Cooper Griggs
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Atención, suelo mojado (banana edition)
Da igual que sea amarillo, que ponga CUIDADO en español o en inglés. También da igual que tenga forma de plátano resbaladizo. A pesar de la claridad del mensaje, seguro que más de uno se pega un costalazo por pasar sin cuidado, riéndose: "Mira, un plátano, ja ja ja..."
Diseñado por los taiwaneses Hsieh Chen-yuan and associates. Visto en LikeCool
Ver más: peligro, semiótica, señalesSeguir @NoPuedoCreer - @QueLoVendan
The NSA's mass surveillance program for phone call metadata is still going
Wookie and Chew by James Hance
Cooper Griggsvia CL (AKA Christopher Lantz)
Too cute.
Wookie and Chew by James Hance
LAPD embraces the clean and silent electric motorcycle
NY medical marijuana law could mean big bucks for vaporizer makers
National parks will soon ban most drone flights
Cooper GriggsKind of surprised they took this long to do so.
President Obama Hosts First Ever White House Maker Faire
Yesterday President Barack Obama hosted the first ever Maker Faire at the White House (see previous post). The event featured more than 30 DIY inventions, including a robotic giraffe and a low-cost newborn incubator. The President announced several initiatives during the event intended to help support and educate American makers. He also named July 18th a National Day of Making.
“Our parents and our grandparents created the world’s largest economy and strongest middle class not by buying stuff, but by building stuff — by making stuff, by tinkering and inventing and building; by making and selling things first in a growing national market and then in an international market — stuff “Made in America.” — President Barack Obama
"Our manufacturing sector's been adding jobs for the 1st time since the 1990s." —Obama #NationOfMakers #MadeInAmerica pic.twitter.com/MXuYkvYABP
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 18, 2014
photos by Pete Souza
Hackers use Snowden leaks to reverse-engineer NSA surveillance devices
Cooper GriggsTake THAT NSA asshats!
Quantum computing firm calls 'bullshit' as scientists undermine its technology
Cooper GriggsThe "Emperor's New Clothes" come to mind here.
GoPro cameras show what it's like to endure a terrifying car crash
Quiz: Which Game of Thrones character would you be?
Cooper GriggsWOW! Totally nailed my character, so accurate!
One Crazy Graduation Cap
Cooper Griggsvia Mr. Lantz
Don’t Tread On My Internet, An Amusing T-Shirt Featuring an Ethernet Cable Homage to the Gadsden Flag
Don’t Tread On My Internet is an amusing Teespring T-shirt featuring an Ethernet cable coiled up in an homage to the Gadsden flag. Full proceeds for the sale of the T-shirt are being donated to the Internet advocacy nonprofit Fight for the Future.
via Alexis Ohanian
Would You Put Much Syrup on These?
Lancia TrendVisions - Trendwall | 6730
Photographer explores ‘following the herd’
Cooper Griggslol!
Sheep are a staple on farms, nursery rhymes, and a nightly ritual to lull one’s self to sleep, but rarely are they subjects in contemporary art. In a series of photographs, however, by New York-based photographer Davide Luciano, these animals are transformed into real people in a series of bizarre — almost Orwellian — portraits.
In his Sheep Nation series, Davide explores a society that is desperate for uniqueness and originality, but ultimately succumbs to “following the herd.”
Davide first earned a lot of buzz after releasing his Pothole series: an exhibited project highlighting urban flaws by playfully creating imaginative scenes out of potholes.
“I wanted to bring forward the idea that we are all sheep, that we are slaves to consumerism, and that advertising has us chasing a need to be accepted,” Davide explains. It exposes our species as another animal, to provoke a reaction and self-reflection. Initially, it was going to be six scenes shot in various, everyday contexts. But as we were getting closer to the shoot date, I decided to incorporate portraits. I realized then that behind the mask and makeup, each sheep had something unique, which for me, gave the series more depth.”
Davide says each scene in Sheep Nation have many elements with specific meaning. Every detail is perfectly planned out from the graphics to the branding of the products to the hairstyle and clothing. One example is Dolly’s Book Club.
“The sheeple are all at a bus shelter,” Davide explains. “They are all reading the same best-selling detox book, which is advertised behind them. I was inspired by Oprah’s Book Club, and the impact that celebrities have on our purchases. I named this book club “Dolly” after the most famous of all sheeps. She was the first mammal to be cloned. There are elements such as these in each scene, and I think this is what I think keeps the viewers’ attention.”
Having attended film school, Davide has a history of making large-scale, photographic prints and approaches his photography with a cinematic influence.
