Nainawasu (9h) is a new capsule hotel that offers luxury in a minimum living space. The “9h” capsule hotel and all amenities were designed by Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S, which she founded in 1994. With her team, she defined the elements necessary for a “minimal transit space” in big cities in Japan. The product designer has been pursuing the “9h” project as a creative director for 3 years.
The first hotel will opened in December this year, located in Shimogyo-Ku, Kyoto, located on Teramachi Street between department store Fujii Daimaru and convenience store AMPM, two minutes walk from Kawaramachi station. The building itself will be 9 stories tall, will host 125 capsules, locker rooms, showers, and a lounge.
“A comfortable place to rest … 1 hour shower, sleep for 7 hours, have a one hour break / total 9h.” Guests can spend up to 17 hours in a single stay – the price for one night is ¥4900 ($54,-).

Each capsule includes Panasonic’s Advanced System for good sleeping by computerized control lighting. According to the time set, the light will wake you up.
The bed sheets are of the same quality as those that are used in a four-star hotel.

Japan’s first capsule hotel made its appearance in Osaka in 1979, and was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa.

http://9hours.jp/

MAY ALL THE MUSLIMS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD ENJOY THIS EID IN PEACE !

The Fire Scout unmanned helicopter got its first job—hunting drug smugglers.

MQ-8B became the first unmanned helo to conduct actual operations on a navy ship. The UAV left on an anti-narcotics mission when from a port in Florida on Monday. The USS McInerney (FFG-8) is no stranger to the unmanned aerial vehicle because it hosted it during developmental testing. A crew of Northrop Grumman engineers are on board to help the aircraft stay healthy.

The operational tests will help the Navy field rotorcraft UAVs on its Littoral Combat Ship, which is still in development.

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/mq8bfirescout_navy/index.html

Paintings_Ha Sayf_2008.

Move over, Cupcake, there’s a new lightning rod in the school food debate, and her name is Chocolate Milk. The Milk Processor Education Program has teamed up with the National Dairy Council, and according to the Associated Press, they’re spending big bucks to defend chocolate milk’s reputation. Turns out some people question its continued presence on school cafeteria menus.
So, its defenders are playing hardball, with a You Tube video featuring celebrities like Rebecca Romijn, plus a coterie of registered dietitians.  On the other side of the debate are academics, like Marion Nestle, PhD of NYU, who shine a bright light on the campaign’s hefty budget and the money at stake and question its underlying premise–that kids won’t drink milk if it’s not chocolatey.
As if that weren’t juicy enough, the New York Times just reported on a small Spanish study that suggests that drinking skim milk with cocoa reduced inflammation and boosted HDL (good) cholesterol.  Of course, there’s no mention of sugar, since pure cocoa powder (unlike chocolate milk) contains none.
And therein lies the rub.
Chocolate milk: good or evil?  Seems everyone is taking sides.

Dès l’âge de 4 ans, il s’intéresse déjà aux sports en débutant par le hockey.
Ses limites sont atteintes selon lui, mais arrive le skateboard qui lui apporte une sécrétion d’adrénaline hors du commun vu l’aspect technique et risqué de cette activité.
Devenu policier à la Sûreté du Québec en 2001, il continu à pousser son intérêt vers les sports extrêmes.
Suite à sa rencontre avec Yan Leconte et Mathieu Ledoux, membres de l’équipe Fast Motion, il commence alors à s’intéresser au monde du cinéma et des cascades. Ainsi débute sa passion pour la gymnastique, les arts martiaux et l’art du déplacement (parkour).
Il commence à pratiquer cette dernière discipline en ayant pour inspiration David Belle qu’il a aperçu sur le Web. Avec sa compréhension de ce sport et des valeurs qui l’entourent, il parvient à offrir un enseignement à des jeunes passionnés et rejoint les Yamakasi à Evry en France pour offrir des séminaires à des adeptes de la place.
Il rencontre aussi les membres de Parkour Generations et plusieurs autres traceurs expérimentés dont il tire profit. Suite à cela, il débute sa carrière de cascadeur professionnel en se rendant aux Etats-Unis pour collaborer avec les compagnies USANA et Bombardier. Avec l’intention d’élargir ses compétences, il s’adonne au motocross et au rollerblade (agressive in-line skating) tout en ne cessant de prôner l’entraînement par la méthode naturelle.
En somme, avec ses multiples habiletés et son intense désir d’inspirer les gens, Sébastien continu de construire sa voie de façon intense et passionnée à travers Fast Motion dont il est maintenant un membre à part entière.

http://www.fast-motion.tv

Japan has serious plans to send a solar-panel-equipped satellite into space that could wirelessly beam a gigawatt-strong stream of power down to earth and power nearly 300,000 homes.
The satellite will have a surface area of four square kilometers, and transmit power via microwave to a base station on Earth. Putting solar panels in space bypasses many of the difficulties of installing them on Earth: in orbit, there are no cloudy days, very few zoning laws, and the cold ambient temperature is ideal.
A small test model is scheduled for launch in 2015. To iron out all the kinks and get a fully functional system set up is estimated to take three decades. A major kink, presumably, is coping with the possible dangers when a 1-gigawatt microwave beam aimed at a small spot on Earth misses its target.
The $21 billion project just received major backing from Mitsubishi and designer IHI (in addition to research teams from 14 other countries).

