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David Pescovitz:
A massive hole suddenly opened up in the kitchen of an Alta, California home, swallowing the owner and killing him. From CNEWS:

Authorities say the home, built in the 1980s, may have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine. Recent rains could have softened the ground under the home, in an isolated area near Lake Alta.

“It’s unbelievable,” Placer County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said. “From the front of the house, it’s absolutely normal. Then, in the middle of the house, is this enormous hole.”

Link (via Fortean Times)

Originally by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing on April 24, 2006, 2:03pm

The Architecture Programme at the Royal Academy of Arts and World Architecture News have announced the winners of the Urban Eyrie: a Haven in the City competition. The brief was imagine a place where people can find personal space but still engage with the energy of the city around them.

Ricky Lee won the first prize for his ingenious solution integrated into the vertical neon advertising that flanks the classic Chinese street. People would be able to climb upon neon signs and relax into their own haven. There, they would be able to have a look at what’s going on in the street while remaining hidden behind the structure of the signs.

List of winning proposals.

The Urban Eyrie display of finalists is at the Royal Academy of Arts - Architecture on the Ramp, London until 22nd May.

Originally from we make money not art, ReBlogged by sonia zjawinski on Apr 24, 2006 at 04:03 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on April 24, 2006, 4:03pm

When Silvio and Paolo from Limiteazero told me a year ago they were planning to organise an event about new media art, architecture and performances in Milan, i promised myself i wouldn’t miss it. Well… i will. Instead i will frolic in Berlin, give a talk in Maribor and watch my favourite trashy soap opera on a laptop.

Check the amazing line up (in english soon): new media art, architecture, sound&audioVideo (sic!) and book your ticket to Milan.

MixedMedia festival will take place at the Hangar Bicocca, Milan, May 25-28.

Originally from we make money not art, ReBlogged by sonia zjawinski on Apr 24, 2006 at 04:03 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on April 24, 2006, 4:03pm

I believe in art that one trips over,
Tumbles blindly
Down several flights of stairs
To end up on their own two feet.
Virtually unscathed, and
Into the arms of their sweetheart.

- says
Christian Tedeschi. And it is true of his works: at first glance they seem scary, dangerous, aggressive. But once we look more carefully, we see a light-heartedness that enchants. For once, the heavy matter turns into crystal form. For once, Beuys is misundertood as he should be, without the huffing and puffing of someone too old to be a disciple. And so, the matter dances and plays. It swirls in the air as if it weren’t suspended. It moves by itself. But don’t be fooled - it does nothing of itself. Even if it takes 10 seconds to reorganize it, the world stands anew. Enthropy? Erosion? A gentle spin of time?

Originally from New Art on April 23, 2006, 11:06am

Garth from Extreme Craft pointed us to a fantastic story he did on artist Theresa Honeywell who created this knit motorcycle which is on display now through April 30th at the Georgia Museum of Art. Honeywell’s work explores the cool tough male world with her pieces like the knit tool belt, knit jackammer, as well as embroidery work of tattoo designs. [ via ] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Originally from MAKE Magazine, ReBlogged by sonia zjawinski on Apr 24, 2006 at 03:52 PM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on April 24, 2006, 3:52pm

a series of 60 different drawings that each consist of a MS Excel ‘worksheet’, which is automatically set up as a grid. MS Excel is a popular program designed to track & compute numerical information, but is here used as a drawing tool. the drawings were made by changing cell preferences for background color, fill pattern, border styles & inserting ‘comment’ boxes, letters or words. see also pixelfest group art & sorting image pixels.
[danielleaubert.com & danielleaubert.com (video)]

Originally from information aesthetics on April 25, 2006, 2:27am

Reporting on Friday Late: Transvision.

Jason Bruges Studio created Visual Echos for the transvision event. A very long table top like surface contained a matrix of leds, with a video camera at one end. As the camera captured images it took rgb values and changed the leds at one end, travelling down the surface like a wave. Best explained by watching my video.

Originally from Pixelsumo, ReBlogged by sonia zjawinski on Apr 25, 2006 at 08:05 AM

Originally from Eyebeam reBlog on April 25, 2006, 8:05am

video quicktime 35sec 2.34Mb

as a child i wasn’t allowed to watch films after 8pm, i supposed to be in bed, but sometimes the door to the living room wasn’t completely closed…maybe i really shouldn’t have watched some films.

source:

http://www.archive.org/details/DasKabinettdes
DoktorCaligariTheCabinetofDrCaligari

tags:
vlog

German Expressionism

Horror

remix

Originally from Fast Moving Animals on November 16, 2005, 1:46pm

video quicktime 3.52Mb 1min 10sec

tags:

video

heat

Originally from Fast Moving Animals on June 28, 2005, 3:16pm

video quicktime 44sec 6.07Mb

This is about timepassing.


