Known for her hyperrealist sculptures of fleshy, humanoid creatures, Patricia Piccininirecently created an enormous fantastical character in the form of a hot air balloon titledThe Sky Whale. Commissioned by the Centenary of Canberra, the majestic Sky Whale recently took flight over the Australian countryside for the first time. Driven by the desire to spark a sense of wonder in her viewers, Piccinini designed the otherworldly creature as a disruption of the mundane. Take a look at videos by Blueboat of the Sky Whale’s first flight and Piccinini’s studio, as well as some photos of the Sky Whale below courtesy ofTolarno Galleries.
MORE: http://hifructose.com/2013/05/14/video-patricia-piccininis-sky-whale-hot-air-balloon-sculpture-takes-flight/
This is way, way up @shaynawhy’s alley, I think.
Known for her hyperrealist sculptures of fleshy, humanoid creatures, Patricia Piccininirecently created an enormous fantastical character in the form of a hot air balloon titledThe Sky Whale. Commissioned by the Centenary of Canberra, the majestic Sky Whale recently took flight over the Australian countryside for the first time. Driven by the desire to spark a sense of wonder in her viewers, Piccinini designed the otherworldly creature as a disruption of the mundane. Take a look at videos by Blueboat of the Sky Whale’s first flight and Piccinini’s studio, as well as some photos of the Sky Whale below courtesy ofTolarno Galleries.
MORE: http://hifructose.com/2013/05/14/video-patricia-piccininis-sky-whale-hot-air-balloon-sculpture-takes-flight/
This is way, way up @shaynawhy’s alley, I think.
Robert Reich: The Triumph of Progressivism: Graduation 2013 and 1968
Many of you soon-to-be college graduates are determined to make the world a better place. Some of you are choosing careers in public service or joining nonprofits or volunteering in your communities.
But many of you are cynical about politics. You see the system as inherently corrupt. You doubt…
Jay Frosting reads Us Weekly so you don’t have to. Cover story: You Call This Fat? w/ Kim Kardashian
Robert Reich: The Hollowing Out of Government
The West, Texas chemical and fertilizer plant where at least 15 were killed and more than 200 injured a few weeks ago hadn’t been fully inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. (A partial inspection in 2011 had resulted in $5,250 in fines.)
OSHA and its…
FOR THOSE NOT IN THE KNOW, NIGHT WITCHES WERE RUSSIAN LADY BOMBERS WHO BOMBED THE SHIT OUT OF GERMAN LINES IN WW2. THING IS THOUGH, THEY HAD THE OLDEST, NOISIEST, CRAPPEST PLANES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. THE ENGINES USED TO CONK OUT HALFWAY THROUGH THEIR MISSIONS, SO THEY HAD TO CLIMB OUT ON THE WINGS MID FLIGHT TO RESTART THE PROPS. THE PLANES WERE ALSO SO NOISY THAT TO STOP GERMANS FROM HEARING THEM COMBING AND STARTING UP THEIR ANTI AIRCRAFT GUNS, THEY’D CLIMB UP TO A CERTAIN HEIGHT, COAST DOWN TO GERMAN POSITIONS, DROP THEIR BOMBS, RESTART THEIR ENGINES IN MIDAIR, AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE.
THEIR LEADER FLEW OVER 200 MISSIONS AND WAS NEVER CAPTURED.
(Source: sovietico, via hicockalorum)
Jay Frosting reads Us Weekly so you don’t have to. Cover story: Stabbed In the Back w/ Ann Curry
Jay knocks it out of the park this week.
These vegetated surfaces don’t just look pretty. They have other benefits as well, including cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building’s energy efficiency.What’s more, a recent modeling study shows that green walls can potentially reduce large amounts of air pollution in what’s called a “street canyon,” or the corridor between tall buildings.
For the study, Thomas Pugh, a biogeochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and his colleagues created a computer model of a green wall with generic vegetation in a Western European city. Then they recorded chemical reactions based on a variety of factors, such as wind speed and building placement.
The simulation revealed a clear pattern: A green wall in a street canyon trapped or absorbed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter—both pollutants harmful to people, said Pugh. Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.
