(via Black history ‘undertaker’ loses treasures - CNN.com)
Nathaniel Montague spent more than 50 of his 84 years chasing history, meticulously collecting rare and one-of-a-kind fragments of America’s past. Slave documents. Photographs. Signatures. Recordings.
Montague — Magnificent Montague, as he’s been known since his days as a pioneering radio DJ — amassed an 8,000-piece collection reflecting names from the well-known to the forgotten to those history never thought to remember. It’s valued in the millions; some call it priceless. One assessment of just five of the pieces puts the total value of those treasures alone somewhere between $592,000 and $940,000.
“I shudder to even fantasize what it could go for,” said appraiser Philip Merrill, who performed the assessment.
At first glance, a couple of Farah Al Humaidhi’s home decor pieces appear to be defying gravity. Each item features a lacy cloth detail that has been artfully draped over it. For the conical vase piece, however, instead of draping downwards as such fabric is wont to do, it reaches impossibly up to the sky. That is because Farah Al Humaidhi has hardened the material, even the ones that look natural.
An industrial designer based in Kuwait, Farah Al Humaidhi has an eye for detail, as is evident in her three latest designs. In addition to the vase, she has created Shy, a table lamp that sports a solid teak wood base, metal holder and hardened crochet shade, as well as Rose on Table, a lamp with a metal mesh shade.
The Auto Lamp might not be the most practical light fixture to have in the home or office, but it is appropriate as an art installation. Created for the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in Toronto, Canada, the Auto Lamp is an illuminatingly unique masterpiece. Made using an ‘85 Dodge Ram Van, it sports an array of punctured swirls that allow the light to seep from inside out in a glorious manner.
Created by respected Canadian artist Kim Adams, the Auto Lamp shows that anything can be converted into a thing of beauty, even run-down white vans. The artist might refer to Auto Lamp as “an oversized lamp for night owls” or a “lighthouse on land,” but it is more than that. The Auto Lamp is a beacon of inspiration.
Channel Your Inner Picasso with iPad and iPhone Paintbrushes
Even if you don’t consider yourself “artsy,” the Nomad Brush seems like a great way to play and get in touch with more analog formats of communication… on your iPad. Seems like kind of an oxymoron, we know.
Made from a blend of natural and synthetic fibers, the soft bristles on the Nomad are a breeze to use on the iPad’s responsive screen. Use apps like Paper to choose the style of stroke you’re looking for, and inform that stroke further by painting lightly to achieve feathery lines, or pressing hard to lay it on thick, just as you would with a real paintbrush.
» DHS To Release Bacteria In Boston Subway System
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Despite the fact that the U.S. government has a history of dangerous biological testing against the American people, the Department of Homeland Security claims that a bacteria it plans to release in the Boston subway later this year to test biological sensors is harmless to healthy people.
The Quietest Place on Earth Will Drive You Insane Within 45 Minutes
There’s a small room in Minnesota thatblocks out 99% of all external sound. That’s an impressive number! Also impressive: nobody can take more than 45 minutes alone in the room before they go nuts.The Daily Mail describes Orfield Labs’ anechoic chamber—perfect for making extremely sensitive audio measurements. But also perfect for sending you into a hallucinatory hell so hellacious you’ll need a chair:
‘When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. ‘In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.’ And this is a very disorientating experience. Mr Orfield explained that it’s so disconcerting that sitting down is a must. He said: ‘How you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk. In the anechnoic chamber, you don’t have any cues. You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre. If you’re in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair.’
That sounds swell. Just the serene quiet of you, your thoughts, and the unceasing pounding of the human heart. Your brain can’t take it, apparently, and begins to fabricate sounds that aren’t really there—completely delusional noises meant to block out the churning of your own horrid biomass.
(Source)
