack of sophistication, or a desire from Amazon and Apple to keep the interface as simple as possible? Personally I think a choice of fixed sizes (with numbers to help remember preferences) and a sliding scale of nearly stepless choices would be ideal. Or the ability to type in a font size number, if you wish for 16 point text instead of 14 or 18 point.
"Reading" in audio, I got curious about the spelling of the names in the book, and I realized I could surely get the text as ebook too for little or nothing, and so it was. Both Kindle and iBooks have several editions. (Oddly, iBooks US has more than double the number of iBooks UK.)
But this is funny, see these price variations in this iBooks screenshot: from zero dollars, all the way to $14! Hah! This shows the oddity of selling things, particularly digitally: the value is all in our heads. A price is simple whatever you can get an agreement upon between buyer and seller. In western countries, haggling is frowned upon in normal shops unlike in the East and Middle East, so we tend to have an idea of prices as being something set, a natural quantity.By the way, on audiobook, it shows its length: a full twenty-four hours, some versions more than that! But there is also a dramatized version on iTunes, at less than two hours... I wonder at sheer gall it takes to make an abbreviation that is that dramatic. You must really be quite certain that you know what a book is all about and what the author meant with each passage.
More by the by, a note on ebook reading software: Kindle software on iPad has six choices of text size, and iBooks has eleven. I think the differentiation in those sizes is too crude. In contrast, the excellent Instapaper software (exports articles to iPhone or iPad) has twenty sizes to choose from, and I can find precisely the size which I find most comfortable at the moment, depending on the material and how tired I am, etc. This is not the case with iBooks and Kindle, where I often wish for a size in-between two options. I wonder if it is lack of sophistication, or a desire from Amazon and Apple to keep the interface as simple as possible? Personally I think a choice of fixed sizes (with numbers to help remember preferences) and a sliding scale of nearly stepless choices would be ideal. Or the ability to type in a font size number, if you wish for 16 point text instead of 14 or 18 point.
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