custard apples

landlockedmermaid: dreamboat

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:24:05 -0500

dreamboat

The first claim of Menusaver’s patent reads: A sealed...

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:13:54 -0400

The first claim of Menusaver’s patent reads:

A sealed crustless sandwich, comprising:
a first bread layer having a first perimeter surface coplanar to a contact surface;

at least one filling of an edible food juxtaposed to said contact surface;

a second bread layer juxtaposed to said at least one filling opposite of said first bread layer, wherein said second bread layer includes a second perimeter surface similar to said first perimeter surface;

a crimped edge directly between said first perimeter surface and said second perimeter surface for sealing said at least one filling between said first bread layer and said second bread layer;
wherein a crust portion of said first bread layer and said second bread layer has been removed.

nprfreshair: Inside the world of test tube meat with The New...

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:13:50 -0400

nprfreshair:

Inside the world of test tube meat with The New Yorker’s Michael Specter: “There is something inherently creepy about [growing meat in labs.] But there is something more inherently creepy about the way we deal with the animals that we eat. … They live a horrible life and they often die quite cruelly. So the idea of being able to eliminate some of that is extremely exciting for a lot of people.”

madelinecoleman: Spiderweb-shrouded trees in Pakistan last...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:49:29 -0400

madelinecoleman:

Spiderweb-shrouded trees in Pakistan last December. Via one of my favourites, even*cleveland:

An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters.

Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs. People in this part of Sindh have never seen this phenonemon before - but they also report that there are now less mosquitos than they would expect, given the amoungt of stagnant, standing water that is around.

It is thought that the mosquitos are getting caught in the spiders web thus reducing the risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for the people of Sindh, facing so many other hardships after the floods.

Photos by Russell Watkins/Department for International Development.

camera obscura

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:49:25 -0400

whoisbob:

Abelardo Morell - using the camera obscura techniques to take the beautiful outdoor (Venice canals and Panteon no less!) inside his living room.

Q&A: Lesley Kelly on the do's and don'ts of raising backyard chickens

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:16:59 -0400

Q&A: Lesley Kelly on the do's and don'ts of raising backyard chickens:

I’m not sure what would be considered a “remarkable” characteristic. Chickens are birds, first and foremost. But they can’t really fly very well, so they can run like heck! I think they used a running chicken as the model for the running dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. If you hold a chicken upside down, it will become very docile and happy. I don’t know why.

Chickens can’t move in the dark (it’s some sort of weird survival mechanism), so when darkness falls they are stuck wherever they happen to be. That’s why they will always “put themselves to bed” by roosting up high just before dusk. I had one rooster who would spend 15 minutes every evening working his way branch by branch up into the top of our walnut tree. In the morning he would swoop down (they are excellent gliders) in one jump. His instincts were too strong for him to accept the chicken coop as a reasonable place to sleep. Some breeds are incredible moms (that’s where the phrase “mother hen” comes from). I had one Silkie hen who even raised a duckling. She was a bit upset when it kept trying to swim, though (chickens don’t swim)!

OBSESSIVES: URBAN FARMING - CHOW.com Novella Carpenter started...

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:16:52 -0400

OBSESSIVES: URBAN FARMING - CHOW.com

Novella Carpenter started small, with some plants in an empty lot next to her house in Oakland. A couple of years later, she was tending to a full-blown farm, with goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and a robust garden. This video tackles questions of neighborliness (which is more offensive: police sirens or roosters crowing?), environmental poisons (raised beds are key), and the all-important slaughter question. The answer: Yes, she does (and yes, there is some bloody footage).

Photo

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:20:57 -0400

Family of Eight (2008) by Tim Pitsiulak

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:20:43 -0400

Family of Eight (2008) by Tim Pitsiulak

jayparkinsonmd: laughingsquid: Bikes Make Life Better, A Video...

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:20:36 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

laughingsquid:

Bikes Make Life Better, A Video Projected Ad for Bicycling

peopleforbikes.org

Photo

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:20:31 -0400

jayparkinsonmd: Symmetry (by Everynone) in collaboration with...

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:35:27 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

Symmetry (by Everynone)

in collaboration with WNYC | Radiolab

So good…

Illustration by Meg Hunt, for Radiolab’s Desperately...

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:47:11 -0400

Illustration by Meg Hunt, for Radiolab’s Desperately Seeking Symmetry

The mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson posed a big question about mirrors in one of his best-known books: Through the Looking-Glass (yup, Dodgson’s pen name was Lewis Carroll). Natasha Gostwick ofStorynory reads an excerpt that gets at the heart of the trouble: is mirror milk any good to drink? Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why this is a serious question, and introduces us to chirality, or the handedness of molecules. In fact, as Neil and Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth point out, all living molecules are left-handed. Which brings us to Marcus du Sautoy, who tells us the story of thalidomide…a cautionary tale about right-handed mirror molecules.

Up next, we meet a man named John Walter who swapped places with his mirror self. Kind of. He explains how changing his hair part changed his life, and how the experience convinced him that mirrors (and the reversed images they reflect) lie to us. We run John’s theory by Mike Nicholls of the University of Melbourne, who admits John might be on to something about the way we perceive faces.

The Symposium by Luke Pearson

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:39:28 -0400

I did these illustrations to be projected during the live show of RadioLab’s ‘Desperately Seeking Symmetry’ podcast [link]

They illustrate the Aristophanes speech of Plato’s Symposium. It’s an explanation of why people in love say they feel ‘whole’. The jist is that there were originally three types of people, each with two heads, two sets of limbs and two sets of genitals (men-men, women-women and men-women.) Zeus, annoyed about something or other and presumably overreacting, decided to chop them all in half and since then we’ve spent our lives wandering around trying to find our original other half, thus explaining our longing for a partner and our inclinations towards homosexual or heterosexual love. Read a better summary here [link]

drawnblog: (via Darryl Cunningham Investigates:...

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:24:04 -0400

drawnblog:

(via Darryl Cunningham Investigates: Evolution)

Darryl Cunningham shares a great comic strip about evolution. It’s a perfect example of how the medium of comics can be used to express complex ideas in an accessible and highly-readable way.

artlistpro: Ai Weiwei, The wave. 2005 via...

Sun, 15 May 2011 19:32:57 -0400

artlistpro:

Ai Weiwei, The wave. 2005

via contemporary-art-blog:

#Art #Ai WeiWei #WeiWei #Sculpture

Poketo! Dichotomous Earrings

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:38:49 -0400

Poketo! Dichotomous Earrings

bauldoff: Blinding Love are beautiful heart-shaped pendant...

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:46:09 -0500

bauldoff:

Blinding Love are beautiful heart-shaped pendant lights made from blown glass, by Montreal designer Thien Ta Trung. The work was designed specifically for this week’s Toronto Made at Home show.

via @rogiervdheide

artlistpro: The caddis fly build ‘shells’ from found objects,...

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:17:01 -0500

artlistpro:

The caddis fly build ‘shells’ from found objects, Hubert Duprat gave them precious metal and gemstones.

drawnblog: Our own Ward Jenkins, to help celebrate Jules...

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:57:14 -0500

drawnblog:

Our own Ward Jenkins, to help celebrate Jules Verne’s birthday yesterday, has shared some marvellous scans of a book called Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future, featuring illustrations by Peter P. Plasencia.