A division of JAXA, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) has already prepared a prototype of the SPS2000, a 10 megawatt demonstration solar-power satellite.
ISAS is also undertaking a project where an experimental satellite will be tested for wireless power supply of several hundred kilowatts. Ground experiments are being held for scrutinizing the influence of high-voltage discharge which is a sheer necessity for large-capacity power generation in space. They are also spending time on the impact of space debris on the solar farm.

http://global.mitsubishielectric.com
http://www.ihi.co.jp

One of the factors President Obama must weigh as he decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan is the cost — not just in lives, but in dollars. With the economy still struggling, questions exist about how much the U.S. can afford to spend in Afghanistan — and for how long.
Earlier this week, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the war in Afghanistan had already cost a “staggering” $243 billion.
In fact, it is a challenge to calculate exactly how much the U.S. has spent on the war so far.
The Congressional Research Service estimates that since the invasion of Afghanistan eight years ago, the U.S. has spent closer to $227 billion. The Pentagon puts the number at $156 billion.
The variables include which expenses are actually included and whether the total relies on how much Congress has approved for the war compared with what the Pentagon has actually spent.
Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, says one useful way to break down these huge numbers is to look at how much it costs to send just one soldier to war.
“We are at a point where it’s unbelievably costing us close to a million dollars, in additional costs — above and beyond salaries and the equipment that’s already in the inventory — per soldier or Marine per year,” he says.
Fighting in Afghanistan means fighting in one of the most remote regions on Earth, and that plays a large role in the seemingly astronomical figure.
Dov Zakheim, a former chief financial officer for the Defense Department, says the $1 million price tag includes getting the soldier to Afghanistan, getting his equipment to Afghanistan, and moving the soldier around once in the country.
“So, it’s the cost of some allocation of the cost of the plane, some allocation of the cost of the fuel, some allocation of the cost of the pilots, the maintenance folks,” Zakheim explains. “If you focus just on the soldier, it seems outrageous. But if you focus on the support for the soldier — that’s not all that outrageous at all.”

The White House has used the $1 million per soldier statistic in private briefings to Congress, and that has obvious implications. If it costs $1 million to send one soldier to war for a year, then sending 40,000 more troops — as the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal has urged — could cost an extra $40 billion per year, on top of what the U.S. is already spending.
Meanwhile, the Defense Department disputes the $1 million figure and says it probably costs closer to $500,000 to send a soldier to war for a year. A Pentagon spokesman adds that any figure provided by the Defense Department or other sources is “speculative at best.”
What is beyond dispute is that a major troop buildup would get very expensive, very fast.
But O’Hanlon of Brookings says that other options — such as a scaled-back, counterterrorism mission — might not be much cheaper. It would require fewer troops, he says, but it’s not clear when they could ever go home. As a result, he says, the government may spend less per year — but need to do so over a longer period of time.
Ultimately, says Zakheim, the former Pentagon official, wars simply cost an “awful lot of money.”
But he says there is a steep cost to failure in Afghanistan, too. “We shouldn’t be going to war or not going to war because it’s going to cost us more or less. We should be choosing to make those decisions on the basis of the national interest of the United States,” he says.
In other words, Zakheim argues, the president should focus on getting the war strategy right, and then figure out how to pay for it.

by Mary Louise Kelly.

COSTOFWAR.COM – The Cost of War

The tough marker for tough jobs, the Solid Marker is solidified paint in a marker stick. It marks through oil, grease, rust, mud, snow—inside or outside. Dries within minutes, and is permanent once dry. Solid Markers won’t fade or wash off like chalk. The special “stay fresh” twist mechanism keeps paint fresh and ready to use.
Ideal for use on wood, cloth & canvas, plastic, steel & iron, rubber, cardboard, glass, fiberglass & concrete. Solid marker features a tough, broad stroke, is quick-drying and virtually odorless.  This marker is widely used in commercial and industrial applications in construction, welding & fabrication, pipelines & drilling, assembly lines, automotive tires & windshields, HVAC, plumbing systems or with stencils. 
Available in 11 colors: black, red, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow, white, fluorescent lemon, fluorescent orange and fluorescent pink. Working temperature range: 14°F to 392°F (-10°C to 200°C)  13 mm wide mark can be trimmed with knife for smaller marks.  Alcohol based cleaners will remove ink from non-porous surfaces.  Fluorescent colors are not lightfast.
(Meets ASTM and ACMI non-toxicity standards, and is AP seal certified.)

PREVENT GRAFFITI ! This product is intended for industrial and commercial purposes only.  Defacing public or private property is illegal under state and local laws and possession of such products is similarly illegal for minors. Acceptance of this product for distribution and sale acknowledges your company’s responsibility in distributing and reselling this product for legal purposes only and restricts the sale to minors under eighteen years of age, where State and local laws apply.

http://www.sakuraofamerica.com

Ok, I’m in, Follow my stuff !
http://twitter.com/ha_sayf

Camper Bike
I conceived of the Camper Bike while working in Beijing, assisting a New York artist on a painting project. I absolutely fell in love with Beijing, and became especially interested in the city’s bike culture. I knew I wanted to do something based on the bike culture, at least document them for a drawing or painting series. The idea of building a camper top came to me while having breakfast at an Open Market and it stuck. I think it was the sensation of eating outdoors on a fall morning that sparked memories of camping with my family. I made drawings and a couple of paintings based on the idea of the Camper Bike and on my third trip back to Beijing I decided to build it. One aspect of the project that I find really interesting is merging something quintessential Chinese with something very American.

