Some words of wisdom…. hmmm…

“If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help you build theirs”

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I just had to post this! This is how all humans should wake up, and of course different songs would do different things.
via youtube!

Awesome Letterpress Poster! Too bad they  are not available anymore.

“The now iconic quote debuted in a 1997 television commercial for Apple Computer. The text was said to have been partially written by then Apple CEO Steve Jobs (along with Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall). He embodied the characteristics in this quote arguably better than anyone in history. Today it lives on as a mantra for artists, inventors, entrepreneurs and innovators around the world.”

via crazyonesquote.com 

“Douglas Wray posted a whiteboard breakdown of all the major social media services and explained how they differ from each other using the example of a donut. Quite fittingly he posted the image on Instagram–the photo sharing service”.

Pretty awesome, though I might add Yelp as where you got the Donuts!
via geek 

After watching in  the delightful rather cheery video, go check out CainsArcade website, and help them raise money and others like Cain for future education. (they already have close to 200k!)

Hydro-Fold by ECAL/Christophe Guberan from ECAL on Vimeo.

WOW! Hydro-Fold is a beautiful project taking thin sheets and printing watery thin patterns on them allowing them to fold up by themselves!  Watch the video above and watch the magic happen.

See more images here, or after the jump!

Patterned by Nature from Sosolimited on Vimeo.

Congrats to buddy  James Patten and Team on the awesome Patterned by Nature installation that I got a peek on almost 2 years ago.
Video above!! 

“DO SOMETHING TODAY THAT YOUR FUTURE SELF WILL THANK YOU FOR!”
I’m not sure who said this, but it is a quote I’ve come upon and will make a poster to put up on my wall to see everyday for now on!

My favorite gathering is happening in beautiful Monterey CA next week at a magical gathering known as The EG Conference April 12-14.
If you take a peek at past and this years eclectic presenters, you’ll be as amused and curious as I am every year to attend this brain safari of wonder.
If your attending, please let me know, or pass this post around to friends that might be interested.

As a special extension to EG this year, they are offering the entire live web-stream of the event for $200, but they are also offering me a special link for friends at half price! Yup, $100 for a few days of live, provoking, entertaining, talks.

To get a hold of this special gift, go here and  learn more about EG Everywhere! You get to see all the spectacular talks live for $100 vs the $4000 ticket price!  Sign up, call your friends up, have a 2-3 day Salon at your house with food and drinks, and get inspired! Then perhaps decide if you can attend the actual conference to experience the rest of the magic!

Wow, these are awesome. LEGOS stacked to represent legendary icons that many of us know. It took me about 2-3 seconds to figure out each one, though I would have doubled the width of one of the “fathers” in a family as they did for a “kid” in a group of friends from a TV show.

“German ad agency Jung von Matt created this brilliant series of photographs for a LEGOadvertising campaign titled “Imagine”. The images show famous characters from children’s television shows in simplified LEGO form. Can you figure out each of the shows?”

via petapixel
See 3 others after the jump!

via ted

Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “WALL-E”) shares what he knows about storytelling — starting at the end and working back to the beginning. (Contains graphic language …)

In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

Onstage at TED2012, Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism — that we’ll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. “I’m not saying we don’t have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down.”

Cornelia Konrads website 

It might not look that appealing but boiling it down to scientific terms, you want more of the wine surface to touch air…and the blender does just that. Anyhow, read or watch the post via Tim Ferris who learned about this through Nathan Myhrvold at tims post… otherwise i’ll mirror it after the jump.

When in Rome

Generally speaking, letting your wine “breathe” makes it taste better. Just like in our gluten-free kitten pancakes (see pg. 147*), a little air goes a long way…

Letting wine “breathe” equals increasing the surface area of the wine exposed to air for a set period of time. In wine-speak, this “opens the bouquet” (releases aroma compounds) and “softens” the flavor. In simple terms, it usually makes it taste better. Though the mechanism is debated, it appears to reduce the cotton-mouth effects of tannins, which makes aeration perfectly suited to “big” red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux. In another context, tannins are what make your mouth feel puckered and chalky if you drink overbrewed black tea. Aeration may also minimize wine defects like mercaptins, not to be confused with midichlorians.

