Shared posts

12 Oct 00:25

Winsor & Newton #InspiredByProMarker Drawing Challenge

by Colossal

preview-full-lil_wah

Wanna win a stockpile of high-quality markers? Winsor & Newton are inviting graphic marker lovers all over the world to participate in their global #InspiredByProMarker drawing challenge. For this new contest, artists are asked to create an artwork based on a template of lines derived from the Winsor & Newton logo using predominantly ProMarkers and/or BrushMarkers.

The challenge winner will receive the full range of ProMarkers and BrushMarkers—that’s 220 high quality markers. Two additional runners-up will be awarded with a marker prize, as will a favorite selected by the public.

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preview-full-dorotherichard-1

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The rules for the competition are simple:

    1. Create an original artwork using the lines of the template.

    2. Use mainly Promarkers and/or BrushMarkers for the artwork and upload your completed piece to Instagram using the hashtags #InspiredByPromarker and #WinsorNewtonChallenge.

    3. The challenge runs until midnight (GMT) on October 31st and the winners will be announced on November 30th. So far, over 650 entries have been posted and Winsor & Newton is super excited to see all the new entries still to come.

For full terms and conditions, please visit the contest page. Get drawing, and good luck!

28 Sep 00:08

A “Quick Perspective” on the Scale of the Manmade and Natural Marvels That Surround Us

by Kate Sierzputowski
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If the Willis Tower (1,729 ft) was placed into Russia’s Mir Mine, the tip would only stick out 7 feet past ground level. (All images via Kevin Wisbeth)

College student Kevin Wisbeth, creator of the Youtube series “A Quick Perspective,” puts size in layman’s terms for those who might not be able to conceptualize the true width of a B-2 Bomber’s wings, or understand the immense depth of Russia’s largest mine. Wisbeth digitally composes manmade structures and natural wonders to put into context each of their sizes, seamlessly fitting the world’s largest oil tanker into New York’s Central Park and hovering the M-1 Rocket motor just above a Smart Car.

You can watch the digital presentations of Wisbeth’s comparisons on his Youtube channel. (via Quipsologies)

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If the Seawise Giant (1,504 ft), the largest oil tanker ever produced, was placed into the main lake in New York City’s Central Park, it would only have 350 feet of extra room in the front and back of the tanker.

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The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest standing structure in the world (almost measuring 2,722 feet tall). If placed in New York City, it would stretch almost 1,000 feet past the One World Trade center and almost 1,300 feet taller than the Empire State Building.

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If the Titanic (882 ft) was placed on the deck of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, the ship would have 210 feet of deck room left.

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The B-2 Bomber is one of the most advanced and most expensive airplanes in the world. The wingspan of a B-2 is 172 feet, which is 12 feet wider than an NFL football field.

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Prehistoric bugs were larger than average day bugs due to the higher oxygen levels. The Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis was a species of scorpion that grew to 24 inches long, or the size of a normal house cat.

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The M-1 Rocket motor was designed back in the 1950s for the NASA space program and would have been the biggest motor ever built had it been constructed. It’s designed diameter was 14 feet, or wide enough to fully cover a Smart Car with 2 feet to spare on either side.

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The Death Star’s estimated width is around 99 miles across, or around 1/4th the length of Florida.

18 Nov 21:25

Across the Sky: A Record-Breaking 500 Meter Slackline Walk in Utah

by Christopher Jobson

It’s not often we stop to consider feats of human strength and agility, but this is definitely worth an exception. On November 15, Théo Sanson completed what is likely a new world record for slackline, a 500-meter walk between The Rectory to Castleton Tower in Castle Valley, Utah. The cinematography does a fantastic job of capturing just how ridiculously far he had to walk. Filmed and Edited by Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk and Anson Fogel of Camp4 Collective. Madness. (via Devour)

07 Sep 00:42

How to help your family and save lives.

by Neil Gaiman
It's very safe here: we're in Tennessee, in a perfect little house we are borrowing from a midwife who has gone out west to her son's wedding. We are cooking, eating,  catching up on our sleep. Amanda's due in a week and her Nesting Instinct seems to be manifesting chiefly in trying to clean out her email inbox. She's also cleaning, washing and folding baby clothes and clean towels. I'm writing a lot, enjoying the lack of cell-phone connection, and the lack of internet connection, and getting things written without distraction. (I wrapped the first draft of a script on Thursday, wrote a preface to SANDMAN:OVERTURE on Friday.) We've felt like a couple for a long time. We're starting to feel like a family.

And the safety feels very fragile, and like something to be treasured.

There's a photo I'm not going to post. You've probably seen it already: it shows Aylan Kurdi, a three year old Syrian refugee, dead on a beach in Turkey after his family tried to get to Greece. It made me cry, but I know I'm overly sensitive to bad things happening to small children right now. I'm reacting as if he's family.

In May of last year I was in a refugee camp in Jordan. I was talking to a 26 year old woman who had miscarried her babies in Syria when the bombs started falling. She had made it out of Syria, but her husband had left her for another woman he hoped would give him babies. We spoke to women eight months' pregnant who had just walked through the desert for days, past the dead and dismembered bodies of people fleeing the war, like themselves, who had been betrayed by the smugglers who had promised them a way to freedom.

I gained a new appreciation for the civilisation I usually take for granted. The idea that you could wake in the morning to a world in which nobody was trying to hurt you or kill you, in which there would be food for your children and a safe place for your baby to be born became something unusual.

