Fun Time!

Trekkers! Now you can show your true colors! Everyone knows you're a "Red Shirt." Now you can proudly proclaim to the entire world, "I'm here to die."

Get your Red Shirt while they last. Available in men's and woman's sizes. Kids will have to grow into their fate.

Order today and get a free 1.25" pin!

Order your Red Shirt here. $20 + S&H.

Travel Photo of the Week

The Milky Way as seen in the Mardi Khola valley in the Himalayas.
Photo by Anton Jankovoy.

Thanks Mary!

Home Sweet Trailer Home

The folks who live in this restored 1956 Spartan Executive Mansion motor home have beautifully remodeled the interior. From wood flooring, a granite countertop and sink area to the wood stove, this tiny home just oozes comfort.

Nomadic Education

Education in a yurt for nomadic, Mongolian children.

Resistance Is Futile



On the left is a colored photo of the UW device overlaid on a
graphic of the other components. On the right is a magnified
image of the chitosan fibers. The white scale bar is 200 nanometers.

It seems like that for much of the 20th century, there were those that dreamed of fusing man with machinery. Seems the problem though lie in the fact that electronics ran on, well, electrons and humans ran on ions and protons.

Looks like the University of Washington has fixed the problem by inventing a proton based transistor. The study was published online last week in the interdisciplinary journal Nature Communications.

This is great news for amputees, but also looks like humanity might soon becoming a little less human.

It Takes A Village

Hundreds of college students from around the U.S., and even a handful of other countries, have been busy this week building a village of solar-powered homes on a park at the nation's capital.

Back at West Potomac Park on the National Mall, the students have been working long days to pass building inspections and then compete in 10 events over 10 days. The categories include market appeal, energy balance and, new this year, affordability — the goal being to build homes costing $250,000 or less.

The teams — which include universities in China, Belgium, Canada and New Zealand — have to live, cook and clean in the tiny homes (1,000 square feet or less, the rules say) to test their energy efficiency.

Besides solar panels, some of the homes have walls filled with material to store heat throughout the day and release it at night. Others have bioremediation beds to clean rainwater collected from rooftops.

The village isn't permanent. Once winners are chosen next week in the energy-efficiency contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the village will be dismantled.

One of the 19 homes will stay behind, however. Dubbed Empowerhouse, it is a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and will be used at a low-income Habitat community in Washington, D.C.

The Rainbow Connection

Today is the birthday of Jim Henson. He would have been 75 years old today. Happy birthday Jim, we miss you.

Life is a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.

Fun Time!

PBS looks at Steampunk.
The Steampunk Workshop

Travel Photo of the Week

Tiny house near Skaftell National Park, south Iceland

Little Footprint Big Forest

King County, in Washington State, held a design competition — Little Footprint, Big Forest — to create an overnight structure from a surplus, reclaimed, 20-foot shipping container. The county has about 26,000 acres of parks and open spaces with trails, trees, and streams.

Hybrid Architecture was selected as the winning design for their REtain design. The winning design had to use salvaged and locally-sourced materials, be economically achievable, both for the county to build and maintain and for the public to use, and could be replicated across the entire park system.

On a Clear Day, You Can See Manhattan...and Brooklyn...and Liberty Island...and...

Click to view full size.

SunRay Kelly

I was introduced to SunRay Kelly through the book Shelter by Lloyd Kahn. Kelly's beautiful cob buildings flow with the land around them and each one is unique, utilizing materials drawn from the surrounding environment. Although I am not a fan of MTV, the first ten minutes of this particular show features Kelly's daughter, Kumara, giving a guided tour of her father's work.

Get More:
Extreme Cribs, MTV Shows

Is It Possible to Build a Home for $1,000?

Considering the recent items I've run on small houses, I think that it might be good idea to bring up an article from Friday's Wall Street Journal. It seems that architects at MIT have been issued a challenge to develop a home that can be built for $1000 or less.

