Monday, February 24, 2020

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New Desalination Plant Proposed in Orange County - Orange County Register




The contraption, reminiscent of Rube Goldberg, would produce two of Southern California’s most precious and essential resources: water and electricity.

The electricity would be renewable. And the drought-proof, desalinated ocean water could prove more environmentally friendly — and cheaper — than the water produced from three other desalters proposed for Southern California.



Great quote from my old boss in this article!

“As far as our board goes, anything that increases water reliability is good,” Shintaku said. “(Oceanus) is very conceptual at this point but it has a lot of promise. Let’s throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.”


Read it HERE. Turn off your ad blocker to read.



Sunday, February 16, 2020

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Recycled Paper Animal Scupltures - Chie Hitotsuyama



Using rolled strips of repurposed newspaper, cut and painstakingly placed using wood glue, Japanese artist Chie Hitotsuyama creates beautifully detailed, three-dimensional sculptures of wild animals… walruses, rabbits, sea turtles, iguanas, monkeys, dugongs, and more. Her work is inspired by the unnoticed daily perseverance of animals in nature. From Kokusai Pulp & Paper:
“I came across a wild rhinoceros at a national park in Zambia, Africa, which I visited at the request of one NGO in 2007 when I was working as an illustrator,” recalls Ms. Hitotsuyama. “The rhino was injured because of human egos. I heard from the park ranger who guided me that rhinos have been killed brutally by poachers who want their horns. From my wish to share this reality with many more people, I created my first work, a rhinoceros
After that, I became strongly aware of what life is all about, what it means to live,” explains Ms. Hitotsuyama. “Animals that live in nature are equal to us in the sense that we live together on this planet. Sometimes they sleep. Sometimes they eat. They are living ordinary everyday lives just like us. I would like keep insisting on reality and producing my life-sized work as much as possible in order to convey their lives.”
hitotsuyama-fox
hitotsuyama-rabbit
hitotsuyama-monkey
hitotsuyama-iguana
hitotsuyama-rolling-paper
Hitotsuyama’s paper work is multi-generational: Her Fuji-based studio is located in the old warehouse of a paper strip manufacturing plant that was once operated by her family.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

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What's Inside? Tinkering Videos by Dina A. Amin





Cairo-based tinkerer and stop-motion filmmaker dina A. Amin created this short animation featuring four gadgets that she took apart piece by piece: A walkman, a phone, a hairdryer, and a camera. See them up close before they scatter into neatly arranged parts. It’s an extension of her Tinker Friday stop-motion animations.

Tiny screws, wires, gears, levers, springs, circuit boards, buttons and bits. What parts do you see and how many of them are there?
I’ve been enjoying Amin’s sponsored series of guessing game videos on Instagram. Click the ‘play’ icons in the IGTV videos below to watch and guess for each object:






Tuesday, February 4, 2020