I wrote about my time in the Syrian refugee camps here, in the Guardian. (You can read it here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/many-ways-die-syria-neil-gaiman-refugee-camp-syria and you should, if you have time. I'll be here when you get back. And here are some photos from my time there: http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/may/21/neil-gaiman-syria-refugees-jordan-in-pictures)



Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon have, between them, taken in millions of Syrian refugees. People who fled, as you or I would flee, when remaining in the places they loved was no longer possible or safe.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has made a plea to Europe that you should read (and insist that whoever represents you also read)  at http://www.unhcr.org/55e9459f6.html
The only ones who benefit from the lack of a common European response are the smugglers and traffickers who are making profit from people's desperation to reach safety. More effective international cooperation is required to crack down on smugglers, including those operating inside the EU, but in ways that allow for the victims to be protected. But none of these efforts will be effective without opening up more opportunities for people to come legally to Europe and find safety upon arrival. Thousands of refugee parents are risking the lives of their children on unsafe smuggling boats primarily because they have no other choice. 
The UN Refugees Agency wrote about words, and how they matter. In this case, the word migrants and refugees: they don't mean the same thing, and have very different meanings in terms of what a government's obligations are to them.  http://www.unhcr.org/55df0e556.html
 One of the most fundamental principles laid down in international law is that refugees should not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom would be under threat...
Politics has a way of intervening in such debates. Conflating refugees and migrants can have serious consequences for the lives and safety of refugees. Blurring the two terms takes attention away from the specific legal protections refugees require. It can undermine public support for refugees and the institution of asylum at a time when more refugees need such protection than ever before. We need to treat all human beings with respect and dignity. We need to ensure that the human rights of migrants are respected. At the same time, we also need to provide an appropriate legal response for refugees, because of their particular predicament.

It's worth making sure that people are using the right words. A lot of the time they don't realise there's a difference between the two things, or that refugees have real rights -- the rights you would want, if you were forced to leave home.

A lot of people have been asking me about ways that we as individuals can change things for the better for refugees: there's an excellent article in the Independent about practical things you can do to help or make a difference.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/5-practical-ways-you-can-help-refugees-trying-to-find-safety-in-europe-10482902.html

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is feeding and housing and housing and helping literally millions of refugees around the world, always with the eventual goal of getting them safely home one day. Their funding comes from governments and private individuals all over the world. But this crisis has stretched them thin. You can help.

Donate to them at http://rfg.ee/RN3uy​ -- and please, share the donation link:
With your support, UNHCR will provide assistance such as:
  • Deliver rescue kits containing a thermal blanket, towel, water, high nutrient energy bar, dry clothes and shoes, to every survivor;
  • Set up reception centres where refugees can be registered and receive vital medical care;
  • Provide temporary emergency shelter to especially vulnerable refugees;
  • Help children travelling alone by providing specialist support and care.
As I said on this blog when I came back from visiting the camps:

I came away from Jordan ashamed to be part of a race that treats its members so very badly, and simultaneously proud to be part of the same human race as it does its best to help the people who are hurt, who need refuge, safety and dignity. We are all part of a huge family, the family of humanity, and we look after our family.  




(I'd love it you would spread this post around, and spread the links inside it. People who know that I'm involved in Refugee issues have been asking me about places to donate and what to do and what to read, so I put this together for them, and now, for you. http://rfg.ee/RN3uy​ was the donation link.)
03 Jul 01:49

Plans For New Shibuya Skyscraper Unveiled

by Johnny
new shibuya station 2019

renderings of the new Shibuya Station Building slated to open in 2019

The face of Tokyo continues to change. This week Tokyu Corp. unveiled plans for what a new skyscraper steps from Shibuya station will look like. In addition to crowd-drawing landmarks like the Hachiko sculpture and the chaotic Shibuya crossing, the station will now be getting a 230-meter skyscraper that will boast a luxurious public sky deck that offers views of said landmarks, as well as Mt. Fuji.

new shibuya station 2019

If all goes as planned (and it usually does in Japan) the new development will open in 2019, a year ahead of the anticipated Tokyo Olympics. According to the press release (PDF) the 49-story building will be a mixed-use facility with retail, cultural spaces, offices and, of course, the 3000 square-meter sky deck.

The project is being jointly designed by a group of renowned Japanese architectural offices: Kengo Kuma, SANAA and Nikken.

new shibuya station 2019

new shibuya station 2019

the grand sky deck will offer views of Tokyo and, if the weather cooperates, Mt. Fuji

new shibuya station 2019

17 Oct 16:04

Peatlands

by Rebecca, The Clothes Horse

The other day we visited Peatlands Park which as the name might suggest is home to some typical Northern Irish bog-land. While the nature of the landscape might be entirely different, the wildness reminded me of the moors mentioned repeatedly in Wuthering Heights (a novel which was on my mind since we drove past a sign stating "Bronte Homestead" with an arrow and I spent a good while wondering which of the sisters it related to, if not all of them--perhaps a trip for another day). Within that novel the landscape is very symbolic of the relationship between characters and the threat of nature and untamed things in general. That novel just further reminds me of the tie between man and nature--the way we fear it and depend upon it, but also how quick we are to personify things that have no humanistic qualities. We annually name hurricanes and tornadoes, or think of daisies as cheerful, when neither has any more emotion than the other or control over its being. And yet when you go forth in a wood alone and start to feel a sort of mood emitting from the trees you are in fact only seeing a reflection of what is inside yourself but normally drowned out by the daily noise of society and technology...

Outfit details:
vintage boots
*pictures by Thomas