sundance

100 years of visual special effects

This interesting video compilation of movie clips illustrating the evolution of visual special effects in Western cinema was meant originally as an introduction at a “5th-grader-level” for educational purposes. However, even if you are no longer tackling long division, partaking in mandatory recess, and commuting via a yellow bus, that doesn’t mean you too can’t [...]

Obese Eames chairs

Designed by artist Mark Wentzel, an exhibition of corpulent and obese versions of the iconic Eames lounge chair sculptures are on display at the Global Health Odyssey Museum, the official museum of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through September 11. The rather transparent exhibit is “responding to the apparent consequences of the [...]

Altered states

The new body of work from photographer Alix Smith stems from a long term interest in the stability and aura of the well-to-do. In a previous show, “Constructed Identities,” Smith took portraits of friends from the upper crust at work and at play, but there was one major problem with the result: those people weren’t [...]

Post-Labor day special: 5 organizations promoting a green collar economy

You likely associate Labor Day with long weekends, family cook-outs, the last trip of the season, or even putting away certain articles of clothing (yes, I grew up in the South). Of course, the holiday was created to celebrate the contributions of blue collar workers to our country’s economic growth and development. This year, some might find that a bit ironic, as our current economic woes have put many of these people out of work.

Naked News (09-08-09)

photo by [177]

• According to a recent study, men who are smart and funny may have healthier sperm, too.
  
  
• Utah teen lobbies for broader sex education.

Free music download: Röyksopp

Röyksopp’s current album features many collaborations. Their most recent single, “The Girl and The Robot,” pitted the duo against ice princess Robyn. That single’s video is brilliant and can be seen below.

Remixed hook

Pogo is back (previously) and is causing quite a stir online again with his latest electronic interpretation, this time using Spielberg’s childhood classic take on Peter Pan, HOOK. This Australian is really carving out quite a niche for himself on the Internets.

Wallpaper’s Polaroids

Wallpaper magazine is celebrating Polaroid’s new lifeline. Polaroid not too long ago was about to go out of business. Inspired by quote from Edwin Land, Polaroid’s inventor, factory workers kept the production lines running and got the word out, hoping someone would save the iconic brand. That quote read “Don’t undertake a project unless it’s [...]

The Snuggie Sutra

Years ago, we were part of the team that created Nerve.com’s Position of the Day. The challenge was coming up with the positions; the fun was coming up with the names: “The Quasimodo,” “The Wet Blanket,” the “I Can See My House from Here.” So we were really curious about the Snuggie Sutra, a website [...]

Pigeons in uniforms

This is a flighty supplement to our focus previously on Ryan Berkley’s well dressed animals: RISD alumnus and a talented illustrator, Samantha Zaza’s “Coup” is an amusing series of portraits depicting solemn pigeons with “Napoleonic complexes” dressed in full ornamental uniforms. Semi-relatedly, a few years back, a friend of mine once walked into work and [...]

One Company Gets Lion’s Share of $500M in Clean Energy Awards

One company has received more than half of $500 million in the first round of grants from a Recovery Act program that provides cash assistance to renewable energy production companies in place of earned tax credits.

Secretary of State Clinton Sued Over Tar Sands Pipeline Permit

A tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the United States that was approved by the U.S. government last month was challenged in federal court today by four Native American and environmental groups.

ASIA EXTREME: From Bangkok to Brooklyn, and back again: Pen-Ek Ratanaraung

Though Thailand’s cinematic history extends back to 1923, it’s only been in last ten years or so that Thai films began cropping up in festivals and theaters worldwide. Even at home, directors were mostly churning out populist fare, catering to the masses with low-budget genre productions. In the 1970s there was a brief period of socially critical films, which stemmed from the student uprisings of 1973 and 1976. However, it wasn’t until 1997 that Thai cinema found acceptance and acclaim in the west, and it began when newcomer Pen-Ek Ratanaraung’s debut feature, FUN BAR KARAOKE, had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Considered the birth of New Thai Cinema, it paved the way for a handful of directors working both within genres (Prachya Pinkaew, ONG BAK) and strictly arthouse (Aphichatpong Weerasethakul, SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY). Yet what separates Ratanaraung from most of his peers is the international success he’s found from audiences both high and low.

