I Missed You!

Improv Everywhere is a group of New York based undercover improv agents who organize and execute missions to "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places".  Their missions are all pretty funny and involve some sort of over the top kind gestures.  Their latest mission called Welcome Back brought a huge smile to my face.  The mission involved 20 "agents" to camp out at JFK airport for the day to welcome strangers.  They found a driver in the airport carrying a sign with someones name on it.  Then they would fill out all of their welcome home signs accordingly.  When that person came to meet their driver they were also met by 20 strangers screaming their name, carrying balloons and flowers.  Watch a video of the event here.  This is such a brilliant idea.

A History of Microsoft Windows

Wired Magazine recently featured an online article about the History of Microsoft Windows.  The article contains a gallery of 12 screenshots from Windows 1.0 to Windows 7... it's kind of like seeing my life flash before my eyes.

Wanderlust

Wanderlust is a fun infographic map from GOOD Magazine.  It maps the most famous journeys of all time.  Factual and fictional adventures are mashed up together onto one map.  Each trip has information and images along the route.  Journeys range from Amelia Earhart's round the world trip to the route from Around the World in 80 Days.

Umbrella Today

When it comes to the weather forecast, sometimes simpler is better.  All you really want to know is whether or not it's going to rain today.  Voila, Umbrella Today is your answer.  It is a website that only answers one question: Do I need an umbrella today.  Answers are based on your Zip Code.  If this is the sort of information you require every morning, you can sign up for their daily text service.  Nothing makes me happier than a big fat NO in the morning.

RFIDs Fighting Bike Thefts

University of Portsmouth in the UK has started tracking student's bikes using RFID tags.  Students park their bikes in designated areas and then register the bike's location using a mobile phone.  Before retrieving the bike, riders must call and enter a pin number.  If a pin number is not called in, moving the bike will cause security cameras to zoom in on the action.  Oregon State University and city of Copenhagen are starting up other anti bike theft RFID initiatives.  (Found through rb.trends).

I Want to Make New Things

...I couldn't agree more.

Artwork and photo by Clifton Burt, inspired by a John Maeda quote. The photos is available in limited edition prints by 20x200.

Photojournalism of the Campaign

If you can bear a few more references to the American election, check out this stunning photojournalism collection from the New York Times.  The photos are divided along party lines.  Each photo tells a powerful narrative.  Together, the photos tell an elaborate story about the campaign process from a behind the scenes.

Typographic Links

Typographic Links was a book created by Dan Collier to experiment with typography.  Words in the book are sewn together with strings, creating analogue hyperlinks across the pages.  The red strings create a 3D web of information connections.  It reminds me a bit of Kevin Kelly's Ted Talk: Predicting the next 5000 Days of the Web.

Prayer Booth

Do you ever find yourself walking down the street and just need a minute to pause, reflect, or pray?  Maybe you want to, but you just don't know where or how.  Maybe a public prayer booth is the answer to all your problems.  Artist, Dylan Mortimer would like you to at least consider it.  The Prayer Booth is one of Dylan's many works that are intended to spark a dialogue about religion.  He considers it religious modern art.  (Found through Double Takes).

Street with a View

Artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley have managed to make street art out of Google's Street View in their project Street with a View.  They decided to blur fiction and reality to create the most interesting alley in the US.  They figured out when Google Street View would be recording the images for a small street in Pittsburgh and then decided to throw an event.  All of the scheduled activities were variations on the truth... a parade, a marathon, a heroic rescue, and more.  Check out a video the Sampsonia Way activities in progress here.

Plug into Now

I generally browse the web on high speed.  Sprint's Now Network Widget made me stop in my browsing tracks and pause in one place for a few minutes.  The widget displays all sorts of semi-useless, but incredibly interesting information about what is happening around the world and the web right now.  Displayed info includes tons of eggs being produced, the top word being used online, number of calls being made to 911, and much more.  I'm still watching the numbers tick...

Multicolr Search Lab

There are many different ways to search photos, one of the more useful ones is by using colour.  Multicolr searches 10 million Creative Commons Flickr images, using colour as its search parameters.  The process is powered by Idee's visual similarity search, Piximilar.  It allows users to specify between one and ten colours to search. The results link directly to the photo's Flickr site, providing easy access to the images.

Bob Books Flipbooks

Bob Books has come up with a way to make your home movies into tangible, bookshelfable, anologue experiences.  Much the same way your digital photos can be printed to take on a different life of their own, now you can turn your videos into flipbooks.  For £12.99 Bob Books' online software will help you upload, and edit your video into short, printed flipbooks.  I'm planning on making a whole bookcase worth.

Vote

If you are an American citizen please exercise your right to vote on November 4th.  There are 6.3 billion of us out there who will be affected by this election but do not get a say in the results.  If this is not a good enough reason to vote, GOOD Magazine has 1568 other reasons. Including: Universal health care means more beautiful people; There’s always a chance the empire will strike back; and, Thanks to the 24th Amendment, you can do it for free. Reasons 1-179, 185-1,148, 1,281 - 1,565.

Vincent Bousserez's Plastic Life

Vincent Bousserez's Plastic Life is a delightful new addition to my little people obsession.  Vincent has an endearing collection of miniature people on strange and wonderful adventures.  The scenes involve laundry motocross, brie hazmat teams and compact sunbathers.

Smash Shack

Sarah's Smash Shack is cashing in on all of our pent up frustration.  The Smash Shack is just as the name suggests, a place to go smash things.  It is set up like a shooting range, but instead of bullets, you buy plates, or glasses.  They have a menu of items to smash.  There is something appropriate for every occasion... glass flowers for a broken romance, picture frames for memories that need to be forgotten.  You can even bring your own items to smash (pending approval).  Too much fun.  Their only location is currently in San Diego.  I hope they expand soon.

Daytum

Daytum is a site that lets you collect and graph any sort of data you want.  It is currently in private beta, but I can't wait until it goes public.  Users each get their own site to display whatever type of data they are tracking.  The current examples are pleasantly mundane:  The cat's I've seen; The websites I visited this week; The amount of times I used technology this week; Meals I've made for dinner.  The graphic design of the data is fresh and simple.  Just one more example of why I'm changing my opinions about charts and graphs.

Ivan Tihienko's Augmented Reality

Ian Tihienko takes on augmented reality as his Bezalel academy of Arts and Design final project.  In his vision, cell phones and computers are replaced by holographic shadows.  Interfaces are projected over the ground for activities such as playing games, writing messages to others, or navigating. Watch this demo movie:

(Found through Fuzbiz)

IBM Green

IBM has decided to take on carbon.  Carbon is apparently the enemy of all green geeks... which is why you should buy an IBM (apparently).  I'm not sure I follow all the logic, but none the less, I'm enjoying their anti-carbon videos.  They include a Moose inspired green vandalist.  The 'green' street art is created by cleaning the walls of tunnels, roofs and the underground, to show green messages such as, unplug, ride bikes, or stop wasting money.

This Door is Alarmed

Talking back to signage... love it.