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All posts for the month February, 2006

Tom Friedman : toothpicksTom has some super cool projects dealing with everyday items. Above is a sculpture he made with probably a million toothpicks. I’ve seen his work in the past, but recently went to the ecstasy exhibit in LA and saw a piece by him which just made me laugh in a good way. It was a piece titled something like, “piece of paper I stared at for 1000 hours”. It was simply a piece of paper framed nicely behind a piece of glass, but the idea behind the piece is “what is art”. Tom stared at this exact piece of paper for 1000 hours. Is this piece of paper “art” or is that up to the observer/artist.

Toms other work (if any of you know of a better site with his work, please link)

Mohammed Bah Abba “Northern Nigeria is an impoverished region where people in rural communities eke out a living from subsistence farming. With no electricity, and therefore no refrigeration, perishable foods spoil within days. Such spoilage causes disease and loss of income for needy farmers, who are forced to sell their produce daily. Nigerian teacher Mohammed Bah Abba was motivated by his concern for the rural poor and by his interest in indigenous African technology to seek a practical, local solution to these problems. His extremely simple and inexpensive earthenware “pot-in-pot” cooling device, based on a principle of physics already known in ancient Egypt, is revolutionising lives in this semi-desert area.”

Projects like this amaze me. A simple product with a huge impact for millions of people. It also makes me realaize how much we rely on electricuty in our ever so tech-centric lives.

via rolodexawards

Air Zooka!!

If you want some fun in the office, get an Air Zooka. This is one of the most surprising little science toys you’ll get out there. This lil bucket hurls an invisible ball of air at any target. If your good, you can pin point targets at up to 20 feet and really surprise people. It feels like a ghost punching you. Its the best $15 you’ll ever spend. ZeroToys also has a few other little gadget toys that are fun. Check them out!Air Zooka

Name Voyager

Have you ever wondered how popular your name was as a baby? Name voyager creates a visual diagram of baby name populations in the past 100+ years. Its interesting to see how some names just boom certain years..perhaps due to a rock star, movie, song, movement, etc.
Also reminds me of this discussion I had with a friend questioning the social implications of a persons life based on their childhood names. If any of you have info on this, please comment.
Anyhow, give it a try, type in your name, and watch the dynamic diagram flow.Name Voyager

Vik MunizVik muniz is a extremely fun artist with some bewildering projects. The picture above is him drawing clouds in the sky, with those exhaust stunt planes. He’s got drawings made from wires, finger paintings using sugar, crop drawings from the sky, and a bunch of other projects that just make you smile. I first met him at the TED conference and have been following his work since. Go to his pages and listern to his commentaries about his work.

Vik muniz