Taiwanese artist Yen Jui-Lin hand-carves adorable wooden characters that are so full of personality, they look like they could spring to life at any second. Each of Jui-Lin’s playful “little characters” is co-designed with his two children. Together they share ideas, and then Jui-Lin brings them to tangible reality by carving the quirky cast of characters out of wood. (Naturally, he gifts a number of them exclusively to his children.)
Jui-Lin uses a selection of different woods, stains, and varnishes to achieve such variety in his creations. Ranging from animalistic creatures, to siamese twins joined at the head, these objects are all one-of-a-kind, with each seeming to have their own mischievous personality. Their characters are often conveyed with subtle engravings, forming little mouths and expressions. Some also function as vases, with grass or flowers as sprouting tufts of hair, while others are simply unique toys for kids and lighthearted adults.
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Taiwanese artist Yen Jui-Lin hand-carves adorable little characters out of wood.
Each character is developed from the imagination of his own children, who together sketch their ideas.
As tomorrow's FCC net neutrality vote looms, Ars has been sharing as much of our reporting on the topic as possible. And this week, a longtime reader nudged us about this classic on the FCC's Carterfone decision from nearly 50 years ago. "This story is extremely relevant to the current Net Neutrality debate in that it provides a historical precedent to debunk arguments about regulation stifling innovation," the reader writes. "It shows that this battle is not a recent development, but goes back decades. Might you consider republishing it so that this story can get new exposure?"
Ask nicely (and offer a great suggestion), and you shall receive. This story originally ran in June 2008. Below, it appears unchanged except for updates to the time frame (the piece originally ran on the decision's 40th anniversary).
Nearly 50 years ago, the Federal Communications Commission issued one of the most important Orders in its history, a ruling that went unnoticed by most news sources at the time. It involved an application manufactured and distributed by one Mr. Thomas Carter of Texas. The "Carterfone" allowed users to attach a two-way radio transmitter/receiver to their telephone, extending its reach across sprawling Texas oil fields where managers and supervisors needed to stay in touch. Between 1955 and 1966, Carter's company sold about 3,500 of these apps around the United States and well beyond.
In the end, however, Carterfone's significance extends far beyond the convenience that Thomas Carter's machine provided its users over a decade. It is no exaggeration to say that the world that Ars Technica writes about was created, in good part, by the legal battle between Carter, AT&T, and the FCC's resolution of that fight—its Carterfone decision. The Carterfone saga starts as the appealing tale of one developer's willingness to stick to his guns. But it is really about the victory of two indispensable values: creativity and sharing.
Florian de Looij first sat down with a copy of Photoshop when he was 12 years old and apparently he never got up. The Netherlands-based designer has been exploring digital animation and illustration ever since, and late last year started sharing his animation experiments on a Tumblr called FLRN GIF. Florian says he’s always been inspired by the likes of M.C. Escher and other artists working with optical illusions, something that has clearly influenced the direction of his design practice. He tries to make a new GIF each day, and you can see tons more in his archives. (via Cross Connect)
![I'm working on a car capable of evaluating arbitrarily complex boolean expressions on "honk if [...]" bumper stickers and responding accordingly.](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/self_driving_car_milestones.png "I'm working on a car capable of evaluating arbitrarily complex boolean expressions on \"honk if [...]\" bumper stickers and responding accordingly.")
