Showing: Ansel Adams - Photographs of Japanese-American Internment @ Library of Congress

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Showing: Ansel Adams - Photographs of Japanese-American Internment @ Library of Congress

Legendary American photographer, Ansel Adams, currently has some unique work on display at the Prints and Photographs division at the Library of Congress. Best known for his idyllic landscapes photos, he took on a different venture in 1943 when he was asked to document the Manzanar War Relocation Center (AKA: Japanese internment camp). Using his iconic lens, we get to see how life was for Japanese-Americans at these notorious internment facilities.

This is the first time that this rare collection of portraits, landscapes and stills has been available for the public to experience. Check out some images after the jump.

Via the Library of Congress

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High Speed Photography : Frozen in Time

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High Speed Photography : Frozen in Time

In a blink of the eye, a lot can happen. A lot of astonishing things happen in a split of a second, but they are moving too quickly for us to see. High speed photography is the art of photographing a rapidly occurring event. Depending on the event to be photographed, methods range from use of ultra-short time flash exposures to producing lots of exposures in a split-second. Seemingly frozen in time, a lot of photographers have their own special method doing high speed photography. The usual photographic flash component offers a flash that lasts around a thousandth of a second (a millisecond). But photographic flash component used in high speed photography is so much quicker than this, and it creates a flash of light around a microsecond (a millionth of a second). This let you to freeze time through pictures that are happening tremendously fast.

It's not easy to come up with a perfect shot while capturing rapidly occurring event, photographers that specialize in this type of photography are masters of patience. Below are some incredibly cool images that shows the beautiful combination of artistic expression and technical precision.

Splash | Avi_Abrams

Breaking the Rules | Beforethecoffee

Blue tit in Flight | Burrard Lucas

Cig | David Neff

Cras...

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Happy Meal is ageless: no decay in a year on a shelf

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Happy Meal is ageless: no decay in a year on a shelf

Joann Bruso, author of Baby Bites - Transforming A Picky Eater Into A Healthy Eater Book, a book on getting kids to overcome picky eating habits, has been blogging the half-life of a McDonald's Happy Meal that she bought a year ago. In the intervening year, the box of delight, plastic toys and food-like substances has experienced virtually no decay.

NOPE, no worries at all. My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all.

This morning, I took it off my shelf to take a birthday photo. The first year is always a milestone. I gave it one of my world famous nonna hugs as we've been office mates for a year now! (Okay, maybe my sanity is in question.)

Happy Birthday to My Happy Meal

(via Consumerist)

Previously:

• Bad science fact on a Happy Meal bag


• Happy Meal anime


• McDonald's adult Happy Meal


• HOWTO trick McDonald's into serving you "breakfast" at lunchtime ...


• Twisted game simulates running McDonald's


• Florida school board approves McDonald's report-cards and school ...


• McDonald's Gitmo is hiring!


• Creepy McDonald's ad from India


• Devo sues McDonalds

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Less Detergent Washes as Well, Saves You a Lot of Money [Cleaning]

 

 

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Less Detergent Washes as Well, Saves You a Lot of Money [Cleaning]

via Lifehacker by Jason Fitzpatrick on 3/15/10

Modern dishwashers and washing machines are designed to use much less water and detergent than their predecessors, but most people haven't adjusted their detergent-filling technique to match. The New York Times says you're wasting a lot of money.

Photo by Clean Wal-Mart.

The financial section of the New York Times highlights a small but frequent way you can save money. Go easy on the detergent you're pouring into your washing machine and dishwasher. A little gets the job done and a lot just goes down the drain. They write:

"Nobody thinks they use too much soap," said Vernon Schmidt, who has been a repairman for almost 35 years and is the author of a self-published book, "Appliance Handbook for Women: Simple Enough Even a Man Can Understand." But apparently most of us are in denial.

Washing machines and dishwashers are made to use far less water now than older models and, therefore, need less soap. And detergents have also become increasingly concentrated. So a little goes a long way.

