Bacon bits and pieces on the internet

Oh, hi again everybody!

Life is going on as usual, and some new and old things on the internet...

knit bacon (yes!) and hamburgers [Core 77]

others make fantastic art out of subway maps [Core 77]

or octopi out of sausages,

make food out of the throw-away parts (which reminds me of the one time my grandfather tried to make porridge out of potato peels, not a success, and I was retold the story as a little kid by my mom) [NY Times]

some whiskey needs special fungi... great science story [WIRED]

and as usual, Shorpy manages to find the best end photos.

PS.  This is post 2050 on this blog.  That is a good number too, as is 44 and 33. Right LA?

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.

Bits and pieces on the internet: itchy edition

Fossil discovery: Giant fleas from the Jurassic, that might have sucked blooded from dinosaurs (NY Times). How about meeting some of these 2 cm long creatures on the inside of your wool sweater?

Some of the Republican presidential contenders appear to want to live in a different century.  Like the 1800's or something. This is both sad and upsetting. (NY Times opinion piece by Charles Blow)

Did you know cashmere comes from goats?  And angora from rabbits? So, why are people OK with wearing the hairs from goats and rabbits, but not eating them? Eating the meat, not the hairs, I mean.

Itchy poison ivy doesn't let a simple fence stop it.  In fact, it enforces it and makes it its own fence.

So, what are you readers itching about?

Bacon bits and pieces on the internet: green stuff

I love green things, both alive and very dead. But not mold. Molded green glass is OK though. (From the American Glass Museum in Wheaton, photo Vilseskogen on Flickr - more glass photos here)

More green things:

Green sushi for cowboys, kind of: picklelicious by The Good Wife (check out the photo)

Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk has some really nice green illustrations, except those that know me know that I don't eat celery...  This is so retro 60s and 70s to me.  I never thought I would like these shapes and colors again, after a giant overdose when I grew up, and now I do.  Fads go in circles. Even orange and brown is back with a vengeance.

There are green book trees for your wall (from Shawn So in South Korea)

And I think I could live at Green Bridge Farm (if it wasn't in Georgia, USA, too hot!), but I like the idea of smaller houses with some privacy with a common vegetable farm and pond...   pick your house here (pdf file).

And here is something partly green that I do not want in my house, even if it is crazy in a way. 



And some very green chairs from a restaurant in Stockholm (photo Vilseskogen on Flickr).

Bacon bits and pieces on the internet

Do you need a new wallet?  Check this one out.

If you just want the flavor, pop a tablet. 

Just want the smell, hang this, or the taste, lick this.

And, if you need to cut some bacon, this would be perfect, right? I want one of these.

Bits and pieces from the internet: stringy edition

The Ford Focus orchestra, a must see: LINK
Update: More info on the Ford Focus orchestra here.

And here is a stringy favorite! Check it out. (I love the sightings.)

I believe Sweden still is String Cheese free.  That is good for them. Except, maybe Swedes can buy it now.  I just read on the all-knowing Wikipedia that is actually comes from Europe.

Let kids make things with strings, and other things.  Make them into makers.  (Wired)

Real packages uses string. Except the US post office do not allow string anymore.  It is all tape, tape, tape....  (Shorpy)

Spots, threads and snippets from the internet and media

From my forays and wanderings around the internet the last couple of weeks (months, maybe...):

Newsweek has an article about rich people buying modern art, more to show how rich they are more than because they like it.  One of the artists they say is overvalued and will not last is Damien Hirsts with his paintings of colored spots. The same week (= today), New York Times has a long article about Damien Hirsts and his marketing scheme and moneymaking art.  I can definitely live without a spot painting in my house, but I think they are cool.  The kind of cool that would fit in a modernly designed library or hotel foyer. If I had something like that in my living room it would b dizzifying and disturbing, and probably reminding me of ads for M&M candy or something.

A famous needlework woman just died, Erica Wilson, and I unfortunately didn't know about her until now.  Being in a family filled with embroiderers, I immediately notified he other side of the Atlantic (Sweden). Here is an example of Erica's design.  I wonder if she is related to the incredibly talented Erin Wilson, who makes the most artistic and amazing art quilts I have ever seen.  We bought a tiny sample from Erin at our visit to the Philadelphia Crafts Show, which I will write about later.  But her quilts, oh wow! But Wilson is such a common name, so probably not a relation. Example of one of her quilts (my own photo, so not that great):

Some exoplanets might be made up of lots of diamonds.  You think they sparkle like diamonds then? It must be hard to dig there, the shovels loose their edge pretty fast.

