Becky's TMT blog

readaholic

[archiemcphee]

Pink lawn flamingos, garden gnomes, and zombie satues are awesome, but they can get lonely if no one new turns up for a while (and those zombies tend to be a little abrasive sometimes). But there are plenty of awesome new decorative yard friends waiting to be made thanks to Hansville, WA-based artist Kate Higgins. There could be dragons in your garden!

Higgns upcycles old lawn flamingos, using weather resistant paints, papier-mâché, aluminum foil, recycled plastic and acrylic bits and pieces, as well as “lots of coffee and imagination” to transform them into dazzling fantasy creatures collectively known as Flamingo Incognito. From dragons and sea serpents to mermaids, dinosaurs, and camouflaged jungle creatures, each Flamingo Incognito is entirely handmade to order and finished with a protective UV coating to help it withstand the elements.

Visit the Higgins’ Flamingo Incognito Etsy shop to check out many more of her fantastic garden creatures.

[via Nerd Approved]

[penguinrandomhouse]

We’re devastated to report that the world lost one of its greats today — the peerless Terry Pratchett has passed away at age 66.

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” ― Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

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I'm trying to watch the game.

[archiemcphee]

We love an unusual squirrel feeder, so this awesome photo just made our day. Here you see West Village, New York City resident Doris Diether, an 85-year-old civic activist, feeding a squirrel with a marionette that looks exactly like her. The photo is amazing all by itself, but this delightfully surreal scene gets even better when you learn the story behind Diether and her miniature double:

It all started one day at the park, where puppeteer Ricky Syers was performing with his handmade marionette, according to Nina Golgowski of NY Daily News:

"One day she comes up to me and whispers, ‘I have something for you,’" he recalled.

Opening a scrap book she revealed old newspaper clippings and articles she had written on marionettes back in 1974. Articles more recently added to her collection were ones she had seen on Syers’ work, which she cut out and saved for him.

Syers was floored by this remarkably thoughtful gesture and responded in kind by making a marionette version of Doris Diether to give to her, “featuring Diether’s short, white hair and rosy cheeks … complete with handbag, cane and floral blouse and skirt.”

"She’s … known as the woman who feeds the squirrels," Syers said to NY Daily News, "Now, her little marionette feeds the squirrels."

An awesome photo with an awesomely uplifting story behind it. We’ll be grinning for days.

Head over to the Daily News for additional photos and to learn more about Doris Diether, Ricky Syers, and the adorable Diether marionette.

Photo by Nathalie Kalbach

[via Neatorama]

[archiemcphee]

How often do you get to see a life-size pegasus? This majestic Friesian horse received an awesome clip job giving him a stunning pair of black wings which he wears so well that we keep waiting for him to take flight. This magnificent pegasus’ horse’s name is Wout and his owner is Swedish equestrian Malin Hellstedt. The extraordinary pair were photographed last year in Gothenburg, Sweden participating in EuroHorse, Scandinavia’s biggest equestrian fair.

Top photo shared on Twitter by Carly Brooke, photos 2 and 3 via Reddit, photo 4 via Malin Hellstedt on Facebook.

Click here for even more photos of this phenomenal horse, taken by Pauline Högdahl.

[via Twisted Sifter]

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Liftoff!

[nationalbook]

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman’s speech— in its entirety— on the lasting impact of Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing before presenting her with the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters November 19, 2014 at the 65th National Book Awards Ceremony.

[archiemcphee]

We love it when people find inventive uses for Google Street View (previously featured here). Artist Halley Docherty turned Google Street View into a time machine by taking paintings of London created in the 18th and 19th century and superimposing them over Street View images of the precise locations depicted in those old paintings. It’s as though contemporary locations, from river views and park trails to landmarks, intersections and street scenes, have opened themselves to reveal their own memories of how they looked and who was there many years ago.

"This is not the first time Docherty has created a merging of past and present. Other projects have included collages of present-day settings with classic album covers and another featured juxtapositions with photos from World War I. Docherty’s series help to reveal the aesthetic flavor and wide-ranging eye of Street View.”

Click here to learn more about these pieces and view more of Halley Docherty’s fascinating London paintings project.

[via Architizer]

[bookmania]

Love is…

[archiemcphee]

The Department of Awesome Animal Hybrids would like to nominate this “Penguitten” (by Sarah DeRemer) and “Dachshundapillar” (by Jessica Roos) for World’s Best Cat and World’s Best Dog trophies.

We want adorable little oddballs like this to know that it doesn’t matter what organizations like the Cat Fanciers’ Association and American Kennel Club have to say, we think their wonderful weirdness is something to be celebrated.

Visit BoredPanda for even more wonderfully weird hybrid animals.

[archiemcphee]

These awesome images are 3D drawings that were each created by hand. They’re the skillful work of 15-year-old artist João A. Carvalho, aka J Desenhos, who uses pencils, colored pencils, an eraser and ballpoint pen to create drawings that appear to be emerging from or falling into sheets of everyday lined notebook paper. Lines on the page seem to ripple at a breeze or the poking of a pen and cartoon characters look like they’ve come to life and are pressing through the paper.

Carvalho maintains a Facebook page where he shares new work as well as progress shots of each piece and artwork created by others. Head over there to check out more of his astonishing drawings.

[via BoredPanda and Twisted Sifter]

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Neat!

[cheshirelibrary]

The book is always better. ;-)

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Launching rockets at the library.

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Yum

[archiemcphee]

In Tallinn, Estonia’s capitol city, the Estonian National Opera transformed the gates to their parking garage into enormous disembodied conductors’ hands gently holding long batons. You can see them again using Google Maps street view. Move the map around a bit and you’ll notice that there are more giant conductor hand gates than you can see in the photo above.

What an awesome way to admit people to the opera house. We hope some sort of music starts to play to the cue of the hands going back down after a car drives through the gate.

Photo via Classical KDFC

[via Twisted Sifter]

[rebeccafasulo]

Love using my solar powered clothes dryer.

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Making the log look pretty.