Timmy the Tooth

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Hand most people some paper and an X-acto knife and ask them to make art, and at best, they’ll produce some cartoonish shapes spattered with blood. But these twelve artists are producing some of the world’s most impressive papercut art, whether by laboring over astonishingly intricate tapestries for months at a time or making use of clever minimalism for a surprisingly big impact.

Sea Creatures by Kiri Ken

Sea creatures and other natural subjects become the slightest wisps of paper in these extraordinarily delicate and detailed paper cuts by artist Kiri Ken, who shares her work on Twitter. The creatures often become something slightly unnatural in the textures and lines Kiri applies to their various parts, sprouting mechanical objects or patterns that look computerized.

Nature Scenes by Pippa Dyrlaga

Each teeny-tiny feather on a kingfisher’s wing, each scale on the body of a goldfish, is cut out with seemingly endless patience and unfailing accuracy in works by Yorkshire-based artist and printmaker Pippa Dyrlaga.

Anatomy by Ali Harrison

Ali Harrison’s versions of human organs are quite a bit prettier than the real thing, each one given surprising depth and heft despite being cut out of ordinary sheets of paper. The artist designs each one and then laser-cuts them so they can be reproduced. She sells them in her Light and Paper shop.

Endangered Species Cut-Outs by Patrick Cabral

Wolves, elephants, pangolins, tigers, pandas and more are rendered starkly in black and white cut paper against a black surface, each layer of their lace-like faces and bodies cut by hand. Manila-based artist Patrick Cabral donated half the proceeds from the sales of each of these endangered species to WWF Philippines.

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Nice Slice 30 Sculptures Illustrations Created With Cut Paper

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[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Breaking his public silence about four American soldiers killed during an ambush in Niger, President Donald Trump said Monday he'd penned personal letters to their families and planned to phone them later this week.

• Statement confirms Ashley is actively attempting to sell club
• Option of staggered payments is being offered to potential suitors

Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, has formally confirmed he is actively attempting to sell the club.

Although the Sports Direct founder has been open to offers for the Premier League club since the turn of this year, Ashley on Monday instructed St James’ Park officials to issue a public statement clarifying his intentions.

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• Spurs manager says Kane was very emotional watching Totti’s final game
• Pochettino discusses his own future before Real Madrid match

Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that Harry Kane was caught up in the emotion that surrounded Francesco Totti’s final game for Roma and the Tottenham Hotspur manager expressed hope that his striker could also prove to be a one-club man.

Related: Harry Kane threatens to transcend Tottenham as Ronaldo showdown looms | David Hytner

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The used coffee beans you throw away could help power your car.

Whether you're getting ready to cook Japanese food for the very first time, or just want to expand your repertoire, this selection of recipes touches on some of our favorite preparations, from ramen to tempura to teriyaki and beyond. Read More

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Acting out scenes from storybooks or animating real activities, these deceptively simple-looking, folded-paper toys leap, bounce, roll and hatch into action when played with.

Japanese designer Haruki Nakamura was inspired by the ancient art of kirigami, a variation on origami that involves cuts as well as folds, but takes it to the next level with his playful animals.

The specific behaviors of the toys often follow the natural reactions of a given animal, like an armadillo rolling itself up for protection when threatened.

Combining kirigami with karakuri, the art of mechanical puppets actived by touch, led him to these neat hybrid creatures that one can poke, prod, press or drop into action.

In some cases, the activities are innocent and entertaining, like a turtle popping into its shell or a chick hatching from an egg. Others are humorously sinister, showing wolves in sheep’s clothing or a tortoise being eaten by an alligator. For now, alas, these works are only available in Japan.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Ikura don is a Japanese rice bowl topped with brilliant orange pearls of salmon roe. For this easy recipe, we quickly marinate the already-cured roe in soy sauce and other seasonings to infuse it with more flavor, then load it onto freshly cooked rice. Read More

A friend of mine asked me recently if I’d ever heard of mumbo sauce, since she had just returned from Washington D.C., and said it was “everywhere.” I hadn’t, which isn’t a surprise, since unless you’re from the Capital, or select neighborhoods in Chicago, this stuff is virtually unknown.

