October 2, 2012

Pi in the sky (or at least the first 1000 digits). #whoa

“On September 12th, residents of the San Francisco Bay area witnessed the world’s largest temporary installation (150 miles long) 10,000 miles overhead as a team of skywriters wrote out the first 1,000 digits of pi. Each number in the 100 mile loop which started in San Jose and went as far North as Berkeley, was over a quarter mile in height. The installation was the work of California-based artist ISHKY, a graduate of UC Berkeley, who claims the project “explores the boundaries of scale, public space, impermanence, and the relationship between Earth and the physical universe.”” (text from Visual News)

By Ishky, via The Visual News.

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October 2, 2012

Wedding seating chart uses Periodic Table of Elements motif. #awesome

This is so awesome, I can only barely justify how awesome it is!

Via IFLS.

October 2, 2012

When a Crocodile Hunter Becomes a Planet Hunter

By DAVID NG

Cor Crikey! And g’day mate! Right now we’re walking up to Hawaii’s Gemini Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea. It’s got a beaut of a telescope inside, and we’re hoping to find a new planet today.

(Whispering) Here we are at the front door. But we should first give it a bit of space. Patience is important when dealing with telescopes. And we’ve got to be careful with that door. It’s locked! Looks like the observatory doesn’t open for another 20 minutes.

(20 minutes later) Alright mate! Let’s go! (running) Quickly mate! We’re already inside, but we’ve got to move fast! If you look around, you might see that there are other humans around here that will also want to use the telescope, but if you get there first, you’re in there mate. You can use one hand for the controls, and the other to fend the others off.

(Reaching the console) We’re the first here! And it looks like we’ll get to have it to ourselves too. Ripper! Looks pretty complicated, but I’ve been around telescopes all my life and this is definitely an “on” button. But before I press it, let’s first camouflage ourselves behind this adjustable office chair, just in case! I’m going to turn it on now.

(Apparatus makes a noise). Watch out mate! We’ve got to stay extra alert now. Remember – never do this without the supervision of an expert like myself around.
It’s on. And don’t forget to be on the look-out for other humans. We can scare them off by making ourselves look as big as possible – spread your arms wide and look like you’re real pissed. That’s right, like that. Beauty mate! Alright, now let’s go find us some planets…

(7 hours) Did you see that?

(12 days) Did you see that?

(4 week) Did you see that?

(6 weeks) Did you see that?

(7 weeks) Crikey! Did you see that?

(3 months and 1 week) Did you see that?

(4 months) Did you see that?

(5 months and 3 weeks) Did you see that?

(6 months later and looking weary) Well mates, that’s all we have time for in this show. It’s a shame we didn’t find a new planet but that’s sometime how it is in these observatories. See you next time!