100 Websites You Should Know and Use In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 edition of the 100 websites to put on your radar and in your browser. To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH.
Lyric Writing Exercises: a 5-Day Workshop Guest post by Maria Rainier If you’re anything like most songwriters, you’re all too familiar with that frustrating sensation of being stuck in a rut. You know it’s important to write something – anything – every day, but there are times when that just seems impossible. Maybe you don’t have enough energy, you might be too critical of your first attempts, or you could be missing out on the muse. Whatever the reason, you can still get your daily writing done in a productive way if you introduce new exercises into your routine. Day 1: Research Mix & Match The first step is to give yourself something interesting to work with. Day 2: Collaborative Brainstorming Contact a friend by chat or email. Day 3: Titles & Nuggets Using what you’ve written from the previous two exercises (or relying on your notebook), construct some potential song titles. Day 4: Songwriting Surgery Now, pick a popular song that appeals to you and completely rewrite the lyrics. Day 5: Open Season Related Articles
Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived Additional notes from the author: If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Tesla: Man Out of Time Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla. Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It's corny and full of bad acting, but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life. The drunk history of Tesla is quite awesome, too. History.com has a great article about Edison and how his douchebaggery had a chokehold on American cinema.
Wind Map An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US. The wind map is a personal art project, not associated with any company. If the map is missing or seems slow, we recommend the latest Chrome browser. Surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. If you're looking for a weather map, or just want more detail on the weather today, see these more traditional maps of temperature and wind.
Most Amazing Miniature Food Artworks by Shay Aaron Shay Aaron is a brilliant artist from Israel who makes the most astonishing miniature food jewelry. These foodstuffs look so beautiful that we would desire to eat them. Actually, there’s a whole market out there for miniature food. Not actual stuff you can eat, but beautifully hand made designs of steaks, burgers, pies, vegetables, eggs and pretty much food artworks you can think of. Comments comments A Gallery of the Most Accurate Female Video Game Costumes | Alright, I’ve seen so many amazing examples of cosplay over the last year or two, I decided to put some of them into one master post. But as I don’t want an endlessly long gallery, I tried to restrict it with a few basic criteria: video game related and female. Any complaints? As you’ll see in my title, this is not the “Hottest Video Game Cosplayers” as has been done (probably by us), but the “Most Accurate.” As it so happens, the two often go hand in hand, as there are very few female characters in games that anyone would consider unattractive. I picked each of these girls because even though many have tried to portray these specific characters, it takes a very specific look, and a hell of a talented costume designer to make sure they’re the absolute best, which I consider these selections to be. Some of these we’ve featured here before with their own galleries, some are new finds I hadn’t see until today. Gallery begins below: Alice (American McGee’s Alice) Bayonetta (Bayonetta)
WebGL Water Loading... Made by Evan Wallace This demo requires a decent graphics card and up-to-date drivers. If you can't run the demo, you can still see it on YouTube. Interactions: Draw on the water to make ripples Drag the background to rotate the camera Press SPACEBAR to pause and unpause Drag the sphere to move it around Press the L key to set the light direction Press the G key to toggle gravity Features: Raytraced reflections and refractions Analytic ambient occlusion Heightfield water simulation * Soft shadows Caustics (see this for details) ** * requires the OES_texture_float extension** requires the OES_standard_derivatives extension Tile texture from zooboing on Flickr
Ten Anime Films You Should See Before You Die One of the most surprising, and gratifying, things that has happened since I started my blog, Tim Maughan Books, a year or so ago is the positive feedback I’ve had for the anime reviews—especially from people I know are far from being massive fanboys like myself. It’s gratifying because its part of the reason I started writing them; to try and introduce the medium to people who had never really indulged in it all, at least not past perhaps watching Spirited Away with their kids. The problem is, once you’ve had your first taste, where do you go next? Type ‘anime’ into Google and the results are bewildering, and without a little bit of guidance and a quality filter finding something to watch can be a daunting task. There’s a lot of shit out there, plus a lot of stuff that isn’t really meant for you…unless you’re a ADHD stricken 12 year old emo-ninja-obsessed boy that refuses to eat anything except Pocky and instant Ramen. Akira (1988) Ghost in the Shell (1995) My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
The 48 Laws of Power Background[edit] Greene initially formulated some of the ideas in The 48 Laws of Power while working as a writer in Hollywood and concluding that today's power elite shared similar traits with powerful figures throughout history.[5] In 1995, Greene worked as a writer at Fabrica, an art and media school, and met a book packager named Joost Elffers.[4][8] Greene pitched a book about power to Elffers and six months later, Elffers requested that Greene write a treatment.[4] Although Greene was unhappy in his current job, he was comfortable and saw the time needed to write a proper book proposal as too risky.[10] However, at the time Greene was rereading his favorite biography about Julius Caesar and took inspiration from Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon River and fight Pompey, thus inciting the Great Roman Civil War.[10] Greene would follow Caesar's example and write the treatment, which later became The 48 Laws of Power.[10] He would note this as the turning point of his life.[10]
24 Terrifying, Thoughtful and Absurd Nursery Rhymes for Children In more repressed times, people were not always allowed to express themselves freely, for fear of persecution. Gossiping, criticizing the government or even talking about current events were often punishable by death. In order to communicate at will, clever rhymes were constructed and passed around to parody public figures and events. The first nursery rhymes can be traced back to the fourteenth century. Other nursery rhymes don't seem to carry a particular message at all, but convey a macabre sense of humor. Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,All the King's Horses and all the King's menCouldn't put Humpty together again. In children's books, Humpty Dumpty is portrayed as a large egg, usually dressed like a little boy. Ring Around The Rosie Ring around the rosyA pocketful of posies"Ashes, Ashes"We all fall down! This rhyme dates back to the Great Plague of London in 1665. Baa Baa Blacksheep Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? For Want of a Nail
Conway's Game of Life "Conway game" redirects here. For Conway's surreal number game theory, see surreal number. The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.[1] The "game" is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further input. Rules[edit] The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, alive or dead. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction. The initial pattern constitutes the seed of the system. Origins[edit] Examples of patterns[edit] Gosper glider gun Self-replication[edit]
Universal lamp shade polygon building kit I saw a lampshade made out of the shape below at a friend's house, so I traced the shape and made my own. the lamp i saw used thin plastic for the pieces. I believe the original design for this lamp was done over 30 years ago by the firm Iqlight, they sell pre-cut parts in case you do not want to make the parts yourself. Below is the shape as an image, and i've also attached a DXF file. You will need sheets of paper or plastic that allow light to get through. You will need a lamp fixture - just a raw socket on a cord. I experimented with a number of different plastics and sizes for the parts, here are my results: - HDPE: works well, looks good, cheap and easy to get. - Acetal (delrin): this seems to be the best choice for looks, it has the purest white color and best light dispersion (basically, looks just like acrylic except it doesn't crack as easily). - Vinyl: I did not try it, probably want to use thicker pieces since it is not very stiff. but you can use colors! Where to get it:
Seven Under-the-Radar Financial Hacks Everyone Should Know About A few notes on the home equity piece.... Borrowing against home equity will almost certainly require an appraisal of your home, which costs $300 - $400+ that you pay out. Whether or not you go ahead with the home equity loan, you eat this cost. But there's a catch - because banks got burned so badly giving out trash mortgages in the last decade (their own fault), odds are the appraisal value you get on your house will be abysmally low.