Football is the world’s great democratic game. But in the US success is often determined by the wealth of a player’s parents

As Doug Andreassen, the chairman of US Soccer’s diversity task force, looks across the game he loves, all he can see is a system broken in America. And he wonders why nobody seems to care.

He sees well-to-do families spending thousands of dollars a year on soccer clubs that propel their children to the sport’s highest levels, while thousands of gifted athletes in mostly African American and Latino neighborhoods get left behind. He worries about this inequity. Soccer is the world’s great democratic game, whose best stars have come from the world’s slums, ghettos and favelas. And yet in the US the path to the top is often determined by how many zeroes a parent can write in their checkbook.

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(SPOILERS – Stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens in season three of Rick and Morty) I have been watching Rick and Morty for a few years now and I took it as a fun, light-hearted, sci-fi…

When I give talks these days, I usually wear a pin—the O in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development GOals (SDGs).  These were authorized by the U.N. General Assembly in 2015 to be achieved by 2030.

Each goal has specific sub-goals.  These are listed here in interactive format.  Food comes up in several, but mainly in Goal 2 (End Hunger) and a bit in Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).  Here are the first three sub-goals for Goal 2:

The SDGs have sparked many organizations to take action.  The U.N. makes taking small actions easy for individuals by producing “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World“—things you can do from your couch, your home, or outside your home.

Here’s the U.N. report on how progress toward the goals looked in 2016.

I wish chronic disease prevention was more prominent in these goals, which would make food more prominent, but this is a start and well worth knowing about.

[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

Should we really be training ultra-smart birds to do our dirty work for us, picking up cigarette butts all over our cities in exchange for treats? One Dutch start-up hopes their clever ‘Crowbar’ will be an easy and mutually beneficial way to deal with the ongoing problem of this specific kind of urban litter, making use of the corvid’s unusual intelligence. Crowded Cities proposes hanging smart machines around the city that train the birds to clean up butts.

‘Crowbar’ is based on the ‘Crow Box,’ an open-source project that gives crows peanuts in exchange for coins. The birds learned that they only get rewarded for inserting a particular kind of object. The Crow Box is just one example of humans testing crows’ ability to understand cause and effect and documenting the results.  They explain the process as follows:

“The crows bring a cigarette filter to the Crowbar, where they drop it into the bottom funnel to get it checked. After the camera has recognized the cigarette filter as  a filter, it returns a bit of food to the table in front of the crow. The crow goes out telling others, or keeps his secret to himself – we are not sure.”

Apparently we’ll find out, as the team finishes assembling the CrowBar and puts it out into the world. In the Netherlands, more than 6 billion cigarette filters are tossed onto the street each year, and each one takes 12 years to degrade. It’s not hard to imagine this project seeing some kind of success – have you ever had a crow drop a nut right in front of your car while you’re driving, in the hopes that your tires will act as giant nutcrackers? They’re incredibly smart.

But it’s a bit disturbing to imagine crows being repeatedly exposed to the carcinogens present in cigarette butts, potentially punishing them in the long term for a stupid human behavior. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before the crows start snatching lit cigarettes right out of people’s hands.

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[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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More than half of Americans don't think Donald Trump is fit to serve as president, yet he has a clear path to winning re-election. If Trump isn't removed from office and doesn't lead the country into some form of global catastrophe, he could secure a second term simply by maintaining his current...

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

A whole lot of valuable land in America’s densest urban centers is occupied by the disused and often toxic remnants of neglected infrastructure, industrial complexes and other blight that could be green space instead. Taking inspiration from New York City’s High Line, an elevated linear park along a former New York Central Railroad spur, many cities are transforming urban riverbanks, viaducts, underpasses, freeway structures and even the tops of tunnels into parks, bike paths, pedestrian routes and other public amenities.

11th Street Bridge Park, Washington DC by OMA and OLIN

An aging freeway structure over the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. is set to become the 11th Street Bridge Park, with officials announcing in October 2017 that a design by OMA + OLIN has been chosen. Each ‘lane’ of the bridge is pulled upward toward the middle, crossing each other to form an X shape; the space underneath these overhangs will host a performance area, cafe, plazas and other public functions.

