Saturday, May 31, 2014

We know accurately only when we know little...

This music video from MUMPBEAK will wake you up. The recording isn't the highest quality but Roy Powell, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, and Pat Mastelotto sure can play.

When an artist tells you to hang his paintings in a certain place and to keep the window shades closed it's not always because he's a fussy ass. If for example, he mixes his own paints from egg whites and other exotic materials, keeping the paintings in the shade will protect them from irreversible light damage as is the sad case with Rothko's Harvard Murals. But the folks at MIT came up with a way to digitally restore them.

Fordite isn't a stone. It's layers upon layers of automotive paint from the racks that held auto bodies in the paint shop. You can see examples of what can be done with Fordite at Urban Relic Design. But be warned. You can't get Fordite anymore so most (all?) of the items are sold out.
A 1988 highly classified flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis experienced severe thermal protection system ("heat shield") damage on ascent due to impact with insulating foam ejected from the right-side solid rocket booster (which is odd because I thought only the main liquid fuel tank was insulated). Around 700 individual tiles were damaged and at least one was missing entirely, although the missing tile - fortunately - was over a thicker than normal portion of the fuselage. When the mission commander thinks to himself "we are going to die" you know it's serious. This story illustrates one of my favorite quotes of all time by George Bernard Shaw: "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

For a less worrisome space-related post, here's an on-board video from the Arianspace Soyuz VS07 launch.

The periodic table of chilli peppers.
Sad business news for Fort Worth. Google's factory for the Moto X is closing and production is being moved overseas.

Ten books every entrepreneur should read. 1 out of 10 isn't bad, right? And I'm beginning to think the word entrepreneur has achieved over-use.  

Are you interested in seeing scans of the original prospectus used by Walt Disney to pitch the idea of Disneyland?

I'm not a huge fan of ice cream but if this truly is an example of a Danish ice cream cone, sign me up. "O, that this too too solid confection would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew."
Check out this trailer for the upcoming animated film The Book of Life. It doesn't look or sound like any animated film you've seen in a long time. (I know a guy who worked on the animation.)

Believe it or not, fish communicate by farting. Herring produce what science calls Fast Repetitive Tick Sounds (FRTS) by blowing air out of their anus. You cannot make this stuff up.

...with knowledge doubt increases. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

2 comments:

Francis Shivone said...

Like you I have read one of the entrepreneur books. E-Myth which everyone was reading in the mid 80's.

Indeed sad to hear about Motorola leaving the area.

I actually like the flavor a habanero adds to sauces but can't imagine what one of the hottest would do.

John said...

What is that local salsa? Mrs. Fletcher's? They have a habanero that is muy caliente.