Binaryjesus

(Images: Kirsten Dirksen)

Charles Sacilotto and Marie Granmar of Stockholm, Sweden, found a novel way to keep their summer house warm all year around, even during brutal Scandinavian winters. They built an entire greenhouse around the outside of their home. The 4-militmeter thick glass keeps it toasty inside. Sacilotto says “At the end of January it can be -2°C outside and it can be 15 to 20°C upstairs.”

This means that the couple can do a lot with their home that normally isn’t possible in Sweden. The outside of their (inside home) is a garden, with tomatoes, peppers, grapes, and other plants growing throughout the extensive deck system. There’s even a goldfish pond and an internal sewage system. You can read more about it at the San Francisco Globe.

-via Daily of the Day

Scholastic pulled a children’s book called A Birthday Cake For George Washington from its catalog. It was released on January 5 and immediately drew backlash from book critics and in Amazon reviews. The book shows George Washington’s slave chef Hercules and his daughter Delia joyfully preparing a cake for Washington’s 65th birthday. Adult reviewers understandably object to the portrayal of slavery as joyful, particularly as it is introduced to young children. You can read about the book at Buzzfeed.

Hercules was a real person, and his real story is fascinating. He is today the most famous slave of the Washingtons, not only for his reputation as a chef, but for the fact that he successfully escaped. President Washington resided in Philadelphia during his presidency, which was the nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800. Washington brought Hercules to the city to cook for the family. But Pennsylvania passed a law in 1780, An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, which placed various restrictions on the practice. One part stated that any slave brought into Pennsylvania who held residency there for six months would become free. Washington got around that by sending his house slaves back to Mt. Vernon before their six months was up -and bringing them back again after some time, resetting the clock. That’s why Hercules was sent back to do regular labor at the farm in Virginia. The slave rotation scheme was technically illegal, but no one called the president out on it.    

When George Washington was celebrating his 65th birthday on February 22, 1797, the president was in Philadelphia, and Hercules was at Mt. Vernon in Virginia -and that’s the day he left, never to be seen again, at least by the Washingtons. While Hercules was legally freed after Washington’s death in accordance with his will, there is no evidence that he ever knew about that. Hercules’ wife and children were owned by Martha Washington, and they were never freed. You can read more about Hercules at the Mt. Vernon website with further details at Wikipedia.

(YouTube link)

Grant Woolard (previously at Neatorama) took 57 pieces of classical music -most of which you are familiar with- by 33 composers and mashed them together in this delightful video. Some really disparate tunes turned out to sound absolutely lovely together. How many can you name? Oh, and be ready for some surprises. -via Metafilter

Curved lines, Dani Olivier

“Wide Open” is the latest music video from the British electronic duo The Chemical Brothers. In this Dom & Nic-directed video, dancer Sonoya Mizuno (who many of you will remember from Ex Machina) slowly morphs into a synthetic version of herself.

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Gillian Anderson has been pretty public about her fight to get paid the same amount as David Duchovny for her work on The X-Files. She’s clearly a badass. To Fox, though, I have to say: Are you fucking kidding me?

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“Valse à quatre mains” (“Waltz with four hands”) is a short animated film by a group from Supamonks Studio, which is gorgeous in its music and imagery. The attention to detail is amazing—just look at the cracks in the hair of the violinist!

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One of our favorite photographers, Star Foreman, recently engaged on a mission to conduct 30 photo essay in 90 days. With that many different shoots to imagine and arrange, Star never ran out of ideas. Amazing portraits of some familiar faces, and fantasy scenes from a life clearly spent in and around Hollywood, Star's work is visually, and painstakingly, beautiful.

Star worked in partnership with the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation and had the opportunity to show me around the amazing Montalbán theater, where her gallery show will be held. Star also had full use of the space as her studio, and many of her essays are fantastic explorations of costume, set and light. She has mermaids in urban settings, princesses in sports cars, and marionettes!

The 30/90 is a passion project, financed through crowd sharing, where Star Foreman in partnership with the Ricardo Montalbán Foundation, completed 30 photo essays in 90 days. There are mermaids, princesses, ballerinas, bellydancers and so much more in vibrant, campy tableaux. With 30 photo essays, 400 people, 30,000 images and only 90 days to complete shooting, The 30/90 gallery show and possible book will take people into the mind of Star Foreman who created a series of images unmatched in scope and time.

Star Foreman

Organizer of 30/90 Gallery Show

Named one of the top 200 photographers by Luerzer's Archive, Star Foreman is a fine art, editorial and fashion photographer in Los Angeles.