Lowline, New York City, New York by James Ramsey and Daniel Barasch

Complementing New York City’s famous High Line park, a 1.45-mile greenway built on a former New York Central Railroad spur, the subterranean ‘Lowline’ has been given a green light. Set to be the world’s first underground park, it will be tucked into a former trolley terminal in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, with a design by James Ramsey and Daniel Barasch. “The transformation of an old, forgotten trolley terminal into a dynamic cultural space designed for a 21st century city is truly a New York story,” says Barasch. “We know with input from the community and the city, we can make the Lowline a unique, inspiring space that everyone can enjoy.”

The 606, Chicago, Illinois by Collins Engineering, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Frances Whitehead

Chicago converted its abandoned Bloomingdale Rail Line into a 2.7 mile linear park called the 606 (named for the zip code prefix shared by everyone in the city.) The greenway connects four separate neighborhoods and includes a park and trail system with elevated trails for bikers, runners and walkers as well as event spaces and lots of greenery. The project was designed by the firm Frances Whitehead, which approached it as a ‘living work of art,’ demonstrating the vital role that arts play in the fabric of the city.

The Underline, Miami, Florida by James Corner Field Operations

Down in Miami, a stretch beneath an elevated rail line could become ‘The Underline,’ a new public park by James Corner Field Operations, one of the studios behind the High Line in NYC. The 10-mile-long park and urban trail would sit beneath the city’s MetroRail, following an existing bike path called the M-Path, but widening it and adding a parallel pedestrian path that winds through various ecosystems of native plants and habitats for birds and butterflies. Spaces for arts and recreation would be scattered along the way, like pop-up structures and a bike tune-up station.

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Rail To Trail 12 U S Park Projects Reclaiming Urban Infrastructure

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[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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A female president would go a long way toward addressing the US Soccer’s lack of diversity at the top, but pathways to the position for women are scarce

US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati will be challenged for the first time in his 11-year reign in an election this February but one voice is missing among the list of potential candidates hoping to unseat him.

A woman.

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As a lifelong football fan, it pains me to say that the time has come to boycott the NFL. They have gone too far this time. I was fine when they covered up the concussion epidemic, but letting black men express their opinions is totally unacceptable.

I can no longer spend my Sundays watching football in good conscience, knowing that players are allowed to protest during the National Anthem. Suppressing studies about how football causes the disturbing neurodegenerative disease CTE is one thing; watching black players kneel on the turf for two minutes without having to face consequences for expressing their views is a whole new ballgame.

Why get upset that the owners didn’t provide treatment for former players suffering from the long-term effects of playing football? We should be grateful: Thanks to the league-wide conspiracy of whitewashing the relationship between football and brain damage, we were able to see more awesome, skull-crushing hits. Athletes shouldn’t use their brains anyway, they should stick to sports and leave protesting to the professional protestors.

I won’t watch another game until they punish players for quietly kneeling during “The Star Spangled Banner.” When I pay to see a game, I’m paying to watch black men destroy each other’s bodies, not exercise their constitutional freedoms. If only there were some way for black athletes to protest that didn’t shove the fact that they have the same rights as any other American in my face.

The NFL’s denial of the fact that players are in serious danger never bothered me, and I care so little about how they continue to avoid punishing domestic abusers and sexual assaulters that I didn’t even mention it until now. But if the League permits black people to voice their opinions, what’s next? Treating all black people equally? Paying college players for their labor in the fields?

And if you don’t agree with my opinion, too bad. Brave and courageous soldiers died for my right to free speech!

Our 11th most read article of the year.
(Originally published September 25, 2017.)

1. I’m incredibly beautiful but it’s an accident, I swear!

2. I love Jane Austen if this is a comedy, or the Brontë sisters if this is a drama.

3. I eat a lot, lol.

4. I love listening to music almost as much as I love listening to you talk about music.

5. I’m smart but not as smart as you.

6. I’m extremely knowledgeable about exactly one subject.

7. I have a great sense of humor, by which I mean, ha-ha — you’re so funny.

8. I’m not funny, but I am hilariously adorable when I get stressed out.

9. I have only one friend. Now she is funny.

10. I seem mysterious, but that’s just because I have almost no personality whatsoever.

11. My ex-boyfriend is a jerk, or maybe just boring.

12. I’m so nice.

13. When I’m sad, I drink wine alone.

14. I live well beyond my means in a beautiful apartment, but it’s somehow not an issue.

15. I lose my ability to walk in high heels when I get angry.

16. I really like you even though I shouldn’t due to some extenuating circumstance.

17. My parents are complicated and/or dead.

18. I have a vaguely creative job that I seem to be good at, but that’s not the point.

19. I believe in you!

20. I’d love to travel but haven’t had a chance to for some reason, probably because this is a metaphor for my lack of life experience, so instead I constantly talk about all the places I want to visit, probably because that’s a metaphor for my desire to break out of my shell and finally start LIVING.

