A Classic Elevator

I love watching this 1913 Titan paternoster elevator in Copenhagen, but I'm not sure I would be brave enough to try to ride in it (and yes, I once posted something similar to this, but it's been awhile).

Read While You Ride

I don't spend a lot of time on public transportation anymore, but I know plenty of people who do, and many of them use that time to read. But sometimes they forget to bring a book, and they have to face that long ride with nothing to occupy them. That's why I think that the ideas below are awesome.

A metro station in Madrid has an area where people can check out books.

Source Metro Centric

This book vending machine is in Barcelona. Apparently they're located in the metro stations.

Source Evan Bench

The video below is a bit long, but the library is interesting. It's entirely digital and located in the Bucharest metro station. Using a smartphone, a person can scan the QR code of a book and download it onto a phone. (There are great images of this on Flickr and Imgur, but I couldn't find any that were Creative Commons, so...just the video today). 

And in New York, the library provides a sample of a book for those riding the subway.

I'm so glad that books are a priority for the people who came up with these ideas. I really dislike being stuck somewhere without anything to read. 

Have a great day! I hope that you have a book handy for those days when you have time to kill.

Best Wishes,

Myrna

If You've Ever Used Microsoft Paint...You'll Be Amazed at This

Now and then, I break out Microsoft Paint when I need to make a sign or something very simple. I'm sure that true artists or simply people who have the patience to learn how to use this tool (which hasn't changed much over the years) can do a lot more with it than I can. Still, this image of Santa Claus created on Microsoft Paint by Eclectic Asylum Art is so detailed that I'm astounded (and in awe of the artist).

And in case you missed the video of the Mona Lisa in Microsoft Paint (also by Eclectic Asylum Art) from last May, here it is:

The Power of Maps (and Memory)

I love a good story, and if a story is also true, that's just a little bonus. The video below is trending, and while it's a bit of an advertisement for Google Maps, it's also a good story. Saroo Munshi Khan was 5-years-old, traveling on a train with his brother in India, when he fell asleep and woke up to find that he was alone and lost. He was adopted by an Australian family, but years later, Google Maps led him home. Watch.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Technology

I don't think I've made any secret of my love of technology and gadgets. This blog alone is proof. In about 4 months, it will be 3 years since I turned my author's website into this blog, and I don't think I've missed posting more than a couple of days in all that time. In addition, I love looking at all the new gadgets, the new toys (the new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" makes me drool). Now and then I actually buy one of the new gadgets. And I love, love, love the Internet...except when people post horrible, mean comments addressing total strangers in ways they probably would never--hopefully--address them face to face (I think we've all seen those types of comments). But mostly I love the Internet.

There's so much knowledge sharing going on out there, so much fun stuff, so many gorgeous images. Look up an obscure fact? I'll find it. Find out why my refrigerator isn't working? I'm on it. Shop for interesting gifts not readily available in stores? I'm your woman. It's fun, it's easy, it's awesome. And therein lies the problem. It's often just too easy to spend far too much time there.

Still, I'm a writer. I have a book coming out in a few days. I can't afford to not be on the web. I need to network. I need to push my baby in front of people's faces. I want people to read my book. I love that book! I'm supposed to be selling it.

But...I also need to get to the writing and step away from the Internet. I really do. I need to get the next book written. Which is why--lately--I've been turning to one of these.

Well, okay, not that particular laptop (that's just an online image), but an old laptop I bought years ago, which has Microsoft Word on it, very few other programs and (here's the important part) ABSOLUTELY NO ABILITY TO ACCESS THE INTERNET. Seriously. I bought it on sale for a song, it was my first laptop, a discontinued model, and not long after I got it home, I realized that no matter what I did, it would not connect to my network (okay, that's not completely true. If I set up some cables, clicked my heels together and crossed my fingers, sometimes it would manage to hook up...slowly, but if I searched for wireless networks...no. Never. It just wasn't going to happen). I suppose I should have returned it, but...I had a desktop, and I hadn't really bought the laptop for the purpose of web surfing but for writing when I was away from my desk. So I kept it. And when I needed it, I used it (even though I still prefer a desktop most of the time).

Later, I bought a netbook. It's nice. It's a bit slow and the keyboard is a bit smaller than I like, but it's not as heavy as the old laptop and it does access the Internet. And therein lies the problem. I'm weak. I'm human. Leave me with a desktop or a netbook with an Internet connection and I just might end up looking for interesting videos for the blog or posting tweets or Facebook posts or...shopping for books. There are days when I practically have to slap myself to keep from opening the browser and hopping on the Internet train.

So, a few weeks ago, I dug out the old laptop. I dusted it off. I fired it up, and...voila! I finally admitted that old and all, no programs other than word processing and all, like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, it really wasn't such a bad little laptop after all. It wasn't a total lemon.

Because set up at the table, surrounded by all my notes, on what might seem like a hunk of junk to most people, I type. I write. I get things done. And I find that this old laptop, warts and all, may well be the best writing machine I've ever owned.

But don't worry, Internet. I'll be back once my pages are done for the day!

Have You Seen the Tooth Fairy Lately?

