Whisky - A Science & An Art

A nice little article about the creation of whisky - it is so steeped in heritage & is so complicated to produce that it makes me appreciate the spirit even more. I just need to find a decent whisky shop in London now!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/aug/23/science-art-whisky-making

When The Wind Blows

Just finished watching the animated film "When The Wind Blows" based on the book by Raymond Biggs. All I can say is watch the film for yourself - it's a bit dated, but you can really relate to the characters "Keep calm & carry on" attitude.

Buggy!

I love these super close up photos of bug eyes. The detail is outstanding. You can see more at the Wired blog here.

Meniscus Glass

After visiting the Tate Modern on Sunday, I bought a very clever glass by Richard Wentworth - it measures liquid not in millilitres, but in time, sips, mouthfuls & gulps. It makes you think about everyday measurements in completely new ways. Reminds me of Anab Jain's work of representing time on different ways.

Invisible Worlds

A fascinating program by the BBC about the things our eyes can't see - I especially love the high speed cameras!

Santiago Cajal

My medic flatmate showed me some amazing medical illustrations by Nobel Prize winner Santiago Cajal. These drawings were pioneering back in the day & are still being used today for education!

Zombies!

Another book that I bought recently is "Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection" by Don Roff & Chris Lane. I wont give the plot away, but the title says it all! Great Illustrations & story.

Logicomix

Merry (belated) Christmas!

So for my first post in ages, I will look at one of the books I received...

"Logicomix" by Apostolos Doxiadus & Christos H. Papadimitriou is a graphic novel about the life of mathematician Bertrand Russell & his quest for the foundations of logic. The drawings in it are incredible & I'm learning a lot about maths! Good times!

Furniture Storage

A set of sofas that have usb hard drives embedded in them. Reminds me of my third year project about physically using digital data. Nice! Created by Cabracega.

This is Creepy...

Although this is fascinating, I'm still not sure whether having a machine perfectly mimic a human is a good idea - I think we need some boundaries to differentiate between humans & robots, especially the part of the video when you see the bald guy/machine looking at everyone in the room - scary stuff!

Science!

The next books I have moved on to are a bit more sciencey & theoretical - "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You" by Marcus Chown & "How To Build A Time Machine" by Paul Davies. I love the whole idea of time travel & quantum science - the possibilities are endless!

Zombies!

I've just recently finished reading Max Brooks' "World War Z - An Oral History of the Zombie War" & all I can say about it is that it's amazing - the level of detail in it is crazy; he thinks of every aspect you might wonder about & even some that you don't! I hope that they make a film of it that does the book justice.

Why have I not seen this before?!

This is brilliant - peoples take on comic book covers, just great!
http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/

Noam Toran

After looking for some research on experiences, my lecturer pointed out a designer/film maker Noam Toran. Although his work is more artistic & research based, I do like the fictional quality of it, especially "Desire Management" - a set of bespoke experiences for different people. A good theory.

Amazing!

I love it when you are so amazed at something you can't stop watching it, like this:

The Liar

The book I am currently reading now is "The Liar" by Stephen Fry - possibly the smartest & wittiest man on the planet. I've been trying to stay away from non-fiction books recently to expand my imagination as it is key to the idea generation process. Saying that I still listen to the HowStuffWorks podcast to continue learning about new things however trivial they are. I'm all about the knowledge!!!

Shooting Stars

Pure comedy genius! I love the absolute randomness in it - some of the best ideas come from ridiculous situations & thoughts.The new season of the show has just started - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lt2wx

Zero Punctuation

I've been following this game reviewer, Yahtzee, for a number of months now & I think it's about time I posted something on him. The video reviews on his website, Zero Punctuation, are hilarious - just watching him rip game after game to shreds is great & I like his use of simple graphics to get his point across.

It shows you there will always be very harsh critics out there, but you just need to take on the chin & get on with it!

District 9

After watching the trailer for District 9 & the short film that inspired the movie, Alive in Joburg, I had a look at their website. I love how in depth it gets & that there is so much info to take in, I got totally immersed in the experience of finding out more. That is the sort of feel I want to give my fourth year work. Anyway, here is the Alive in Joburg movie:

Movie Madness!!!

As a lover of science fiction & general action films, I had a cheeky look at some upcoming films on imdb, and became very excited at this line up!

District 9 (coming out on the 14th of August)
Surrogates
Gamer
Zombieland
Inglourious Basterds
9

So it looks like it's gonna be a good couple of months!

And tomorrow I'm going to see Moon, a psychological thriller based (obviously) on the moon. It's gonna be goooooooooood!