RHONDA - 3D Drawing Tool

Every now and then...we see something that just fascinates us.

From the Rhonda Forever site:

The hands on the screen belong to James Paterson. He is using "Rhonda", a 3D drawing tool developed by Amit Pitaru circa 2003.

The first half of the video shows James doing a drawing start to finish. In the second part James is cycling through various previous drawings, created between 2004 and 2005.
For the last several years Rhonda has been shown in galleries, museums, festivals and conferences. We are excited to finally release this video online (about time!).

Even more exciting is that our good friends Zach Lieberman (openframeworks) and Zach Gage (synthpond) have just joined the Rhonda Team! With their help we're creating stable releases of Rhonda for various platforms.

They're signing up people for the home version...

$30 MILLION for Google Lunar X Project

There's a contest going on that could, potentially, carve up the terra firma in a field near you. As part of it's insanely popular Google Earth application, Google now allows you to view, tour and fly around the Moon. For the "so inclined", there's a contest afoot that offers a rather substantial prize and all you have to do is shoot and transmit a couple pictures.



From the Lunar X Project site:


The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded and must be registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.



There were 21 teams (2 have dropped out) vying for the $20 million first prize. Registration happens with only a few clicks and you can throw your name in the hat HERE. Among the teams remaining are official sounding names like "EuroLuna", "Odyssey Moon" and "LunaTrex". The logos and artwork are, for lack of a better term, sterile and resemble exisiting NASA branding. I believe an opportunity exists.



I'm looking for volunteers to join the ACME ROCKET COMPANY entrance into the Lunar X contest. To the right, you'll see a detailed drawing of the original ACME rocket based on the inner machinations of one Wile E. Coyote. Though his travels to the moon are few...his experience with munitions and rocket travel are legendary.

While on the moon...we'll continue the search for Alludium Phosdex...the Shaving Cream Atom.

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Enjoy.


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Brass Monkeys, Balls and Big Wigs

You've heard the expression, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". I always assumed the origin of the saying involved the gelding of an actual monkey. Before we get to the soprano simian...a few other choice colloquialisms and how they got here from there.

In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted (artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint). Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.'

As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs.. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig.' Today we often use the term 'here comes the Big Wig' because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.

In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was
usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.' Today in business, we use the expression or title 'Chairman' or 'Chairman of the Board.'

Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told, 'mind your own bee's wax.' Should the woman
smile, the wax would crack, hence the term 'crack a smile'. In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt . . .and 'lose face.'

Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the 'Ace of Spades.' To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't 'playing with a full deck.'

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important.. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to 'go sip some ale' and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. 'You go sip here' and 'You go sip there.' The two words 'go sip' were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term 'gossip.'

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in 'pints' and who was drinking in 'quarts,' hence the term 'minding your'P's and Q's '

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. However, how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square-based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations. However, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys'. Brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled; consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.'

Heineken Has Terrific Ads!!!

It used to be the best beer ads were consistently put forward by Budweiser and Miller. Lately, though, there's been a run of terrific ads from European labels. The Stella Artois ads are great...and Heineken ads are just plain wonderful.

Enjoy!!!

Twitter and Facebook Make History

As a bit of a follow-up to a post on the 3 Wins site "Should Your Non-Profit Use Facebook"...I was sent the link to a dynamite presentation from Clay Shirky that draws lines between traditional media and the historical significance of applications like Facebook and Twitter. The video can be found on the TED site.

Should Your Non-Profit Be On Facebook?

The numbers on Facebook...from 3 Wins Consulting:

A quick “one-pager” released by iStrategyLabs shows some seemingly innocuous statistics about the proliferation of Facebook in the United States. Before we tear into the math, let’s set a couple benchmarks (US Census Bureau) to establish some perspective:

• there are about 307 million people in the US.
• 49% are male (approx. 151 million).
• 51% are female (approx. 156 million).

Now, here’s the math on Facebook over the last six months:

• January 4, 2009 there were 42 million Facebook users in the US.
• July 4, 2009 there were 72 million Facebook users in the US.
• An increase of 30 million users in 6 months.
• This means every day…165,000 people signed up…about 40 people every hour.

According to the numbers shown, 20% of Americans are....

Click HERE to see the rest of the story.

Stop Motion Magic

I'm absolutely fascinated with animation, claymation and stop-motion. I've horsed around with a camera, a huge SD drive and different players...but I get the sense success in the medium requires an attention span greater than that of your average squirrel.

Here's a couple videos from folks that got it right.

Never Give Up

A dynamite post from Gary Potter on the 3 Wins Consulting site.

Never Give Up
We all struggle with the process of managing unexpected changes in life. Recent challenges in my world have me looking back to material that has been meaningful and introspective. What follows is taken from the wonderful work “Never Give Up” by Joyce Meyer: A farmer once took an egg from an...

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