We all know Leonardo Da Vinci’s life and work — but until now, we have not known what he looked like as a man. Illustrator and activist Siegfried Woldhek used some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of Leonardo. Announcing his discovery for the first time at last month’s TED conference, he walks us through exactly how he did it.

It’s been an awfully busy month with projects, some ping-pong action, lots of lectures, and a few great conferences coming up (GEL, Art Center). Sorry for the lack in posting, but please keep sending in goods.

Thought of the week: You never know what your good at unless you try doing it.
- What the world eats by culture.
- Is Wholefoods becoming the Hybrid SUV, and victims in their own success?
- Very eerie…virtual face follows your cursor.
- A hilarious Blog on photoshop disasters!
- Pop-up alphabet book!
- Solar Film reaches 19.9% efficiency/transfer! Awesome!
- www.ffffound.com , a visual dig of creative images.
- Ping Pong flopping skill madness!
- A pretty nifty label made to remember what wine you liked!

Amazing! A dude cuts off half an inch off his finger. His brother gives him this smelly powder (ExtraCellular Matrix) made of Pigs bladder to apply daily on the wound. 4 weeks later, his finger regrows fully, skin, vessels, nails, like new!

Bio engineering, natural engineering, surgery…man, what a crazy medical world!

Watch above or here.

via CBS

Awesome stories. I love the makeup of the various school stores! A must watch!

“Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to engage with their local school. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open their own volunteer-driven, wildly creative writing labs. But you don’t need to go that far, he reminds us — it’s as simple as asking a teacher “How can I help?” Share your own volunteering stories at his new website, Once Upon a School. To brainstorm on this wish and get involved, visit TEDPrize.org.”

Buy Dave Eggers best selling book “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”.

Above image via. It’s a painting, but would be a cool graffiti placement.

-funny fake movie trailer for Minesweeper.
-The desks of creative people. Reminds me of my post!
-Can you tell the original pic from photoshopped! Amy Dresser is a master at this!
-Oobject.com, a nice set of collections!
-The FAIL Blog …pretty funny! (thanks gordon) Reminds me of ICanHasCheezburgar.com

Claustrophobic, scared of being bored, damn tired of at looking at those ugly white ceiling tiles in offices and most medical environments? Welcome to Sky Factories solution. Creating visual portals of space through existing structures, allowing a breath of the outdoors in, and easing patients emotions as large robotic x-ray machines roam around their head, or at least something more interesting to stare at as the dentist picks at your gums.(my dentist gave me headphones before, but I had no clue what to look at besides my reflection off his glasses into my bloody mouth)

I’d initially think this to be a bit cheesy, but I’m pretty damn sure it works. Windows, illusions of space, and visualizations such as this always fool the human mind to relax us some, at least compared to those ugly cracked white ceiling tiles we all know of.

I’d really like to see an animated version putting breeze into play but of course that cost more money. Perhaps just a few LCD’s tiled works, but then I’d want to watch a movie o play a video game..anyhow for those budget conscious, go for Sky Factories environmental installations…just make sure to clean it often so those dirt bugs don’t collect.

Check out Sky Factories Galleries and amazing customer stories for some simple solutions for a better user experience. This ideas been around for years, but this is the first I’ve seen it turned into a business.

Craig Venter the human genome pioneer, oceanographic microorganism voyager, and now engineering new life forms through his new company Synthetic Genomics!

Watch his incredibly scary, questionable, perhaps world-changing glimpse into his new adventure in creating synthetic microorganisms or bio robots that eat up waste(perhaps carbon) and in return spawn out useful chemicals such as bio fuels! Seriously dangerous yet mind blowing!

Watch the video above or directly here.
Buy Craig’s book “A Life Decoded” here.

One of this years TED conference highlights was Jill Bolte’s incredibly insightful, curious, inspirational, and whimsical talk about her stroke experience as a neuroanatomist (studying the nervous system including brain) Woa, what a crazy story! A must watch!(18 mins)

“Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”

Watch it above or directly here.
Buy her new book “My Stroke of Insight” here.

An awesome ad depicting how much carbon we pump into our tiny world.

via Current (Al Gore showed this at TED)

Video via DipDive..thank you for making this!
Watch the video, “Yes We Can“, then another, “We Are the Ones“…then embed it, spread it, love it!

(more…)

I learned this week that 1 lump of coal equals 1 meg of data sent over the internet. Having this in mind, I sure do burn lots of lumps of energy on the net.

Evolution image above here.
Odd: Son’s tooth help saves dad’s sight.
Fun: Mouse Trap Bed.haha.
Tech: Flickr enables Geo Tagging. Pretty simple to use!
Design: Creating a creative culture.
Style: Ceramic paper like cup.
Neat: Brightness Illusions.
Art: Self-Portrait Competition.
Experience: Villa Eugénie Runway designs!

19 Cities in the world with 20 Million people in the 21st Century.

Richard Saul Wurman, TED founder and now EG creator, just gave a glimpse at a pretty cool project at 192021.org.

“While some say the world is flat, supercities are rising – vast, intensely urban hubs will radically redefine the world’s future macroeconomic and cultural landscape. Most of the world’s population right now lives and works in cities. Many more will. It’s critical to gain a truer understanding of what’s happening: the rise of supercities is the defining megatrend of the 21st century.

The mission of 19.20.21 is a multi year, multimedia initiative to collect, organize, and better understand populations effects regarding urban and business planning and its impact on consumers around the world. This 5+year initiative will deliver results via 5 channels: web (including mobile), television (broadcast and cable), print (magazines, books, and atlases), exhibits and seminars (virtual and onsite). This project will included 10 worldwide partners.”

Very interesting read. Give it a glimpse, it’ll take 2 minutes. I’m pretty excited about this project. If you want to help out, send them a note!

www.192021.org