I have been looking at clouds loads recently. An exciting(!) day today – as we had sun dogs a.k.a. parhelia over Victoria Park. Sun dogs – little suns that appear 22° to the left and right of the Sun, often displaying the colours of the rainbow.
Also a faint upside down rainbow in the clouds above the sun – if you zoom in you can see the colours start from red at the bottom.
At first I thought it was a circumhorizontal arc, but no such luck.
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I’m currently selling my beloved Schwinn beach cruiser for £160. A little info below.
This is my beloved super sweet beach cruiser which I am forced to sell as I have decided to live a more zen-like life. Because of this, I am trying to discard some of my unnecessary earthly possessions, even the ones that make me obviously way more awesome. I have decided that I am still allowed to eat meat and drink booze though.
This bike would suit someone 5′5″ to about 5′11″, who is either very cool, or aspiring to be cooler.
It is a classic Schwinn american beach cruiser alloy frame, with many of the parts having been replaced with lighter, better parts.
It has a rear coaster brake (back-pedal amsterdam style brake) and no front brake. You don’t really need one.
It is relatively lightweight, and not slow as you might think. For example, I rode it from Hackney to Earls Court, and it only took about 45 minutes. On my normal skinny tyred bike, this might take 38 minutes. So it is a very comfy bike to commute even relatively long (London) distances on. This is owing to the sit-up riding position and the giant, double sprung suspension seat that is like a DFS sofa. She is even pretty lively through traffic.
I am selling it for £160. The bike is in great shape – tyres are almost new, brake, cranks, are all tip top. I have just given it a good servicing and re-painted the front fork.
cheers, Ant
anthony.goh@gmail.com
Image from lookingatdamascus
On another note, I have been working on a new bicycle, which I am building up bit by bit. Because of this, I have been looking at other bikes – I have found the sweetest store which sells these amazing stretch cruisers – if I wanted a new bike and had about 550 quid to spare, I would deffo get one…
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At the risk of sounding old and grumpy, this is a great bit of technology, but the execution of it just looks really boringly obvious. Because of this, I just don’t believe that Microsoft will create amazing innovative games that will have the same impact on non-gamers that Nintendo did with the Wii.
To illustrate what I’m thinking, let’s say Microsoft had launched motion sensing controllers before, or at, the same time as Nintendo. You know exactly what the games line-up would have been like… classic shooting, sword-wielding, or driving games, which use the controller in the most obvious way possible, with the focus on slick, realistic, overproduced graphics and non-casual play.
Compare Wii sports to any of the newer sports titles on the PS3 or Xbox 360. They may be ostensibly sports titles, but the entertainment proposition is just totally different.
Not to say I’m not a fan of this but the demo here is just really game developer/tech led – there is no insight or human innovation here.
OH MY GOD, I HAVEN’T GOT A DRESS FOR THIS PARTY.
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For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working with Neil and Simeon, building a giant collaborative art touch screen thing. It involves lasers, loads of wood, and cameras, and it’s been a nightmare to build so far. I have almost cut all my fingers off numerous times and accidentally shot myself in the eyes with high power infra-red lasers.
This is all for the Takeaway Festival – a fusion of technology, music and art – happening at the Dana Centre, SW London over a couple of weeks starting Tuesday the 19th May. It’s without a doubt the nerdiest thing I have ever been a part of, but it feels good.
I would love if it you came down to the Tuesday opening night (they have beer), or if you can’t make it, you can see our installation anytime after that for a couple of weeks. See the details below.
Here’s a picture of us prototyping the device.
Takeaway Festival Schedule
The Festival opens Tuesday May 19th with our first day of workshops and our Opening Evening 7.00-9.30
Opening times: Monday to Friday 10:00 – 17:00
Saturday 23rd May 12:00 – 17:00
Saturday 30th May 12:00 – 15:00
For workshops and evening events you will need to book in advance so please call 020 7942 4040 or e-mail tickets@danacentre.org.uk
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I hereby declare the First Annual Varsity Oxford and Cambridge Goat Race to be a total success. An edited thank you note from Anne Hopkins, Goat Race co-founder:
Thanks to the 300+ of you who chose Goats over Boats on Sunday – it was awesome and ridiculous in equal measures and most importantly raised over £700 for the farm. Thank You.
Our favourite squat-legged friend, Cambridge, barreled in first on the day in front of the rather more willowy Oxford with a time of 52.6 sec. Go the under-goat!
We can’t get enough of giggling at shots of the goats muscling their way along the course, so please do send us your pics (simeonrose@gmail.com) or add them to the Facebook event page or put them up on the net and tag them goatrace2009.
Huge thanks to go to Cookie for his brilliant design work, Ben for winning tunes, Hal for race-calling and general fine-sportsmanship, Paul for playing Bookie, our nimble-needled knitters, La Fromagerie for the cheese (which Sam Williams won…eventually!) AND of course to the Spitalfields City Farm for letting us run with this random idea in the first place.
(Sorry about the drinks bungle, we were there with free booze but the pub wouldn’t let us serve it to you due to a miscommunication — we will make it up to you next time, promise!)
Anne, Simeon & Anthony
See the pics here on Flickr.
Anthony Goh http://www.deadinsect.co.uk
Abelha Cachaca http://www.abelha.co.uk
Anne Hopkins http://www.snap-shot-city.com/
Simon Cook http://www.made-in-england.org/
Pigsnoots http://www.myspace.com/dothedirt
Magic-ish http://www.magic-ish.com/
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I am generally a very unpolitical person, but I strongly believe that this ridiculous fear-mongering ad campaign from the Met Police is a really bad thing for society. It’s just daft and harmful. So I thought I would post these remixes, from a Boingboing remix competition. Who is the ad agency responsible for these originals?
Photo from Antony Bennison
Photo from Timbearcub
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Eilidh Cairns Memorial Bike Ride from Giles Carlin on Vimeo.
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too true. related to my earlier post on our toilet that broke.
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This is the best fancy dress costume I have seen for years now. It’s got an lcd screen on the stomach area fed by a webcam pointing backwards, to simulate having a hole through you. Phenomenal.
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Some things that I learned over this snowy period:
1. When it snows at night, it’s an eerie bright orange. The streetlights of London bounce off the snow in the air to light up the whole sky with a diffuse orange glow. Neat.
2. Dogs do not automatically know they are meant to pull stuff, and do not automatically enjoy it. Nor do they automatically know what ‘mush’ or ‘hike’ mean.
3. The experience of skiing in Greenwich Park is oddly similar to normal skiing in a resort. You
have trudging along roads, car parks, and trails. Highly recommended.
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