"Most people use 10 to 15 times the amount of soap they need, and they're pouring money down the drain," Mr. Schmidt said.

All that extra soap isn't just a waste of money, it gunks up your machine, can cause mold growth inside your washer, and shortens the life of the appliance.

Last year I noticed the towels never seemed to come out perfectly clean and when they got damp after you got out of the shower they smelled dirty immediately. It turns out I was using too much washing detergent, the irony is that "too much" was how much the manufacturer recommended. One of the side effects of using too much detergent, especially on things like towels is that the detergent coats the fibers of the towel and it never gets a chance to fully dry and become fully clean—you get stuck in an endless cycle of towels that smell like they've never been washed. I reduced the amount of detergent I was using until I was using a mere 1/8th of the recommended amount. Everything from towels to t-shirts came out smelling fresher and more comfortable.

Check out the full article for additional information, including how to load your dishwasher efficiently and why you shouldn't freak out if utensils aren't bone dry when they come out. Have a money saving tip or trick related to household chores? Let's hear about it in the comments.

When a Capful of Soap is Not a Good Thing [The New York Times]

 

 

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Michael Kutsche

 

 

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Michael Kutsche

via Cgunit - Online Gallery by Ben on 3/13/10

Concept Art by Michael Kutsche.

http://www.mistermk.de/

 

 

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15 Clever, Witty Illustrations

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15 Clever, Witty Illustrations

Malaysian artist Chow Hon Lam makes us laugh with these clever, witty illustrations. Lam is a "modern legend" over at Threadless, where his prints can be found on countless t-shirts.



"I believe that everything should have a story behind it, no matter if they are an object, an animal or food," says Lam. "I always try to create a story for them. I guess they must have something to say, but they just can't speak. Trust me, I try to communicate with them!"



"Actually all the ideas don't come easy, I hope people can enjoy them and appreciate them. All criticisms are welcome. Thanks from deep in my heart."

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Kitchen Hack: One-Minute Bread

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Kitchen Hack: One-Minute Bread

Oven-fresh bread is one of life's simple joys. Ciabatta, a crisp-crusted Italian bread with hints of sourdough and loads of crannies longing for butter, is one of the easiest breads to make at home.

Why are we talking about baking bread on Lifehack? Because kitchen hacks aren't just impressive, they often have very tasty results! In this instance, I'm going to show you how to make ciabatta with less than one minute of prep time. How is that possible? Like many great hacks, this one uses simple ingredients and as few steps as possible to get the job done.

You may have heard of "no-knead" bread before. Mark Bittman and many others have promoted their versions of an artisan bread that doesn't require any heavy labor. While those recipes also create delicious results, they involve too many steps to be considered a real hack.

I wanted something very, very simple that delivered great results in 60 seconds of prep time or less. It may take you a few tries to get below the one-minute mark, but I think you'll enjoy the results every time!

For your ciabatta you'll need:

• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of warm water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of granulated yeast (or equivalent)

You'll also need a medium-size mixing bowl, a 10×15 cookie sheet or baking stone, a hand towel or plastic wrap, and whatever you'd like to keep your bread from sticking (if you're using a pan, I use flour and corn meal).

Have everything handy? Good. Let's do this!

1. Mix Water & Yeast

Pour the warm water into the medium-size mixing bowl and stir in the yeast with a spoon. No need to be particular, just dump and slosh.

2. Add Flour And Salt

Add flour and salt to your bowl of yeasty water. This, after measuring out the flour, presents another prime opportunity to get flour on your person. This will be regarded by many as a sign of your culinary determination. You'll need such signs because anybody who actually watches you make the bread will think you're one of the laziest bakers in existence.

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Carl Sagan on Genius

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan US astronomer & popularizer of astronomy (1934 - 1996)

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal

H. L. Mencken US editor (1880 - 1956)

Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.

Doug Larson

Dr. Seuss Went to War

 Those were different times.  Click link to see cartoons.

A Catalog of Political Cartoons

 

 

Three Men on a Hike

From my friend Beverly

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large raging, violent river. Needing to get to the other side, The first man prayed:

'God, please give me the strength to cross the river.'


