Monday, May 31, 2010
Japanese Streetside Magic Tricks
Bungle in the jungle: Alcohol trees of Africa
"This is a real video from a French documentary about Africa. There are trees which grow in Africa which, once a year, produce very juicy fruits which contain a high percentage of alcohol. Because water is scarce, as soon as the fruit is ripe, animals come and eat it for the liquid content. What happens next you can watch for yourself...."
[via Diana McLellan]
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Looking into the Past
The Museum of London has launched a free iPhone app which brings its extensive art and photographic ..(more...)
Finger Food Spoons
Eating with your fingers!Finger Food Spoon($8) slides onto your finger and can be dipped into yogurt..(more..)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Potato Garden
Ever since I encountered fingerling potatoes in European restaurants I wanted to grow some of my own. I find these small fat-finger-shaped tubers have a nuttier, richer taste than regular potatoes. Potato Garden in Colorado is a mail order source that sells a dozen varieties of fingerlings and it's been fun trying various breeds. Potato Garden also introduced me to scores of strains in "main" potatoes. And they offer an exotic variety of live starters for other root crops, such as garlic, onions, and sun chokes. Their catalog provides enough basic info about growing and storing roots that it serves as a one-stop short course. For spring delivery you need to order early.
-- KK
Potato Garden Catalog
Free
Available from Potato Garden
Sample Excerpts:
*
*
Sun Chokes: Native of North America, a type of sunflower whose tuberous roots have been eaten for millennia by Native Americans. The first recorded discovery of sunchokes in America apparently occurred in Native American gardens along the eastern coastline in the early 1600's. The Indians called them "sun roots". Sunchokes are delicious eaten raw as they have a crisp, juicy texture like water chestnuts. We like to slice or grate them for a zesty addition to any fruit or vegetable salad. We have found that steaming or boiling is the best way to cook them, with a little butter and Real Salt.
Best In Show 2
Only if you’re willing to put in the hard work can you make it to the top in the competitive world of Alpaca shows.
Immaculate Creation: Birth of the First Synthetic Cell
Immaculate Creation: Birth of the First Synthetic Cell [Cells]:
For the first time, scientists have created life from scratch – well, sort of. Craig Venter's team has made a bacterial genome from smaller DNA subunits and then transplanted the whole thing into another cell. More »
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Eggshell Speakers — by Michihiko Goto
Wrote Megan Mansell Williams in a story in Volume 22 of Make magazine, "Michihiko Goto of Hammamatsu City in Shizuoka, Japan, carved these mini speakers from the classic breakfast staple: eggs."
Williams relates how he went about it in her article.
You can find out more on Goto's blog (I hope your Japanese is better than mine).
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, May 17, 2010
Paw Plunger
In a pinch you can use it for your coffee.
Eewww.
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Paw Plunger
No more muddy carpets.
Dip your dog's dirty feet in the Paw Plunger and they'll come out clean.
Just fill with warm water, insert a paw, then move the paw cleaner up and down.
The soft bristles inside the Paw Plunger will knock off clumps of mud and grass, remove road salt or pesticides, and leave your dog's paws dirt-free and safe for your furniture.
You can also use the Paw Plunger for medicinal soaks, or for melting the ice balls that get trapped in your dog's paws after a walk in the snow.
The bristles inside thoroughly clean in between your dog's paw pads.
The device's plastic, spill-resistant design makes cleanup easy.
No dripping like you get with hoses or water buckets.
Recommended for dogs 20-80 lbs.
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Dog Mustache Ball Toy
From the website:
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Go "indognito" to the park with this fun toy.
For the pooch with a good sense of humor.
This shiny black toy is a ball on one side and a giant cartoon mustache on the other.
Dogs naturally pick up the ball, thus adopting an outrageously funny mustache.
Dogs also love to hold the ball in their mouth and shake the mustache back and forth.
Features:
• Natural rubber
• Non-toxic
• Durable
Size:
• Ball: 2"Ø
• Mustache: 6.5"W
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$15.
[via Cliff Hatch]
Cave Home
Pictured above, it's in Festus, Missouri.
From Charles Wilson's March 21, 2010 New York Times Magazine story: "In 2003, Curt and Deborah Sleeper and their two children were living in a cramped Missouri ranch house when they saw an eBay offering for three acres with an empty sandstone cave. The family intended to build on the land until they realized the former quarry offered 15,000 feet of naturally insulated space.
"The cave’s bare walls shed sand, so the Sleepers have placed interior roofs or umbrellas over areas like the kitchen that need to stay sand-free — not least of all for the couple’s new 1-year-old son, Wes.
"The couple’s older children, Perry, 13, and Kian, 16, helped build the house.
'The inside of the house feels like you’re outdoors without the discomfort of hot or cold,' Deborah says."
Apparently the Sleepers avoided
last year's threatened foreclosure.
Friday, May 14, 2010
AT&T 1993 "You Will" Ads
This montage of AT&T ads came from a 1993 Newsweek CD-ROM that had examples of some of the ..(more...)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Best Visual Illusion of the Year [Illusion]
Sent from my iPhone
"A bull takes a break inside a fabric shop in the old town of
"A bull takes a break inside a fabric shop in the old town of:
"A bull takes a break inside a fabric shop in the old town of Varanasi, 'India distilled and darkly intense.'"
[via The Financial Times]
Fire Kit Lamp
By the French design studio 5.5 for Skitsch, it was introduced at last month's Milan Furniture Fair.
Cat Butt Air Freshener
"There's nothing like the smell of cat butt in the morning."
Yo, Caroline.
"With the image of a cat walking away and showing you a classic cat butt, you might expect it to stink. But in reality, this thing carries the scent of hyacinth like a cat carries a dead bird."
Violet-backed starling — Episode 2
Violet-backed starling — Episode 2:
So many readers enjoyed Episode 1 on April 6, 2010 that I decided this dazzling bird merited an encore.
As did Flautist, who burned the midnight oil hunting down the spectacular photo up top.
Seed Cathedral — by Thomas Heatherwick
Seed Cathedral — by Thomas Heatherwick:
Nicknamed "The Dandelion" for the 60,000 acrylic rods adorning it
that light up and wave in the breeze,
it's the UK Pavilion at
Shanghai Expo 2010,
which opened
May 1, 2010.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Vintage Couture of the New York City Opera
Vintage Hats of the New York City Opera:
Part of a site-specific installation by E.V. Day above the Promenade of New York City''s David H. Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center, the hats are part of the Opera's costume archive.
They were on display during the past fall and spring seasons.
