Inside Insides blog has a collection of fruit and veg porn: MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) photos of fresh produce, animated in sequence to reveal a kaleidoscopic beauty.
Above is a cucumber from top to bottom. More at Inside Insides (via kottke).
July 22nd, 2010
Rush hour, Utrecht.
There are more bikes, busses and trams than private automobiles! It’s almost balletic. (via paigeandmodern).
July 18th, 2010
sofa or settee?
David Mitchell ruminates on the relationship between the way we use language and the way we see ourselves and others. I’m enjoying these videos a lot — Mitchell’s is like that endearingly curious and sometimes overly analytical voice in my head that has to be kept in check.
Check out his refreshing opinion on climate change, and the rest of his youtube channel. Thanks Aengus for bringing this to my attention.
July 4th, 2010
ah, we meet again, breakfast dishes.
Psyblog has an article following the theory that self-forgiveness can put an end to procrastination:
Another way of thinking of this is in terms of approach and avoidance behaviours. Because we tend to avoid things that make us feel bad, pent up guilt about a task will make us avoid that task in the future. Self-forgiveness, though, may reduce guilt and so make us more likely to approach the task.
This explanation highlights the fact that we don’t just have emotional relationships with people, we also have them with tasks. Some tasks we like and look forward to like trusted old friends, while others feel more like muggers stealing away hours of our lives.
I can’t get enough of this blog, actually. Two other recent articles that are fascinating to me (on abstract/creative thinking devices): One, two.
June 14th, 2010
garlic and chocolate… an introduction to flavour pairing
Garlic and chocolate. Yum?
The blog food for design on flavour pairing:
[...] basil tastes like basil because of the combination of linalool, estragol, …. So if I want to reconstruct the basil flavour without using any basil, you have to search for a combination of other food products where one contains linalool (like coriander), one contains estragol (like tarragon),… So I can reconstruct basil by combining coriander, tarragon, cloves, laurel.
The people behind the food for design blog have started a new website called foodpairing.be, which provides a database of foods with information on their flavour components and flavour partners.
Apparently peas and strawberries have flavours in common and would be good partners, as would chocolate and oysters or chocolate and sauerkraut. Even more interesting is that you can use their theory to match two otherwise unmatching foods by using a third food with common flavours to both:
Like chocolate and garlic. The trick then is to search for a third food product that has something in common with chocolate and with garlic. An example is coffee. Coffee has flavour components in common with garlic: Dimethyl disulfide and with chocolate: Methyl pyrazine.
Sounds fun. They hasten to add:
This is just a tool to inspire you. You still need as a chef the craftsmanship, the experience,…to translate this inspiration into a good recipe. It is not only mixing two components together. The balance between the two is important.
June 11th, 2010
mutatis mutandis
I like the music, appearance and function of this expression. Wiki:
Mutatis mutandis is a Latin phrase meaning “by changing those things which need to be changed” or more simply “the necessary changes having been made”. The term is used when comparing two situations with a multiplicity of common variables set at the same value, in which the value of only one variable is allowed to differ – “all other things being equal” –thereby making comparison easier (cf. ceteris paribus).
It carries the connotation that the reader should pay attention to the corresponding differences between the current statement and a previous one, although they are analogous.
An example:
“His cat” and “His dog” should be changed to “Her cat” and “Her dog”, mutatis mutandis for pony, sheep and cow. (That is, “His pony” becomes “Her pony”, and so on.)
See also: nolens volens
May 13th, 2010
the happiest gravestone
Annie M.G. Schmidt‘s gravestone is actually uplifting rather than grave.
You look at it and think: “I can’t wait!”.
Ok, perhaps not. But I’ll shelve my envy for later.
May 7th, 2010
there’s this thing I really need to go to..
Some people at a … thing.
I can’t be any more specific than that; it’s simply a thing:
A thing or ting (Old Norse, Old English and Icelandic: þing; other modern Scandinavian languages: ting) was the governing assembly in Germanic and some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead. Today the term lives on in the official names of national legislatures and political and judicial institutions in the Nordic countries, and (in the Manx form of tyn) as a term for the three legislative bodies on the Isle of Man.
