pigeonbeaks.com

Late last year I saw a video called “People in Order” by Lenka Clayton and James Price, which involves people aged from 1 to 100 banging a drum (check it out on youtube if you never saw it). Anyway, it reminded me of a project that I had worked on last summer but never finished. It inspired me to finish it, so thanks guys. My project is called “People in height order”.

We start off with a man called Robert Pershing Wadlow, who according to wikipedia, is the tallest person in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He stood an impressive 8′ 11′ at the time of his death in 1940, aged only 22.

We work our way through various other people and end up with Gul Mohammed, the shortest person to have ever lived, he was only 1′ 10”.

Here’s the graphic fom the video, hosted on my flickr site.

From Brighton-based Cyriak - a simplistic, retro, 8-bit tune set to crazy visuals. I want more….

From Strangemaps via a Flickr group, the New Simplified map of London:

Brilliant stuff ! I guess I live with all the other losers…

A friend recently gave me a copy of Sublime magazine (which I really enjoyed, I’m already thinking about subscribing). It was the “Water Issue” and had some interesting articles on this most precious of resources (see “Magazine Preview > Issue 4 > Water Wars” on their website, no dedicated url unfortunately…). It also had some less serious articles, including a mention of the Innerspace Dolphin - a watercraft shaped like a Dolphin. Here’s a video clip from NBC’s Today Show:

No mention of them going into production yet which is a huge shame - as if you wouldn’t want to commute to work on those bad boys…

It’s often the unexpected things you learn which are the most satisfying. You might start learning golf and hear from your instructor about a great new Chinese restaurant near to where you live. Or you might be on your way to an art gallery to catch the latest portrait exhibition and pick up a flyer for a comedy act you never heard about. And so it was, whilst speed-reading Seth Godin’s The Bootstrapper’s Bible, that I learned about Pet Rocks:

From wikipedia: “Pet Rocks were a 1970s fad conceived in Los Gatos, California by an advertising executive, Gary Dahl. The first Pet Rocks were ordinary gray pebbles bought at a builder’s supply store and marketed as if they were live pets. The fad lasted only about six months, ending with the Christmas season in December 1975; but in its short run, the Pet Rock made Dahl a millionaire”

“In 1975, Dahl established “Rock Bottom Productions”, a company that sold the rocks for US$3.95 each. The pebbles, imported from Rosarito Beach in Baja California, Mexico, were swaddled in excelsior and nestled in a small cardboard box, similar to a pet carrier. A “Pet Rock Training Manual”, with instructions on how to properly raise and care for one’s newfound pet (notably lacking instructions for feeding), was included.

The instruction manual contained several commands that could be taught to the new pet. While “sit” and “stay” were fairly easy to accomplish, “roll over” usually required extra effort on the part of the trainer. “Come” was found to be impossible to teach reliably.”

Awesome!

Not only a very cool little video (35 years of skyscraper construction lapsed into 10 seconds) but also a great little soundtrack…

You’ve probably seen the Lego Stephen Hawking, and if you’re an Apple fan probably like the Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak lego playset. There’s a couple of guys (The Little Artists) who make similar artistic pieces, including:

Tracey Emin’s bed

and Damien Hirst’s shark:

Prints of their work are available from their website for hardcore lego fans…

Just got sent this footage of a train which runs directly through the middle of a market in Bangkok (found on Break.com). Although it doesn’t go particularly fast, it smacks of health and safety issues. no mention of which market it is in Bangkok, drop me a line if you know…

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos

You need to watch the video to the end (it’s only forty seconds long) to fully appreciate it; the market stall holders immediately re-setting up their stands and resuming trade - brilliant stuff.

On Monday I returned from three amazing days on the Isle of Wight for Bestival 2007. Highlights:

Chemical Brothers, DJ Yoda, Kate Nash and MC Beardy Man

And here is my flickr set of photo

I only just learnt that there is a word which describes the mis-hearing of a phrase, in such a way that it acquires a new meaning. The word is “mondegreen” and it is itself a mondegreen. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined it in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen”, which was published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954.

Click here for the wikipedia article.

And be sure to check out The Archive of Misheard Lyrics whose url comes directly from one of the most famous mondegreens of all time…