Happy Birthday Sesame Street.

I’m sure everyone has seen the wonderful Google tributes the past week. Sesame Street premiered on November 10th, 1969. Today, it turns 40. While I am not necesarrily a big Sesame Street fan, I am a huge Jim Henson fan. So, in the spirit of 40 years of Jim Henson’s Sesame Street, here are some related links that are worth looking at:

• The 101 Muppets of Sesame Street.
• 8 Memorable Sesame Street Celebrity Cameos.
• Today’s anniversary episode features guest star Michelle Obama.
• The Cookie Monster Interview.
• Big Bird Sings at Jim Henson’s Funeral.
• Google Sesame Street logos.
• Sesame Street Wikipedia (for all the background information you never knew).

Roomba Pac-Man

Three computer scientists at Colorado University programmed several Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners to act like Pac-Man and the ghosts which chase him. Jack Elston, Cory Dixon, and Maciej Stachura did so in order to demonstrate the unmanned aerial system that they are developing.

More info: link

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source: Black and WTF

Week 9 picks

Week 9. Bills, Browns, Raiders, Rams, Vikings, and Jets on the bye. Winners in bold.

Washington Redskins AT Atlanta Falcons
Arizona Cardinals AT Chicago Bears
Baltimore Ravens AT Cincinnati Bengals
Houston Texans AT Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs AT Jacksonville Jaguars
Miami Dolphins AT New England Patriots
Green Bay Packers AT Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Carolina Panthers AT New Orleans Saints
Detroit Lions AT Seattle Seahawks
San Diego Chargers AT New York Giants
Tennessee Titans AT San Francisco 49ers
Dallas Cowboys AT Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers AT Denver Broncos

Wu-Tang album covers redesigned as Blue Note album covers

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Historically, Blue Note has principally been associated with the “hard bop” style of jazz (mixing bebop with other forms of music including soul, blues, rhythm and blues and gospel). In 1956, Blue Note employed Reid Miles, an artist who worked for Esquire magazine. The cover art produced by Miles, often featuring Wolff’s photographs of musicians in the studio, was as influential in the world of graphic design as the music within would be in the world of jazz. Under Miles, Blue Note was known for their striking and unusual album cover designs. Miles’ graphical design was distinguished by its tinted black and white photographs, creative use of sans-serif typefaces, and restricted color palette (often black and white with a single color), and frequent use of solid rectangular bands of color or white, influenced by the Bauhaus school of design.

With The Wu-Note Project, Logan Walters redesigned the classic Wu-Tang Clan albums in the fashion of this Blue Note design. Amazing.

The Wu-Note Project: link

Map Cuts by Karen O’leary

Artist Karen O’Leary of North Carolina cuts paper by hand to create these stunning street maps. Shown here is a photo of her New York City map cutting.

“four paper panels, each panel measures approximately three feet by four feet (overall dimensions, six feet in width x 8 feet in height) and exposes city blocks of brooklyn, manhattan, queens, and the bronx.. city blocks were cut by hand and forms a delicate paper art. only one original panel of each exist.”

She also has completed cuttings of Paris and London.

View more New York City images here: link
View Paris images here: link
View London images here: link
View her Etsy store here: link

Fred Lebain

“fred lebain is not scared of the mundane or clichés.
instead, he plays with them, superimposing their images on one another. last spring lebain
took images of various areas in new york city, each one of them an occasion of a ‘first visit’
to the location, in which he photographed and then printed in large poster format. later,
he returned to the same spots for a second visit, capturing a larger framed shot in which
he aligned the poster documenting his first visit to the current scene.”

View the photos here: link

How to Use An Apostrophe

Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has just released a new web project called How to Use An Apostrophe. It’s one of those surprisingly basic grammar concepts that so many people screw up. It’s a 2 minute read, so go freshen up!

http://apostrophe.me/

Put This On

Put This On: web video series for dudes on “dressing like a grownup”

Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor, who are each best known for internet funnystuff, have stitched together a wonderful non-comedy web video series called Put This On.

The first episode is all about denim and is great. Looking through the entries on the site leads me to believe it will quickly be added to my daily internet routine. I am excited to see what these guys can produce!

http://putthison.com/



China’s Weather Modification Office

Sometimes Asian science and engineering really just frightens me. Remember the old saying that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it? Well, not anymore! China has a Weather Modification Office that aims to control the weather:

Chinese meteorologists say they brought about Beijing’s earliest snowfall in a decade, after seeding rain clouds with silver iodide to ease a drought.

The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said.

But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting road, rail and air travel.

Read the full article: link