Ha. It’s even related to the more common thing of today:
The Old Norse, Old Frisian and Old English þing with the meaning “assembly” is identical in origin to the English word thing, German Ding, Dutch ding, and modern Scandinavian ting when meaning “object”. They are derived from Common Germanic *þengan meaning “appointed time”, and some suggest an origin in Proto-Indo-European *ten-, “stretch”, as in a “stretch of time for an assembly”.
The evolution of the word thing from “assembly” to “object” is paralleled in the evolution of the Latin causa (“judicial lawsuit”) to modern French chose, Spanish/Italian cosa and Portuguese coisa (all meaning “object” or “thing”).
In English the term is attested from 685 to 686 in the older meaning “assembly”, later it referred to a being, entity or matter (sometime before 899), and then also an act, deed, or event (from about 1000). The meaning of personal possessions, commonly in plural (possibly influenced by Old Icelandic things meaning objects, articles, or valuables), first appears recorded in Middle English in around 1300.
Found at wikipedia in the information trail of my previous post.
Image: The Icelandic alþing in session, as imagined in the 1870s by British artist W. G. Collingwood, from the above url.
April 29th, 2010
meat love
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others.
Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing.
Švankmajer’s trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees.
More of his imaginative short films (like Food) are available to watch on youtube. Thanks Femi
April 5th, 2010
night of the carrots
Priit Pärn‘s 1998 animation Night of the Carrots is finally available to view online, in three parts: One. Two. Three. Thanks Tom for the head’s up.
March 27th, 2010
Liu Ling the poetic drunkard
I always thought it was a shame that Alan Watts died at such a young age (58). And how incongruous, I thought, that he should die from alcohol-related health problems. But then again, maybe it’s not so strange!
From an interview with one of Watts’ associates, Gia Fu Feng:
Q. You’ve mentioned Alan Watts several times and I know that you’ve been with him when he was teaching. What was he like to be with?
A. You see Alan Watts was very creative. When he drinks he’s very clever. He was in a class, you know, at night time, he was all drunk. But his lectures were never boring. He was a tremendous entertainer. He said, “I’m an entertainer, I’m no Buddhist philosopher.”
Q. Alan Watts actually died from alcohol, didn’t he?
A. Oh yeah. At that time he drank whisky by the bottle.
Q. But how could that tie in with the Tao?
A. That’s from the Tao! The fact that he drank is totally in tune with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove-his utter disregard for convention. One of the sages, a famous poet called Liu Ling, had a servant who followed him carrying a jug of wine and a spade. In this way he always had some wine to drink and his servant would be ready to bury him if he dropped dead during a drinking bout! It’s in the Tao. So Alan Watts’ drinking is quite Taoistic.
I stumbled upon this (here) when looking for info regarding his untimely end, expecting further tragedy. And yet — what a terrific story! I need to get myself one of those jug carriers.
Coincidentally I learnt earlier today that a wine jug is called an oenochoe!
March 27th, 2010
the vinegar tasters
The Vinegar Tasters, is a traditional subject in Chinese religious painting. The allegorical composition depicts the three founders of China’s major religious and philosophical traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It favors Taoism and is critical of the others.
The three men are dipping their fingers in a vat of vinegar and tasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression. The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively. Each man’s expression represents the predominant attitude of his religion: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, “the three teachings are one”.
The full article contains the rest of the fascinating background of this cheeky and clever image.
Addendum:
12th Century Song painting in the Litang style illustrating
the theme “confucianism, taoism and buddhism are one”.
Here’s another painting with a similar — but unbiased — message. Wiki:
Song painting in the Litang style illustrating the theme “confucianism, taoism and buddhism are one”. Depicts taoist Lu Xiujing (left), official Tao Hongjing (right) and buddhist monk Huiyuan (center, founder of Pure Land) by the Tiger stream. The stream borders a zone infested by tigers that they just crossed without fear, engrossed as they were in their discussion. Realising what they just did, they laugh together, hence the name of the picture,Three laughing men by the Tiger stream.
Found by sheer coincidence! As with the first.
