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Every Rose Has Its Thorn Played By An Actual Rose Thorn

Michael Ridge does all sorts of interesting sound experiments. In this video he plays Poison’s classic 7″ vinyl single of ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn‘ through a mic’d up branch of dried rose bush amplified by a contact microphone connected to a Marshall MS-4

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose” – Anne Brontë

via Dangerous Minds

UPDATE: Attempting to play the 7″ vinyl single ‘Ice Cream’ by New Young Pony Club using an ice cream cone and attempting to play track one and two from Side A of the 1966 LP ‘The Band I Heard In Tijuana Volume 3’ by Los Norte Americanos using a lightly salted tortilla chip.

An Ocean Of Polystyrene Packing Peanuts

Artist Zimoun has filled the windows of the Art Museum of Lugano in Switzerland with ventilators and 4.7m³ packing peanuts. When the large fans are turned on the packing chips create a cloudy ocean of polystyrene swirls. The turbulent kinetic work is especially striking when viewed at night and is oddly soothing to watch. An excerpt by Guido Comis and Cristina Sonderegger, published in the exhibition catalog says,

“Even though the swirling of the polystyrene in the depth of each of the windows is actually limited to that space, we have the impression that the movement is propagating to the whole length of the Limonaia. To the visual effect adds the ticking of chips on the window panes, which could remind a thin but insistent rain. If, instead, we cross the threshold and get inside the space, the perception produced by the ebb and flow of the chips changes radically becoming more abstract; the movement appears mechanical rather than natural, the buzzing of the ventilators covers up the ticking of the polystyrene on the windows and thus reveals the artificial origin of the motion.”


via Creative Applications

Gravity Is A Mistake

I typically prefer roller coasters over the dizzy, spinney, types of amusement rides. However, the rides being engineered by the Institute For Centrifugal Research (ICR) look like a barrel of fun. But not only is the IRC trying to create good times, they’re attempting to increase the cognitive function of their riders through centrifugal research. While most of their rides are for adults only, Dr. Nick Laslowicz is hoping that the Centrifuge Brain Project will theoretically improve the passenger’s cognitive abilities through “achievements in the realms of brain manipulation, excessive G-Force and prenatal simulations.”

Blueprints for some of the rides developed by the ICR can be found below:

ICR Spheroton

ICR Dandelion

The IRC has lofty goals of having “These machines provide total freedom by cutting all connection from the world you live in – communication, responsibility, weight.” The amusement park rides are said to have created profound experiences “Which in many people in many people resulted in the readjustment of key goals and life aspirations.” However, as you’ll see from the video below these goals have come at a cost.


All images and videos via Till Nowak

More videos and images about the project can be found at the IRC website.

Video Of The 2012 Gävle Goat Going Down In Flames

Well it looks like my prediction was wrong. Last night, just before midnight, the Gävle Goat went down in flames. Much like last year’s video, I scraped a live webcam of the blaze and set it to some holiday music for your viewing enjoyment/horror.

NYMag has a great interview with Eje Berglund, the representative and chairman of the committee that oversees the Gävle Goat.

Teahupo’o

Teahupo’o is the name of a large reef break in Tahiti. Named after a village on the southwest coast of the island, the break is renowned for its consistent barrels, heavy waves and shallow shoreline. An extremely shallow coral reef, which ranges up to 20 inches beneath the water’s surface creates an unusual wave shape with an effect of almost breaking below sea level. The wave’s unique shape is due to the specific shape of the reef beneath the wave. Its semi circular nature, which drops down sharply creates a ‘below water’ effect and the extreme angles in descent create an instant instability to the wave.

TeahupooImage via Surfblogspot

According to Surfing Atlas:

The extreme angle creates instant instability in the wave. The second stage of the reef proceeds uniformly down to the 300 metres contour in about 50 metres of distance, or a ratio of about 1/6 (.1667). The maximum steepness a wave is able to endure before it breaks is .17. So when height (h) is > .17 of wavelength (λ) then the wave will break. The reef at Teahupoo moves the entire available energy mass of the wave all the way from 300m to the 10m mark of the first stage of the reef at the maximum angle permissible prior to a wave breaking. Then at 10m prior to reaching the surface it puts up a steep wall of reef that causes the entire mass to fold onto a scalloped semi-circle breaking arc.

The result is an incredible moving wall of water. The video below was taken August 27th 2011 during the Billabong Pro waiting period. The French Navy labeled this day a double code red prohibiting and threatening to arrest anyone that entered the water.

Cloudscaping

Sure, I too am a little tired of the all the time-lapse photography on the internet these days. However, my love for clouds (I’m a long time member of the Cloud Appreciation Society) had me going gaga over this video called “Test D” by sixdegreesbelowthehorizon. Be sure to go full screen with this one.

The Boards of Canada soundtrack is pretty sweet also. If you like that, check out sixdegreesbelowthehorizon’s video Dawn Convection.

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