Friday 20 November 2009

Monster Algorithm


Because sometimes Tokyo is under attack and it's hard to know exactly who to hold accountable...

*Updated Version*
made some minor alterations, but then I stuck it to my window for a couple of months so it's a bit sun faded.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Black and White and Scribbled All Over



Corvus Frugilegus


This is what I learned in the New Scientist:

ROOKS appear to have a better understanding of how gravity works than do chimps and babies under 6 months old.

A common way of finding out whether animals and babies understand complex concepts is to show them images of impossible events. The rationale is that viewers spend longer looking at those which defy their expectations, presumably as they try to work out what's going on.

Chris Bird of the University of Cambridge and Nathan Emery of Queen Mary, University of London, showed rooks computer-generated images, half of which were impossible according to the laws of gravity, such as an egg floating in mid-air above a table. Almost without exception, the rooks spent more time looking at the "impossible" images than the possible ones. They also took more second glances (Proceedings of Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1456).

The responses were the same when the "familiar" egg shape was replaced by a cork, proving the birds' insight applied equally to any object, familiar or not.

The researchers say the result is consistent with rooks being able to solve complex problems from knowledge of cause and effect, rather than by trial and error.


(When I retold this story to someone I got a bit confused and said that they were smarter than a child under 6 years old. I think I overestimated a bit, but who knows? Maybe rooks can talk, but they just don't want to.)

Eagsharklion


I've been trying to figure out the most effective combination of eagle/shark/lion in the context of an all powerful super beast... this is what I have so far, but it isn't over yet.




RADVENT!


This is for Pom, wi wove wou x

Friday 4 September 2009

useful domestic information

buy one get one free

If anyone can tell me where to get one of these I'd be most obliged.

EAT THE RICH


Friday 21 August 2009

Axel of Evil

Rattus Rattus Vs. Corvus Corax


it's like taxidermy's answer to Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album'.

Thursday 20 August 2009

Enrolling With the Punches

I have been enrolling at San Francisco State University this week, which means two days of six hour chunks of lectures about stuff like what a credit card is and why when Americans say "How are you?" they don't actually want to know the answer. I used the time productively and whipped up these dorky cartoons on the back of semi-important documents:
So anyway, I was pretty pleased with these little efforts, and then I looked over the shoulder of this guy sitting a few rows in front of me, and he was churning out this incredible drawing, at top speed straight out of his imagination. I asked him about it afterward, and he just right up gave it to me. It totally puts mine to shame... amazing.

Scanoramic



This is where I hide my brain.

This is a Zombie Shelter


We live in dark times. Every day is a struggle to keep our brains uninfected by the visual pollution of advertising and excess. We are supersaturated. We are decaying. Our imaginations are spinning backwards into automated systems free of unique thought, we are jaded and disinterested. We are the living dead.


This is a zombie shelter. This is a place to fill with things to help us survive. This is a small space for barricading against the repetitive trash of what we see and no longer notice.

Let us begin.