Protei is an articulated, opensource autonomous sailing robot, initially designed to cleanup oilspills by puling a long oil absorbent boom.
Mind boggling innovations:
Crazy, brilliant stuff.
Truth be told, It doesn’t look like much, really just some dude’s basement, and the music leaves much to be desired, but hot damn, can that robot do the highbar!
And a double back handspring!
Here’s a quintuple backflip:
There’s more on hinamitetu’s youtube channel
On October 1st, the Republican members of congress voted to change the rules of the House so that only the speaker of the house could bring the budget to a vote, prior to this, any member of the house could put budget up to the vote. If put to a vote, the a clean CR budget would pass, the government would open, and these shenanigans would end. Republican Speaker of the House Boehner is singlehandedly keeping the government shut. Unprecedented and Unconscionable.
UPDATE: It was pretty much a party-line vote, held at 1am on October 1st.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jd-iaYLO1A&w=640]
When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.
— Cree Prophecy
Learning how to think means learning how to have some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enought to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. If you cannot do this as an adult, you will be totally hosed.
…
And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
David Foster Wallace, Kenyan College Commencement Speech, 2005.
UPDATE: The DFW trust has taken down the excellent video from The Glossary, so I’ve updated it with just a straight recording of the speech from youtube. Thanks Trustees!
NYC study finds that bikes lanes boost local retail sales by almost 50%, at a time when average retail sales increased by 8%. Additionally, dedicated bike lanes reduced all injuries for all street users by over 30%.
Also relevant:
3d printed hangable mini planters that funnel excess water down to the planters below. Buy a 10 pack at Shapeways.
My goal with “Oscillate” was to visualize waveform patterns that evolve from the fundamental sine wave to more complex patterns, creating a mesmerizing audio-visual experience in which sight and sound work in unison to capture the viewer’s attention.
Purported Picture Of Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Jesse James and Charlie Bowdre.
Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday were all in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1879 which is when I believe this tintype photo was taken. The tintype depicts four deputised men, one wearing a badge and the other three wearing white bandanas hanging from their pockets representing that they are Peace Officers as the white flag is a symbol of truce.
I don’t know anything else non-explosive, that you can pick up with one hand, and that can move five tons one hundred feet — with safety, precision, and astonishingly little work. Like many good tools the Tirfor is a thing of beauty, superbly designed and engineered.
via Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools.
Perched in the canopy, the Luminair Tree Tent would be a perfect wilderness getaway. Wonderfully round, with optional desk, wood stove, and kitchenette, I think I’m in love.
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