04-30-09
Steve Eves, I Salute You – (World’s Largest Amateur Rocket)
Having made and launched a few (much smaller) rockets as a kid, I have total respect for this. And also for the name too . . .
A 1/10th-scale model of a NASA Saturn V rocket launched successfully on Saturday, becoming what is thought to be the largest amateur rocket ever to take off and be safely recovered. The feat could herald the arrival of the first amateur rockets to reach orbit.
The 11-metre-tall, 750-kilogram rocket took off on Saturday from a field outside of Price, Maryland, near the eastern shore. It flew for roughly 20 seconds to an altitude of more than 1300 metres before segmenting and falling back to Earth beneath multiple parachutes (see video).
The rocket, built by rocket hobbyist Steve Eves, replicates the look of the Saturn V rocket used to loft Apollo crew capsules into space. But its interior boasts newer electronics and significantly less fuel.
(via New Scientist)
04-19-09
Festo and the future
OMG, etc. Check out these two great videos of some of the amazing creations from Festo, as blogged over at the always excellent Rubbishcorp. I spent a good hour this evening freely surfing the web, which I haven’t done in absolutely ages and just had to share.
03-27-09
Digital meets analogue, online meets offline
As the offline/analogue and online/digital worlds start to blend even more, I thought I’d share some favourite stuff I’ve been tagging over the past few months. I love this stuff and am really excited about the web weaving its way into more and more stuff.
Google Earth meets a 60ft Phallus.
Blogging meets a blackboard and goes fully analogue.
FAIL gets turned into stickers and gets stuck everywhere.
Two years of someone’s tweets get turned into a book.
Hashtags enter the real world.
Second Life inspired flying helicopter penis used by griefers to attack Gary Kasparov.
iPhone icons get turned into a coaster set.
DOS directories get turned into cushions.
Tweets get turned into bubbles.
01-27-09
50 people, one question
I’ve been busy again and as a result the blog has taken a back seat again, but I’m trying desperately not to worry about it and just do what comes naturally. Indeed, I’m spending most of my time on Twitter and feeding delicious – so am very much still active online, I just haven’t taken the time out to post. Like a lot of people recently I think.
Also – I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about stuff. What I want to be doing this year, where I’m taking my work, which of the growing number of personal projects I’m going to focus on and make happen. Who I’d like to be working with. What it’s going to be like being a dad. That sort of thing. And in the meantime, I’ve been cracking on with a number of great things.
Bobbie just shared this and it was enough of a motivator to share. It just struck a chord with me. All very human – a word and a theme that you’re going to here a lot about from me this year.
Fifty People, One Question: London from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.
Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.
Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.
12-16-08
Bush shoe throwing hijacks
UPDATE: the meme has gone really big, as kind of expected. Sock and Awe has had over 46 million shoes thrown too . . .
After watching the news report of a journalist throwing his shoes at George Bush this morning, I waited for the inevitable response from the web. Usually it’s from individuals able to move quicker and smarter than your average brand which most likely wouldn’t be up for doing anything Bush related and therefore politcal/risky in the first place or would just take days if not weeks to sign something off. However, today I’ve seen three Bush/Shoe related things pop up in my Twitter stream from PopJam, Lewis PR and Zappos.
First up we have my favourite and by far the best – Sock and Awe from PopJam founder Alew Tew (he of milliondollarhomepage fame).
This feels completely right, has an awesome name/domain and does a nice job of subtly bringing in a link back to Popjam and a fairly discreet email entry box.
Nicely done. I certainly had a few goes and signed up for more info on PopJam. Job done.
Secondly, we have the Bash a Bush ‘viral’ from Lewis PR.
To be honest, the fact it was referred to as a viral in the URL string automatically put me off it. It’s digital content that is hoped to go viral, blah blah blah . . . Anyway, having got over the ‘viral’ thing the gameplay is itself pretty straightforward and pretty slickly done, as much as can be for a tried and tested (and therefore more tired ) basic ‘bash the rat’ type of format. But, again – at least they did it and moved petty quickly.
Finally, we have a video from the guys at Zappos. Very quickly turned around, but all in all not that funny or posted on their blog. Still, top marks for trying and having the balls to just put it out. Oh and for tagging it with Bush, Irag etc !
So, yet again another reminder that brands (and agencies) need to move at lightning speed these days in order to ride on the waves of excitement that follow an event like a journalist throwing a shoe at George Bush, a BNP list going astray or something else that’s just around the corner. And – that competition really is fierce for people’s attention. You’re quite literally up against the world.
12-10-08
Bums and Gin
Take a photo of a bum and a bottle of gin, upload it with Twitpic and tag it with #bumsandgin and hey presto, you’ve joined the rather specialist bums and gin meme currently being fueled by Infobunny (aka lo-fi librarian). Crazy interwebz hey?
11-27-08
It’s a wonderful internet
I like this. Nice piece of social commentary. Well executed and a nice throwback to those pop-up books I read as a kid. Plus there’s some very strange bonus sounds if you poke around a bit. The internet is indeed a wonderful thing.
[via Tom (who needs to get a website/blog!)]
11-24-08
And don’t f*ck around
We went to Amsterdam at the weekend for the first time. We stayed at the Bellevue hotel right in the centre for one night (highly recommended if you need a really central half-decent place to stay) and picked one of the worst weekends weather-wise to go there. We had a good weekend, staying in Amsterdam on the Friday night and then heading on over to Alkmaar to surprise our friend Joe for his 30th birthday on the Saturday.
On our travels walking around the streets of Amsterdam, we saw this sign and loved its brutal honesty. Being 2008, I was able to find a great pic of it super quick when we got back. Oh and the tenuous link back to something? Well I think that brands are going to start being a little bit more honest with people and a little less nice. There’s too much ‘innocence’ going on these days and brands are becoming more ‘human’ all the time.
Oh and for the record, no I didn’t indulge in anything other than chips and mayonnaise from the wonderfully named Chipsy Kings and a few cheeky beers while I was over there!
10-29-08
AC/DC ASCII Action – the first music video created in Excel
I love ASCII stuff. But I’m not so sure about ACDC. This is interesting nevertheless – a music video created in Excel. Not quite Radiohead’s House of Cards. But still cool.
[via the brand spanking new onlinefire blog, which is super smashing great BTW Mel, Graham and co. - more hippy love coming at you from me!]
10-24-08
“Blender Defender”
I actually think this is a bit cruel. But I appreciate the geekery involved and the website created to showcase the project. And did find it a little bit funny, if I’m being really honest.
[via @juter]
middledigit_
If technology doesn't seem like magic, it's probably obsolete . . .
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I'm a digital creative/strategist/doer that blogs about all kinds of stuff that usually involves brands, digital marketing, technology or cats.