The visual.ly website is a great place to watch for infographics and data visualisations of all sorts*, and a recent one, brought to my attention by excellent publication Fast Company, is particularly boggling. In the words of its creators, it’s Analysis of characters’ bad behaviours in the TV Series Mad Men during the first season […]
Design
Nikon’s Small World photo competition winners 2012 now out!
Some things help one to mark time. For my little science blog, Nikon’s small worlds competition is one of these. As previously mentioned, each year the competition takes in entries of the best microscopy on the web, and then hurls awards at the ones it likes the most. And so, without further ado, this year’s […]
Shaming Lassie
I’m not sure if you’re familiar or not with the hilariously wonderful site Dogshaming. —- Now that you’re back here, having just spent an hour giggling at it, welcome! My partner and I don’t yet have our herd (or pack, whatever) of dogs*, so I’ve offered up another image instead. Lassie. Because, well**, she just […]
Shiny sexy data centre pr0n
Yep, folks, you heard me right. Data centre pr0n. I’ve had a couple of friends* send me this link today, from Google. The page it directs one to will give you lots and lots of shiny data centre photos grouped around the tech, the people and the places. Of course, explanations of the photos are […]
Kilts and unicorns
Yesterday, I found out two wonderful, astounding things. First: one of Scotland’s two national animals is the unicorn*. Yes, folks, you heard me correctly - a nation known for being mad and extremely hardcore, has as one of its representatives a creature now seen in some of the naffest art in human history :P Secondly, […]
Measuring the value of science
UPDATE: Please see the end of this piece, where I give examples of possible ‘good’ metrics The subject of innovation/science/tech/R&D, and its contribution to a country’s economy and society, appears to be top of mind for policymakers, funding bodies and scientific bodies all over the world. In New Zealand alone, MSI has set a target […]
Lots of land still up for grabs on largest LEGO set
In around June this year, LEGO and Google Australia (who do the maps) released Build, a WebGL LEGO simulator. Touting itself as the world’s largest LEGO set, it allows you to build, using Lego bricks, anything you want on a Google map.The map’s been divided up into small squares, and plots are a 32×32 grid. […]
Real-life anime eyes
One of the hallmarks of the Japanese anime/manga illustration style is the massively enlarged eyes of the characters*. Certainly, it’s on the key hallmarks differentiating the characters from normal human beings. And now, even that distinction’s disappearing. Ukrainian Anastasiya Shpagina has figured out how to do it, using only the Magic of Makeup. In the […]
voodoo woman, the first iterations
I’ve very recently (the last day or two) taken up therapeutic colouring-in. Basically, whenever I feel like throwing something through or at something or someone, I spend a bit of time colouring in a picture. And it’s working! Anyhoo, herewith some of my first iterations. Original illustration courtesy of the Color Ink Book […]
UnderSkin, the Tube and schematic mapping
A beautiful piece of medical art has cropped up and being doing the rounds again the last few days. Titled ‘UnderSkin’, and made in 2010 by illustrator/designer Sam Loman, UnderSkin shows the human anatomy in the style of the very famous London Underground map. I must say, it’s a beautiful piece of work, […]