21. I’m not perfect, which you know not because of my actions, but because I very dramatically told you so once.

22. If I’m half as wonderful as I seem, I’ll get sick of your shit and dump you very soon.

23. This is the most I’ve ever talked about myself! Normally I’m just listening to you or talking about that one subject I’m an expert in.

24. I will save you but don’t worry, you’ll still be the hero of this story.

Read an interview with Mary Cella about the writing this list over on our Patreon page.

11 risotto recipes to make the restaurant staple a regular in your dinner rotation. Read More

Six major brands including General Mills, Nissan, Verizon, and Vizio hope to feel The Force in December when Disney releases Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The companies plus fashion designer Christian Louboutin and health technology maker Royal Philips plan “an extensive global promotional campaign” to support the movie, Disney’s Lucasfilm says today. They will include “specific, custom-designed campaigns and innovative programs” to “complement the overall marketing campaign.”…

“Rocket Man” – Kim Jong Un (North Korea)

“Bennie and the Jets” – Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel)

“Crocodile Rock” – Malcolm Turnbull (Australia)

“All Quiet on the Western Front” – Angela Merkel (Germany)

“Border Song” – Enrique Peña Nieto (Mexico)

“Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher” – Theresa May (United Kingdom)

“Candle in the Wind” – Queen Elizabeth (United Kingdom)

“Blue Eyes” – Justin Trudeau (Canada)

“Tiny Dancer” – Emmanuel Macron (France)

“Hakuna Matata” – Barack Obama (Kenya)

“Little Jeannie” – Jean-Claude Juncker (European Union)

“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” – Pope Francis (Vatican City)

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight/Nikita” – Vladimir Putin (Russia)

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

A new sports hall in Thailand highlights the aesthetic power and physical strength of bamboo, a flexible and fast-growing natural material. In total, more carbon is captured in the bamboo than was used to treat, transport and use it for construction, rendering its carbon footprint neutral.

Located at the Panyaden International School in the Chiang Mai province, the new building was designed by Chiangmai Life Architects, a firm specializing in natural materials like bamboo and rammed earth.

The symbolic design was inspired by the lotus, an important Buddhist and Thai symbol. Its natural materials tie it to scenic surroundings while open sides allow for passive ventilation for cooling purposes.

Despite its organic appearance, the structure is engineered to resist earthquakes, high-speed winds and other forces of nature.

The complex is able to accommodate 300 students, spanning over 8,000 square feet, and is used to host games of basketball and futsal, a variation on soccer that takes place in a court. It can also be used for student gatherings and visiting speakers.

Like wood, bamboo is becoming an increasingly appealing material for architectural construction thanks to its rapid growth rate and ability to sequester carbon — the natural look and feel are a nice touch, too.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Chicago's legendary Riot Fest is a marriage of Slam Dunk and what Reading and Leeds Festival used to be when headliners were more Linkin Park and Metallica than Kasabian and Muse.

This year, the biggest bands playing were Taking Back Sunday, Paramore, Jawbreaker, Nine Inch Nails, and New Found Glory, alongside a sprinkling of hip-hop acts. Riot Fest is made up of all sorts, many of them wearing Black Flag vests and oversized trucker caps. And because Americans have no drinking culture, as a Brit, stumbling around half-drunk, you're acutely aware of sobriety at every turn.

Besides the best punk line-up of the year, there was plenty more to enjoy this year, from women riding motorcycles on a tightrope accompanied by a trash metal soundtrack, to kids devouring weed edibles by the To Write Love on Her Arms stand. One night, I lost my friends because I came across a guy from a southern state with a black pig in a pentagram choker, bucking on its leash to At the Drive-In. "You can pet him—he's friendly," the owner told me, writing the pig's Instagram details on a Zimbabwean note.