March 26th, 2010
mamet speak
Wikipedia:
[David] Mamet’s style of writing dialogue, marked by a cynical, street-smart edge, precisely crafted for effect, is so distinctive that it came to be called Mamet speak. He often uses italics and quotation marks to highlight particular words and to draw attention to his characters’ frequent manipulation and deceitful use of language. His characters frequently interrupt one another, their sentences trail off unfinished, and their dialogue overlaps. Mamet himself has criticized his (and other writers’) tendency to write “pretty” at the expense of sound, logical plots.
When asked how he developed his style for writing dialogue, Mamet said, “In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to wile away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That’s probably where my ability was honed.”
One classic instance of Mamet’s dialogue style can be found in Glengarry Glen Ross, in which two down-on-their-luck real estate salesmen are considering breaking into their employer’s office to steal a list of good sales leads. George Aaronow and Dave Moss finagle the meaning of “talk” and “speak,” steeped in fraudulent connivance of the language and meaning:
Moss No. What do you mean? Have I talked to him about this [Pause]
Aaronow Yes. I mean are you actually talking about this, or are we just…
Moss No, we’re just…
Aaronow We’re just “talking” about it.
Moss We’re just speaking about it. [Pause] As an idea.
Aaronow As an idea.
Moss Yes.
Aaronow We’re not actually talking about it.
Moss No.
Aaronow Talking about it as a…
Moss No.
Aaronow As a robbery.
Moss As a “robbery”? No.
March 20th, 2010
the realist
Each instalment of The Realist by Asaf Hanuka is a self-contained work of art, full of poetry, truth, honesty and imaginative visual storytelling.
It takes the banal scenario of a young couple seeking a new apartment and creates a rewarding and involving experience.
One page is published each week on the Realist blog (in English and in its original Hebrew).
The artist’s personal blog, tropical toxic is also worth a look.
(via lines and colours blog)
March 17th, 2010
inner potential
Irish comedian Dylan Moran muses on self help and “unlocking your inner potential”.
March 9th, 2010
significant objects
The blog Un-canny Ontology recently took a look at the website significantobjects.com from the point of view of Heidegger’s object-orientated philosophy.
For those of you not familiar with the site significantobjects.com, the goal of the site was to see if given significance, random everyday objects could take on objective significance, as well. As the site explains:
A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!
As demonstrated from some of the entries, these objects are not “rare” or “important” objects by any means. In fact a lot of the times these objects are purchased from thrift stores or garage sales for just a couple of bucks (max). A “fictional” account of the object’s significance is added and then sold and bought on eBay – usually purchased for way more than the item was originally worth. But what I find fascinating about this experiment is that it is purposefully doing something that we often do without thinking about it – that is, adding significance to objects. This led me to question, what is significance and how/why is it important for our understanding of object-oriented philosophy?
More of that post here.
Significant Objects is an interesting experiment, although I would argue that a lot of the significance created around these objects comes from the fact that they are featured on the website as part of the project, and not necessarily from the made-up stories.
March 9th, 2010
watching between the lines
A six-spoke Geneva mechanism, wikipedia.
Film projectors (as well as film cameras, processing equipment, etc.) use a special mechanism called a Geneva drive to ensure one whole frame is advanced at a time, instead of simply spooling a film continuously. Wikipedia:
The name derives from the device’s earliest application in mechanical watches, Switzerland and Geneva being an important center of watchmaking. The geneva drive is also commonly called a Maltese cross mechanism due to the visual resemblance.
In the most common arrangement, the driven wheel has four slots and thus advances for each rotation of the drive wheel by one step of 90°. If the driven wheel has n slots, it advances by 360°/n per full rotation of the drive wheel.
The device itself is beautiful in its simplicity. There are two variations on the drive (external and internal). More at wikipedia.
March 5th, 2010
science + photography + curiosity =
“Wooden Box with Horseshoe Magnet”, Caleb Charland.
From Petapixel photography blog:
Caleb Charland is a Maine-based photographer who combines a love of scientific experiments and photographs into wonderful and amazing photographs.
Fun stuff. More here.