Camper Kart
The Camper Kart idea came to me while reading “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. I was continuing work on the Camper Bike so the idea of combining campers with unusual vehicle was fresh in my mind. I though it was really interesting how Cormac McCarthy imagined the shopping cart as the most utilitarian and most practical object to use in a post apocalyptic time. The story covered the struggle of mobility and shelter. The Camper Kart was inspired by the story, not to provide a realistic solution, but mostly to stimulate conversation about self-reliance, mobility, and shelter. I found McCarthy’s story of father and son to be one of human perseverance and I intend the Camper Kart to symbolize the same. It also evokes the issue of homelessness—partly because the shopping cart has become ubitiqous symbol for those without homes—as well as the struggle of middle class Americans in hard economic times. Designing the Kart in a typical pop-up camper style in a much smaller space reflects the down-sizing most Americans are faced with.

http://www.kevincyr.net
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1719609460/camper-kart-project

Ion Tiger in flight. The 550-watt fuel cell is show in the box in the lower left corner.
(Credit: Naval Research Laboratory)

The Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL’s) Ion Tiger, a hydrogen-powered fuel cell unmanned air vehicle (UAV), has flown 23 hours and 17 minutes, setting an unofficial flight endurance record for a fuel-cell powered flight. The test flight took place on October 9th through 10th at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The Ion Tiger fuel cell development system team is led by NRL and includes Protonex Technology Corporation, the University of Hawaii, and HyperComp Engineering. The program is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The electric fuel cell propulsion system onboard the Ion Tiger has the low noise and signature of a battery-powered UAV, while taking advantage of hydrogen, a high-energy fuel. Fuel cells create an electrical current when they convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, with only water and heat as byproducts. The 550-Watt (0.75 horsepower) fuel cell onboard the Ion Tiger has about 4 times the efficiency of a comparable internal combustion engine and the system provides 7 times the energy in the equivalent weight of batteries. The Ion Tiger weighs approximately 37 pounds and carries a 4 to 5 pound payload.

Small UAVs are growing in importance for naval missions, as they provide capabilities ranging from surveillance collection to communication links. Electric UAVs have the additional feature of being nearly undetectable from the ground. Due to the high energy in the fuel cell system onboard the Ion Tiger, it is now possible to do long endurance missions with an electric UAV, thus allowing a larger cruise range and reducing the number of daily launches and landings. This provides more capability while saving time and effort for the crew.

In 2005, NRL backed initial research in fuel cell technologies for UAVs. Today, says NRL’s Karen Swider-Lyons, “the long endurance flight was made possible by the team’s research on high power, efficient fuel cell systems, lightweight hydrogen-gas storage tanks, improved thermal management, and the effective integration of these systems.”

Fuel cell technology is being developed to impact the operational spectrum of technologies including ground, air and undersea vehicles and man-portable power for Marine expeditionary missions. “The Ion Tiger successfully demonstrates ONR’s vision to show how efficient, clean technology can be used to improve the warfighter’s capabilities,” comments ONR’s Michele Anderson.

http://www.nrl.navy.mil/

Warming up helps your body prepare itself for training both mentally and physically, and reduces the chance of injury. The aims of stretching are to gently lengthen muscles before and after any form of exercise, and to improve tissue elasticity / flexibility. If done correctly, stretching will help prevent injuries and increase athletic performance.

Enjoy this 8 key steps !
_Begin with gradual mobility exercises of all the joints (natural lubrification with synovial fluid).
_Warm up the body prior to stretching (increases blood flow and makes the muscles more supple).
_Slowly bring your heart rate down before you begin stretching (take your time bro).
_Ok, start with your legs, and work up the body, in order not to miss out any of the stretches.
_Feel some slight discomfort, if you don’t feel anything, then you may be doing the stretch incorrectly.
_Hold each stretch for a minimum of 15 seconds.
_Breathing slowly, regulary and rhythmically (do not hold your breath tomato head).
_Stop immediately if you feel any severe pain, Plastic Man.

Mission : 10 minutes for warm-up and 20 minutes for stretching.
Yes brother ! 30 minutes to be ready.
During cold weather make sure you spend more time warming up.

Perform this sequence of stretches only after you have warmed up the muscles.

A Dubaï, le village vertical dessiné par “Graft Lab” a été conçu pour fournir des espaces multiples, tout en exploitant au maximum l’énergie solaire.Une fois terminé, le complexe devrait être certifié Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) niveau GOLD. Ce dernier est un système nord-américain de standardisation de bâtiments à haute qualité environnementale créé par le US Green Building Council en 1998.
Un bâtiment peut atteindre quatre niveaux : certifié, argent, or et platine. Les critères d’évaluation incluent : l’efficacité énergétique, l’efficacité de la consommation d’eau, l’efficacité du chauffage, l’utilisation de matériaux de provenance locale et la réutilisation de leur surplus.

L’ensemble architectural est façonné de manière à maximiser les surfaces solaires et donc la production d’électricité solaire. Certains bâtiments ont été surélevés afin de créer de l’ombre au nord et sur un axe est-ouest.
L’extrémité sud du site est équipé d’une vaste étendue de capteurs solaires qui se tournent automatiquement en fonction de la position du soleil dans le ciel. Les toits solaires, dont le complexe est équipé sont découpés en zones afin de rendre la fourniture d’énergie plus flexible selon les besoins (eau chaude & climatisation).

