Art
sciencepunk | March 14, 2010Many thanks to Joseph Hewitt at Ataraxia Theatre, who has immortalised me and many other sciencebloggers in comic form. Finally my work is done.
I'm especially happy that Joseph has drawn in me in a classy mesh number, as worn by the baddest of all badasses, Bennett from Commando:
I think it's time to go shopping for chain mail!
cevans | March 13, 2010
In his seminal 1991 essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction," the video artist Douglas Davis writes that digital bits "can be endlessly reproduced, without degradation, always the same, always perfect."
This is different, Davis argues, from analogue information. In the past, copying an audio signal -- for example, dubbing a copy of a cassette tape -- always involved an unpredictable loss of clarity, which Davis compares to waves washing on a beach, always breaking slightly differently. But "digital bits, compatible with the new generation of tools that see, hear, speak,…
grrlscientist | March 13, 2010tags: art, humor, cartoon
Some of you might be aware that the roughhousing at ScienceBlogs has been noted and cartooned by the extremely talented Joseph Hewitt. Unfortunately, I was overlooked in the cartoon so I made a comment on his blog, Ataraxia Theatre, about sending my flock of attack parrots after him. My parrots caught up with him early this morning (the middle of the night, Joseph's time) and so you can see the result. He did not finish his cartoon of me in time to stave off their chomping beaks of death, so his blood was split before I managed to call them all off. His poor well-…
sciencepunk | March 12, 2010A few weeks ago I was given a vintage camera that turned out to have a film hidden inside. On developing, I found the entire roll was dedicated to pictures of an old gravesite.
Who was Edward Langan? Why had he been added to a grave with a man called James Ryan? And why (as the film dates from 1973) is the grave covered in flowers when the pictures were taken several years afer their deaths?
All these questions, and more, answered after the fold.
Outfoxed, I turned to the Liverpool & South West Lancs Genealogy Forums for help. They proved to be absolutely incredible at tracking down…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2010tags: Captain Kirk Deals with a Strange Alien Culture, Encounter over Planet Trololololo, Star Trek, parody, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, television, streaming video
I've been watching the Trolololololo man video several times during the past week or two with a mixture of fascination, repulsion and horror -- sort of like being the first person to come upon a traffic accident late at night where you make the unsettling discovery that the driver has been decapitated. I am getting a head start on Saturday silliness videos by showing this video today, where Captain Kirk comes across an alien…
grrlscientist | March 10, 2010tags: cycles, Invasion of the Teddy Bears, music, animation, Cyriak, offbeat, odd, streaming video
Here's a truly peculiar video for you to watch featuring infinite teddy bears invading a beach. Music and animations by Cyriak, who has quite a following, apparently.
No teddy bears were harmed in the making of this video (not sure about the pigeon's health, though). The software used was adobe after effects.
cevans | March 10, 2010
A couple of years ago, I was poking around in a European art museum and came across an exhibit of exquisitely beautiful Eastern Orthodox religious paintings, "icons." Beyond being visually striking -- they have an austere, hieratic, distant quality -- they are also, I realized at the time, in a way, scientific.
Alright, I know, that's a wild statement. But hear me out.
A religious icon is more than a painting. It has a semiotic value that's highly codified, a language and practical purpose of its own that sets it apart from all the other representational art preceding our modern era of…
grrlscientist | March 9, 2010tags: movies, oscar-winning movie trailer, Academy Awards, spoof, humor, funny, parody, offbeat, social commentary, streaming video
This video is an amusing trailer for every Oscar-winning movie ever made!
"It's not gonna be an entirely dramatic film. 'Cause we laugh there."
grrlscientist | March 6, 2010tags: Star Trek: How It Should Have Ended, Star Trek, Star Wars, comedy, humor, parody, satire, silly, fucking hilarious, streaming video
Space: the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, to seek out new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before ... this is how Star Trek should have ended!
sciencepunk | March 5, 2010Thanks to Emilia for showing me this awesome post on the Synthgear website which shows what record grooves look like under an electron microscope. Here's a line of disco magnified 500 times:
Researcher Chris Supranowitz at the University of Rochester's The Insitute of Optics took the images, one assumes for his own nerdy amusement.
Be sure to check out the full set, which includes an image in eye-popping 3D!
jstemwedel | March 5, 2010It's been awhile since the Free-Ride offspring have shared their artwork. Today, we offer some of their drawings of animals.
