http://sethherman.tumblr.com/

The Art of Ran Hwang

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:52:04 -0500

The Art of Ran Hwang

The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:47:21 -0500

The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals

Anatomy of a Scene: ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ Wes...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:27:59 -0500

Anatomy of a Scene: ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’

Wes Anderson, the director of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” discusses an early scene from the film.

Wizard Smoke!

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Wizard Smoke!

matthewb: Jonathan Moore: Stripping the concept of a hotel...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:24:20 -0500

matthewb:

Jonathan Moore:

Stripping the concept of a hotel down to its simplest form 9h (nine hours) offers a futuristic capsule to sleep in, showers, and space to rest. The hotel and concept was created by Design Studio S in Tokyo, Japan.

Ask the Artist: How Windows 7’s Iconic Home Screen...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:56:48 -0500

Ask the Artist: How Windows 7’s Iconic Home Screen Evolved

Congrats Chuck! (NoPattern.com / NoPattern Twitter)

For the Browns fans…it’s been too long. Enjoy.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:37:31 -0500

For the Browns fans…it’s been too long. Enjoy.

soupsoup: dbreunig: Apple switches from their Windows CE...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:31:52 -0500

soupsoup:

dbreunig:

Apple switches from their Windows CE mobile terminals to a souped up iPod Touch, complete with a bar code scanner, card reader, and battery pack.

I’m still surprised more retail establishments haven’t adopted the mobile terminal idea. It’s dangerously easy to buy something from anywhere in the store at Apple. (Via Gizmodo)

ragbag: rats! this is a real book? why am i only learning of it...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:56:08 -0500

ragbag:

rats!

this is a real book? why am i only learning of it now?! consider the following anecdote as a cautionary tale for the next time that you find yourself crawling under your floorboards with a your pet ferret hunting a bitch rat by candlelight:

I remember a private house where I was engaged catching rats under a floor with ferrets. I went as far as possible on my belly under the floor with two candles in my hands, and I saw the ferret kill a large bitch rat, about six yards from me against a wall, where neither the dog nor myself could get at it.

I finished the job and made out my bill for my services, but in about two or three weeks after they again sent for me, declaring they could not stay in the sitting-room on account of the smell that arose from beneath the flooring boards. They had in consequence to send for a joiner; and as I knew the exact spot where the rat was killed I ordered him to take up the floor boards just where the dead rat lay, and the stench that arose from the decomposed rodent was bad in the extreme. I disinfected the place, and I was never sent for again.

from full revelations of a professional rat-catcher by ike matthews (1898).

My friend Joe sitting on a couch and promoting modern warfare.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:51:25 -0400

My friend Joe sitting on a couch and promoting modern warfare.

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ Fan

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:47:03 -0400

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ Fan

A Cleveland view of the CC Sabathia-Cliff Lee matchup

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:35:26 -0400

A Cleveland view of the CC Sabathia-Cliff Lee matchup

azspot: This American Life “The camera really changed...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:19 -0400

azspot:

This American Life

“The camera really changed the way we behaved…We lost our humanity.”

Food Dye - by Corey Holms

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:48:47 -0400

Food Dye - by Corey Holms

Shifting the world to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 – here are the numbers

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:32:03 -0400

Shifting the world to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 – here are the numbers:

ledgergermane:

Most of the technology needed to shift the world from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy already exists. Implementing that technology requires overcoming obstacles in planning and politics, but doing so could result in a 30 percent decrease in global power demand, say Stanford civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California-Davis researcher Mark Delucchi.

To make clear the extent of those hurdles – and how they could be overcome – they have written an article that is the cover story in the November issue of Scientific American. In it, they present new research mapping out and evaluating a quantitative plan for powering the entire world on wind, water and solar energy, including an assessment of the materials needed and costs. And it will ultimately be cheaper than sticking with fossil fuel or going nuclear, they say.

Jacobson and Delucchi used data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration to project that if the world’s current mix of energy sources is maintained, global energy demand at any given moment in 2030 would be 16.9 terawatts, or 16.9 million megawatts.

