Recycle, reuse, refine

I have surfed the net and stumbled upon some fantastic art made of waste.

Like these sculptures made of broken CD's made by the Australian artist Sean Avery, found on the website Demilked.com.

And lots of amazing insects made from old electronic components, by Julie Alice Chapell, presented on her Facebook-page and on Etsy.

Electric wire is also recycled into art, like these little trees by BarbaraCCreations on Etsy

More pictures here. 

Be well, everybody!

Night Lights

The last night in Costa Rica I went up on the hotel roof, on the 5th floor, and looked out into the Central Valley around the city of San Jose.  It was so black, and with little dots of lights here and there.

Then I turned on the camera in night mode (very long exposure, no flash) and realized that you can make totally new images from a scene like that by fooling around a little bit.  So, here are some of my abstractions from that night.  (More photos like this here on Flickr.)

 

'masts'

 

 'flying east'

 

'lonely snake, away from the flock'

 

'sea horses'

Elevator quote

"Dear elevator, work has been up and down recently". 

(heard in our kitchen a few days ago)

IKEA's online robotic assistant need some help

From today's conversation at IKEA.com with their automatic help person (illustrated as a redhead named Anna):

You said: I need to find replacement wheels for an office chair.

Anna said: There are many options for chair available on our catalogue. In order to narrow your search select one specific category from the ones listed on the window below me.

          Product types

          Product names

          Item colors

          Item price ranges

          Was this answer helpful?

You said: NO

Anna said: Sorry. As an IKEA Online Assistant I don't know the meaning of 'no'.

Now,  how are you supposed to answer a question like "Was this answer helpful?" Yes or no would be the most basic answers, right?  And as a computerized robot, yes/no, 1/0, would be the most basic, logical thing, clear and concise.  But Anna, the robot, does not know the meaning of 'no'.  Hilarious. And totally unhelpful of course.

Banana Peel Trucker Hat (For Bananas)

Banana Peel Trucker Hat (For Bananas), originally uploaded by Laser Bread.

I just had to share this with you! Isn't it great!?
Photo by Laser Bread (Brock Davis) on Flickr (and copyrighted so don't steal it).

Bits and pieces on the internet: size edition

Big or small?  It is all about scale, and this is fantastic.  I could play with this power of ten website for hours. (by Cary and Michael Huang)

These are the most amazing spider macro photos I have ever seen. (by Thomas Shahan, on the Flickr blog)

IKEA things come in different sizes, but I doubt they have made a some-assembly-required dinosaur yet.  But there is how the assembly manual might look. (from CollegeHumor)

If you haven't yet, you can waste some time online, draw a stickman, and enjoy the creativity of this website (and it is fun too!)

The smallest thing I saw in Costa Rica was a tick crawling on my finger, and the largest - hmm - the largest animal was probably a 4+ meter long crocodile.  Nasty things, those ticks and crocs.

Wonderful comedian - George Carlin on Cats and Dogs

This is one of our absolute favorite stand-up comedians:


Enjoy! (And oh, this is not exactly appropriate for small children, just a warning, but it is hilarious!)

The other night I asked PP if he could remember the name of that Wild West comic character, Lucky Luke?  PP had no idea who I talked about, and it turned out that Lucky Luke, who I read all the time as a kid, probably didn't make it over the Atlantic.  But he was my first introduction to the Wild West.  The real Wild West, with bandits, cacti, sunsets, coyotes, and sharp-shooting cowboys in cowboy boots and western hats.  This comic was dreamed up and then started by a Belgian artist,  Maurice De Bevere.  The Belgians were really into this, and gave us kids the unforgettable Asterix and Tintin too.  Thanks, we loved you as kids!   It is amazing that Americans don't know about the most amazing comic book Wild West hero of them all, Lucky Luke, and his mangy dog (Rantanplan, the stupidiest dog in the universe), riding away in the sunset after getting the bad guys... 

Lucky Luke always smoked, and when I realized there were Lucky Strike cigarettes, I thought these two things obviously were connected. Not so.

Vote for the most bizarre comment from a service tech....

