Paper Torso

A torso with removable organs for the Science Lab of the International School Nadi, Fiji Islands built entirely from 200gms/sqm white card.

PDF folding instructions for many of the organs available. Amazing artistry, and extraordinary skill required.

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Posters designed that hit a little too close to home sometimes.

Green Whiskey?

Scottish company Celtic Renewables is turning the byproduct waste from whiskey distillation into usable product, showing that there is a profitable method to eliminate the problems caused by normal production.

Here's how it works: To make Scotch whiskey, you take barley, separate out the sugar, add water and yeast, and ferment it. The result is similar to beer. The next step is to distill the alcohol from that beer in pots. Set it to age in wooden casks, and a few months later, you have whiskey.

The problem is that the process creates a lot of byproduct: First there are the remains of the barley, called draff. And when you distill the alcohol, you're left with a liquid called pot ale, which is hard to dispose of because it contains biological components that can acidify ecosystems, along with traces of copper that are leached from the pots. Celtic Renewables makes a soup out of the pot ale and draff. Then—through a fuel-making fermentation process that was developed during the leadup to World War I but fell out of favor when it couldn't compete with petroleum—the company converts the stuff into biobutanol fuel, animal feed, and acetone.

Animatronic Cat Ears

Tutorial for animatronic cat ears. For the cosplayer in your life.

World Water Day 2012

Water is Life. Today millions scavenge for water and billions don't have a toilet. You can help.

No speech. Just...if you can, or choose to....help.
My organization of choice: charity:water. I've given to this group for years, they do amazingly wonderful things.


Other links:
World Water Day
The Atlantic's In Focus Photo Essay
Global Water Challenge
UN-Water

Make a Fire

David Mach‘s incredible sculpture called The Devil is made entirely out of matches. The part that is more fascinating is not just the sculpture itself, but watching it burn and then seeing it take a different form – match sculpture to charred sculpture. Be sure to watch the video at the end where you get to see the before and after form of The Devil.

One Is the Quirkiest Number

True, the benefits of living alone are many: freedom to come and go as you please; the space and solitude to recharge in a plugged-in world; kingly or queenly domain over the bed.

Still, as TV has taught us, the single-occupant home can be a breeding ground for eccentricities...In a sense, living alone represents the self let loose. In the absence of what Mr. Klinenberg calls “surveilling eyes,” the solo dweller is free to indulge his or her odder habits — what is sometimes referred to as Secret Single Behavior. Feel like standing naked in your kitchen at 2 a.m., eating peanut butter from the jar? Who’s to know?

For people who are comfortable and even good at living alone, there is often another concern: a fear that the concrete has set, so to speak, on their domestic habits and that it will be difficult to go back to living with someone else.

Take out the personal references, and this entire article has become my life. I used to always be jealous of people who lived alone, as I had gone from parents, to dorm, to parents, to relationship. Living alone for the last 2 and a half years has been an absolutely amazing experience in figuring myself out. And I have completely become one of these people, although not yet quite to level described. Here's hoping I can learn to reintegrate if the situation occurs.

Chain Sculptures

The incredible ‘works of Seo Young Deok are clearly inspired by the shapes of the human body, but artists have been sculpting masterpieces based on our natural curves for hundreds of years. What makes this Korean designer special is the material he uses for his unique creations – bicycle chains. Miles of metal chains, to be exact, welded in such a way that they recreate the human body to the finest details. Deok says he finds inspiration for his art in crowded markets, and metro or bus stations, but also in Buddhist sculptures and paintings, which he has alway admired. “I like Asia Beauty” he says, “so most features of my work seem to take an Asiatic pose”.

Oh, the Places You'll Go (At Burning Man)

This one is for my friend, Art. Dr. Suess's Oh, the Places You'll Go!, told by people at Burning Man.

Texas Heat Melts Everything

To show the effects of the heat in Texas, artist Herb Williams created crayon sculptures that looks like flames, then set them out in the heat. Pretty much immediately, they started melting. In October. Great exhibit, shows the ridiculousness of Texas.

Fimmvörðuháls/Aurora Borealis

British photographer James Appleton has spent the past seven years capturing the volatile yet stunning landscapes of Iceland – and was rewarded with this incredibly rare shot.