Enough with the details, Ferriss. How do I aerate?

We’ll look at four methods: swirling and swishing, decanting, using a Vinturi, and beating the sh*t out of it. I’ll explain how to use them first, and there is a demo video at the end.

Method 1: Swirling and Swishing

This is the standard tabletop move. To avoid making an ass of yourself: Hold the glass by the stem, keeping the glass base on the table, and move it in fast but small circles. Take a small sip, hold the wine in your mouth as you tilt your head forward, and suck in a thin stream of air, almost as if you’re gargling upside down. Swallow and make a mmm-like sound to indicate deep thought.

Slap yourself if you do this while your friends are drinking Coronas.

Method 2: Decanting

Decanting is, strictly speaking, transferring liquid from one container to another. The Romans pioneered the use of glass decanters, which they used to remove sediment, leaving the gunk in the original storage vessel.

Decanters with wide bases are now used to expose wine to air, often for 1–2 hours or more.

Method 3: The Vinturi and Wordplay

The Vinturi® wine aerator is a handheld plastic device that capitalizes on Bernoulli’s Principle. Mr. B’s rule dictates—in simple terms—that as you increase the speed of a fluid’s movement, you decrease its pressure. Decrease the pressure of wine and it becomes easier to infuse more air in less time.

If you pour wine from the bottle, through the Vinturi, and directly into a friend’s wineglass, you will hear the accelerated siphoning of air into the stream, which also has a nice party-trick effect. Bingo: Mr. Science–style aeration and a nice shortcut.

The difference is subtle, but it makes for less waiting and less cleanup than traditional decanting.

Method 4: Beat the Sh*t Out of It

This method is not subtle. It’s a scientifically well-founded middle finger pointed at people who give a wonderful beverage a bad name.

I owe a hat tip to the brilliant Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft, master French chef, and creator of the iconic, never-to-be-outdone, $600 (or $450 here) cooking encyclopedia, Modernist Cuisine.

If aeration is exposing more liquid surface area to air, how can we take this to its logical extreme?

Blend it into a fury, of course. Nathan has done this with vintage wine gifted to him by Spanish royalty, but I’d suggest a practice run on something from Trader Joe’s first. Here’s how I do it:

- Pour 1–2 glasses of the wine into a large mixing bowl or—my favorite—a large Bomex beaker. If you’re using the latter, 600 ml of wine is perfect for the next step; just leave plenty of room at the top (I fill to around 400 ml). Take a sip for a good sense of “before.”

- Lower an immersion blender, also called a “stick” blender, into the glass, then blend for 20–30 seconds. Tip your container (or tilt the blender best you can) to enhance the foaming effect. If you have a standing blender like a Vitamix, feel free to go nuts.

The wine should now have a nice heady froth on it, like a proper Guinness. Pour into a serving cup—I favor a 250-ml Bomex, which is exactly one-third of a standard bottle of wine—and enjoy. It should taste markedly different. And, ladies and gents, that is how you achieve 3 hours of decanting, sans fancy descriptors, in 20–30 seconds. Wink at your most offended guest and ask them if they arm wrestle.

Thank you, Mr. Myhrvold.

Sheila Nirenberg:
“Decoding sight: Neuroscientist Nirenberg is developing a non-surgical and vastly improved artificial retina strategy that deciphers neural cell codes, potentially reversing some types of blindness.”

This was by far the highlight for me at TEDmed 2011. This can pave the way for the blind to see again, or even the ability for us to see behind our backs, etc… This is a technology an development to watch out for in the upcoming years! What would you do if you could use this technology?

via tedmed

AJ Jacobs:
“What’s harder than Living Biblically? Try following every bit of the latest health advice. A.J. Jacobs, author and human guinea pig, shares the results of his latest yearlong quest to become “the healthiest man alive.”"

This is one of the more whimsical but good to know lectures from TEDmed 2011. I’m in the mist of doing the Tim Ferris Diet and lots of AJ’s points are in this talk.

via tedmed