rickeyainsworth

publiccollectors: From The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:22:59 -0500

From The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, Bantam Books, New York, 1967.

via merlin

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:22:40 -0500

via merlin

A few friends and family members have been asking me about the...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:01:00 -0400

Hubble image of the Whirlpool Galaxy

Location of the Whirlpool Galaxy

The M51 supernova: before and after

A few friends and family members have been asking me about the recent, well-publicized supernova in M51, a.k.a. the Whirlpool Galaxy. If you’ve also been hoping to catch a glimpse of this massive stellar explosion, these images (specifically the bottom two) might help you find it.

From a dark location, with a small telescope or even a good pair of binoculars, you might be able to pick out the Whirlpool Galaxy as a faint, hazy patch near the Big Dipper’s handle. You’ll be able to see much more detail through a large telescope, and if you look soon, you might even catch a glimpse of the supernova itself.

While you’re viewing it, consider that this object/event, which we see as a tiny pinpoint of light, is a star 10x the size of our Sun, exploding with the energy of roughly 10 trillion hydrogen bombs.

Also consider that the Whirlpool Galaxy is roughly 23 (+/- 4) million light years away. Which means that, although we can watch this stellar explosion tonight, its light had to travel through space for 23 million years before ever reaching our eyes. When we look into the cosmos, we look into the distant past.

If you want to see the supernova, and you’re in Grand Rapids, Michigan, consider heading out to the James C. Veen Observatory or Calvin [College] Observatory, both of which host regular public nights, weather permitting.

If you’re from elsewhere, contact your community’s local amateur astronomy club, planetarium, or observatory, and they’ll happily steer you in the right direction.

Happy stargazing!

Photo

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:01:13 -0400

porcupineschool: “Look at that, you son of a bitch!”

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:10:24 -0400

porcupineschool:

“Look at that, you son of a bitch!”

Beautiful, stark, haunting slices of pseudo-Pyongyang, by...

Sun, 22 May 2011 23:49:24 -0400

Beautiful, stark, haunting slices of pseudo-Pyongyang, by Charlie Crane.

szymon: Abandoned Yugoslavian Monuments by Jan Kempenaers

Sat, 21 May 2011 11:29:26 -0400

szymon:

Abandoned Yugoslavian Monuments by Jan Kempenaers

Muldoon and Halloran. Cooler cats? There. Are. None. Via The...

Fri, 20 May 2011 01:26:00 -0400

Muldoon and Halloran. Cooler cats? There. Are. None. Via The Naked City, 1948.

Spring cleaning: What’s old is newly loved....

Wed, 18 May 2011 18:04:52 -0400

Spring cleaning: What’s old is newly loved. “Chiroptera.” Via Kunstformen der Natur by Ernst Haeckel.

porcupineschool: 25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments that look like...

Thu, 05 May 2011 08:44:41 -0400

porcupineschool:

25 Abandoned Soviet Monuments that look like they’re from the Future | Crack Two

Boatswain (a.k.a. the Fancy Lad), born 20 March 2011, adopted 30...

Thu, 05 May 2011 02:14:00 -0400

Boatswain (a.k.a. the Fancy Lad), born 20 March 2011, adopted 30 April 2011.

Cryovolcanism on Saturn’s moon Enceladus (i.e., moon...

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:31:56 -0400

Cryovolcanism on Saturn’s moon Enceladus (i.e., moon toots). Via the amazing Thinktank Planetarium, via NASA.

"Come at once if convenient - if inconvenient come all the same. S. H. The relations between us in..."

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:46:00 -0400

“

Come at once if convenient - if inconvenient come all the same. S. H.

The relations between us in those latter days were peculiar. He was a man of habits, narrow and concentrated habits, and I had become one of them. As an institution I was like the violin, the shag tobacco, the old black pipe, the index books, and others perhaps less excusable. When it was a case of active work and a comrade was needed upon whose nerve he could place some reliance, my role was obvious. But apart from this I had uses. I was a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him. He liked to think aloud in my presence. His remarks could hardly be said to be made to me - many of them would have been as appropriately addressed to his bedstead - but none the less, having formed the habit, it had become in some way helpful that I should register and interject. If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance.

”

- John H. Watson, M.D. in The Adventure of the Creeping Man, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1927.

“M is for the moon, a dead, dead world.” From Space...

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:36:00 -0400

“M is for the moon, a dead, dead world.” From Space Alphabet children’s book, 1964. Via Thinktank Planetarium.

fuckyeahcharleseames: 901 Model Eames Office model created by...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:04:54 -0400

fuckyeahcharleseames:

901 Model

Eames Office model created by John Neuhart

mixed media
51 w x 43 d x 8 h inches

This scale model, constructed on a one-quarter inch to one-foot scale, is a replica of the Eames Office at the time of Charles Eames death in August of 1978. Painstakingly constructed over nearly a decade John Neuhart, with the assistance of Marilyn Neuhart, aimed to recreate the office with precision. With a demountable roof and cross beams the model reveals the 10,000 square foot interior equipped with appropriately-scaled furniture, the equipment and tools of the Eames Design Office, as well as the graphic displays decorating the walls at that time

(by Dave & Anna Douglass)

Okay! Represent your Mission in Pictures http//post.ly/twFI....

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:31:00 -0400

Okay!

Represent your Mission in Pictures http//post.ly/twFI. Via @terawozqualls.

"People like people who like being the people they are."

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:02:00 -0400

“People like people who like being the people they are.”

- Lore Sjoberg (via merlin)

One more rad Angus McKie illustration, via World Famous Design...

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:23:15 -0400

One more rad Angus McKie illustration, via World Famous Design Junkies.

A couple decades spent hanging around planetariums have given me...

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:18:00 -0400

A couple decades spent hanging around planetariums have given me a huge soft spot for vintage space art. Whether a piece is genuinely awesome or a complete trainwreck, it’s always fascinating to peek inside the minds of these futurists of the past. Here’s a lil’ Angus McKie, via World Famous Design Junkies.

Первые на Луне. Pervye na Lune. First on the Moon. By any name,...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:46:00 -0400

Первые на Луне. Pervye na Lune. First on the Moon. By any name, this is a film I’ve been dying to see. It’s a 2005 Russian mockumentary about a 1938 Soviet moon landing, and it’s supposed to be pretty great. And how could it not be?

Unfortunately I can’t find a copy anywhere, much less one with English subtitles (although there’s supposedly a Spanish translation floating around). I don’t care; I’ll take what I can get. If you’re a veteran guerrilla movie-hunter with a suggestion or two in your bandolier, please shoot me a tweet.