Tag Archives: culture

Ultra-compact Living

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Fuyuhito Moriya, of Tokyo has built his 3-story house on what is generally the size of a single parking space. 30 square meters of real estate. That’s 5 meters by 6 meters. About 16.5 feet by 19.5 feet.

I absolutely find this compelling. Living in that small a space wouldn’t be realistic for me, but… I wouldn’t mind giving it a whirl for a few days. You have to admire the human ingenuity to create something that beautifully effecient.

It all feels very Scifi. Cyberpunk. It brings over-the-top futuristic set design to mind. The stuff I love. There’s something very Brazil about Fuyuhito Moriya’s pad. An over-populated urban center. Humans cramped together. All white like a space station.

Hiccup Girl

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So a couple years ago there was this girl from Florida who couldn’t stop hiccuping. She tried every remedy known to man, but she just couldn’t stop. The hiccuping lasted for nearly 5 weeks and she had her 15 minutes because of it. She did a bunch of morning shows and attracted a good deal of media attention. Hiccups are usually a minor annoyance but this particular story hit home because sometimes you feel like they’ll never stop when you have them. Even when you tell your friend to jump out at you and scare you when you least expect it. EVEN when you’re hanging upside down while touching your nose and staring at the sun. This was our fears being realized.

Well. Hiccup Girl has just been charged with first degree murder. Way to go hiccup girl! In what is clearly an homage to every reenactment show ever aired on WE tv, apparently hiccup girl and two buddies lured some dude into the seedy and abandoned part of town so they could rob him. There was probably a struggle and they shot him dead.

If she’s convicted she could face the death penalty. That’s one way to stop those hiccups.

‘Hiccup Girl’ charged with first-degree murder.

Futurama

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Ever since I went to Disney World for the first time, I’ve been intrigued by futuristic animatronic spectacle. There’s something about the innocence in the first half the 20th century, especially when it came to postulating the future, that is really endearing to me. Of course I didn’t live through it, but going back to look ahead is a strange and wonderful exercise.

General Motors’ Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair is the best example I can come up with. The General Motors Pavilion was a beautiful art deco experience and it’s main attraction was Futurama. The exhibit envisioned a world of tomorrow (the ’60s) with interconnected superhighways and futuristic urban landscapes. Visitors were strapped to a conveyor belt and shuttled around fully functioning miniatures in a model of the United States. Exposed to a wonderous and achievable world of the future. A lot of it was ultimately realized, but a lot still remains science fiction.

And of course, the 1939 World’s Fair had robots. Elektro was a gold-plated terror standing nearly 7 feet tall designed by Westinghouse Electric. Sure it was a bunch of parlor tricks and by all accounts benevolent, but Elektro must have blown minds back then. They didn’t know any better in 1939. I suspect many a child left that World’s Fair with nightmares after meeting Elektro. This thing could recognize voice commands, blow up balloons, and of course smoke cigarettes. Watch the video below. After counting on it’s fingers, Elektro is rewarded with the following command; You. May. Now. Smoke. This. Cigarette. Go. On. To which the presenter lights his cigarette and says to the crowd, “And folks he’s only two years old too. Just learning.”

I don’t know what Elektro did to piss off his makers, but eventually, his head was given to a retiring Westinghouse engineer and the rest of is aluminum body was sold for scrap.

I bet you didn’t know that there’s a World’s Fair going on right now in Shanghai. When’s New York going to have another?

Double Complete Rainbow

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I’m not sharing this because I think it’s something you need to see. By now you’ve probably already seen or heard about this video. It’s been on internet news sites like Huffington Post and probably in your inbox. A guy named Bear captured a DOUBLE COMPLETE RAINBOW ALL ACROSS THE SKY at Yosemite National Park. I’m sharing this for two reasons. First, you’ve got to love this guy’s enthusiasm. There’s a certain genuineness to it. Even if Bear is on some kind of psychedelia (which is not confirmed), you can tell that we’re witness to a moment of sincere awe. And I suspect we’d get a similar reaction with or without any drugs. I just like Bear.

Secondly, I’m sharing this because I myself am still in awe of the culture we live in. We live in a world where a guy posts a home video to some website and it spreads like a virus to you and me. The concept of the viral video or internet meme still intrigues me and it’s been a part of our culture for almost a decade now. It’s especially exciting when it’s organic like this video. When there are no marketing dollars behind it. When people finesse the concept, remix it, and just have fun with a silly video.

The original

One remix, with autotune!

LOST – The Complaints

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This is so incredibly written and clearly comes from the mind of a LOST fan. This hilarious recap by College Humor of the “unanswered questions” on LOST is so amazingly put together. I wish I knew the intent behind it. Is this a serious complaint? A comment on LOST fandom? A love-letter to the show? A little of all three?

To me, this sums up my biggest complaint against many LOST fans. It seems like people get so caught up in trying to get answers to all the mysteries set up in the story, that you forget why you’re watching the show in the first place. You become consumed by the need to get the answers. This show’s charm was in it’s characters and it’s story. The mystery element is just a bonus. Enjoy the ride, stop trying to figure it all out. Do we really need the answers to all of the questions. Seems kind of selfish. Lindelof and Cuse have said repeatedly that this was a love story about characters, so I’m going to take their word.

It’s been a few days now and I’m still obsessed with the LOST finale. It’s like we lost a dear friend and it stinks.

GoldenEye Showdown

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This is really for the kids who went to college between 1997ish and 2002ish. I remember long nights with 3 to 5 of my friends playing GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64. Considered by many to be one of the greatest First Person Shooters (FPS) ever. And still to this day an amazing multiplayer experience. It was near perfect once you figured out all the little quirks, but those were part of it’s charm.

Download your very own FPS glasses!

Busted

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This morning I threw on the same outfit I wore on Saturday night, because I figured, “No one from work was there, I’m fine.” It was on my floor and it accomplished the dual tasks of both straightening up the room and clothing me. I really appreciate efficiency.

Except I was just tagged in some pics on Facebook from Saturday night. I work in digital the space. So naturally I’m friends with every single one of my coworkers on Facebook. So now everyone knows I don’t wash my clothes. These are real issues we have to deal with now. Might be time to invest in one of these ventless combo washer/dryers.