La façon dont les bâtiments ont été découpés et inclinés donne à chacun un look unique et futuriste. Les futurs résidents et visiteurs seront en mesure de tirer pleinement parti des hôtels, des cinémas, des restaurants, des magasins et du théâtre.

http://www.graftlab.com

Italian artists Blu did a wall painting at Fame Festival, in Grottaglie.
The city has a massive ugly factory called ILVA;  This factory is destroying the territory and killing a lot of workers ’cause of its big lack of security measures and high environmental pollution. The direct consequence is that Taranto has one of the highest rate of death by cancer in Italy.

see the finished piece here: http://www.famefestival.it/?p=527

The United Nations have enlisted Peace Robots to serve as an ad-hoc intervention squad on their behalf.
They are subject to the UN-Principles «neutrality » and « non-partisanship » in crisis areas. Non-lethal system & self-governed, this «cute» machines will be deployed in swarms…

 Designers : Jupin Ghanbari, Benjamin Cselley, Jelena Stoikovic & Dominik Premauer

Fin 2007, lors de la troisième édition du café-exposition « les articulteurs » au Centre Culturel Picasso de Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, je découvre le travail de Jonathan « Djob » Nkondo, jeune dessinateur de 20 ans au talent exceptionnel excusez-moi du peu !
Observateur aguerri, Djob possède ce coup de crayon qui vous coupe l’envie d’en prendre un à votre tour.
Bref, blablabli et blablabla, la suite en image car le léchage de chaussettes n’est définitivement pas mon truc… suivi d’un court entretien avec l’intéressé !

 Entretien avec DJOB
Ha Sayf_septembre 2009

Ha Sayf : Tu te définis plutôt comme un dessinateur, un writer, un peintre, un graphiste ou autre chose ?
Djob : En ce moment je me sens plus illustrateur que graphiste, plus writer que peintre, plus designer qu’animateur 2D et un tout petit peu réalisateur.

Comment es-tu venu au dessin, tu as pris des cours ou reçu un don de Dieu ?
Je dessine depuis que j’ai 4/5 ans. J’ai beaucoup maté les dessins animés qui passaient à mon  époque du genre Mighty Max, Dragon Ball, Renard… Et vers l’age de 12/13 ans j’ai pris des cours de dessin avec un  caricaturiste très cool prénommé Sali. J’y ai rencontré Asone et Hama avec qui je peints aujourd’hui. Puis j’ai fais mon petit bonhomme de chemin.

As-tu déjà reçu la visite d’un extra-terrestre ou d’une entité étrange, ( Si oui )est-ce que cela t’a influencé ? parle moi de tes influences.
…!
Alors Je peux te citer Joe Madureira, qui fait du comics. Ses crayonnés sont juste parfaits à mes yeux, il a bossé sur Battle Chasers, un comics pas très connu. En terme de Graffiti j’aime beaucoup ce que font Honet, Erwin (asu) , Brasko, Yaner, Ryngar (b2m), Rekm (tt) et pleins d’autres… et en terme de musique, beaucoup de Cannibal Ox, (Vordul Mega), de Buck 65, de Mr lif dans mon Mp3….

Certains de tes dessins semblent posséder un message caché, un sens profond, tu dessines pour faire joli ou tu essayes de nous parler via ton œuvre ?
Un peu des deux.

Qu’est ce que tu fais de beau à Paris et quand trouves-tu le temps de peindre et dessiner ?
Je fais des études de conception et réalisation de films d’animation. Je dessine tous les jours et j’essaye de peindre le plus possible en fonction de ce que j’ai comme matos.

Rolling Fever c’est quoi ? c’est qui ?
Rolling Fever c’est toi, c’est moi, c’est eux ! C’est une troupe de grands escrocs qui apprécient autant l’odeur d’un bon grec que celle qui émane d’une bombe de peinture.

Comment as-tu rencontré ces Messieurs ?
Je les ai rencontrés il y a fort longtemps dans une ville que l’on connait sous le nom de M-town sous l’œil attentif de l’Art.

Quels sont vos projets dans cette “bande organisée” ?
Aucun.

Et tes projets perso?
Des courts métrages j’espère, et de l’illustration à droite à gauche…

Je te donne 150 000 $, tu fais quoi avec ?
Je me rachète un velo.

Quelque chose à rajouter ?
Merci à toi. Gros salut à Yohann, Audrey, Nanouk, Micha, Akbar, Kinay, Rekm, Gabrielle, Jose, Hama, Momo, Myriam.

http://www.fotolog.com/bjod
http://robustetfiable.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/rollingfever

A network design that uses old TV spectrum could produce better long-range wireless connectivity.
Long-range, low-cost wireless Internet could soon be delivered using radio spectrum once reserved for use by TV stations. The blueprints for a computer network that uses “white spaces,” which are empty fragments of the spectrum scattered between used frequencies, will be presented today at ACM SIGCOMM 2009, a communications conference held in Barcelona, Spain.

TV stations have traditionally broadcast over lower frequencies that carry information longer distances. However, with the ongoing transition from analog to digital broadcasts, more unused frequencies are opening up than ever.
By tapping into these lower frequencies, it should be easier to provide broadband Internet access in rural areas and fill in gaps in city Wi-Fi networks. For example, the spectrum between 512 megahertz and 698 megahertz, which was originally allotted to analog TV channels from 21 to 51, offers a longer range than conventional Wi-Fi, which operates at 2.4 gigahertz. “Imagine the potential if you could connect to your home [Internet] router from up to a mile,” says Ranveer Chandra, a member of the Networking Research Group at Microsoft Research behind the project.