For those of us that still write and draw by hand, think and take notes, there is Moleskine.  A company that is doing better and better.  It is the backlash against the techno-stupid, I am convinced of this.  While some people follow their GPS' directions literally and take a right turn straight into a church, others are contemplating life with carefully (or sloppy, it is OK) drawn lines generated by real thoughts. It is your choice: be real, or be a automaton, copycat, and online addict.

That's all for now.

Bits and pieces from the internet: Shaken, not stirred edition

If you ever wanted to know how a dog REALLY feels and looks in the middle of shaking off water from its body, you should look at Carlo Davidson's fantastic photos.  Amazing, and incredible.  I remember that we blew in the labradors' ears when I grew up to get them to shake off the water by the shore, and not in the middle of the picnic blanket. The fur coat of a lab can hold a lot of water, indeed.

Earthquakes are scary.  Yesterday there was a rather big one here on the east coast of USA, which is very unusual.  I missed it, was probably in the car or walking outside, but people in my work building felt desks and walls shaking and heard cracking noises.  A friend in Washington said his whole lab building was shaking for 15 seconds and everybody ran outside; most people realized it was an earthquake. Considering it was a 5.8 on the scale, very little damage happened.  But at first, many thought it might be a terrorist attack.  We are getting awfully close to the 10-year anniversary of Sept 11, 2001...

Talking about terrorism, here is an interesting list of 25 people and industries that profit from fear. This is worth reading and thinking about.  It is not just insurance companies and the beauty industry, but also seemingly harmless groups such as advocacy groups, the pet industry, and toy companies.  It is much, much worse here in the US than in Sweden, mostly because here in the US people has to blame and sue someone when something bad happens.

And here is the answer to why James Bond wanted his martinis shaken, not stirred. In case you wondered. (I don't like martinis, so I don't really care either way, honestly.)

Bits and pieces from the internet: Scandinavia edition

It is strawberry season in Sweden.  And Swedish strawberries are local, red all the way through, and much tastier than any strawberry you can buy in a store here.  Only at the farmer's markets can you find anything like it in the USA.  Story from Serious Eats here.

The vikings Erik the Red and his son Leif Eriksson had amazing lives and journeys.  You can read about them here on this website about stamps, with great philatelic illustrations.  Their viking boats are also featured.

If you read Swedish, I highly recommend Olle Wästberg's monthly newsletter about issues in culture and politics that connect USA and Sweden.  He served as the Swedish consul in New York for several years, and has worked very had on promoting Swedish design, music, art and theatre and other export industries. You can sign up on his website.

Not one but TWO hotels from Sweden were featured among these crazy places to stay. Which hotel would you pick?  The sewage pipe ("cardboard box! you were lucky!"), tree house, or ice hotel?

Bits and pieces from the internet: senseless and sense edition

The blog This is NOT Junk and Michael Eisen have a great post about senseless, automatic prizing of books on Amazon, leading to the advertised price of over $23 million for a book on Drosophila (fruitflies / bananflugor). Worth reading and pondering. [thanks to OK for finding it]

Your brain morphology might influence if you are conservative or liberal, reports a new study in Current Biology.   (Easy read version here: Science Daily)

Take a look at this map of internet use connections (full article here).  Why are some topics 'dead-ends', such as hydrology, physiology, and social works?  I would think those are strongly linked to other fields.  But remember, this is from how scientists click on links, so maybe these three fields largely keep to themselves?  Biodiversity and philosophy seems to be right in the middle of things, with many connections in different directions. Fascinating, like a starmap, but based on virtual internet data use from real people.  However, this is a 3-D map that has been flattened, so it is a bit hard to interpret. Imagine this as a cloud of dots you could twist and turn, then it might make more sense.


Sensible or senseless?  Felix Gonzalez-Torres' art installation "Untitled" of a heap of candy in a corner at the Art Institute of Chicago. The date of this art piece is 1991, so the candy is 20 years old right now.  What do you think about this?

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.

Bits and pieces from the internet, business edition

One company that I really like, Burt's Bees, who make nice natural lipbalms and schampoos, are now owned by Clorox.  Ick, how did that happen?  I found out because I was thinking about investing a little money in LUSH stocks, a similar company, but it turns out that it is still privately owned with no stocks (which I now think is a good thing).  Clorox is not mentioned on Burt's Bees website, hmmm... I wonder why?. Read more here about green-washing and big nasty companies gobbling up small nice ones.