I’m not really happy with dates, especially here, on this page, i feel it’s just too methodical, it’s too linear, too 2D. There’s no place for chaos.

I would love to see separate posts floating on the web page, like floating thoughts inside our heads… ready to pick up.

sound: TTS translator

tags:
Video

countdown

time

vlog

Originally from Fast Moving Animals on October 13, 2005, 2:52pm

Originally from Smartspace on April 25, 2006, 12:06pm

• Corporate search needs to heed workers, Google exec says [CNET]
  “Paying more attention to what the worker wants rather than to pleasing tech specialists would spur sales of tools, Google’s enterprise search head says.”
• ‘Geocoding’ mapping software goes open-source [CNET]
  “SRC will release code for organizing data to be displayed on mapping services.”
• A magical Maker Faire [CNET]
  “The Maker Faire, an all-weekend do-it-yourself-o-rama, attracted hundreds of exhibitors Saturday and Sunday to the San Mateo Fairgrounds.”
• Online is the new box top [USATODAY]
  “Taking an old-school marketing tactic and putting on an interactive twist, Hollywood is turning to games and contests to create excitement for movies and TV shows. Monday, ABC announced the Lost Experience, an Internet interactive game based on the hit series, designed to offer clues to the island’s mysteries.”
• Microsoft to Unveil New Internet Explorer [AP]
  “Microsoft Corp. is releasing a new test version of Internet Explorer, the market-leading Web browser that is facing competition from smaller players.”
• Researchers Use Tongue as Interface [NewsFactor]
  “Perhaps you’ve already tried 3D goggles and virtual gloves. And you might know about innovative new interface technologies that put full keyboard functionality in just a single hand. But now, if researchers are able to commercialize a new project, you might also be using your tongue to interact with your PC.”
• Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can’t Be Fired [AP]
  “Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.”

Gossip

• ConFonz at Maker Faire: I guess the kids didn’t count
  “Those San Francisco types that refuse to leave their houses, much less their city, couldn’t even be bothered. “
• TechCrunch Gang pops caps in yo’ ass
  “The bad boys blowing up the bubble…”
• Lazy news: New York Magazine finds the Internet again
  “The Internet industry is a bubble again. But it’s not a bubble. But it is a bubble…or is it? No. Yes.”

Originally from Lifehacker on April 25, 2006, 9:00am

Life Outtacontext has a story that’ll help you save yourself money with leveraged bargaining.

It was definitely time to renegotiate. Our calling plans were from the Mobile Phone Jurassic period. We had two separate accounts with more minutes than we could ever use (let it be known we do not live with our phones permanently affixed to our ears). We were paying way too much and our phones were old. Coworkers and friends would often stifle their surprise to see my quant little black and white screen. “What?! You can’t download In-A-Gadda-De-Vida as a ringtone??”

He goes on to explain in detail how he got his phone bill down. The story offers some good tips that can be used elsewhere. Any Lifehacker readers have a similar story or lessons learned with this kind of bargaining?

 
Comment on this post

Related: ZiXXo online coupon creation
Related: Don’t use your credit card to pay taxes
Related: How to lower your cable bill

Originally from Lifehacker on April 24, 2006, 7:00pm

Pan (2006, 10MB, 5:04 min)

Lesbians (2006, 5.7MB, 2:34 min)

Interesting work from young artist
Sarah Garmisa. I’m personally not entirely
convinced by Pan although it clearly cost
serious thought & effort & doesn’t lack technical merit.
Lesbians though, is an unqualified success:
witty, precise & executed with no little panache.
I look forward to seeing more.

Originally by editorial from DVblog on April 25, 2006, 12:00am

In honor of the day after Earth Day, some of the greener posts here on Lifehacker:

• Get cash for your old cell phone
• Make sandals from an old tire
• Reuse water with a toilet seat sink
• Google maps computer refurbishers
• Save a tree: download your manuals
• Safely lay to rest your old computer
• Make your own solar power generator
• Smart auto-off computer power strip
• Lower bills with Energy Star lightbulbs

Related: How to recycle your PC
Related: Google maps computer refurbishers

Originally from Lifehacker on April 24, 2006, 2:00pm

by Keith Robinson

Mixing your work with your home life can be tricky, but I’m giving it a good shot. I recently moved into a new home and as I regularly work from home, I claimed one of our three bedrooms as my office - or what I like to call “Keith’s Fortress of Solitude.”