The FCC ruled last November that companies could build devices that transmit over white spaces but also gave strict requirements that this should not interfere with existing broadcasts, both from TV stations and from other wireless devices that operate within the same spectrum. Chandra and his colleagues designed a set of protocols, which they call “White Fi,” to successfully navigate the tricky regulatory and technical obstacles involved with using white spaces.
“It’s a totally different paradigm for wireless networking,” says Chandra. “Until now, in wireless networks, you were given a spectrum, and you would share it with everyone else. Everyone was an equal stakeholder. Now, you have this spectrum where there are certain people who are primary users.”
One of the main obstacles for Chandra’s group was dealing with a network of different devices; in the past, work focused on sending and receiving signals between individual devices over white spaces.
Some of the challenges that faced the group came about because of the undefined nature of white-space frequencies. The researchers designed their algorithms to determine the ideal amount of frequency bandwidth to use for a broadcast, balancing the desire for strong signal against the possibility of interference with neighboring frequencies. They also had to design a way for mobile devices to find a signal from an access point.

One of the most important parts of the White Fi system is a protocol for dealing with collisions among different signals (particularly those from wireless microphones, which can turn on at any time). Even a single packet of interference is enough to produce audible disruptions for a microphone. Even if interference affects only one device on the network, strict regulations forbid all devices on the network from using that channel. The researchers got around this by designing the access point so that it maintains a backup channel. If another user is detected, the white-space device or access point immediately switches to the backup channel, which reassigns bandwidth use as needed.

Peter Steenkiste, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in networking, says that previous work on white spaces has focused on addressing one problem at a time. “The thing that I think is very interesting about this paper is that it really has looked at how you put a complete system together,” he says.
Steenkiste adds that “there are a lot of practical issues that they’ve worried about.” In particular, he says, the researchers did not assume an ideal, controlled environment for their system. Rather, they took into account such problems as measurement “noise” and the unpredictable behavior of wireless microphones. “[The research] has an answer for every question,” Steenkiste says.

Chandra says that his group recently received an experimental license from the FCC that allows them to build a prototype White Fi system on the Microsoft Research Campus in Redmond, WA. They plan to send their findings to the FCC in the hope that the data will help determine future white-space regulations. Chandra notes that since the transition from analog to digital television is happening worldwide, there is a high level of international interest in US white-space experiments. Researchers and companies all over the world are looking for technologies to take advantage of the fragments of spectrum that will open up in the coming years, he says.

Erica Naone from Technology review.

 When you move out to California from back east, you come for a reason: You’re leaving behind a bad relationship, or escaping your hometown, or thinking you’ll be a star. And what you find when you get here is that things aren’t what you thought they’d be. There’s some of what you expected—sunshine and palm trees and long, wide beaches. But there’s more: houses with cacti and succulents in place of the green lawns you grew up with; women in bikinis climbing ladders; trees groomed in an archway, the expected path between them blocked by a gateless chain-link fence. You answer an ad on craigslist for a used car and find yourself in a boxed-in car lot in Van Nuys and go for pie at Du-par’s afterward, because pie makes sense when you’re on Ventura Boulevard and it’s 95 degrees and the car wasn’t what the ad said it would be. And you’d think that, after all this, you’d become disillusioned and go back home, and some do, of course, but many more of us stay and instead of growing bitter, we hang on—hang on to a world that, to us, is even more fantastic than the one we thought we’d find, because it’s real in its absurdity and because we have stories to tell.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

Copyright (c) Liz Kuball.

http://www.lizkuball.com

By Bill Daniel, 56 min. black and white, experimental/documentary

THIS SPECTACULAR TRAVEL ADVENTURE FAITHFULLY PHOTOGRAPHED IN REALISTIC BLACK AND WHITE FILM AT CONSIDERABLE RISK FROM SPEEDING FREIGHT TRAINS AND IN SECRET HOBO JUNGLES IN THE DOGGED PURSUIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLY CONVOLUTED STORY OF THE HERETOFORE UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE CENTURY-OLD FOLKLORIC PRACTICE OF HOBO AND RAILWORKER GRAFFITI AND THE ABSURD QUEST FOR THE TRUE IDENTITY OF RAILROADING’S GREATEST ARTIST WILL LIKELY AMUSE AND CONFOUND YOU IN ITS SINCERE ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND AND PRESERVE THIS ARTFORM.

Who is Bozo Texino? chronicles the search for the source of a ubiquitous and mythic rail graffiti– a simple sketch of a character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”– a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years.  Daniel’s gritty black and white film uncovers a secret society and it’s underground universe of hobo and railworker graffiti, and includes interviews with legendary boxcar artists, Coaltrain, Herby, Colossus of Roads, and The Rambler.  Shooting over a 16-year period, Daniel rode freights across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex. During his quest he discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions as both a sub-cultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust and outsider identity. 

“I was drawn to the subject by the universal graffiti impulse and the classic, corny notion of freight train blues escape.”  _ Bill Daniel

“Cinematographic song of praise to the self-imposed life of a hobo. Using a 16mm and a Super8 camera, Bill Daniel collected images of the hobo subculture over a period of about 15 years. His years of roaming in goods trains brought him into contact with countless legendary hobos. Daniel links their stories and visions of life to their “tags”, the signs they left on trains long before graffiti was any kind of a hype. The film focuses on the quest for the eminent Bozo Texino, whose tag decorated trains all over the country for 80 years. In beautiful black & white, to the rhythm of train wheels and country music, Daniel portrays passionate people who have turned away from the establishment and it’s rules.” _ from the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

” A hypnotic, rail-rattling tone poem of subversive wayfarer wisdom– as revealed through the witty, artfull, unexpected delights of railroad graffiti.”  _ Sacramento News and Review

“Bill Daniel’s homegrown epic is as kinetic and raggedly beautiful as the trains he hopped to make it. Using the search for the origin of a near mythical example of railroad graffiti as a point of departure, Bill made a film about freedom as literal passage across the land. Corporations brand things to say they own them, but there are ways in which humans have marked things to say they can’t be owned.” _ Jem Cohen

