Planetary Folklore

Time Travel

2012-05-24T13:01:00.002-07:00

Photic Sneeze Reflex

2012-05-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes referred to using the backronym Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst Syndrome (ACHOO Syndrome), and colloquially known as "sun sneezing". A condition of uncontrollable sneezing in response to numerous stimuli, such as looking at bright lights, affects 18–35% of the population. Its exact mechanism of action is not well understood.

Hinode Observes 2011 Annular Solar Eclipse by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, on Flickr

La Terre a peur

2012-05-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Une fabuleuse aventure de science-fiction de Perry Rhodan...

Most Coveted Covers

Settlements and City Strategies

2012-05-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

A series of abstracted planimetric drawings and eerily-serene cityscapes that suggest the changing contours of urban settlements, by Illustrator/Designer Lekan Jeyifo:

"They represent an idea of a degenerate futurism, yet one might find similar typologies and scenes in places such as the favelas of Brazil and North Africa, and in overpopulated cities such as Lagos, Mexico City, and Mumbai."

Settlements and City Strategies on the Behance Network

Via visuelle.co.uk

Outside Context Problem

2012-05-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

The kind of problem "most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop."

From Iain M. Banks novel Excession

NIKECraft

2012-05-15T16:16:00.001-07:00

Want!

Nike transforms air bags and astronaut suits into space-inspired sportswear via New York City artist Tom Sachs... "Born from the dynamic between Tom Sachs' D.I.Y. aesthetic and the wide reaching Nike brand, comes an artisanal capsule collection, NIKECraft."

"... the Tom Sachs: NIKECraft collection - The Mars Yard Shoe, the Trench, The Marsfly Jacket, and the Lightweight Tote. Nike design and Sachs applied materials that have never been used in sportswear, taken from automotive air bags, mainsails for boats and the space suit itself. Each piece is packed with functionality that would prove useful in the voyage through space. Zipper pulls that double as storage containers, paracord that can be fashioned as a tourniquet and embellishments like the periodic table of elements screened on the inside of a jacket - they all merge visual interest with purpose."

Tom Sachs: NIKECraft

Via The Fox Is Black

The Node

2012-05-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Shortlisted in the Motion Graphics category of the Vimeo Festival Awards 2012:

"...just because quantum physics said so."

Via Isaac Westergard

Landsat 7

2012-05-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Satellite images acquired by Landsat 7:

"The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have collected information about Earth from space. This science, known as remote sensing, has matured with the Landsat Program. Landsat satellites have taken specialized digital photographs of Earth’s continents and surrounding coastal regions for over three decades, enabling people to study many aspects of our planet and to evaluate the dynamic changes caused by both natural processes and human practices."

Via but does it float

The Oddity of Human Civilisations

2012-05-09T08:27:00.001-07:00

"Rotterdam-based photographer Bas Princen was first trained as an architect, before earning a reputation for documenting the vast structures and spaces he might once have helped create. With his photographs of giant construction sites and apparently absurd human artefacts he describes the oddity of human 'civilisations'. 'I go out to find photographs in which the artificial and the natural take each other’s forms and in which one is unable to see if things are being constructed or destroyed. I think that is the most interesting thing that can be said right now about the cities in which we live, and the landscapes in which we dwell (and vice versa).' Bas Princen explains."

Via iGNANT

Rube Goldberg Machine

2012-05-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Rube Goldberg Machines complete a simple task in the most inefficient way possible... according to Wikipedia "a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg."

Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine (Melvin the Machine or simply Melvin for friends) is the world's smallest Rube Goldberg Machine...

Via Co.Design

The Search For Our Beginning Could Lead to Our End...

2012-04-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

A new three-minute long trailer for Prometheus has been unveiled online:

Epic

2012-04-29T06:15:00.001-07:00

Love these epic industrial images by photographer Christian Stoll:

Via but does it float

Knäppa

2012-04-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Looks like Ikea are going to release a digital camera made of cardboard called Knäppa (“Snap”), billed as “the world’s cheapest digital camera”, invented and designed by Teenage Engineering:

It's made of a single piece of folded cardboard, a single circuit board, a camera sensor, and an integrated USB connector and powered by two AAA batteries...

IKEA PS 2012 KNÄPPA (via It’s Nice That)

Happy Birthday David

2012-04-17T07:53:00.001-07:00

NEW Prometheus viral!:

Sunburn

2012-04-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Images from Chris McCaw's Sunburn series:

"In this process the sun burns its path onto the light sensitive negative. After hours of exposure, the sky, as a result of the extremely intense light exposure, reacts in an effect called solarization- a natural reversal of tonality through over exposure. The resulting negative literally has a burnt hole in it with the landscape in complete reversal. "

"My favorite part is watching smoke come out of the camera during the exposure and the faint smell of roasted marshmallows as the gelatin cooks!"

What is Historicity?

2012-04-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

The girl gingerly picked up the two lighters and examined them.

“Don’t you feel it?” he kidded her. “The historicity?”

She said, “What is historicity?”

“When a thing has history in it. Listen, one of those lighters was in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s pocket when he was assassinated. And one wasn’t. One has histrocity, a hell of a lot of it.”

- Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

The Light in the Distance

2012-04-10T13:43:00.002-07:00

Ljuset i fjärran by Wilhelm Wik

True Skin

2012-04-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Trailer for indie Sci-Fi project 'True Skin' by H1, from production group N1ON:

Metatron's Cube

2012-03-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

Metatron's Cube is a two-dimensional geometric figure created from 13 equal circles with lines from the center of each circle extending out to the centers of the other 12 circles. Six circles are placed in a hexagonal pattern around a central circle, with six more extending out along the same radial lines.

Image via Sacred Geometry, Quantum Magic

The Humans

2012-03-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

From The Sagan Series, part 9 - The Humans

The Sagan Series:
Part 1 - The Frontier Is Everywhere
Part 2 - Life Looks for Life
Part 3 - A Reassuring Fable
Part 4 - NASA Per Aspera Ad Astra
Part 5 - SETI Decide To Listen
Part 6 - End of an Era: The Final Shuttle Launch
Part 7 - The Long Astronomical Perspective
Part 8 - Gift of Apollo
Part 9 - The Humans

Last One Out

2012-03-20T06:34:00.002-07:00

A survey of London's remaining professional darkrooms, 2006–2010

In 2006 photographer Richard Nicholson began to document London's last few darkrooms before they disappeared forever, swept away by the rise of digital photography:

"What I love about this darkroom is the fact it's full of strange things – a quill, a parrot, a clay shoe" – Richard Nicholson

Last One Out, Please Turn On The Light

Prometheus - Full Official Trailer

2012-03-18T04:51:00.002-07:00

This movie also has a fictitious website at https://www.weylandindustries.com/

Planes in Modulated Surfaces

2012-03-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Some of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark's investigations into geometric abstract.

Technology

2012-03-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

Fantastic article about the internet written by Douglas Adams (in 1999!) - How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet - where he talks about how new technology becomes part of the fabric of our world:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

Hermès-zing

2012-03-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

Amazing vintage Hermès handkerchief by French painter and commercial graphic artist Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, most widely known for his Dubonnet poster:

Via Stitched & Stitched... including the 'Hermès-zing' title!