sundance

Desert Nesting Bald Eagles May Lose Federal Protection

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is moving to drop Endangered Species Act protection for Arizona’s desert nesting bald eagles. Only 48 breeding pairs survive, clinging to their hot, dry habitat in the Sonoran Desert along the Southwest’s desert rivers.

PlanetSolar Unveils World’s Largest Solar Boat

The world’s largest solar boat, PlanetSolar, was unveiled at the HDW Shipyard in Kiel on Thursday. The multi-hull vessel, powered solely by an array of photovoltaic solar panels, was constructed by the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel.

42 Tribal Wildlife Grants Awarded in 16 States

The Hopi Tribe will conduct an assessment of golden eagles in Arizona, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians will restore longleaf pine habitat in Alabama, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe will develop a Tribal Wildlife Management Plan for their reservation in New York, and in Washington state the Jamestown S’Kllalm Tribe will work towards restoring the Dungeness Elk Herd to its historic range.

Baptiste Debombourg

I’m riveted by this wall installation by Baptiste Debombourg. There’s more than meets the eye to this piece which initially appears to a straightforward depiction of a flailing Icarus falling back down to earth. For the astonishing reveal click after the jump.

Rejuvenique

I have no problem sharing and watching, sometimes repeatedly, viral YouTube videos. I especially am fond of old TV commercials for ridiculous products. They are the true signs of the times. And when celebrities are attached I get even more giddy. Enough with these posts around here about the Olympics and the environment and music. We need some camp too! (Yes, Johnny Weir counted as camp!)

Terry Richardson does Jersey Shore

Terry Richardson, the photographer, has always always straddled two worlds: high art and lowbrow. His racy and in-your-face pictures are often deemed real. Gritty. Harsh. And, at times, sexy.

Superman #1 sells for one million dollars

A near-mint condition copy of Action Comics No. 1, which featured the first introduction of Superman recently sold at an auction for $1 million. This broke the previous record for this comic set last March to the six-figure tune of $317,200. Maybe the economy is recovering after all? A total of only 100 copies of [...]

Olaf Hajek, “Masqeurade”

Last month Gestalten released “Flowerhead,” a collection of prints and illustrations by Olaf Hajek, one of the most successful artists working today. His clients range from corporate to creative, and of course the book includes illustrations made for no one but himself. What strikes you first about Hajek’s pieces is the craftsmanship. Not only that [...]

Contagious Hybrid Bird Flu-Human Flu Created in Lab

Genetic interactions between avian influenza and human seasonal influenza viruses have the potential to create hybrid strains that combine the virulence of bird flu with the ability to spread like a pandemic, new research has found.

MTV’s first day

MTV recently updated their logo (analysis here) to downplay their former music life, while emphasizing their ‘reality’ and lifestyle programming today. It’s common knowledge that “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles was the first song aired ever on this new and revolutionary channel when it launched on August 1, 1981, but in remembrance [...]

New Jersey vs. California: Which state is worse for sex?

Remember when former Miss California Carrie Prejean got famous for (a) getting pageant-funded breast implants and (b) saying “I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there”? Well, suddenly No-Offense Prejean is looking like the picture of tolerance (after all, she did also say “I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage.”)

Enter Lauren Ashley, who will be representing Beverly Hills in the Miss California pageant this November. She was all like, I’ll see your “marriage is between a man and a woman” and I’ll raise you “punishment by death.” No, seriously.

Women: they’re like drugs to men.

We tend to take the findings of sexuality-related studies with a grain of salt (at least until their results have been duplicated by a few other sources, at least), but we’re nonetheless fascinated by a recent study written up in the Daily News that claims that the sight of a curvaceous lady activates the same [...]

Chinese Lunar New Year’s big picture

A visitor looks at a crystal tiger which was made up of 955 steel wires and 12,888 small crystal balls at a department store in Shanghai February 4, 2010. The artwork, which is the size of an actual tiger, was designed as a gift for the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, which began [...]

Green tech finds (2/25/10)

Outlet Regulator Video from conor klein on Vimeo.

It’s Thursday… and that means green tech finds! Here’s what we found this week:

• Princeton calls Kindle experiment a success: In our very first green tech finds post, we took note of Princeton’s plans to experiment with the Amazon Kindle to save paper. The pilot worked on that front… though findings showed the device may still may not be ready to fully supplant paper texts.
  