MAKE is an online magazine specializing in fun and/or useful DIY inventions or tools people create using technology. In this case, the tooth fairy is involved. The inventor has two sons, and he's created a tooth transport system (so that the tooth fairy can save time by not having to leave her home). The device is more technical than I would ever be able to create, but the results are cute. (If you get lost watching the how to part and just want to see how it operates and the inventor's young son's reaction, skip ahead to 2:07).

I think the tooth fairy is just going to love this!

People Making a Difference: A Billboard that Produces Water

The University of Engineering and Technology built a billboard that produces potable water from air in the coastal desert of Peru. I love it when people come up with useful ideas like this one!

World's Tiniest Movie

IBM stretches the boundaries by making the smallest movie ever...using atoms. Amazing (also cute. And short).

How the Postal Service Sorts the Mail

Josh Wapiano was in his last week of working for the Royal Mail, so he decided to share a bit about how the mail gets sorted. The text that went with the YouTube video explained that the Intelligent Letter Sorting Machine can read multiple addresses a second. If it comes across writing too messy to read, it sends a photo to a central hub where humans send back the correct address (it sounds as if it learns from the process, too. A bit like speech recognition software learns to recognize a writer's idiosyncrasies, I'm guessing).

Now Here's An Idea About Copyright That I Like

My apologies to those of you who are not interested at all in copyright, but...if you do create anything (in my case books and a blog) or if you post anything on the Internet or are thinking of doing either of those things, somewhere along the way you have to ask yourself some serious questions about the ownership of those creations, your own or those of people whose work you admire. That's why, when I post photos on this blog, I use those with Creative Commons licenses (meaning that the creator allows reposting) and why I always link back to the source, the person who actually created the work. It also means that I'm sometimes at a disadvantage because I can't just post anything I find that intrigues me. In fact, I can't post a whole lot of the things that intrigue me because I don't own those things or own the rights to them. As a creator myself, I don't ever want to lift another person's work. But, I'll admit that at times things can get...confusing. That's why I loved this video by John Green of the Vlog Brothers (and the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Fault in Our Stars). He takes a common sense approach to the sticky problem of international copyright in a world that has become instantly global.

If you Enjoy Light Shows...

This one from The Creators Project might interest you. Some of the lights react to the people inside the display.

On to Futuristic Highways...

The video I had up here earlier (a group of people rocketing a Christmas tree into the sky in an open field in 2011) was apparently taken down by the people who posted it, so...on to other things.

 

From NMA NewsDirect's YouTube Channel: "A futuristic highway that can save energy and improve road safety is set to be installed in the Netherlands by mid-2013. Two companies, Studio Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure, came up with the highway, which includes: glow-in-the-dark road markings painted with photo-luminescent paint which are charged during the day and light up during the night; temperature-responsive paint which indicates slippery roads when temperatures fall below zero; and interactive lights along the highway that light up as cars approach. Wind lights that light up using the draft produced by cars and priority induction lanes that can recharge electric cars as they run along them also feature. The luminous road markings and weather indicating roads will debut in the Dutch province of Brabant in the middle of next year. The wind powered and interactive lights along with the induction lanes are also planned to go into service in the next years."

More Art in Advertising

The video said that this is an example of Mechatronics. That's a new word for me, but it did look awesome. I would have loved to have been able to see it in person. The installation is made up of Styrofoam cubes and was presented by Hyundai at the EXPO 2012 in Korea.



Here's a short video on how this was created:

The Faces of Paranorman

Behind the scenes footage

ParaNorman - Faces of ParaNorman from HA/HA on Vimeo.

Stacked Crayon Art

Christian Faur is an artist who creates his works by (basically) scanning an image, breaking it down into pixels and then assigning a crayon color to each pixel and stacking the crayons. Here's one of his works.

Source

A timelapse of the artist at work:

Images from one of his shows:

Life-changing 3D Printer

We've talked about 3D printers before, but never like this. Researchers at a Delaware hospital printed a 3D custom exoskeleton to help a child move her arms.

The Treadmill Desk

Treadmill desks are becoming more popular among those of us who spend far too much time sitting while we work. Here Hank at the Vlog Brothers shows off his new desk/treadmill.

The Power of the Internet to Bring People Together

This young couple met on the Internet (a Halo 3 game lobby) 5 years ago. They became best friends via MySpace, Skype, video games and Facebook for 3 years, then dated online (not sure what that means) for 2 more years. Both in school and without enough money to travel to meet each other, this is their first meeting (in March of this year) after 5 years together online. (They're engaged now).

Kinetic Rain - Computerized Sculpture

The sculpture Kinetic Rain has just been unveiled in Singapore's Changi Airport. It's made up of copper and aluminum raindrops moving together in symphony. The first video below explains the background, the art, the technology and the process (it took 20 months and involved artists, programmers and technologists). The second video demonstrates the sculpture itself.

An Optimistic View of the Future

This video is a tribute to those people who, by their big dreams, have changed the world. It's meant to inspire us to continue to dream.

I was a bit saddened and taken aback by a few in the comments section of YouTube who called it rubbish. Without the dreamers of the world, where would be be today? Thank goodness for those people who look to the future and make it better. (And no, I don't think all change is for the better. I know that sometimes costly mistakes are made, but...if the alternative is stagnation, I prefer the occasional mistake).