Los Angeles fires: a photo gallery

Matthew’s post the other day showed via time lapse photography the scale and terror of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles right now. While those moving images are indeed impressive many stunning, horrifying, yet beautiful still images are being captured too. The Los Angeles Times has created a special spot on their website documenting the images. [...]

EPA Again Fines Shell for Stormwater Violations in Puerto Rico

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cited Shell Chemical Yabucoa in Puerto Rico for violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Vinyl fish street art

If you have tons of old useless vinyl records lying around and aren’t sure what to do with them, then look at this find by Wooster Collective for inspiration. It’s a fish whose body is made of vinyl albums.

Lego house update

Earlier this summer I shared news that UK’s TOP GEAR host James May was building a house made entirely of Lego bricks. Well construction has gotten underway. Here’s a fun photo gallery update of the impressive progress so far. Maybe I was thinking a little too big and unrealistic when I heard the original announcement; [...]

Loft cabin

Blogger Guboogi’s friend Terri recently moved to Brooklyn and found herself that coveted New York City apartment, “a sweet loft with high ceilings and a ton of open space.” In fact, she has so much extra space, she’s decided to bring the backwoods experience into her apartment by building two life size cabins inside the [...]

Dear Old Love…

“Dear Old Love” is a Tumblr blog (celebrating its one-year anniversary) which collects short, anonymous notes to romantic interests both past and present, requited and unrequited. Reading them will crack you up/break your heart/make you wonder if they’re from your own S.O.s or exes: Tuned In — I hope you took acid this past weekend [...]

Madonna’s new album – Like a daughter?

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Gays across the globe are anxiously awaiting (yet another) Madonna greatest hits package. The album, Celebration, also features two new songs, one of which, the title track, finds Madge back in the 90s amid a pulsing electro beat created by Paul Oakenfold. Madonna’s an artist who usually collaborates with cutting edge producers so it seems a little odd she’s embracing this sound now. But I guess the 90s are back and I just don’t know about it.

All the right stuff for a lonely bear

While masses of hipsters, indie music fans, and even the HOVA hisself Jay-Z and Beyonce crowded into Williamsburg, Brooklyn to hear the Grizzly Bears perform live on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon this past weekend, another bear lives a decidedly less glamorous lifestyle as explored in the short film AND EVERYTHING WAS ALRIGHT. This film is [...]

Dario’s Inferno

More interested in creating mood with imagery both creepy and beautiful than in following a logical narrative, Dario Argento’s Italian horror films have become masterpieces of gore. Plot lines tend to revolve around young artists and students who find themselves in situations way over their heads, like attending a cursed ballet school (SUSPIRIA, 1977) or [...]

Green tech finds (9/3/09)

Avoid road rage, build your own house, and blow up your solar panels… all in this week’s green tech finds.

• Ethanol from waste gases: Australian company LanzaTech won the Green Technology Innovator of the Year award at the Asia Pacific Industrial Technologies Awards in Singapore for its technology that captures waste gases from steel mills for recycling into ethanol.
  
  
• Build your own green house… Lego style: German company HIB has developed a kit building system that works an awful lot like Legos, and creates a well-insulated, soundproof, and non-toxic frame for almost any style of house. (via Springwise)
  
  

Enviros Blast Obama’s Choice for Office of Surface Mining

Environmental groups are speaking out against the man President Barack Obama has chosen to run the Office of Surface Mining, which has jurisdiction over mountaintop removal coal mining.

Why we’ll never complain again about not peeing upright

photo by AwkwardBoners.com

AwkwardBoners is one of those genius sites that appeals equally to 13-year-old boys and, well, us. While awkward boners in public can be kind of creepy (like when the guy across from you on the subway has morning wood — one of many reasons why men should close their legs on public transportation), the image gallery on this site mostly just makes us glad we’re not dudes.