They then calculated that if no combustion of fossil fuel or biomass were used to generate energy, and virtually everything was powered by electricity – either for direct use or hydrogen production – the demand would be only 11.5 terawatts. That’s only two-thirds of the energy that would be needed if fossil fuels were still in the mix.

In order to convert to wind, water and solar, the world would have to build wind turbines; solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar arrays; and geothermal, tidal, wave and hydroelectric power sources to generate the electricity, as well as transmission lines to carry it to the users, but the long-run net savings would more than equal the costs, according to Jacobson and Delucchi’s analysis.

“If you make this transition to renewables and electricity, then you eliminate the need for 13,000 new or existing coal plants,” Jacobson said. “Just by changing our infrastructure we have less power demand.”

Jacobson and Delucchi chose to use wind, water and solar energy options based on a quantitative evaluation Jacobson did last year of about a dozen of the different alternative energy options that were getting the most attention in public and political discussions and in the media. He compared their potential for producing energy, how secure an energy source each was, and their impacts on human health and the environment.

Analyzing only on-land locations with a high potential for producing power, they found that even if wind were the only method used to generate power, the potential for wind energy production is 5 to 15 times greater than what is needed to power the entire world. For solar energy, the comparable calculation found that solar could produce about 30 times the amount needed.

If the world built just enough wind and solar installations to meet the projected demand for the scenario outlined in the article, an area smaller than the borough of Manhattan would be sufficient for the wind turbines themselves. Allowing for the required amount of space between the turbines boosts the needed acreage up to 1 percent of Earth’s land area, but the spaces between could be used for crops or grazing. The various non-rooftop solar power installations would need about a third of 1 percent of the world’s land, so altogether about 1.3 percent of the land surface would suffice.

The study further provides examples of how a combination of renewable energy sources could be used to meet hour-by-hour power demand, addressing the commonly asked question, given the inherent variability of wind speed and sunshine, can these sources consistently produce enough power? The answer is yes.

Expanding the transmission grid would be critical for the shift to the sustainable energy sources that Jacobson and Delucchi propose. New transmission lines would have to be laid to carry power from new wind farms and solar power plants to users, and more transmission lines will be needed to handle the overall increase in the quantity of electric power being generated.

The researchers also determined that the availability of certain materials that are needed for some of the current technologies, such as lithium for lithium-ion batteries, or platinum for fuel cells, are not currently barriers to building a large-scale renewable infrastructure. But efforts will be needed to ensure that such materials are recycled and potential alternative materials are explored.

Finally, they conclude that perhaps the most significant barrier to the implementation of their plan is the competing energy industries that currently dominate political lobbying for available financial resources. But the technologies being promoted by the dominant energy industries are not renewable and even the cleanest of them emit significantly more carbon and air pollution than wind, water and sun resources, say Jacobson and Delucchi.

Glennray Tutor Paints Fireworks. Boom.—

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:55:10 -0400

Glennray Tutor Paints Fireworks. Boom.
—

The Hype is Right / Apple's tablet will reinvent computing.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:31:43 -0400

The Hype is Right / Apple's tablet will reinvent computing.

noahkalina: lapuravidagallery: Chris Jordan - current...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:04:20 -0400

noahkalina:

lapuravidagallery:

Chris Jordan - current work

“These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.”

"People will pay for content if it is necessary, irreplaceable, and unshareable. Businesses excited..."

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:46:22 -0400

“People will pay for content if it is necessary, irreplaceable, and unshareable. Businesses excited about the first five words of that sentence don’t understand how constraining the next seven are.”

- McKinsey: What Matters: Will people pay for content online?

Two sentences that demonstrate how much more Clay Shirky knows about the news industry than the news industry.

(via neekolas)

(via soupsoup)

azspot: Radiohead Take on Human Trafficking

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:15:17 -0400

azspot:

Radiohead Take on Human Trafficking