Republic of Ideas

jtotheizzoe:

sagansense:

“A sense of wonder is not our only starting point. It can also be our destination.”

Sharman Apt Russell | Anatomy of A Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers

Maybe it can be both?

smarterplanet:

Former Googler, Apple Engineer Tackle Educational Robots |  AllThingsD

There are apps that teach kids the basics of programming.

And then there are robots that get the job done.

That’s the vision of a group of four tech entrepreneurs who late last year formed a company with the purpose of creating educational robots for kids.

The Bay Area-based company, called Play-i, is still in the early stages of building out its bots and determining their form and functionality.

Vikas Gupta, Play-i’s founder and CEO, says the robots will be targeted at children aged 5 to 8, and will most likely work in conjunction with tablets. Using a tablet or other mobile device running compatible software, the child will be able to program his or her robot to perform certain actions.

(via emergentfutures)

greatleapsideways:

“The function of portrait painting was to underwrite and idealise a chosen social role of the sitter. It was not to present him as ‘an individual’ but, rather, as an individual monarch, bishop, landowner, merchant and so on. Each role had its accepted qualities and its acceptable limit of discrepancy. (A monarch or a pope could be far more idiosyncratic than a mere gentleman or courtier.) The role was emphasised by pose, gesture, clothes and background. (…)

The satisfaction of having one’s portrait painted was the satisfaction of being personally recognised and confirmed in one’s position: it had nothing to do with the modern lonely desire to be recognised ‘for what one really is’. (…)

It seems that the demands of a modern vision are incompatible with the singularity of viewpoint which is the prerequisite for a static-painted ‘likeness’. The incompatibility is connected with a more general crisi concerning the meaning of individuality. Individuality can no longer be contained within the terms of manifest personality traits. In a world of transition and revolution individuality has become a problem of historical and social relations, such as cannot be revealed by the mere characterizations of an already established social stereotype. Every mode of individuality now relates to the whole world.”

— John Berger, “The Changing View of Man in the Portrait” in Selected Essays.

Images in order: August Sander, Young Farmers, Westerwald, 1914; Alex Dellow, Teddy Boys, Tottenham 1954; Robert Frank, Newburgh, New York, 1955; Alec Soth, Josh Joelton, Tennessee; Bryan Schutmaat, Perry, Cascade, Montana

new-aesthetic:

How the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year was faked with Photoshop | ExtremeTech

“Perhaps most importantly, though, cameras simply don’t capture the same gamut of color or dynamic range as human eyes — a photo never looks the same as the original image perceived by your brain. Is it okay for a photographer to modify a picture so that it looks exactly how he remembers the scene?”

theatlantic:

In Focus: Harley Davidson National Rally in China

Last weekend, Reuters photographer Carlos Barria traveled to Zheijiang Province, China, to photograph some of the 1,000 Harley Davidson enthusiasts who attended China’s 5th annual Harley Davidson National Rally, part of the company’s 110-year anniversary. Harley Davidson only began official sales in China in 2005, and its bikes are considered to be luxury items by Chinese tax authorities, so they are taxed at extremely high rates — a 2013 motorcycle might sell for 200,000 yuan ($32,500), approximately four times the average annual salary in Beijing. Transportation authorities have also placed Harleys in the same category as electric bikes, horses and bicycles, so they cannot be ridden on highways and major avenues.

See more. [Images: AP, Reuters, Getty]

typeverything:

Typeverything.com - Moonshine Corn Liquor by Derrick Castle

photojojo:

In June of 2009, a rare total solar eclipse blanketed certain portions of the planet in total darkness. Czech photographer Miloslav Druckmüller traveled to the middle of the Pacific ocean to the Marshall Islands to capture the incredible event.

To create the photos above, he compiled over 40 images shot from two different cameras.

Total Solar Eclipse Captured From the Middle of the Ocean

via Notcot

seekandspeak:

Unused Taxi Driver poster made months ago for SpokeArt’s Scorsese tribute show. The decaying mental state of a New York cabbie seen through his operator’s license.

(via bbook)