The New York Times have decided that if you read a lot of their articles online you will have to pay a monthly fee and become a subscriber.  However, if you follow a link from a blog or other media site, you should be able to read it for free. If you read something on an iphone it costs your more than from a laptop, and if you are rich and have an ipad, you have to pay 133% more than if you just have a laptop ($35 per month).  I think they are crazy.  So, from March 28, there might be much fewer New York Times articles e-mailed by me to some of you, but maybe more posted here on the blog for you to see.  We will see how it goes. 

Newsweek has changed owner and editor, and I like most of it so far, except for the font for the headings.  But the articles are more interesting, and less about celebrities and more daring and thoughtful. Tina Brown, the current editor, is going in the right direction.  I have subscribed since the early 1990s, wow, that is 20 years, and a year ago I was ready to quit, but now I am giving them a 2nd chance.   NPR, International Women's Day, Ignorant Americans... that is a bit different from before.

These strange black and white photos are not straightforward business.  What is going on here?

I wonder what the French business woman that praised nuclear energy as the best thing ever in the recent Newsweek is thinking now, since her article was published just a few days before the Japanese tsunami and earthquake that led to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.  She is probably thinking just the same thing as before, but many other people are not.

The same viewpoint was featured in this 1 minute energy video which is rather cool until it ends with a nuclear power plant and a city were mindless people dance to rock music on a roof of a building.  But the graphics were good, steam trains and viking ships... it is just the ending that really bothers me, especially considering what has happened in Japan.  Guess where the oldest American nuclear reactor is?  Yep, in New Jersey. 

Bits and pieces from the internet, solstice edition

There are many kinds of accidental mysteries out there. (Design Observer, always a joy to look at)

Isn't this a really cool bench? (core77, another internet place with fun stuff)

I still don't get why Swedish design magazines love black and white and not some color... (Sköna Hem)

This is one of my favorite photos of the year - you never feel as small and insignificant as when you stand next to something like this, right? (photo by Terje Sørgjerd)

Bits and pieces

I have just returned from a lecture about how to best manage the flood of e-mails, spam, semi-spam, and non-spam that is inundating our inboxes (more about this in another blog post), but as a result of this I think I will start adding interesting things here on the blog instead of sending so many links via e-mail to my friends and family. Don't worry, you (family and close friends) will still get the personalized stuff, but not the 'hey, look at this cool thing I found" in your inboxes. It will be here instead as 'bits and pieces of life', so you can look at it whenever you feel you have time, and also so the rest of you blog readers can see it.

So, here is today's Bits and Pieces:

I love WPA (Works Progress Administration) posters, made in USA by Roosevelt's Depression Job-making programs in the 1930s. Here is one promoting travel to Montana and another for an art exhibit in Chicago. Clean lines, shapes and even colors, little text, but the message is clear. Today so much advertising and information is drowned in messy unimportant things (like too long, verbally winding emails with a hidden message somewhere, but where?). You can see more WPA posters here.

Britt Irick is continuing to make amazing illustrations, see them on his blog. I love the one of the dinosaur with leafy, homemade wings.

Things I have learned recently: More than half of American meteorologists do not think that global warming exist. An island that has been the source of border debates between India and Pakistan for a long time has ceased to exist. It sank into the sea. The Amazon river basin is as wide as The United States and only 4 million people live there. It takes an amazing amount of water to make half a kilo of sausage (this includes the total water needs for growing the foods for the animals, treating the waste from the animals, etc.) - see most recent issue of National Geographic Magazine. And 20% of all fresh water is in the Amazon.

Tomorrow is April 1st and the day before Good Friday. In Sweden young children will dress up as witches with brooms, coffee pots, and cats (at least sometimes), and go from house to house and beg for candy. This is not a joke.

Some gorgeous things: nice candles on etsy.com, the Design Observer's Today images are never boring (even some Swedish ballet in this one) , flowering crocuses in our yard, and a planned summer trip to Colorado...

And the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden was gorgeous and at the same time too much orchids.... a fantastic example of how you can have too much of a good thing, just like perfume, ice cream, and jewelry around your neck. But I bet most people love it. I just think that sometimes you see beauty more if you have to look close and think about it, instead of having it stuffed into your face repeatedly. Orchids are gorgeous after all... (Dear NYBG web designers [if you read this], if you had some nice permanent web pages about the show with readable normal-sized text, interesting links, and additional photos I would have loved to link to them, but since that is lacking... sorry).