(via hicockalorum)
Us Weekly Digest: April 29, 2013 - I’ll Stand By My Man w/ Miranda Lambert
SLAMMIN’ SALMON TIIIIIIME.
Us Weekly’s “Women of Country” special collector’s issue.
I finally encounter some Taylor Swift lyrics.
Jay Frosting suffers through Us Weekly so you don’t have to. Cover story: Baby Weight Battles w/ Kim Kardashian and Duchess Kate Middleton
Eeeeee!
You could win this Hulk Hogan approved stained glass by tweeting something clever and including the hashtag #MaxHulkDrive and a link to Maximumfun.org/donate before the end of the day on Friday. Stop Podcasting Yourself is really great and deserves your support. If you haven’t heard it, give it a listen.
Everything written above is true. Now the Hulkster himself is on board. Graham and I will pick the best tweet that includes both #MaxHulkDrive and maximumfun.org/donate, and give this amazing stained glass away. Deadline is end of day Friday.
And the artist, Patrick Roddy, is pretty fantastic.
(via jessethorn)
DISNEY HAVE STOLEN MY ARTWORK
I don’t know what to do. I am so upset. Can anyone help me?
My painting was created back in 2010, (see it HERE) and since then so many people have expressed their love for it, not just on tumblr, but in many places. At least 9 people had it tattooed on their bodies. It’s one of my favourite images I created at University and I was proud of it in many ways.
Disney have used it on a cosmetics bag HERE (look at the back)
and they have produced a Tshirt HERE with a really similar design clearly modeled from my paintingI’m so mad because I have no chance at getting Disney to do anything about it. I had so much respect for the company and now I am just SO upset and disappointed.
Any help, advice or signal boosting would be amazing. And thank you so much to the kind person who messaged me about this.
(via pragmagic)
Jay Frosting reads Us Weekly so you don’t have to. Cover story: My Best Body Ever
AVAILABLE NOW.
The Dead Authors Podcast Chapter 15: The Marquis de Sade, featuring Andy Daly
wtf, plus size clothing manufacturers?: why is the media suddenly pretending to care about fat people?
i do not need to be an activist all the time; being a fat woman in and of itself feels like activism some days. we are often made to feel like we constantly need to justify our appearance, the space we take up, the things we need, the food we eat, the bodies we live in.
I love this blog.
In February I flew back up to Alaska because my mom developed a post operative blood clot we thought was going to kill her. She was in intensive care for a week. Five of those days she wasn’t allowed to move from a passive supine position. At all. Let alone groom herself or even scratch her own back.
Eventually, I was able to help her sponge bathe standing up in a restroom attached to her hospital room. My mom had a foot and a half long incision down her leg, and (due to the original shoulder surgery) only one usable arm. They’d installed a filter in her vena cava to prevent her stroking and dying. She’d probably taken 20 steps in a week and was heavily medicated. So, naturally, pretty unsteady.
Despite all this, she wouldn’t let me assist, except to wipe her back, and wouldn’t stop apologizing about how “disgusting” she looked naked. She was using the sink in front of a head and shoulders mirror and wouldn’t even glance at it except to try and fix her hair.
Later in the week we were talking randomly and one of my cousins who is extremely fit was brought up. She’d recently accepted her boyfriend of a decade’s proposal, and I confessed to mom she’d cheated on her fiance’ when she’d come to visit me the previous year in Hawaii. Mom shrugged it off. Her exact response was “Any guy who would get to be with her would have the time of his life.” As though if you’re beautiful enough it’s a privilege to be with you no matter the way you treat people.
Anyway, this was on my mind already and the piece struck a cord. Particularly the bit about “apologizing for the space we take up.” That’s the root of it really, isn’t it? Feeling our allotment in the world of recognition, of notice for who we are and what we do, contract as our waistline expands. Being too keenly aware of the space we inhabit in the lives and thoughts of others, and having to question whether we deserve that much real estate. Looking all about us for who could better occupy it in their eyes.
It’s a sinister thing. And it about breaks my heart that my educated, gainfully employed, beloved mother who has almost died still can’t forget to apologize for herself. For needing a little help. For taking up a little too much space.