I spent quite a bit of time planning it out. I wanted a place where I could get down to businness, but also hang out, listen to music, play a video game and basically just be myself. I think every home office must be planned and built to suit the needs of the people using it. In my case it was 70% business and 30% fun.

Today I’m going to walk you through my ultimate home office, explaining they why’s and hows (don’t worry, it’s really quite simple — by design) and offering up some advice that may help you. When I’m done I’d love to hear about your own setup!

Make a list of your goals and needs

The first thing I did in planning my home office was make a list of my goals, wants and needs. For example, I needed a room I could comfortably work in for long periods of time. When I need to do head down work I like to be alone and at work I share a room with 3 coworkers who often need to meet or make phonecalls, etc. I wanted a room that I could personalize. I’m a very creative person and my tastes tend to be a bit “out there”. And I figured it’d be easier to get my wife to buy off on me displaying comics and rock posters in my own room as opposed to the living room.

Lastly I wanted a room I could relax and play in. We live in a medium sized house, so having another room to myself wasn’t really an option. We do have a nice entertainment room, but I’ve got to share that with my wife and she likes her TV. So, I wanted to somehow work that into my home office.

As you can see knowing this in advance helped me plan out the furniture I’d need and the placement of everything. Which, given the room’s not huge, was tricky. Check out some photos of how it turned out.

< ?php $setname = "Keiths Home Office"; $username = 'lifehacker'; include('/www/utils/photogallery/photogallery.php');?>

Starting with an empty room

One of the things I did was use the Ikea Office Planner. This helped me figure out how much desk I could fit into my room. As you can see from the photos, I was able to get a desk that gave me plenty of work space without taking over the whole room. Which brings me to my next point.

Ample work space

For me having space to work on many different tasks was key. I need to be able to use my computers and as a designer I have a need for lots of screen space. However, I also have need to be able to work on the desk. Sketching, taking notes (I usually do this by hand) and going through materials and books.

I needed a desk big enough to accommodate that, and equipment that didn’t take up a lot of space and could be easily pushed out of the way. I chose a very small printer and monitors that were as thin as I could afford. For my PC I got the Gateway FPD2185W 21″ Widescreen High Definition LCD monitor which was actually a pretty good deal and worked perfectly. It has the added bonus of being able to swing into portrait mode which I use occasionally to free up space.

Keep it clutter free

In addition to simply having enough room to work, you’ll also want to keep that work zone free and clear. In addition to not keeping dishes or glasses on my desk (I like to eat in the kitchen) I don’t have an inbox or any place where I can rest papers — with the sole exception of my time tracking sheet which doubles as a laptop keyboard protector.

I’ve got papers on my desk when I’m working with them and they’re put away when I’m not - usually, anyway.

No trash in my room

While I do have a shredder and some paper bags for recycled paper (it’s nice to be able to toss the container with the recyclables) I don’t have a proper trash can. Why? This helps me keep the place clean. I take my trash down to the large trash can we’ve got in the kitchen. Seems like a pain, but it not only helps me keep the place clean, it gives me an excuse to get up and about.

Always organized

In addition to keeping things clean, I’ve got my file cabinet thoroughly organized. You’ll note from the photos that I’ve got one drawer for files and it’s not all that full. These are my “working” and “current” files. The older stuff either gets shredded or filed in the garage.

Keeping fun stuff separate

I’ve said that my home office is 70% work and 30% fun. Well that doesn’t mean I don’t try and have a bit of a line between the two. All of my gaming is done on my PC (or the Playstation) and I’ve situated that stuff a bit apart from my Powerbook, which is my main work machine. I also keep it off during work time, unless I need to use it for browser testing.

In this way I’m able to create a comfortable environment for both work and play without having to worry about distraction. Of course it takes a bit of self control, but I’ve been pretty good so far!

I’ve shown you my workspace, now we want to see yours! Submit photos of your office to enter for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon in Lifehacker’s Coolest Workspace Contest.

D. Keith Robinson is an associate editor of Lifehacker. His special feature Getting To Done appears every Monday on Lifehacker.

