Today is a sad day; I missed a talk of Thomas Demand, a fantastic German artist who was invited at the Southbank Centre in London to give a talk about the techniques he uses to create his art. What makes those pictures fascinating is not much the impressive level of detail and realism he manages to obtain with paper models, rather the inherent “wrongness” of those shots; there’s not typography, not a single word can be spotted, making each shot so disorienting and yet so familiar. Too bad for the terrible quality of the pictures on his website; fortunately the book compensates for this.

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John Gruber talks about the “Save” dialog as an example of friction in software: that required step that annoyingly sits between you and what you want to accomplish. Then what about this one as an example of friction? Makes me think that the smaller the friction is the more annoying it is, because under a certain level it could probably be eliminated altogether; typesetting machine friction instead creates an hard to solve problem, and as such a very fascinating one. Typography is even more Black Magic after watching this.

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I’m exploring ways to achieve zero food waste. I will employ a wormery and implement an ‘urban grazing’ experiment where I hang excess food that is still good out of my window for passers by to enjoy.

This system works at the very end of the production chain, or in LCA terms just moments before the product’s end of life. As we haven’t yet found a way to recycle excess food that we can hardly avoid purchasing – composting doesn’t count – Cathrine has found a way to pre-cycle it: hang it off your window, if you have one. This idea reminds me of Freecycle or “clothing-exchange days” with a touch of Middle Ages flavour; the nice thing about it is that it could never work as an online free-listing; it would be too impractical to list an ad for “two bananas” or “one apple” or anything else we feel we might not eat. It would be nice one day to walk on streets and be surrounded by dangling boxes full of free excesses.

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Found via kottke.org:

0 milliseconds – An external object touches the driver’s door.

1 ms – The car’s door pressure sensor detects a pressure wave.

2 ms – An acceleration sensor in the C-pillar behind the rear door also detects a crash event.

2.5 ms – A sensor in the car’s centre detects crash vibrations.

5 ms – Car’s crash computer checks for insignificant crash events, such as a shopping trolley impact or incidental contact. It is still working out the severity of the crash. Door intrusion structure begins to absorb energy.

6.5 ms – Door pressure sensor registers peak pressures.

7 ms – Crash computer confirms a serious crash and calculates its actions.

8 ms – Computer sends a “fire” signal to side airbag. Meanwhile, B-pillar begins to crumple inwards and energy begins to transfer into cross-car load path beneath the occupant.

8.5 ms – Side airbag system fires.

15 ms – Roof begins to absorb part of the impact. Airbag bursts through seat foam and begins to fill.

17 ms – Cross-car load path and structure under rear seat reach maximum load. Airbag covers occupant’s chest and begins to push the shoulder away from impact zone.

20 ms – Door and B-pillar begin to push on front seat. Airbag begins to push occupant’s chest away from the impact.

27 ms – Impact velocity has halved from 50 km/h to 23.5 km/h. A “pusher block” in the seat moves occupant’s pelvis away from impact zone. Airbag starts controlled deflation.

30 ms – The Falcon has absorbed all crash energy. Airbag remains in place. For a brief moment, occupant experiences maximum force equal to 12 times the force of gravity.

45 ms – Occupant and airbag move together with deforming side structure.

50 ms – Crash computer unlocks car’s doors. Passenger safety cell begins to rebound, pushing doors away from occupant.

70 ms – Airbag continues to deflate. Occupant moves back towards middle of car. Engineers classify crash as “complete”.

150-300 ms – Occupant becomes aware of collision.

Wow, at least something cares about you before you die.

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By these videos it looks like Adobe is having a hard time selling the Creative Suite (CS4). By these videos it looks like Adobe is having a hard time making me appreciate the great ROI these apps are supposed to have. Kind of the same way Microsoft almost convinced me to buy Vista with this.

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So true:

f/1.4 lenses that can turn night into day and let photographers focus on only the details they want, throwing unwanted backgrounds into blurriness.

And this, the real spoiler:

Be merciless with your photos. If right now you’re showing almost everything, try showing half. If you’re showing half, try showing a quarter. Try showing your best five of the day. Best one of the week. Depending on your uses, editing alone will immediately improve your work.

Full article here (via kottke.org, via Beebo.org)

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