A contributing photographer for the LA and OC Weekly, Star's work has also graced the cover of the Village Voice, Pasadena Magazine, The Dallas Observer, and Tease and Cake magazine. Her work has been featured in The LA Times Sunday Edition, Frame Magazine, Los Angeles magazine, Backstage Magazine, LA Confidential, Adobe Masterclass, SF Weekly, Latino Leaders, and INStyle Australia.

Star received an honorable mention from the IPA awards (a division of the Lucies) in 2012 for her photo series of Dita Von Teese and was nominated in 2011 for a Los Angeles Press Club Award for her images of Flying Lotus. Two of her pieces are part of the permanent collection at the Riverside Art Museum.

Star holds a BA in photography from the Art Center College of Design.

The Gallery Show, hosted by The Montalban in Hollywood, CA will feature images from each photo essay, as well as wood prints, banners, and a no host bar!

Friday, January 29, 2016 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (PST)

1615 Vine St - 1615 Vine Street Los Angeles, CA 90028

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see these prints in person!

Tickets and more information here.

What is the difference between USA and USB?

One connects to all of your devices and accesses the data, the other is a hardware standard.

(via r/funny)

To protest the UK's antiquated film censorship regime, Charlie Lyne crowdfunded a movie of paint drying. Having raised £5963, Charlie was able to submit a 607 minute film, which the censors now have to sit through. Charlie's just done an "ask me anything" interview at Reddit, with some illuminating answers.

About a year ago, I went to a filmmaker open day held by the BBFC at their offices in Soho. I'd expected to see quite a lot of conflict between the BBFC examiners and the visiting filmmakers whose work was at the mercy of the board, but there was nothing like that. Most of the filmmakers — even those who'd had trouble with the BBFC in the past — seemed totally resigned to the censorship imposed by the board, even supportive of it. I think that shocked me into action.

Previously: Watching paint dry: epic crowfunded troll of the UK film censorship board

Our friends at TRNDlabs, who sponsored our Weekend of Wonder, have announced the new SKEYE Nano Drone with Camera.

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If so, please contact me. You have been blocking my mail server for years, and have not responded to dozens of requests through this form. Thanks in advance.

The 74th Goodwood Members’ Meeting starts in two month, and people like Mike Vardy will be racing there, driving a 1905 Fiat Isotta Fraschini with a WW1 airship engine producing 3,000 lb ft of torque for a top speed of 127mph.

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Not sure about Pesco's new throne. [HAROW via CBR]

Huge props to io9 readers Johnny Larocque and Nicole Cooper, who crafted this adorably spooky yet undeniably festive gingerbread house inspired by the TV show Ash vs Evil Dead and the Evil Dead movies. Ash vs Gingerdead? Check out more photos below!

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“Piggy” from Lord of the Flies could’ve used one of these.

Netflix Secret Categories enables you to search by code for categories like "Spy Action & Adventure," "Campy Movies," "Teen Dramas," "Satanic Stories," and "Alien Sci-Fi."

(via /r/InternetIsBeautiful)

Cary Gabriel Costello is a trans-man in Milwaukee. Two-thirds of the time when he flies, the TSA has a complete freakout over the "anomalies" his body displays on the full-body scanner. (more…)

Neodymium magnets can be so powerful as to be dangerous: you don't want two of them "spotting" one another when a fleshy fingertip is in the way of true love. So how do you ship a 6" one safely?

"So, is it really shielded?" asks YouTube's Braniac, chuckling to himself. "No."

The magnets featured in the video appear to be from magnetportal.de—what's a good place to buy irresponsible magnets in the U.S.?

At their sole discretion, and without any public guidelines, TSA agents can now opt you back into the full-body scanner, even if you opt out. (more…)

It’s expected to cost a staggering $20,000 if it ever goes into production, and its battery can only power the device’s 36 fans for about six minutes. But unlike all the other hoverboards grabbing the media’s attention these days, Arca Space’s hoverboard actually hovers.

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Regardless of what you think of Bernie Sanders as a leader, person, or whatever, today he has proven one thing very effectively: he doesn’t know shit about cars. I’m basing this on a quote from him on his Facebook page, which demonstrates a deep, rich automotive ignorance.

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All of us can agree that drinking and/or using drugs when you operate a car, or a motorcycle, is a terrible idea. But here’s the story of one reader who had a very strange encounter with somebody who was ridin’ high.

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