 "QUANTUM SHOT" #48Link - by A. Abrams Catalogue of Crazy Watches from Japan  Everyone knows that Japanese live on their own time. Their culture is alternatively more fast-paced and intense than the rest of the western world (like in urban areas), or more relaxed and introspective (like a Japanese garden). Knowing these idiosyncrasies, one Japanese company "TokyoFlash" sells absolutely marvelous and really bizarre watches. They fulfill every kind of purpose, except clearly telling the time. A few examples from their catalog:        (all image credit: TokyoFlash) These watches display time in bar code, Morse code, audio equalizer simulation, and even in performance rating system, used in figure skating. They are made with the smallest LED lights available (like this model for example) and are currently highly in-demand around the world. Next time you ask for time while in Tokyo, prepare to hear either some high-tech code answer, or "Oh...one moment...excuse me while I try to figure it out... oh no! It's GODZILLA time!" CONTINUE TO NEXT PART -> See our "Gadgets" category for more  Permanent Link... ...+StumbleUpon  ...+Facebook  |
It's Tokyo Time!
A Few Links That Calvin (and Hobbes) Would Like
"QUANTUM SHOT" #4First, some "words of wisdom" from these guys: (more here)
"I have a hammer! I can put things together! I can knock things apart! I can alter my environment at will and make an incredible din all the while! Ah, it's great to be male!"
-Calvin"Susie, do you hate being a girl? What's it like? Is it like being a bug? I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to comprehend the magnitude of it"
-CalvinCalvin: "Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?
Hobbes: "I am not sure that man needs the help"
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Calvin: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they
have color film back then?
Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It's just the
world was black and white then.
Calvin: Really?
Dad: Yep. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
Calvin: That's really weird.
Dad: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.
Calvin: But then why are old paintings in color?! If their world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?
Dad: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
Calvin: But... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?
Dad: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the '30s.
Calvin: So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?
Dad: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?
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And now, a few LARGER THAN LIFE links:
- At this site (check out its web address, too!) you can find "A List of the Most Expensive Things in the World" (pretty up-to-date, arranged by category)
- Here is "The Biggest Blog" Project: a historical undertaking aiming to preserve a day in the life of the human race (and create the most humongous blog while doing this)
-An incredible site cataloging 30 Wackiest Inventions (all made by Germans). It's in German, but even more fun this way. See if you can figure out what these gimmicks are for. Then go and come up with even more uses for some everyday objects. Connect with your inner Calvin.
Cool Ads and Photos, Part 1
| "QUANTUM SHOT" #3 Link Some neat ads I've stumbled upon recently Starting our series of the most creative advertisements in print and "guerrilla marketing" on the streets... We start small, with only a few examples to set the mood - "Karma in Parking":  "If only women spent less time cooking..." (advertising for an instant soup product)  Longevity drug? Timely oil changes? -  Some very lively tea:  Poster for a museum:  Not an ad, just a pic I liked:  (original unknown, via) ...and finally "a mystery photo" (apparently a real place somewhere in Asia...)  (image credit: Von Frank Schlamp, click to enlarge)
CONTINUE TO NEXT PART -> See our "COOL ADS" category for more
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Quotes
"QUANTUM SHOT" #2Best opening lines for a story:
"There is a dead kitten in my freezer.
I wish it was the first one, but it's not."
-from "Foster" by Melissa Lee Shaw (Asimov's 2006)Best ending for a book...
Or at least I think it's an ending. Help me out here:
One of the books from "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is called "The End".
On the back cover of that book is printed the following:
"You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of "THE END". The end of "THE END" is the best place to begin "THE END", because if you read "THE END" from the beginning of the beginning of "THE END" to the end of the end of "THE END", you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope"
-Lemony SnicketBetween the perfect opening and the perfect ending for a story, who needs to have an actual story in between?..
More quotes:
"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success."
-Henry David Thoreau"When they give you things, ask yourself why. When you’re grateful to them for providing the things you should have anyway, ask yourself why."