This is the tone of Riot Fest. These are the things I overheard.

I don't care if you drove us here; you can't go to bed, you fucking loser, it's 8 PM. Go sleep in the grass. You're always an embarrassment at these things.

[Musician upon ending his set] Love yourself!

I just got back from tour with Neck Deep, it was pretty gnarly.

My mouth has never tasted more like a goat's asshole as after those noodles from last night.

[A man wearing a band vest] Sleeves are bullshit.

There are no bigger fakers than Green Day. Have you heard Billie Joe and his fake fucking British accent?

Man A: FIDLAR is a little depressing.
Man B: What the fuck, Steve, you can't even read, I'm not listening to your bullshit.

Legit I saw Andrew W.K. sitting on a keg looking very not party earlier.

The bad fashion here is contagious. I saw a big fat guy yesterday with overalls and no shirt. God bless America.

We did so much Molly for the first time ever that no one could explain the entire night.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are the shit, but what I'm saying is I wouldn't be wearing their shirt in public.

You know who I'm glad is not playing again? Tenacious D.—Fuck that Jack Black, man.

Man A: If I wear the same outfit here every day but change the shirt, can't go wrong.
Man B: No dude, you fucking stink like ass, I'm sorry.

The Fall of Troy is still gnarly.

Man: My boys are playing tonight. They've been my boys from way back when.
Woman: You keep saying that but you barely know them.
Man: They're my [boys].
Woman: Please shut up.

I got this vegan tattoo but I'm only really half meat, half vegetarian now. *points around to the seven-inch word "vegan" across her shoulder blades*

I've been drinking since 9 AM and now I'm having to hold your fucking head up to listen to emo.

I saw a Pikachu belly button ring on a stand over there that I want to get before Say Anything, it's pretty random.

Girl: Have you seen Jawbreaker before?
Man: Of course, countless times.
Girl: Interesting, they haven't played for 20 years.

Swearing is awesome. Fuck!

Say Anything's Max Bemis: This song's about break-up sex.
Teen boy 1: Oh god, can we please leave.
Teen boy 2: Stop being so fucking miserable for five minutes.
Teen boy 1: I'm allowed to feel sad.

Is it excessive to say I live for ska?

Ska is lifeblood.

Girl 1: Is that lizard man?
Girl 2: Who the fuck is lizard man?
Girl 1: He's that guy dressed as a lizard, with green tattoos all over his body. He works at the circus and does stuff with Nine Inch Nails somehow. My friend Brenda says she fucked him, apparently.
Girl 2: Get your picture with him.
Girl 1: Omg no, I need to be plum drunk as a skunk for that shit.

Did you see the pigs earlier? You know pigs are hard fuckers. Like, they will fuck and then they will fuck you up and then they will fuck you too.

What's your favorite song? Mine is the one that goes, 'Punch in the face, punch in the face, uhhhh punch in the face.' It's catchy.

Man A: Who wins in a fight in 2017, though? Jesse Lacey or Adam Lazzar?
Man B: Do you need to ask that question? You see how he still fucks with that mic swing? He will crack you and Lacey in the balls with that mic, no question. Any day, any way.

Follow Hannah Ewens on Twitter.

The song about Romelu Lukaku’s penis is not just ‘banter’ because the trouble with supposedly positive stereotypes is that they tend to be accompanied in the minds of those who hold them by distinctly less complimentary ones

Why is it racist to say Jews are careful with their money? Why is it racist to say Asians are good at maths? Why is it racist to say black men have 24-inch penises? Guys, these are compliments! Your lot are never satisfied, are they?

And so to some Manchester United fans’ chants about their striker Romelu Lukaku, which a totally encouraging number of people simply cannot see are racist. To be super-clear (and apologies to those who realised this in 1964 or whenever): any assumption about someone made solely on the basis of that person’s race is racist. It may also be banter – but it is racist banter. And if anyone’s still struggling with the logical underpinnings of that incredibly simple rule of thumb, we’ll be diving deeper into why in a minute.

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• Kick It Out write to club after footage emerges of ‘alleged racist chanting’
• Song, heard at Old Trafford last week, makes reference to Lukaku’s penis

Manchester United have been urged to stop their supporters singing a song about Romelu Lukaku that makes reference to the size of the striker’s penis on the basis that it reinforces racist stereotypes.