“A gloriously rough-edged elegy for an America that is being swept away before our eyes.
Daniel’s film manages a near-perfect union of radical form and radical content, in less than an hour manages to say more about life, art, America and the simple joy of filmmaking than most directors manage in decades.” _ Neil Young’s Film Lounge

http://www.billdaniel.net/moniker/

New Krink Metallic K-60 colors.
Metallic green, Metallic, purple, Metallic blue.
Unique to the market, Krink metallic inks are unrivaled.
Permanent and opaque. Handmade in the USA.
www.krink.com

Umbrella
Photovoltaic cells made from organic polymers, rather than crystalline silicon, could make solar power much cheaper. Last year Konarka, a startup based in Lowell, MA, opened a factory for such solar panels, which are flexible and produced in a process akin to printing. The first application of Konarka’s potentially transformative technology?
Umbrellas ! SkyShades, based in Orlando, FL, is incorporating the panels into umbrellas designed for outdoor seating areas in places like restaurants and bars. Patrons can recharge mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones from outlets built into the stem of the umbrella. The four-meter-wide Powerbrella can generate up to 128 watts of electricity, which charges a bank of batteries located in its base.

http://www.skyshades.com/

It is a dark day in comic book history, Marvel has officially been bought out by Disney in a 4 billion dollar deal that has turned the franchise over to the Walt Disney Empire.

Carnage
Marvel Sold the soul of their company for economic gain, what does this mean for the future of comics ?
The two companies are so different in ideals and content, Disney isn’t known for it’s hard-hitting, deeply rooted story lines and intense characters.
Instead it is most notably associated to lovable cuddly characters and the happiest place on earth, they are too inhibited by their corporate binds that will keep this sense of carnage brought by Marvel down with it.

Stan Lee thinks it’s just great
“I couldn’t be happier with this agreement. It’s a great move for Disney, for Marvel and for my company Pow! Entertainment since Pow! has a first-look deal with Disney. From every possible point of view, the merger of Disney and Marvel is a match made in heaven. Just imagine, with this deal Marvel gives Disney a library of literally hundreds of unique and colorful characters that have the potential to make great, high-concept movies and long-lasting franchises — and nobody knows how to play in that ball park better than Disney. This is a great day for the two companies and for the entertainment community as a whole. To sum it up as simply as possible, when you combine the best with the best, everyone wins!”

On November 17, 2008, Stan Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts…

L’art du déplacement de Jackie Chan est une source d’inspiration majeure pour les guerriers urbains contemporains.
Intemporels, ses mouvements sont fluides, puissants et largement inspirés des animaux certes, mais aussi des acteurs de films muets du début du siècle tel Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin et surtout Buster Keaton.

Pour arriver à ce niveau extraordinaire de précision et de proprioception, Jackie Chan à commencé l’entraînement à 7 ans avec au programme, Kung-Fu, cascades, cirque et théâtre.

Nogürt is a vegan yogurt, free of dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, nuts, common allergens and GMOs, certified organic, gluten free, and kosher.
Pleasant texture & great consistency !
Nice packaging for sure but…the flavor ?

Try it yourself…

www.nogurt.com

How many minutes to earn the price of a Big Mac ?
The size of your pay packet may be important, but so is its purchasing power. Helpfully, a UBS report published this week offers a handy guide to how long it takes a worker on the average net wage to earn the price of a Big Mac in 73 cities. Fast-food junkies are best off in Chicago, Toronto and Tokyo, where it takes a mere 12 minutes at work to afford a Big Mac. By contrast, employees must toil for over two hours to earn enough for a burger fix in Mexico City, Jakarta and Nairobi.

Price & earnings-PDF
http://www.economist.com/markets/Bigmac/Index.cfm

The most famous of the Zorros.
Full of fun Parkour fo’ sure !

Love Letter is a project by Stephen Powers aka Espo with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and is sponsored by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

” In creating Love Letter, thinking about the medium of marking that made me the artist I am today,  thinking about the amazing West Philadelphia that gave me the inspiration to do it, and finally the commuters that ride the train, I’m looking to make colors and words happen on these rooftops and walls in a way that people will take ownership of the work. So if the buffman comes back around, people will shout him down.”

Painted on the rooftops and walls of Market Street from 63rd to 45th by Overbrook native Stephen Powers aka Espo and the youth of West Philadelphia.

www.aloveletterforyou.com
www.muralarts.org/whatwedo/special/loveletter.php

Inventée à Puerto Rico dans les années 50, la piña colada est un smoothie doux frais à consommer en famille, été comme hiver dans un bean bag ou avant la siesta en la hamaca ! Cette boisson riche en calories est à consommer sans alcool bien sûr, en mode virgin. Choisissez les meilleurs ingrédients possibles, des fruits frais et du vrai lait de coco.

Special weapons and tactics :
_ Un mixer, blender ou shaker au choix.
_ Un couteau de pirate.
_ Un freezer.
_ Un Ananas.
_ Extrait de noix de coco en boite.
_ De la vanille (bonus).
_ De la banane (bonus).
_ Du lait (Bonus).

Pour 4 personnes :
_ Découpez l’ananas en rondelles ! (en fait en gros cubes) et en entier.
_Versez 60 cl de jus d’ananas (le meilleur, 100 % pur jus) dans le blender puis 25 à 40 cl de lait de coco (miam !).
_ Ouvrez votre freezer et sortez 40 glaçons à ajouter à votre mixture.
_ Mixez le tout pendant environ 1 minute.

SERVEZ FRAIS & ENJOY !

