Eco / A Zeppelin comeback
|
With rising fuel prices dominating the news and affecting every level of the global economy, some solutions to fuel-efficient transport aren’t necessarily hi-tech ones. Many draw on older technology that until now was nearly obsolete. Germany has recently been producing airships again, which could soon be ferrying people around Europe and even to farther-off destinations. The slow-moving zeppelins are still as fast as high-speed trains, and in addition to low fuel consumption and low flight altitudes, very little new infrastructure has to be built to accommodate them. Let’s just hope they don’t still fill them with hydrogen.
Tagged: technology, transport
RELATED
Swedish company myFC are working on a fuel cell sticker to charge your portable devices. The prototype is a flexible, 0.11-inch-thick strip that generates 0.9 watts of power at 0.5 volts as long as it is exposed to hydrogen and oxygen in the air. The strip can also be stacked to provide even more power.
Speck fitted case for iPhone 3G
Here’s one for all you tech savvy fashionistas. Outfit your iPhone 3G in form-fit style with a case from Speck. The lightweight, snap-together design lets you instantly make your iPhone 3G a fashion statement, while the soft fabric provides added comfort and extra grip in hand. Personally, I’m digging the plaid. But maybe that’s just because it’s getting chilly outside.
Israeli computer scientists recently created a computer program that changes photographs of people’s faces into more attractive images based on an algorithm that determines ideal distances between lips and chins, foreheads and eyes, and distances between eyes.
Also by GERRY MAK
New York and Zurich-based artist Urs Fischer’s entropic sculptures and installations blows apart people’s expectations of what to expect at a gallery. Last year’s installation, You, at Gavin Brown was a 38-foot-by-30-foot crater dug into the gallery floor. His huge, ambitious works seem frantic and impulsive despite the immense planning and meticulous execution they often require. His mockery of physics, and the enormous scale and shock-and-awe quality of his work suggest the god-like potency of an artist, at least within a gallery space. Read more
Design company BrandImage has just come out with their line of paper water bottles made out of renewable resources. The bottles themselves are recyclable, and while not as reusable as a plastic bottle, can still be reused a few times. These are cool designs, even if they still pander to our on-the-go, single-serving, throw-away culture. Their environmental friendliness is also dubious, considering most people will still choose to throw these things in the trash rather than taking the time to find a recycling bin.
Very few band reunions get me excited, but I’ve consistently loved Faith No More since I was 13. I loved their pre-Mike Patton era, I loved King for a Day, and I even loved their track with Boo Yah Tribe on the Judgment Night soundtrack. Kerrang recently hinted that a FNM reformation is in the works for ‘09, and though bassist Billy Gould has emphatically denied the rumors, the general consensus is that the reunion is on.
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
Drawing from anime and fantasy art from the past half-century of graphic design and illustration, Jason Chan’s images appeal to the role-playing geek in us all. Chan renders beautiful pixie women and expressive children with bright eyes and remarkable dragon-riding abilities — their zombie-slaying skills ain’t too shabby either. Read more
Three piece, cLOUDDEAD, who formed in Cincinnati at the tail-end of the last millenium, fuse traditional hip hop beats with indie, electronica and psy-rock overtones. Doesone and Why?’s layered, poetic vocals cover the personal, political and social elements of their lives; and, above all, their flatout rejection of traditional musical boundaries makes them a quirky and unique act.
On my best days I feel just like a great white shark. Not all-conquering and indestructible — though I have my moments — but rather that if I ever stop moving, if I take a moment to correct myself in the full glare of the light, I’ll probably sink. Read more
Ben Lee upped the label a while back, but Band of Outsiders is still probably the best label you’ve never heard of. Read more
Look closely at the froth of this latte and you’ll see a portrait carved out amongst the grains and milk. It’s a truly a work of art and it’s a feature of the coffee served at Richmond, Melbourne cafe Flavours of Lakhoum. Check, please!
An intelligently told, morally complex tale with a raft of unexpected twists, Gone Baby Gone is one of the most original films of recent times. Most films give you a sense of their narrative arc and it is easy to recognise the major plot points. Read more
DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Download the new Michna album, Magic Monday
The media world is firmly embedded in the twenty-first century digital revolution, so we thought we better keep up with the times. Read more
The Japanese sure know how to think outside the box. The country that brought us Takeshi’s Castle has come with this equally genius take on modern sport, and it’s absolutely hilarious.
Sam Weber on his favourite emerging artists
We asked illustrator Sam Weber to give us the inside word on some of the young artists who have caught his eye recently: ‘Francis Vallejo, Yoko Furusho [above], and David Jien [below]. For up-and-comers, they are a few with some really amazing work’. Read more
Alison Malone on her Daughters of Job photos
A couple of weeks back we featured the work of New York-based photographer Alison Malone, who went into the secretive environment of the Job’s Daughters to photograph the girls who are direct blood relatives of the Master Masons. This is the second part of that interview. Read more
Kristin Baker’s paintings strike the eye like massive Hollywood blockbusters, but have the elegance of delicate watercolors. Read more
We have a stack of CDs and DVDs to give away to a lucky new subscriber who signs up to receive our free weekly email publication between now and New Year’s Day. There’s 50 new CDs in the pile, along with a handful of DVDs. So sign up now and leave a message here telling us what album you hope will be in the pile!
From an artist selection of t-shirts comes this limited edition David Bray illustrated silkscreened tee, distributed in a vinyl sleeve with a biography of the artist on the back of the sleeve. Every t-shirt is numbered and signed by the artist, and comes in organic American Apparel cotton. We like! Read more
Recently
- Samantha Everton’s Vintage Dolls Zolton
- David Bray t-shirt Zolton
- DRM free MP3 downloads Zolton
- Urs Fischer’s installations Gerry Mak
- Paper Water Bottle Gerry Mak
- Faith No More reunion Gerry Mak
- Bestial Mockery Gerry Mak
- Win an instant CD collection Zolton
- 70s Rock Musicians and Their Parents’ Homes Gerry Mak
- Cooking by the Book mashup with Lil’ Jon Gerry Mak
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
TAGS: acoustic music animals animation Australian bands Australian fashion black and white illustrations blogs Brooklyn Brooklyn artists Brooklyn bands cartoons China collaboration colour colourful artwork colourful illustrations comics electronic music flash games folk music Hip Hop installations Japan jewellery London Los Angeles magazines Melbourne New York New York artists New York bands New York illustrators pop music portrait portraits prints rock music San Francisco soul music street art Sydney Sydney bands t-shirts technology UK bands
IMAGES:
POPULAR:
- Marc Collin: My Secret Playlist!' - loved 63 times
- Brittanie Pendleton - loved 50 times
- Elaine Biss's feminine charms - loved 25 times
- Ed Harcourt: 'My Secret Playlist' - loved 22 times
- Prefab House - loved 19 times
- Andreco's brilliant visions - loved 18 times
- I Give Up On T-Shirts - loved 18 times
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you’d just like to talk amongst yourselves, that’s cool too. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
Vincent said | 10 August, 2008
RE: let’s just hope they don’t still fill them with hydrogen”. I’m probably the first to fall in the elephant trap (and what an honor it is) but hydrogen wasn’t the problem with the famous zeppelin disasters. The general consensus now is that it was the aluminum coating on outside of the zeppelin blimp which caught alight because of a build up of static electricity (or something very similar to that).
Surprised that we continue to think zeppelins as slow when they’re “as fast as high-speed trains”. I wonder if the romantic image we have of them is simply cos. they were a ‘lost technology of a past era’. Would they suffer the same fate that wind farms are presently having - NIMBY.