The anti-discrimination organisation Kick It Out intervened after footage emerged of United fans singing the song, which goes to the tune of the Stone Roses hit Made of Stone, during the team’s 3-0 victory over Basel at Old Trafford in the Champions League last week. It is believed to have been repeated during Sunday’s 4-0 win against Everton at the same venue when Lukaku, who joined United from the Merseyside club for a fee of £75m rising to £90m with add-ons in July, scored one goal and assisted another.

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• Arsenal have lost their past five matches at Stamford Bridge
• Wenger may revert to back four after switch worked against Cologne

Being questioned about tactics is never Arsène Wenger’s favourite thing. On his list of irritations that must be tolerated as part of the job, it seems to be a high flyer. So in the immediate aftermath of Thursday night’s chaotic Europa League game, with questions flying around about the handling of overcrowding, ticketing, fan behaviour and a kick-off delay, when the Arsenal manager was politely asked about whether he was leaning towards a return to a good old back four after his recent dalliance with a defensive trio, he looked a little irked. It says a lot that he was probably more comfortable dealing with the issue of crowd control than how he wishes to set up his team strategically.

On Sunday Arsenal face another of those worrying away fixtures against top sides that tend to be bring out the vulnerabilities in their make-up. Stamford Bridge has not been the scene for a happy excursion for a while, with five Premier League defeats in a row on Chelsea’s turf (at an aggregate score of 15-2). If Arsenal are to attempt to make sure they can compete with more substance than they managed with their meek trip to Anfield last time they hit the road, the way they set up is important.

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[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

A Ford van zooming around the Washington D.C. area last month, seemingly without a human in the driver’s seat, wasn’t self-driving after all: it was a man in a ‘seat suit.’ A fake driverless car might seem like a weird experiment, especially considering the fact that there’s an entire fake town for testing self-driving vehicles at Ford’s disposal. But as it turns out, they have their reasons: observing how people react to seeing it. While Virginia Tech has already been testing autonomous vehicles in the area, they’re still using human overseers to take over the wheel in case something goes wrong.

In the video above, a few people muse aloud, “Is that a self-driving car?” Slow-motion shots show the vehicle passing by with a seemingly empty driver’s seat. But the fact that there’s a man camouflaged as a car seat is almost more interesting, anyway. After learning of the stunt, Adam Tuss of NBC Washington followed the car around until he could pull up next to it at a red light and get a shot of the interior, revealing the driver’s hands and legs. “Brother, who are you?” he asks in the video. “What are you doing? I’m with the news, dude.”

This is one of the strangest things I've ever seen @nbcwashington @ARLnowDOTcom pic.twitter.com/8ipKEnkeiq

— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) August 7, 2017

John Shutko, a Ford self-driving researcher, divulges some answers in a piece on Medium.

“We’re teamed up with [Virginia Tech] to test our communications method and to explore how pedestrians and bicyclists react to self-driving vehicles with no human in the driver’s seat. Of course, we do need someone in the seat right now, so we dressed a human up in a seat suit to make it appear as though there was nobody inside our simulated self-driving Ford Transit Connect. This seat suit allowed us to collect real-world reactions to an autonomous vehicle driving on miles of public roads in northern Virginia, without actually using an autonomous vehicle.”

Six different drivers wore the suit throughout August, reporting that they started out on a test track before moving onto the streets, and that the suit was definitely uncomfortable. Ford hasn’t released detailed results as yet — there is a lot of data yet to be gathered. Eventually, though, they aim to share their findings with standards-making organizations and collaborate on future industry-wide safety measures.

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[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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“Amazon has set off a scrum among cities that are hoping to land the company’s second headquarters — with the winner getting the prize of a $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs over the next two decades.” — New York Times, 9/9/17

Dear Mr. Bezos,

Have you considered headquartering Amazon.com in Hell? It’s the kind of disruptive, eye-catching, value-creating move that would really get the tech world talking and, in all fairness to our competition, Hell is far nicer than Philadelphia.