 
Comment on this post

Originally from Lifehacker on April 24, 2006, 12:30pm

This one’s to show we can do cute and furry, while still bringing you news of environmental import. The Tammar Wallaby might just hold an answer to the dilemma of super bugs. These are bacteria that have developed resistance to our indiscriminate use of antibiotics. (And try buying a cleaning product in your big box store these days that doesn’t scream ‘antibacterial’.) Anyhow, the likes of Golden staph is back in our hospitals, and pencillin is losing its effectiveness, in many instances, to ward off such infectious beasties. So researchers are very interested in the Tammar Wallaby. When born, the kidney bean, that is a baby ‘joey’, has to crawl up its mum’s belly, from womb to pouch. All without a lung, mind you. (One day old joey seen in middle pic) Once safely anchored to the teat, it is dependent on the mother’s milk to provide all its immune protection for the first 100 days of life. Seems this milk is rather potent stuff. Against some bacteria it’s 100 times more aggressive, than even the best strain of penicillin. (Biomimicry is about taking notes from the pages of nature’s overly bountiful scrapbook. The great concern is that with umpteen species now on a new fast track to extinction, we may be left holding a book, from which many of the vital pages have been torn out.) Via ::New Scientist

(This post continues on the site)

Originally by warren from Treehugger on April 25, 2006, 6:06am

Xethanol Corp.’s motto seems to be: “Take the solution to the waste not the waste to the solution”. From their website, we have excerpted some explanatory text. Ethanol…”production is now concentrated in the Corn Belt - thousands of miles from the areas of highest ethanol demand on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts”…”Xethanol’s Business Approach calls for the use of locally available biomass rather than corn as the primary raw material for ethanol production”…” Because most biomass streams are now either abandoned or land-filled at the producer’s expense, biomass is potentially a significantly cheaper feedstock for ethanol production than corn”…”Xethanol plans to locate biorefineries for ethanol fuel production close to high-density urbanized ethanol markets and to reliable biomass sources - so reducing freight and raw material costs, capturing higher ethanol prices and gaining the benefit of improved margins”.

(This post continues on the site)

Originally by John Laumer from Treehugger on April 25, 2006, 7:27am

According to CNN, green building is near a overused cliche “tipping point” although their idea of green is the typical out-in-the-country big house and is primarily concerned with saving money on fuel. “The necessity for more energy-efficiency is driving the trend,” says Matt Belcher, who runs Belcher Homes in St. Louis and who chaired the Green Home Building Conference. “Consumers are looking for energy savings.” The article points out that there is more to green than just saving green- water conservation, material usage, and being healthy also come into play. Now if only they started thinking about planning and density as part of the equation we might have something. ::CNN

Originally by lloyd from Treehugger on April 25, 2006, 7:59am

TreeHugger believes that if everyone comes together to make a couple small changes, we can make a big difference. As part of our continuing series, here are five more ways to green your lifestyle without breaking a sweat.

20) Eschew air conditioners (even though there are some nice designs, some pretty efficient window units and even an off-grid option out there, some think A/C is the killing frost sure to wilt the last fragile shoots of American culture) and go with a ceiling fan for year-round climate control. It’ll help keep you cooler in summer; to push warm air back down into the room in winter, just flip the blades around.
19) Skip the energy-hogging clothes dryer for a drying rack or clothes line instead; it’s easier on your clothes, your energy bill and our fragile planet. While you’re at it, green your laundry practices or skip electricity all together.
18) Use rechargable batteries instead of single-use batteries. It’ll save you some bucks and the hassle of trying to recycle spent alkalines (even though our friends at 3r Living make it a little easier by accepting them for recycling). For more info, check out Green Batteries for everything you’d ever want to know.
17) If given the choice, go for organic fruits, veggies, meat and dairy over conventional food. Organic food is becoming more widely available all the time in grocery stores across the world, and because it’s all free of pesticides, herbicides and other chemical non-desireables, it’s better for you and the planet.
16) When it comes to food, the only thing making more noise these days than organic is the local food movement. From the Eat Local Challenge to the 100 Mile Diet (so interesting that we added a part 2) to a growing number of resources to help you grow your own food — it doesn’t get more local than that — it’s tough to beat the “eat the season” mantra. If you’re still not convinced, here are 10 reasons to give it a shot.

#25 - 21; stay tuned for # 15 - 11 tomorrow!

Originally by Collin Dunn from Treehugger on April 25, 2006, 9:50am