  
• The beach sand fuel cell rolled out: Bloom Energy received tons of coverage yesterday for its public launch of the “Bloom Box,” a fuel cell system based on “solid oxide ceramic fuel cells.” Developers promise a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions, cheaper electricity, and fuel flexibility with the system.
  
  

True/False Film Fest

Suiting up for Mardi Gras in THE ORDER OF MYTHS Because most of us won’t be commuting to Columbia, Missouri to attend the 7th annual True/False Film Fest this weekend, The Auteurs, those pioneering purveyors of fine cinema, are playing 6 documentaries from past festivals for free on their site. True/False  premieres some of the [...]

Fashion Week – A board mood

Fashion Week has come and gone from NYC never again returning to the tents of Bryant Park. And while most New Yorkers have had their share of fashion for a bit I’d be remiss not to post here this slide show Vogue ran before the hoopla began. It highlights designer mood boards and inspiration walls. I find it fascinating to have a peek into the the creative process. And I also have had fun taking the mood board image and comparing it to the actual collections that were shown. The image above is from Jason Wu. He wrote “My fall 2010 collection is inspired by Irving Penn, by both his work and personal style. I applied the grainy textures of his photo negatives to intricately woven and printed fabrics and paired them with a slouchy menswear silhouette he often favored.”

Photoshop Cook

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo. Maya Rota Klein’s video tutorial demonstrates how if Photoshop existed for aspiring chefs, then baking cookies could be done with a mere click of the mouse button. Someone needs to greenlight and fast track this program ASAP. I’m also looking forward to Photoshop Clean.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

We usually breeze through the commercials on Tivo, but somehow caught this new Old Spice ad during a recent “Lost” recording. So glad we did, because it’s genius. This one — count ‘em, one — shot took three days to nail. If you look carefully, there really isn’t much computer manipulation (save for the bottle erupting out of the overflowing diamonds). And that’s actor’s real voice! Don’t believe us? Check out this Twit interview with the creators of the ad for the play-by-play of how they did it.

Pennsylvania’s Starts Green Energy Revolving Loan Fund With $48 Million

Pennsylvania’s new $48 million Green Energy Revolving Loan Fund will supply capital for developing cost effective, energy-saving and renewable energy projects in existing, non-residential buildings throughout the state.

Utah Governor Turns Back Two Uranium Trains

Planned shipments of depleted uranium from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River nuclear materials processing center in South Carolina, will not be shipped to Utah under an agreement negotiated Monday by Utah Governor Gary Herbert.

St. Louis’ green elementary school

Green jobs training programs are popping up all over the country. Often funded by grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e., the stimulus bill), these programs generally aim to retrain displaced workers in skills such as building efficiency and renewable energy installation and maintenance. Recent numbers tend to bear out the potential for job growth in green industries: wind power, for instance, grew by 39% in 2009.

Comedy class

Recently I’ve had two students in for a weekly tutorial on film and comedy. We’ve been wrapping our heads around the mercurial question: Why is something funny on the screen? What makes it chug? What keeps me in my seat, and laughing? It’s been a pleasure to dissect a few films, and revisit three really good comedies in particular, funny for three really different reasons.

Johnny Weir to address the press

Sporting his best GaGa pose, Johnny attends the Club Bud Burton Party at the Commodore Ballroom on February 19, 2010. Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images.

Today at 4pm PST (7pm EST), Johnny will hold a press conference to address the unfortunate remarks made during his free skate.

Express your support for Johnny in the comment field below!

SHUTTER ISLAND

Robert DeNiro landed his first big role in Martin Scorcese’s MEAN STREETS in 1973. It was the first film they worked on together and the beginning of a long and profitable relationship. Over the next 22 years the two made 8 films together including TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, GOODFELLAS and CASINO. Now it seems that Scorcese is going down that road of director/actor kinship once again, this time with Leonardo DiCaprio.

What the world eats

Peter Menzel and his wife Faith began taking photos of families and the food they eat on a weekly basis back in the early 2000s. In 2005 they published the book Hungry Planet: What The World Eats. The photographer now travels universities lecturing students about his discoveries. And the images are featured in an exhibit, running through May, at the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota.