Throwaway Thursday

09 Jun

Throwaway Thursday – Art, Photography & Design Around the Internets

in Art, Throwaway Thursday

nix-laundromat Artist Lori Nix specializes in post-apocalyptic dioramas of abandoned scenery in which "public spaces devoted to history and science lie deteriorating and neglected while nature slowly takes them back."

Nix describes her work as “saturated with color and infused with a dark sense of humor.”  The truly amazing thing about her work is that rather than being Photoshop manipulations, they are actual miniaturizations – painstakingly hand-crafted over periods ranging from two to fifteen months.  Click the thumbnail for a larger image or, better yet, go check out the complete slideshow.

0008rz5p Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov blends WWII photos of European cities with contemporary versions to create a haunting study of contrast.  With a seamless overlay of colors and and greyscale, Larenkov’s doesn’t just connect old with new, but does so alongside a stark contradiction of visceral wartime imagery and modern excess,  You can click on the thumbnail for a larger version or head over to his LiveJournal page for the complete series.

il_570xN.229970999 Ginger Blakley is a Canadian artist whose work is “influenced by her love for nature and the beauty found in old world simplicity.”  Her work vacillates between fantasy and decay giving her pieces a sort of decrepit beauty.  What I find most striking about Blakley’s work is the blend of antique simplcity alongside images of decay and discard.

Blakely has also made available the incredible work done by her father on a series of “fanciful machines” – a gorgeous collection of steampunk-esque vehicles.  Like a set of farming implementations from the imagination of Willy Wonka, his work offers a visceral ingenuity of pre-technological complexity while managing to convey the same sense of decay permeating his daughter’s work.  You can check out more images from each artist here.

010669332b78488a0e44184a54a871a9Finally, I have an image without an artist.  Found on DeMotivation.us, this mimicks seventies-era library prints that are still popular in classrooms.  If you’re wondering, the caption translation reads: Books – That is exactly how they work. 

I can’t tell who to credit for this one, but I would run out and buy it in a heartbeat if anyone manages to track down the artist.

02 Jun

Throwaway Thursday – Big Pharma and Why Your Stitches Cost $1,500

in Capitalism, Healthcare, Throwaway Thursday
A Drug Dealers Table

Image by TheDarkThing via Flickr

  • Nearly a decade ago, no lesser Capitalist than President Bill Clinton chastised the pharmaceutical industry for gross profiteering at the expense of our children by highlighting an economic sector that spends $1 billon more on advertising and lobbying than R&D.  Well as it turns out, those outrageous R&D expenses big Pharma are always whining about may be exaggerated by as much as 600%.
  • Such exaggerated costs are one of the reasons drug companies assert the need for monopolies and threaten to stop making their miracle cures if the public does not help those poor souls recoup from their altruistic endeavours.  In the process, a drug that used to be $10 per shot will now bleed patients for $1500 – nearly all of which is pure profit – all in the name of quality control.
  • After years of stacking the FDA which sympathetic cronies, Big Pharma is now claiming that the FDA approval process is so flawless that they should be indemnified against any lawsuits stemming from their wrongdoing, garnering government support in at least one state. But don’t worry, the federal government is sure to bestow fabulous cash and prizes upon any flipper babies.
  • But finally, no matter how bad it is in the good old you-ess-of-aye, at least we're not as bad as those hippies and communists in the rest of the ‘developed’ world.  And I’ve got the infograhic to prove it!

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26 May

Throwaway Thursday–Copyfighting Edition

in Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Internet, Piracy, Politics, Privacy, Science & Technology, Throwaway Thursday
Banner @ Copyfight

Image by David Domingo via Flickr

In the latest outbreak of pure douchiness, BMI - those happy, benevolent little elves who run the collection cartel on broadcast radio stations – is alleging that listening to your own music via cloud services amounts to a '”public performance” subject to licensing fees. 

Presumably trying to get back in the good graces of open-standards proponents, Google has signaled that it is prepared to fight both houses of congress and the president of the United States if the entertainment mafia successfully pushes through Leahy’s Orwellian Protect IP Act – a wish-list of anti-piracy measures that threaten to undermine the open internet.

HarperCollins has announced their intention to cripple e-books after 26 rentals forcing public libraries to cough up additional annual licensing fees.  Which is really not a big deal since libraries and their patrons are so flush with cash anyway.  For the moment, HC is the only publisher to have done so, though if the trend continues it could spell the end of digital modernization in public systems.

Finally, the award this week goes to Nintendo whose 3DS EULA mandates ongoing centralized updates during which they will brick (deactivate) your system if it contains unapproved software or peripherals.   But at least Nintendo claims a perpetual, worldwide copyright to all photos and videos taken with your camera. 

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