Bonus :
_ Du sucre (pas trop hein !).
_ Une demi-banane.
_ 1 goutte d’extrait de vanille.
_ Du sucre de canne.
_ Des macarons à la noix de coco.
_ De la crème fouettée (à déposer par dessus).
_ Du lait.

Bruce Lee punching what appears to be a 75 lb heavy bag ! Wouch !

 Une étude (.pdf) du Laboratoire d’informatique et d’intelligence artificielle (Csail) menée par David Karger et l’équipe du Haystack – spécialisée dans la recherche sur la distribution, la gestion, l’analyse et l’accès à l’information -, a cherché à comprendre les raisons des l’attrait et du succès des Post-it.

David Karger et ses collègues ont étudié la façon dont on utilisait les Post-It pour élaborer un modèle “du cycle de vie de nos débris d’information”. Ils ont constaté que la première catégorie de Post-it qui entoure nos écrans est une liste de tâches à accomplir (1/5e de nos Post-it), les adresses de sites, les informations de contacts et les notes de réunion sont également très populaires. Quelques Post-it enfin contiennent des mots de passe et des informations pour s’identifier sur nos machines. Enfin, une petite part de ceux-ci n’entrent dans aucune catégorie : calculs de salaire, schémas, mots dont il faut vérifier l’orthographe…

“Les employés sont comme l’électricité : quand ils veulent que quelque chose fonctionne, ils suivent le chemin de la moindre résistance”, explique le professeur David Karger à Forbes. “C’est pourquoi le Post-it continue à fleurir à la surface de nos bureaux, malgré nos ordinateurs, pourtant si coûteux et si disponibles pour nous aider.”

 The playful, brilliant photography team and co-writers of the popular blog Mrs. Deane have launched another great personal project: Joghurtbecher.

Here’s what they have to say about this new work :
 “We’re having fun with a new typologies series: joghurtbecher. It’s a silly play on words in German – becher also means container -, but we simply could not resist. We’ll be scouring the shops to find all the available sizes and shapes for what promises to be a growing hommage to Bernd and Hilla Becher. It has become almost impossible to still be making typologies with a straight face in the presence of their legacy, and you cannot expect the viewer to simply ignore noticing their influence.”

“Taking a somewhat more lighthearted and less earnest approach often helps. The joghurtbecher typology acknowledges this fact, but also takes its clue from the consequences of the dominance of the Becher surname. For instance, if someone unable to read would be presented with the results of a Google image search for the word ‘becher’, he might come to believe the word means approximately tower-like building, judging by the number and kind of images produced by the query. The meaning ‘cup, container’ would be utterly lost upon such a person – and another semantic shift would have happened, creating myriads of possible misinterpretations in the distant future when German will be as dead a language as ancient Chinese.”

http://www.beikey.net/mrs-deane/

The Master Blaster :
On June 12, the graffiti artist Iz the Wiz had a rare show of his work in the Bronx, in which he spray-painted a mock-up subway facade with his bubble-letter “Iz” repeatedly. “You would have these pieces running like this 10 cars straight,” said Michael. “When that hit the train station, bam! Impact. No doubt about it.”

The original premise of the subway facade was that it would be painted over and over again by different artists, similar to the brick walls in Tuff City’s backyard, which have attracted graffiti artists from around the world.

Then plans changed. “It was weird,” said Joel Brick, the owner of Tuff City, who goes by the name of MED. “He had the show, then he went back to Florida and five days later he died.”

“This is it !”
So that subway facade is now considered the last work that was done by Iz the Wiz, arguably the most prolific graffiti artist, and was the site of a candlelight memorial service several days after his death.

Tuff City employees are deciding how to preserve the panels — whether to donate them to a museum, make them part of a traveling exhibit or disassemble them for galleries. Inquiries about the panel have come in from around the world.

“We’re not sure what is going to happen with it yet,” Mr. Brick said. “We just know it is not going to be painted over.”

Smokey Ferrer, a Tuff City employee who goes by the name N.B., said: “It was a part of graffiti history. I was standing right there. At the time I already knew he was pretty sick, he didn’t have that much time here.”

Mr. Martin had kidney disease, which he believed was caused by exposure to all the aerosol. There were questions about whether he would even do the show. “He wasn’t looking good,” said Teddy Ferrer, who uses the nickname PACK.

Once he died, on June 17 from a heart attack at age 50, Mr. Martin’s business partner asked the studio to stop selling any of the works.

Tuff City employees are proud to have hosted his last show, which attracted visitors from around the world.

“I’m happy that he went out with a good turnout, that he had respect and admiration from a lot of people,” said Mr. Brick, who was among those that grew up under the influence of Mr. Martin’s work. “He was a legendary figure in his era. The amount that he did was crazy. You’d have to go out every day. You have to live your life doing this to get the amount that he did at one time.”

http://www.izthewiz.com/

Pez, le bonbon de collection :
Le petit bonbon rectangulaire, qui a fêté son 80ème anniversaire en 2007, se vend encore à 4 milliards d’unités chaque année. Les collectionneurs s’arrachent les distributeurs de pastilles à l’effigie des personnages les plus divers.

La naissance du bonbon Pez :
Le bonbon Pez a été inventé par l’Autrichien Eduard Haas en 1927.
Son nom est la forme compressée du mot allemand Pfefferminz, c’est-à-dire “menthe poivrée”, le premier parfum dans lequel on déclina la petite pastille sucrée.
Le petit bonbon mentholé “qui rafraîchit l’haleine des gens distingués”, selon la publicité de l’époque, rencontre un grand succès en Autriche.
Mais c’est l’invention du dispenser (le distributeur de pastilles) qui fut le véritable coup de génie d’Eduard Haas et assura la popularité durable de ces bonbons.