Unlike cities on the earthen plane, Hell can easily accommodate a structure housing 8 million square feet of Class A office space. We can even build it for you for free, using the labors of the legion of the damned, whose numbers total in the hundreds of billions. Hell, I have already ordered it built as a gesture of good faith. It is magnificent and the gargoyles on top are actual, living gargoyles. You just try getting a building with breathing, gurgling gargoyles in some white-bread nowhere town like Denver. Check it out on Zillow and you’ll see that it’s priceless; the abattoir alone is worth ten of your current headquarters. And, if you don’t want it as an abattoir, it would make a great gym, which will keep your health insurance rates low.

Amazon will find Hell’s labor and employment laws quite business-friendly. We have an incredibly talented and highly motivated workforce, paid in its own forlorn tears. We also have more PhDs than you’ll find on the entire planet Earth and that’s not counting people with honorary degrees from Emory.

You’ll find a wide range of workers down here, not just executives. We have security personnel, maintenance workers, and technicians. If you need a call center, Hell has the largest concentration of already up and running call centers in the known universe. If you’ve ever tried to get customer service from Comcast, believe me, you’ve dealt with one of ours.

You know that plan you have to use drones to deliver packages? The one that is never, ever going to get off the ground? Scrap it. Set up your headquarters in Hell and you can deliver packages safely and securely via our own eldritch spirits. Imagine instant Prime delivery of a Keurig K575 Single Serve Programmable K-Cup Coffee Maker with 12-oz. Brew Size and Hot Water on Demand (Platinum) by Azazel, the ancient demon once known to the Abyssinians as “the Eater of Souls.”

We can even add features to your products. Does your iPhone-enabled Sphero Star Wars branded BB-8 remote control droid perhaps seem possessed by Molech, the mighty creature once worshipped throughout all of Canaan? Let us know in your review! Your friends will marvel at how your toy has gained the unearthly power of flight and has learned to demand persuasively for human sacrifice.

I know you’re worried about access to airports. Good news: every airport in the world, especially those in the United States, serve as gateways to Hell. Where do you think Chili’s Too comes from? Who do you think trains TSA workers? It is especially easy to get from Hell to LaGuardia. Most people can’t even tell they’ve made the trip.

To top it all off, there are no taxes. We believe you will do Hell a great service by adding “jobs at Amazon” to the list of tortures and degradations that we can inflict on lost souls. Among the denizens of Hell you will also find some of history’s most successful tax cheats. All of Arthur Andersen is down here. Remember them? You will save billions on labor and you’ll get a refund from Uncle Sam every year.

Mr. Bezos, thank you for considering my proposal. Surely, you will choose to inhabit the new headquarters we have built for you. Don’t delay the inevitable by kicking it to the board or refusing our offer. Some day, Mr. Bezos, you will find yourself in our magnificent building, of this I have no doubt. You know deep down in your dark heart that Amazon belongs in Hell. It’s time to come home, Jeff.

Kind Disregards,
Satan

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Greek gods and other figures from antiquity tower over a very different world from the one in which they were born, entwined with contemporary graffiti on building facades and other urban surfaces across the globe. The style of PichiAvo, a Spanish street art duo composed of individuals nicknamed Pichi and Avo, is undeniably distinctive, taking imagery usually associated with static, immobile stone statues and enlivening it with a sense of movement and lots of vivid color.

Sometimes, these figures are playfully interacting with the imagery around them; at other times, they’re translucent against their colorful backdrops, almost like ghosts temporarily visiting our realm and checking out what we’ve done with the place. The duo began working together in 2007, painting their creations all over the streets of Spain. Since then, their work has only become more complex.

They were particularly prolific in 2016, splashing a cherub across a five-story apartment building in Denmark and completing a mural of Prometheus in Murcia, Spain for the Festival Arte Urban Mar Minor. They also painted a pair of Greek figures on the side of an abandoned factory building in Valencia, Spain. For the latter, they tried some new techniques, including using spray paint for the background and mixing it with acrylic paint to create the statues.

The duo recently did an interview with Global Street Art, explaining how their styles work together and why they choose these particular visuals.

“We started our style thinking we should bring everything we know about art together and adding graffiti to help bring classical art back to life. The best way we could think of to do this was by working with classical sculpture, sculptures that today are white but people don’t realise they used to be covered in paint, so our painting the figures with the graffiti is our small tribute to the classical sculptures that have marked many historical recognised artists.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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