From the younger Free-Ride offspring:
Tigers. They may look cute, but you don't want to get near them when they're hungry.
Cheetahs. Same deal: cute, but deadly.
A horse. She didn't dress herself in that blanket and headband.
From the elder Free-Ride offspring:
Jungle Landscape. There's a lot going on here, and I'm feeling like there might be some traces of Bruegel and Escher.
A cat in a sushi bar. You will notice, however, that the selection includes non-…
grrlscientist | March 4, 2010tags: Two Girls and One Giant Piano, Johann Sebastian Bach, Toccata et fugue, piano, organ music, music video, streaming video
Two women play Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata et fugue on a giant piano -- with their feet. This amazing performance looks like dancing as much as piano playing.
grrlscientist | March 1, 2010tags: The Dork Anthem, funny, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, iTunes, Dave and Brian, music video, streaming video
This video is a musical tribute to the miserable lives led by high school guys with talent in the sciences, and yes, it's actually funny. I wish that us grrls would do something like this, though, except I'm thinking we're all too busy struggling to pay rent while searching for tenure-track positions and taking care of kids.
Produced by FocalPoint Cinematic & Dave and Brian. You can purchase this tune on iTunes.
edyong | March 1, 2010Souvenir shops in South Africa are full of lamps made out of ostrich eggs. The eggs are so big and strong that you can carve and cut intricate designs into their shells. The egg's contents are emptied through a hole and a bulb can be inserted instead, casting pretty shadows on walls and ceilings. The results are a big draw for modern tourists, but ostrich eggs have a long history of being used as art in South Africa. The latest finds show that people were carvings symbolic patterns into these eggs as early as 60,000 years ago.
Pierre-Jean Texier from the University of Bordeaux discovered a…
sciencepunk | March 1, 2010Graphic artist Philip Bond drew this awesome set of female astronauts.
You can see the whole collection on his Flickr page.
cagapakis | February 28, 2010My labmates and I love Lady Gaga. Like, love love love. Enough to make a parody fan video of Bad Romance. It is my pleasure to present to you "Lab Romance", a production of Hydrocalypse Industries. Enjoy!
Lyrics after the jump!
ø⸨°º¤ø⸸âø¤º°¨¸âø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤øâ¸LADYâø¤º°¨ âø¤º°¨ GAGA `°º¤ø¨°º¤ø⸸âø¤º°¨¸âø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤ø
Music by Lady Gaga, lyrics by Tami Lieberman and Jake Wintermute, performed by Jake Wintermute, editing by me and Patrick Boyle, dancing by the Silver Lab.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a lab romance…
grrlscientist | February 27, 2010tags: comedy, humor, funny, fucking hilarious, birds, streaming video
This particular exhibit is a living art piece made up of 40 zebra finches jamming on electric guitars and cymbals at the Barbican, in London. The artist, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.
This video is cute, because it shows a female zebra finch, building a nest on the…
cevans | February 25, 2010
The Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds is an experiment in scale: by condensing 4.6 billion years of history into a minute, the video serves as a self-contained timepiece. Like a specialized clock, it gives a sense of perspective. Every eventâ--âfrom the formation of the Earth, to the Cambrian Explosion, to the evolution of mice and squirrelsâ--âis proportionate to every other, displaying humankind as a blip, almost indiscernible in the layered course of history. This is useful, largely, for the sake of humility.
Each event in the Evolution of Life fades gradually over the course of the minute…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2010tags: Postcarden, gift idea, plants, cute, streaming video
Aw, now this is a very cute gift idea for those people you know who either have everything or who want nothing, as well as for your co-workers and others whom you may not know well, but whom you wish to honor in some way: give them a postcard that turns into a living garden! All they have to do is add water!
Combining gift and greeting card, Postcarden is a fun and simple pop-out card that transforms into a mini living garden.
NOTE: I am not paid anything to show this to you (and I doubt the business will even know I linked this…
sciencepunk | February 25, 2010A set of special commemorative stamps is being launched today to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. The stamps feature ten of the most prominent historical fellows, as chosen by leading figures in the society today.
How many can you name? Answers below the fold!
Each scientist is displayed with an image representing their contribution to the world. The fellows, and the field of their acheivement, are as follows:
Robert Boyle - Chemistry
Sir Isaac Newton - Optics
Benjamin Franklin - Electricity
Edward Jenner - Vaccination
Charles Babbage - Computing
Alfred Russell…