Le distributeur, une idée pratique et ludique :
Anti-fumeur militant, Eduard Haas eut l’idée de détourner un objet indispensable aux fumeurs pour mieux promouvoir ses pastilles.
C’est en 1947 qu’il imagine, avec l’aide de l’ingénieur Oscar Uxa, un objet de la taille d’un briquet qui ne donne pas du feu mais des bonbons.
Les premiers distributeurs Pez n’étaient pas dotés d’une tête de personnage.
Il faut attendre 1955, date où ce produit partit à la conquête du marché américain, pour que le confiseur décide de faire de cet objet un véritable jouet afin de séduire les enfants.

Un objet de collection :
Depuis que les distributeurs Pez sont coiffés d’une tête, ils ont été déclinés à l’effigie des personnages les plus divers, de Popeye à Shrek en passant par Elvis et Sissi l’impératrice.
Au total, ils ont portés plus de 450 visages principalement issus de l’univers des dessins animés et de la bande dessinée, de Walt Disney aux Simpsons.
Les collectionneurs s’arrachent désormais cet objet et font grimper les enchères puisqu’un distributeur très rare s’est vendu pour 7000 dollars sur eBay.
Pour fêter ses 80 ans, la marque met aussi en vente 3 modèles collector : des Mickey édités à 514 exemplaires en argent, en cristal de Swarowski ou en or.

http://www.pez.com/

Reléguant la ridicule Taipei 101 au second rang avec ses 508 mètres de hauteur, la tour Burj Dubaï et ses 818 mètres est maintenant le plus haut bâtiment du monde (en attendant la Mile High Tower de Jeddah…).

Le bâtiment regroupe bureaux, habitations, commerces et loisirs et se situe en plein milieu de Downtown Burj Dubai, un projet d’aménagement du centre ville de Dubaï de 2 kilomètres carrés et d’un coût total de 20 milliards de dollars.

5 années de construction, 22 millions d’heures de travail pour tous ceux ayant contribué à son édification (Indiens, Pakistanais, Chinois, payés 4 $ par jour…), 162 étages, 517 240 mètres carrés exploitables, une capacité de 35000 personnes, La dalle de fondation de 7 500 mètres carrés et les piles de 50 mètres de profondeur sont imperméabilisées et bénéficient d’une protection cathodique contre la corrosion…mais pas contre la fin du monde…

http://www.burjdubai.com/

The Fire Scout is arguably the smartest unmanned aerial vehicle ever built. Unlike remote-operated drones such as the Predator, this helicopter is a true robot, with enough computing power to take off, fly and land on its own. Last year a pair of test Scouts made history, landing on the deck of a moving ship without help from human pilots. Slated for use by the Army and Navy, the chopper is undergoing flight tests, but this on-schedule and on-budget UAV could be ready to gather intel and relay targeting data as early as 2008. While the Navy coyly describes it as “weapons-capable,” firing a barrage of rockets would call for human control — for now.

FIRE SCOUT SPECS
Autonomous Control: The Fire Scout can fly unaided for more than 8 hours, then land on the ground or on a warship.
Modular Payload: The 23-ft.-long unmanned chopper can carry up to 600 pounds of equipment, such as sensors, mine detectors and rockets.
Proven Airframe: The UAV’s airframe is based on the Schweizer Model 333, a manned helicopter used by police agencies around the country. 

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/mq8bfirescout_navy/index.html

6 avril 1994, Kigali.
Un missile « SAM-16 Gimlet » provenant d’une saisie française pendant la guerre du Golfe désintègre le « Falcon 50 » (avion français) ainsi que ses passagers Juvénal Habyarimana (président du Rwanda) & Cyprien Ntaryamira (président du Burundi) entre autres…
Les tireurs (français ?) viennent de déclencher « le génocide à la machette ».
1 million de morts plus tard, soit 3 mois plus tard…
l’opération « Turquoise » se déploie et fait mine de découvrir l’horreur.
François Mitterrand, humoriste, déclare : « De quel génocide voulez-vous parler ? De celui des Tutsis ou celui des Hutus ? » (Biarritz, 08/11/94, F.Mitterand).
Mais encore : « Dans ces pays-là, un génocide, c’est pas trop important. » (Confidence de Mitterrand faite à l’un de ses proches, rapporté par Le Figaro du 12/01/1998.Le Quotidien, cité par Courrier international, édition du 8 avril 2004, n° 701).

Boutros-Boutros Ghali, secrétaire général des Nations Unis nous explique: « Nous avions des consignes pour ne pas utiliser le mot « génocide » car, en vertu de la convention du 9 décembre 1948, nous aurions été obligés d’intervenir… Malheureusement, un conflit qui se déroule dans un coin reculé d’Afrique, où de surcroît, il n’y a pas de pétrole, n’intéresse personne… »
Personne ? Sauf les français du « DAMI » qui s’emploient à entraîner les milices au combat, leurs fournir armes et techniques de torture avant de s’en prendre aux enfants et aux femmes (violées, déchiquetées, éventrées, égorgées etc.)
Pourquoi ? Car : « Je le dis solennellement : la France doit maintenir sa route et refuser de réduire ses ambitions africaines. La France ne serait plus tout à fait elle-même si elle renonçait à être présente en Afrique. » (Discours d’ouverture de la conférence de Biarritz, 08/11/94, F.Mitterand).

Images : AFP

Click under “pages”, to view my shots.
Bonne visite !