-Jeff Vandermeer
"The Insect Circus" & The Original Fab Four Band
| "QUANTUM SHOT" #1 What "The Beatles" did not know when they started... Here is a cool link to the Traveling Museum and Emporium of "The Insect Circus", apparently a fine British establishment since ... ah, possibly 1964. Featuring irresistible attractions such as "a bearded ladybug" or the "Liberty Beetle":  The site also has an extensive material related to the famous Sixties group "The Peaple":  Including signed by Don Lemon himself copy of Peaple's seminal 1967 album: "Capt. Cicadella's Insect Circus Band"! -  (images credit: Insect Circus)
Make sure you invite this Traveling Circus to visit your city, if you live in UK. (Courtesy of VanderWorld)
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"Dark Roasted Blend" - Web Reviews. Issue 1
First Issue. October 15, 2006 --------------------- Citroen C-Metisse Concept Car We'll start with a dream car that only French could dream up. It has such an unmistakable style that my son Ian (6 years old) upon seeing it immediately asked "Is it French?" Certainly, it's one of the best-looking designs of all time. For more pictures click here - (click to enlarge) -     (images credit: Serious Wheels) ----------------------------- Fish-Controlled Car Speaking about cool cars, here is one built around an aquarium. The fish inside controls where the vehicle is going and how fast. The computer tracks the movements of fish' eyes and points the car in the direction fish is looking. This site has a video of it in motion.  ----------------------------- Air-Powered Car There are different ways to power the car, and this blog mentions the often over-looked way: "Bob is sick of paying fuel prices. His car could run on vegetable oil, of course, but that's still 25p a litre, and he doesn't want his fuel to congeal on those cold winter mornings. So he installs a few compressed air tanks instead. The expansion of this air pushes the pistons to move his car. He uses the air pumps at petrol stations to refuel. Sometimes this costs 20p, but mostly he avoids those stations." (from Urban Fantasy Blog) If you think such practice is not feasible, consider this link (www.theaircar.com) to an actual "compressed air fuel" car being built:   (image credit: MDI) ----------------------------- A Quote Enough of cars, but here is a little discussion about air: ""The most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity" — Harlan Ellison. It therefore follows that stupidity is either Helium, or Metal. We can test the former option by saying saying "Helium is stupid" — which, on the face of it, is pretty damn stupid. Which leads us to conclude that the other possibility is the only reasonable one. Stupidity is clearly Metallic. (Unless it's dark matter.) ----------------------------- Incredible Skies More about air: these skies will make you cry... Check out the collection of photos from various storm-chasers across North America at Extreme Instability. A few examples... bookmark this site, they update often; the site also documents the evolution of storms, which is quite mesmerizing -     It's pretty cool how they appear to be beams going up from the ground when they are actually shining down...    (images courtesy Ryan McGinnis) ----------------------------- Great Short SF Movie Neal Asher's blog posted a link to an awesome mini-movie by 3D animators from the Blur company. Here is a link to a page where you can watch it (appr. 10 minutes)   (images credit: Blur) ----------------------------- The Whimsical Lighthouse Here is a curious story related to the current Eddystone Rocks Lighthouse: In 1964 National Geographic did an article on various lighthouses in Devon, England, and mentioned the original light tower build by a practical joker and curious character Henry Winstanley in 1696. His own mansion was a London attraction for decades, filled with various gadgets, pitfalls, traps and curiosities - almost a "Ripley's Believe it or not" in itself. However his imagination was not satisfied with that and he set out to build the first Eddystone Lighthouse. Against incredible odds the tower was completed in 1698, saving the lives of many sailors from the fate of the thousands who previously died upon the rocks. The architecture was pretty fanciful, as you can see:  He himself could be seen in this drawing fishing in one of the windows. The lighthouse survived its first winter, and Winstanley expressed a wish that if he perish, it'd be on top of his tower in the storm. This wish came true when in a winter storm in November 1703 the tower was demolished, among with Winstanley who was in the lighthouse that night. See this engraving depicting the tower right after the storm:  Since then, there were 4 more lighthouses build on Eddystone Rocks, but none as extravagant as the Winstanley's tower. As an afterthought, here is what Jeff Vandermeer said once: "The marvelous is not the same in every period of history - it partakes of the sort of the general revelation only the fragment of which come down to us; they are the romantic ruins, the modern mannequins" Some architecture lives in our imagination as a sort of "the romantic ruins", and perhaps only benefits from it.
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New Photos from Romantic Road, Germany
Travel Photo update with many pictures from the Romantic Road (first part from Fussen to Rotheburg) Click here
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