While watching a show about cars on the History Channel I learned about a “jet” powered car Chrysler developed in the mid 1960’s. Apparently Chrysler had tried for a number of years to produce a viable turbine powered car, and in 1963 they finally found a solution that worked. The car had 80% fewer moving parts than it’s contemporaries and could run on any combustible liquid, including vegetable oil. From a Barracuda Magazine article:
Although the recommended fuel was diesel, the Turbine Car would run on ANY flammable liquid. At one point or another, Turbine Cars were run, without adjustments, on unleaded gas, kerosene, jet fuel, home heating oil, peanut oil, tequila and even Chanel No. 5.
For a variety of reasons, such as the odd sounding engine, which apparently sounded like a vacuum cleaner, sluggish acceleration and tightening EPA emission restrictions, Chrysler did not have the confidence to put the turbine car into production. It’s too bad really. I could see an evolution of this car being just as green (if not more green) as the diesel cars on the road today running on bio-diesel or vegetable oil.
Some links for ya:
Wikipedia: Chrysler Turbine Car
Barracuda Magazine: The 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car
I have to admit I did not know this fun fact: Lemmings are not really suicidal. There’s a weird and messed up story behind the myth. Gotta love Snopes.
Half man, half machine, all wackiness!
The Museum of Modern Robocop Art
Bow before your new God!
Update: This link is even better.
Think people, WWFSMD?
Brian Eno, easily one of my biggest influences as a designer. In the 70’s Eno compiled a list of phrases that he used in his creative process. At certain points during his projects, he would randomly choose one of the phrases and use it to guide his decisions. He would interpret the phrases based on how they related to what he was working on. Later, he paired up the phrases with artwork by Peter Schmidt, and created a deck of cards called Oblique Strategies. For a while, you could buy a copy of the deck, but they are pretty hard to find now a days. Unless you have a Mac.
In College I created my own version of the Oblique Strategies deck. In a conversation I had about the Oblique Strategies, a friend of mine told me about the concept Webster’s Oracle. It works in a similar way as the Oblique Strategies card deck, only with a greater degree of randomness. Basically, instead of picking a card, you randomly choose a word from the dictionary by flipping through it and blindly pointing at a spot on the page. Neat idea, I thought, but how does the internet figure into this. Because the internet had to figure into it.
I began compiling my own list of phrases that I thought might work on an Oblique Strategies style deck of cards. Some of the phrases were song lyrics, some of the phrases were ones I had actually used in past projects, some were definitions to words I randomly choose from the dictionary. So I had the phrases, now I needed art of some kind. Using Webster’s Oracle I randomly chose a word, then did a Yahoo search on that word. I saved the first image I found from the first web page that come up in the search. I collected the same number of images as I had phrases, then randomly matched them up. I ran the images through Adobe Streamline, in order to give them a common visual style, then created my own deck of cards.
I meant to post about this earlier, but forgot. Phahahooha reminded me of it today, cause she’s cool like that. Everyone should watch 30 Days on FX. It’s on a few times during the week, but Wednesday at 9:00pm is it’s regular time slot. In the first episode, Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and his fiancee live for 30 days on minimum wage during the winter in Columbus, Ohio. Spurlock can be a little full of himself at times, and the opening to the show almost made me change the channel, but based on the first episode, it’s actually a very insightful show. I’m trying to put together a little viewing party for this Wednesday’s episode, along with watching last week’s. Let me know if you might be interested. Also, Morgan Spurlock has a blog.
“It is the year 2005. The treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobots’ home planet of Cybertron. But, from secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron’s moons, the valiant Autobots prepare to retake their homeland.”
I just got done watching Transformers: The Movie, (of which I own the DVD, your jealous, I know) and it kicked chromed butt. It’s got everything; 80’s rock ballads, giant fighting robots and… uh, yeah, that’s pretty much it. Oh, and great, no, good, no, decent animation. It’s what 2005 should be. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Transformers. Somewhere, in a box hidden deep within the dark reaches of my parents attic in San Antonio, I still have a small collection of Transformers. Someday I will reclaim them and the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons will begin anew.
BTW, if you’re at work and you need a way to waste time, I recommend The Transformers On-Line Encyclopedia.
And one more thing, living within our very own city of Austin, is Omega Supreme, the Autobot fortress. Check it out:
I posted some pics of the tonight’s Austin Poetry Slam semi-finals, to the photo’s section of this site. If you haven’t had the chance to go to Ego’s on a Wednesday night to check this stuff out, you really should.
Copying a good idea from George, I’ve tried to put together a list of albums I can’t imagine never having heard. This is really the kind of thing I could spend a few days or even a week contemplating or meditating on, but instead I came up with a quick, gut reaction, kind of list. They are listed below, in no particular order, with non-affiliate links to Insound, (with the exception of The Name of this Band is Talking Heads, which is unfortunately out of print.) These are not necessarily my favorite albums, but the ones that set directions in not only the kind of music I chose to listen to, but sometimes directions in my life.
The Name of this Band is Talking Heads
Actung Baby
Houses of the Holy
Mezzanine
Pieces in a Modern Style
Lincoln
Delicate Sound of Thunder
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Three of a Perfect Pair
Apollo
Eponymous
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
Blade Runner Soundtrack
Urban Hymns
OK Computer
U.F.Orb
Spike