“There is a huge proportion of the world’s population that has pressing housing needs,” says Tony Ciochetti, a professor with the Cambridge, Mass., school’s Center for Real Estate. “Can you build affordable, sustainable shelter for such a large population?”

The prototype, dubbed the Pinwheel House, was designed by Ying chee Chui, a 2011 graduate of MIT’s Department of Architecture. Measuring 800 square feet, it was constructed in Mianyang, part of China’s Sichuan province.

The house boasts a modular layout with hollow brick walls with steel bars for reinforcement and wooden box beams. It is designed to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. The house boasts a modular layout with hollow brick walls with steel bars for reinforcement and wooden box beams. It is designed to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. This prototype turned out to be more costly — $5,925.

While the tiny price tag wasn’t possible, the mission remains noble.

This house, with the roof removed, was designed by Ying chee Chui as a part of MIT’s “1K House” project.

Fun Time!

Some people just have too much time on their hands. Take Ursus Wehrli for instance. He like to organize things. In fact, he takes it to an extreme. All you have to do is look at these two pictures to the right and you'll get the idea.. The top one is a standard bowl of alphabet soup. The second is the same bowl after Mr. Wehrli has tidied it up.

He explains his preoccupation in a TED talk.

Is This Our Future?

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I have an interest in smaller "alternative" housing. This is one of the reasons why. Our nation is undergoing a change, an economic "downsizing' of sorts. I believe this to be irreversible. We keep talking about "jobs" as if talk and waving our hands will make them appear. We are stuck in a view of life from the past where we are dependent not on government, but on the private sector to provide security for life. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Work is not an entitlement. We have to be competitive and I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

If you've followed my blog, you've seen various items on this change such as Stewart Brand's talk about squatter cities on TED.COM. In Brand's talk, squatter cities are forming around large cities in developing countries so people can take advantage of the economic opportunities that are available there and not in the rural countryside.

In America, the opposite thing is happening. As economic opportunities drain from our urban areas (mostly to be "outsourced" overseas), these squatter cities are forming so their inhabitants can continue to take advantage of the few services and opportunities that are still available to them. Here is a recent item on people receiving free dental care in a homeless village in Seattle. All you have to do is Google "homeless tent city" to see how these villages are on the rise.

Below is just such a story, this one from New Jersey. My question is when are we, as a nation, going to realize that the longer this goes on, the more likely it is to happen to more and more of us (sorry about the ad before).

Print Me Out An Airplane

The technology of 3D printing is finally beginning to mature. In its infancy, you could only print out fragile plastic toys. Now, printing out metal parts for airplanes is about to become reality.

Near Bristol, England, Innovation Works is making a small part for an Airbus A380 airliner. Their printers use software that works out where the parts need to bear loads and places material just in those areas, halving the weight of the complete part without sacrificing strength. 3-D printers can make complex shapes that can't be manufactured with conventional techniques. That saves energy, metal, and money. The complex, curving forms that result can't be cast in a mold or carved out of a larger block even with the most advanced computer-controlled tools, but they can be printed in a succession of layers tens of micrometers thick.

Before and after: Two versions of a hinge for a jet-engine cover illustrate the capabilities of 3-D printing. The one in the background is made with conventional manufacturing methods. The printed shape in the foreground weighs half as much.

Here's a slide show about the process.

Travel Photo of the Week

A man pours water on the feet of the Gomateshwara statue in Karnataka, India.

Desk With Secret Spaces For Small Places

Daniel Schofield is a furniture and product designer/maker based in the United Kingdom. He worked as a carpenter before attending Sheffield Hallam University.

"I try to design and make furniture that makes you smile. Good functional design is always at the heart of my pieces. I am passionate about eco friendly, desireable furniture that has a longevity about it."

Unsuspecting people presume that the storage compartment is the draw on the front. What they don't know is that by pulling the FSC Ash work  surface, the whole top slides open revealing the hidden storage area, perfect for personal papers and electronic equipment.

There are other interesting items on his website, Daniel Schofield Design.

