Archive for the ‘et cetera’ Category

San Francisco Bay Area from the ISS

In this photograph of the San Francisco Bay area taken from the International Space Station during Expedition 4, the gray urban footprint of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and their surrounding suburbs contrasts strongly with the green hillsides. ISS004-E-10288 (April 21, 2002, 105 mm lens)

.:allthebestbits.net->

Borneo Dispatch Video #8 "The Summit"

"Adventures in Real Time" Story telling as it happens, shot and edited in the field with solar energy & sent via satellite modem from the ridge-top basecamp. Power and satellite connectivity were the major cruxes of the whole production.

This is the last installation, the summit success of an expedition to the highest peak in Malaysia, Mt. Kinabalu. The North Face team climbers Mark Synnott, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold and Kevin Thaw establish a first ascent on a 2,500ft big-wall.

One of the other highlight dispatches: vimeo.com/4304488

Gear:
Panasonic HVX 200, HMC 150
Cannon HF11
BGAN explorer satellite modem
Large Brunton Solar Panels
Macbook Pro

Thanks for checking these out, its been a cool learning process trying to pull this off remotely. Vimeo has been an awesome way to share these adventures.

~renan
rockmonkeyart.com

Akinator, the Web Genius

MNP has a small challenge. Think of somebody famous real or unreal…. OK got it?

Test your regimen with Akinator, the Web Genius, if he does not guess your character correctly MNP will serve you with a coupon worth a couple of G’s at the nearest Grey Poupon restaurant. Not really, but check the site and challenge your wits!

BLAKROC

It’s pretty hard nowadays to find something refreshing from contemporary hip-hop.

BLAKROC is a business model / concept project from the man himself, Damon Dash. Rising from bankruptcy he has sculpted a unit of 11 artists with the likes of Jim Jones (yes he spits some nasty rhymes on this believe it or not) and legends like Rae the Chef and Pharaoh Monche with the "rock" group the Black Keys. The plan was 11 artists, 11 days, 11 tracks plus the Black Keys.

Check out the intro video to the project below and if you’re hungry for more, there’s 11 Webisodes to watch and enjoy. If you still are looking for music movements that aren’t stale as fuck check out what’s been brewing over at MusicMNP. And maybe you’ll even buy the album.

Matt Shadetek: Secret Knowledge Mix

Shadetek on the Secret Knowledge Mix:

"It’s different from Solar Life Raft in that Solar Life Raft stays in 140 dubstep BPM range whilst the mix is a lot of 128 kinda area, dancehall, UK funky, weird housey stuff I’ve been making. SLR is a snapshot of nine months ago and this is where my head is at now. Also it’s me on my own so you can pull out my half of SLR."

"I’m working on a soundtrack to an imaginary remake of the Shining," adds Jace. "Except set in Dubai instead of Colorado. A lot of strange bass sounds and broken air-conditioners, that kinda thing."

A whole new story in the making…

Download the mix here or read it over here too.

.::full interview and tracklist->

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Harvesting African Sun

Image from tonynetone

the sun is shinning, and the weather is sweet

All the rave these days is about solar energy. Its clean, relatively cheap and has virtually no carbon emmissions. One problem however is what do you do when it is cloudy? Well some European Union scientists may have the answer. Arnulf Jaeger-Walden from the European commission’s Institute for Energy claims that only 0.3% of light from the Sahara’s sun would be able to provide Europe with more than enough energy. Prompting both Gordon Brown and Nicholsa Sarkozy to quickly back the proposed plan.

The idea is to build large farms of solar panel technology in the Sahara and harvest the sun’s energy as a source of clean electricity. Wind turbines will also act as a back-up battery should the sun ever fail to shine. The result, Europe and Africa get alternative source of energy, and the Sahara becomes a provider of clean energy and thereby helping to combat global warming. Now that is what we call, al-kubra, ‘The Great Desert’

All is good, so long as the sun keeps shining.

.::originally found at i-genius->

Blazer Pentium 1.0 - Upcycled Kicks

Artist Gabriel Deshaw created this pair of Jordans - which he calls ‘Blazer Pentium 1.0‘ - by ‘upcycling’ scrapped metal and computer parts. Currently up for sale, they’re a men’s size 9.5 - but weigh in at about 15 pounds. I don’t think you’ll be breakin’ any ankles, other than you your own, while rocking these - but they’re still kind of dope.

This sculpture is part of a shoes series I’m currently working where I revisit some of my favorite classic sneakers silhouettes. With this piece I again tried to create a complete piece with both box and shoe notice some of the details, shoes lock down inside of box for easy portability, I also tied this piece around a theme,"Pentium", the name of Intel’s chips. You will notice this repeated through out the shoes, and box (via).

.:via->Inhabitat

Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty

.:mibazaar.com->

D.I.Y. or Die: Burn this DVD

This is "What Is DIY?", the first DVD chapter (chapter 1 of 8) of the DVD "D.I.Y. OR DIE: Burn This DVD" (The DVD release of "D.I.Y. OR DIE: How To Survive as an Independent Artist").

This film is a celebration of the artistic underdog! FEATURING interviews and performances from:

Lydia Lunch, Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), J Mascis (Dinosaur jr.), Jim Rose (Jim Rose Sideshow), J.G.Thirlwell (Foetus), Mike Watt (Minutemen), Richard Kern (Filmmaker), Ron Asheton (Stooges), Madigan Shive (Bonfire Madigan), Dave Brockie (Gwar) and more.

Below are the 8 Chapters that make up this DVD.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Thanks to Mike for the link!