A helmet shaped umbrella, why didn’t we think of that sooner?

Monday, 20 May, 2013

The helmet shaped Rainshader umbrella may just be the break through in wet weather protection technology that we have long been waiting for.

The Rainshader protects people from the elements while watching major sporting events – crucially it doesn’t blow inside out, poke passers-by in the eye or drip on neighbours’ shoulders in crowds. Its cut-away front, based on the design of a motor cycle helmet, lets people see the action while allowing the umbrella to sit low over the head so it doesn’t block the view of those behind.

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Marie Antoinette, and others, as they might look today

Wednesday, 15 May, 2013

Marie Antoinette

How might people such as William Shakespeare, Admiral Lord Nelson, and Queen Elizabeth I, look if they walked amongst us today?

Nelson is probably about right, not sure about Shakespeare though. Marie Antoinette, above, however doesn’t differ too greatly from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film depiction of the ill-fated French queen.

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The unique sights, and sounds, of flat Earth art

Friday, 10 May, 2013

Flat Earth Society artwork

Unique is probably the best word to describe the way the Flat Earth Society creates its musical recordings:

Flat earth society takes readings from the stylus of topographic radar, cuts them into vinyl and then plays them back with a stylus. Phonographic hills-and-dales grow into the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, Grand Canyon, Great Steppe, Great Rift Valley, Great Outback and the Lesser Antilles. Where Enrico Caruso and Nellie Melba once sang one hears the Baja Peninsula, Antarctic Peninsula, and the bathymetric pauses of the Red Sea and Baffin Bay. Peaks and valleys, spikes and wells, spires and troughs, aspirations and depressions, all have their gradations in mythical and actual landscapes.

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Who reviews the reviewers? Could it be a flowchart?

Friday, 10 May, 2013

With people offering reviews of the prisons they spent time in, it can’t be said we’re short of advice and information when deciding where to make a hotel, restaurant, or whatever, booking. But how impartial, and accurate, are the write-ups published on online review websites anyway?

This flowchart then should help you decide what level of credence to assign to these reviews.

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A bike with a view, but don’t go looking down or trying to stop

Thursday, 2 May, 2013

At almost four and a half metres in height, the Stoopid Tall bike is a vehicle that requires above average bicycle handling skills to ride.

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Who speaks for Earth? The Visit Earth bureau of course

Thursday, 2 May, 2013

Visit Earth

Perhaps it’s time we tried another approach in trying to lure extraterrestrials into visiting Earth?

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Aesthetics over function? The evolution of spacesuit design

Thursday, 2 May, 2013

Spacesuit design through the… space age. The final suit, the sleek Bio-Suit, as designed by Dava Newman, looks far easier to wear and work in than some of the earlier versions, but I wonder how robust, how radiation resistant, and what have you, it would be.

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A little evolution, a little revolution, designing the chess set

Thursday, 25 April, 2013

Chess has been with us since the sixth century, yet the format of the game that we’re most familiar with has only been around since 1849, with the advent of the Staunton chess set.

According to the most widely told origin story, the Staunton set was designed by architect Nathan Cook, who looked at a variety of popular chess sets and distilled their common traits while also, more importantly, looking at the city around him. Victorian London’s Neoclassical architecture had been influenced by a renewed interest in the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome, which captured the popular imagination after the rediscovery of Pompeii in the 18th century. The work of architects like Christopher Wren, William Chambers, John Soane, and many others inspired the column-like, tripartite division of king, queen, and bishop. A row of Staunton pawns evokes Italianate balustrades enclosing of stairways and balconies.

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The photoshopping of Madame RĂ©camier’s portrait, painted in 1800

Tuesday, 16 April, 2013

Madame Recamier photoshopped

London based artist and designer Nazareno Crea has taken 45 classic paintings, such as the “Mona Lisa”, and applied the retouching techniques that many photos today are subject to, including this 1800 painting titled “Madame Récamier”, by French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David… retouched above, original below.

Madame Recamier original

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They don’t make them like they used to, shoemakers that is

Friday, 12 April, 2013

91 year old New York City based shoemaker Frank Catalfumo has been plying his trade since 1945. There can’t be too many like him around anymore.

Catalfumo says “we gotta keep moving in life”. True. I also think that if there’s something you love doing, you should never stop either.

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