Why Johnny Can't Play

Toys today take most of the fun out of playing. Bright colored plastic takes the place of simulating toys that spark the imaginative fantasy play so necessary for a developing mind. Yesterday I was at a birthday party for a three year old and most of the presents were based on movie tie-ins. Toys like this tend to limit play to media approved themes and ideas. All toys come with warning labels. Perhaps these toys should also come with warning labels like the ones below.

Fun Time!

Glove and Boots one of the very first web series featuring puppets. Not much to say about these guys as they've hidden their human identities pretty well, but they do have a lot of pretty funny videos on their YouTube channel. They've also apparently hidden $10k somewhere in one of the five boroughs of NYC and put the clues to finding it in these videos. Ten thousand dollars, just for the finding, now that does sound fun.

Resource Furniture

Are you trying to get the most out of your tiny space? Are you obsessed with Transformers (more than meets the eye)? Meet Resource Furniture.  They specialize in convertible space saving furniture. Book shelves that become queen beds? They got 'em. End tables that double as drawers. Check.

The items are a bit pricey, but the value is definitely there. See the video below.

NYC in 90 Square Feet

Felice Cohen lives in a studio apartment that measures 12 feet by 7 feet. She is a professional organizer and knows how to design a space for maximum use. $700 a month and she has immediate access to one of the greatest cities in the world.

As humanity gravitates to the cities, we will need to use the space more effectively and efficiently. Imagine what Cohen could do with 120 Square feet.

NYC in 78 Square Feet

Luke Clark Tyler is a young architect living in New York City. After living in Kenya in a mud hut, he decided to move into more spacious digs. Now he has a 78 square foot apartment in Hell's Kitchen. His use of space is very efficient and his only real sacrifice is a shared bathroom.

Tiny Homes Directory

If you're here, then you know I have an interest in small habitations. I think WAY too much is wasted in conceiving and building structures that end up being under-utilized.

If you are intrigued by this notion, there is a directory of tiny homes now available.  It is a free downloadable PDF file and includes most of the companies, blog and resources available concerning this "movement."

Many  people are rethinking their lives and choices in this time of "economic restructuring" and this is a valuable resource for those actively coming to grips with a changing world.

Download Tiny House Directory PDF

More Cool Trailers

Haberdash Vintage is a website and blog by Amy Lynn Chase. She runs a portable and traveling trailer full of vintage clothes at various flea market type events in the Boston, Massachusetts area. She also loves trailers and has an obsession with mobile retail.  The picture to the right is just one of the many that she has collected on her site.

She owns this beaut.....

Check out her trailer photos here.

Modernist Photography At Boston's Museum Of Fine Arts

This exhibition of photographs features approximately 40 American modernist photographs representing highlights from the Museum's own collection as well as The Lane Collection. This exhibition focuses on the concept that the camera was, in many respects, the ideal tool for modernist artists of the day and that this resulted in some of the most truly groundbreaking work to have been produced in any medium.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Now through April 1, 2011

How To Take Great Photos: Be Clint Clemens

Many years ago, I lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with being a musician, I worked in the advertising industry, first doing work for others and eventually working my way up to become a photographer, cinematographer and then a producer and director of commercials.

On that climb up I did a lot of model and special effects work for photographers such as Stephen Grohe (I hope to feature him soon). One of my dreams was to do work for Clint Clemens, a great photographer who, at the time, had a studio at the end of Newbury Street. I would often walk past his huge double doors (big enough to get a car through)  and think , "How can I get in there?"

Alas, it never came to pass, but I still love his work. Here is a sequence of three shots showing how he set up the final shot,  for a campaign for Prada's sport clothing line .

Just smashing.

Fun Time!

The Turing Test was developed by Alan Turing in 1950 as a way to measure the ability of a computer to exhibit human intelligence. The idea was that if a computer could fool a human being into believing they were holding a discussion with another human being then the computer had passed the test.

Personally, I think this will never happen, that at some point the human will always realize that they are not talking to another human being. After 61 years I still think that day is far away. The video below only supports my point.