The translation of the word, “Kimono,” (literally, “the thing worn”) does not come close to expressing the actual beauty of the garment itself. From the 8th through the 12th centuries, the Kimono achieved its status as the official costume of Japan. Continue.
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
The crew of the International Space Station took this unique photo shortly after 1 a.m. local time on March 10, 2003.
Do you think the outfit on the far left came with a red cape? But wait, there's more!
Meatball recipe from NY Times . . .
This white material is growing on a tree in our yard. Can you identify this unwelcome guest and how we might treat it? Click on photo to enlarge.
This story is unbelievably sweet and sad.
The DishMaker is a new kind of appliance that can replace dishes altogether by making cups, bowls and plates on demand and recycling them when you’re done. The device uses up the same room and energy as a dishwasher, while it replaces all the cabinets and dishes in your kitchen. The DishMaker takes advantage of a little-known shape-memory property of acrylic so that one dish can be recycled a thousand times without consuming the energy that does into a single-use ceramic dish. More.
Most people, in choosing a new home, look for comfort: a serene atmosphere, smooth walls and floors, a logical layout. Nonsense, says Shusaku Arakawa, a Japanese artist based in New York. He and his creative partner, poet Madeline Gins, recently unveiled a small apartment complex in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka that is anything but comfortable and calming. "People, particularly old people, shouldn't relax and sit back to help them decline," he insists. "They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses and invigorates their lives." Continues . . .
Inspired by such diverse sources as origami and jellyfish, this remarkable ‘floating’ structure caught the judges' imagination. Here the practice has created a kind of urban folly/cocoon that glows icy blue in the dark, like a giant, beached, phosphorescent jellyfish. Architectural Review Awards.
If I didn't know better, this would seem the perfect place to toss a beer can, bury nuclear waste, or hop in a big monster truck and drive wherever the hell I want. I am standing 227 feet (69 meters) below sea level on the desert shore of California's largest lake and this country's strangest backwater: the Salton Sea. It's prettier from afar, a broad blue lens lapping at the base of rust red mountains. Up close the beach, if you can call it that, isn't sand but layer upon layer of barnacles and bones from the millions of fish that have expired here in mass die-offs over the years. The blue water is an illusion as well, a reflection of the desert sky. The sea actually looks like dark beer, and carries more than a whiff of sulfuric decay. Gobs of foam line the shore. Stringy mats of algae float in it as if it were some kid's science project gone horribly wrong. More.
In game theory, the Nash equilibrium (named after John Forbes Nash, who proposed it) is a kind of solution concept of a game involving two or more players, where no player has anything to gain by changing only his or her own strategy unilaterally. If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute a Nash equilibrium. More.
This chair is gas powered, goes 40 mph, does wheelies and has an onboard cooler. Steering, Gas and brakes are all controlled in the two hand controls leaving your feet free to catch some air. More.
Curtis DeForest has a love-hate relationship with the bicycle as we know it. From childhood through a stint as a youth minister to the present, the 46-year-old home renovator has always considered the bicycle his transportation mode of choice. More.
In the years immediately following WWII, Europe was badly beaten and bombed out. Morale and optimism were virtually nonexistent. Enter mid- century visionary and successful English inventor Frank Stuart. Stuart was intent on developing a way to boost the European economy as well as brighten the spirits of the general populous. The fruit of his labor is this mechanical Robot Walking Elephant Car. Powered by a four cylinder Chevy engine, all hydraulics, tucked neatly inside the body cavity. The elephant literally skates along at speeds of up to 20 mph. More.