Poof! .. God gave him big arms and strong legs And he was able to swim Across in about 2 hours, having almost drowned twice.



After witnessing that, the second man prayed: 'God, please give me Strength and the tools to cross the river'


Poof! .. God gave him a rowboat and strong arms And strong legs and he Was able to row across in about an hour After almost capsizing once.


Seeing what happened to the first two men, The third man prayed: 'God,please give me the strength, The tools and the intelligence To cross the river'


Poof! .. He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, Hiked one Hundred yards up stream And walked across the bridge.


'If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your wife told you!' 

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation

Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905 Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)

11 Little-Known Grammatical Errors That Will Shock and Horrify You

To my friends and relatives who care about such things.  You know who you are.  Click on the link to see all of them.

Example:

Try and. The correct phrase is "try to." It really does make sense logically -- the trying is part of the action. I don't try and say goodbye and I choke, I try to say goodbye and I choke. (I also try i walk away and I stumble.)

It's a rough day for a journalism major when he learns he was grammatically bested by Macy Gray.

I remember when I learned the try and/try to disparity. I'd just gotten my first job writing professionally, in October of 2003, and I dropped a "try and" bomb in one of the first things I wrote. I was scolded, beat myself up about it for two weeks straight -- and never made the mistake again. 

Bureaucracy Chic

 

 

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Bureaucracy Chic

via Design Crisis by karly on 2/25/10

I know I have been threatening to post images of my new and improved office for a while now and still haven't gotten around to it.  It's just that I still have one empty wall and our resident photographer has her hands full with a 17 pound distractenator named Ike.  In the mean time, I bring you images from offices around the world in part of photographer Jan Banning's series, Bureaucratics

India

China

Liberia

Liberia

Yemen

Russia

Guess Where?  USA

Bolivia

Bolivia

Yemen

So, still no pictures of my office, but I promise these are a million times interesting.  See the complete series here

Related posts:

1. The Antithesis of Cheap Chic
2. Tastes Great, Less Filling
3. We're Not Out of the Woods Yet

 

 

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Clients From Hell: Won't take more than an hour

I discovered this particular blog a few weeks ago, thank you Google News.


Most of the posts seems to come in from web designers, but hey, customers are customers. I spent more time than I should have with an overseas customer trying to recreate a problem they were having. They hadn't applied all of software fixes that were available, they were convinced that they had a unique problem that couldn't have been covered by a previous fix... As it turned out, an existing solution also fixed their problem.  Anyhow, a quote from the Clients From Hell blog.  The writer of this post was given a task that would 'only take an hour.'

“You realize, if I can do this, it’ll take about 12 hours, and no guarrantee I can make it look like a real photo,” I advised them.

“Yes, you can. You have Photoshop!” The art director screamed. Meanwhile, one of the account guys brought my boss over,who corroborated everything I said.

“Listen,” I said, “you have a finished illo, but if you really want me to do this I will, but I can’t have it done before tomorrow, and that’s if I stay all night. your illustration will still look better.”

The art director blew his stack “LOOK—THIS WON’T TAKE MORE THAN TWO HOURS!!” And then he added “I’D DO IT MYSELF IF I KNEW HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP!!”

Best Tech Guy caller EVER with Leo Laporte

For pure Chutzpah, this is hard to beat.

Lady calls Leo Laporte's Tech Guy Show claiming her WI-FI access has "disappeared", come to find out that she doesn't even have a router!

Tom Brokaw Explains Canada To Americans

Tom Brokaw explains the relationship between Canada and The United States, in a pre-recorded short film that aired on NBC prior to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Feb. 14th, 2010.

A N O N Y M O U S = Actions, Not Our Names, Yield Maintenance Of Unity and Service.

If I have seen this before, I didn't remember it.  

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

Charles Mackay

Teaching Grown-ups

That is why God gave us grandchildren.

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "The Little Prince", 1943 French writer (1900 - 1944)