“The process took a year to make — from beginning to end,” Davide says. “We were a big crew of about 28, it took three days to shoot. We had three makeup artists, one special effects artist. It took about three hours per model to apply the makeup, and the amazing part about it was the transformation of each one of the models and how they became the character.”
Davide says the reaction he’s trying to get from his viewers varies depending on the body of work.
“The goal sometimes is to make the viewer laugh, or other times it’s to highlight an issue,” Davide says. “I like to challenge myself. I like to just take an idea and see how far I can bend it. I amuse myself in the pre-production stage, and then I love the challenge at the end of the day … creating something original.”
Visit Davide’s photostream to see more of his photography.
Previous episode: Photographer takes stunning portraits without showing people’s faces.
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The Last Letter
French Disconnection
Me: “Thank you for calling [Store]. How can I help you?”
Customer: “Hi. I’m looking for a specific game for my son and want to know if you have it there.”
Me: “I can certainly check that for you, sir. What’s the name of the game?”
Customer: “John Dark.”
(I look it up under both ‘John’ and ‘Dark,’ but nothing comes up.)
Me: “I’m sorry. I can’t seem to find a game by that name in my system here. Are you sure that’s the name of the game?”
Customer: “Yeah, I’m 100% sure. It’s for his PSP.”
(At the mention of the PSP, I realize which game he’s talking about, and find it rather quickly.)
Me: “Ah, I see. The name of the game is actually Jeanne d’Arc, and yes, we do have—”
Customer: “No, that’s not the name of it. It’s John Dark.”
Me: “I mean no offense by this, but I understand that it may be a little hard to pronounce. It’s Jeanne d’Arc. It’s actually French for ‘Joan of Arc.’”
Customer: “But my son doesn’t speak French!”
Me: “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you need to know French to play the game. It’s all in English; only the title is French.”
Customer: “But my son doesn’t speak French! And it’s John Dark!” *hangs up*
(I think that’s the end of it, but a little later that day, a man comes into the store and makes a beeline for the PSP rack, and finds the game.)
Customer: “I want to by this game here, John Dark.”
(I decide not to correct him, thinking there’s no reasoning with him, hoping I can just get him checked out quickly. As I’m getting the game, he comments.)
Customer: “Yeah, I called earlier and one of your guys lied to me about this game.”
Me: “Oh, I’m so sorry about that, sir. What did he say?”
Customer: “He said that you have to speak French to play this game! But my son said you don’t have to speak French! And he doesn’t even speak French!”
Me: “I deeply apologize for that, sir. I can assure you that you don’t need to understand French to play this game.”
Customer: “Good. I’m glad I was able to find this John Dark game for my son!”
(A regular customer of mine is nearby, and can’t stand hearing this guy talk.)
Regular: “No offense, dude, but it’s called Jeanne d’Arc. I don’t even know French but I can still tell that that’s French for ‘Joan of Arc.’”
Customer: “BUT MY SON DOESN’T SPEAK FRENCH!”
dorkilybeautiful: dontbearuiner: The Levi people said they’d...
The Levi people said they’d like to make me an outfit- a denim kilt, and a whole denim Nightcrawler blue thing for the [X-Men] premiere, and then they said “Wouldn’t it be great if you had a big black leather belt which had Nightcrawler studded on it?”
So we go to this leather shop in San Francisco and we’re buying the belts and there’s all these metal cock rings on the wall, millions of them. And I was like “How do you know how big a cockring is? Because you can’t tie it or anything, it’s just a metal thing.” And the guy at the shop heard me and went “Would you like to try one on, sir?” and I was like “oh….ok!” so he gets one down off the wall and goes “You look like a medium” and I’m like “Oh, fuck you.”
…so then the premiere comes, and then you know when you go to those things there’s endless television crews you’ve got to do little sound bytes for…and I’m wearing a kilt, so they say “So Alan, are you being a true Scotsman? What are you wearing under your kilt?” and after a while I couldn’t resist it any longer- “I’m wearing just a cockring.” and they’re like “No, really….” and I’m like “Yes, really.”
And then I got so brazen about it that by the end of the party, people didn’t believe me and I was like “Feel it!” So I would get people’s fingers, like the head of the studio and everything, and I would put their fingers so they could feel like, the metal at the top bit. Not near anything dangerous, just above the thing. And then eventually word got around and there was like, a line of people waiting to feel the metal of my cockring. So yeah, that’s my cockring story! [x]*incoherence*
Alan Cumming, I can’t even with you.
My goddamn hero