This is from an online chat today that I had with a service tech for an online course system.  After this morning, it was no longer possible for me to upload any files to the course website, and the error message was "the files do not exist or are empty".  They were there and they were certainly not empty. The problem - their system does not support Firefox 7 and now they want everybody to go back to Firefox 3.6.  Ha. Firefox 4, 5, and 6 worked fine, and suddenly Firefox 7 doesn't work, and then they want me to take 3.4 steps back in versions?

So, here are selected quotes from the chat:

1. Abel: I can only tell you what we know.

2. Abel: The decision is yours.

3. Abel: It is a decision above my pay grade. 

So, which one do you vote for in as the most bizarre or weird? I won't tell you my favorite, not yet.

Bits and pieces from the internet: steam, meat, and mean edition

Interesting article in The New York Times about a car designed to run on steam, but never did, the Paxton Phoenix from 1960.

A new delicious monkey species have been reported on by the satirical magazine The Onion (funny!)

I am steaming after I discovered that someone stole my ATM card number and the pin too (how?) and have been taking out over $1700 dollars from my bank account.  The bank tells me I will get the money back.  Why are some people so MEAN? 

Apropos mean, they have started to steal human hair from salons.  What is next - cutting of a long braid or ponytail from someone's head in the subway?

In case you missed it, all three nuclear reactors in Fukushima have had nuclear meltdowns and are leaking radioactive water into the ocean.  The Japanese say a total shutdown will be done in 6-9 months (which is questionable if it is even doable).  Let's hope for no more tsunamis or big earthquakes between now and then... 

Poor world, too much is happening to it and us right now - tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding Missisippis, tornados, rain and drought....

If you need a laugh

"the cat ate it", hehehe! (found by PP)

Looking for adventure...

Quixote - of course. Porsche., originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Don Quixote is rolling about. In black.

Bits and pieces from the internet: fish edition

Hungry?

This is perfect for AREA, she is desperate for a pet. (portable fishbowl; Core77)

A stranded fish that ate a fish that ate a fish.... (scroll down a bit on the page and you'll find it, but I bet you will get stuck on the pictures above it too; part of the Accidental Mystery series on Design Observer)

The first photo of the LIFE magazine series Into the Deep: Odd, Scary Sealife is of tiny cute pygmy seahorses. Scary?  Really? OK, there are sharks later in the photostream. Check out number 11, the eye of the blue-spotted stingray.  (LIFE Magazine archives - I love them!)

Next time you go to the bathroom, be careful when you flush. (Geekologie)

Oy, koi!  And truly neon. And, in case you are unsure what this is, you can just read the letters on the animal.

Let me guess...

This car is blue, of course, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

This person also grew up in the 1970s when the smurfs ruled the toy world.

Need a last minute Christmas gift?

When only the best will do:

Hand sharpened pencils

OK snapshot: Avdelningen för... (Department for...)

...oönskade julklappar? (...unwanted Christmas gifts?)

Explanation for non-Swedes: Julklapp-skit = Christmas gift shit;
julklapps-kit = Christmas gift kit

It was a cold, snowy morning...

..and our two cats got to experience their first real snowfall that stuck to the ground.  Don't worry, they get heating pads and hot water bottles in their little insulated boxes, so they are fine during the cold nights, and their thick fur has thickened even more and they burr themselves up as little furballs with just ears and legs sticking out.  When they walk on the cold stones on our paths they seem always to be equally surprised at each step how cold the stones are against their paws.  Just like Sweden's current Arctic chill, we have a much colder fall than previous years, but not the giant snowstorms and 0 degrees F that Swedish people had to deal with for the last couple of weeks.  Maybe we will get a white Christmas here in NJ, that would be nice.

Sometimes the internet is very funny...

 

(Click on them to get larger images.
Source for the last one: Toothpaste for dinner, a wonderful place for a laugh)

Some thoughts on books (for those that say they are dead)

"Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one" -Augustine Birrell

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read" -Groucho Marx

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." -Mark Twain

"The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television" -Andrew Ross

"Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me" -Anatole France

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting" -Mary Wortley Montague

Furry Wheel for Fall

Furry Wheel for Fall
Originally uploaded by Shandeh

I couldn´t resist to blog this, such a fun steering wheel cover! Mine is just a fake sheep wool cover in grey. Wouldn´t it be wonderful to have this instead?