rb.log

I've moved my site. I've had the richardbanks.com domain for years now, and figured it was time I got some use out of it. Plus, I wanted to try out WordPress.

The site is over here now:
http://www.richardbanks.com.

The new RSS feed is here:
feed://http//www.richardbanks.com/?feed=rss2

Wise advice for eating well from this New York Times article.
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

A couple of years ago I formed a group on Flickr called One Letter. I've been really happy with how well it's grown, and how autonomous it has become. I'm not really involved in it anymore. It just runs itself.

Quite a few people have written code that draws on the letters to create words. Here's a new one from quakr...

Bruce Osborn: Oyako - Portraying Japanese Generations.

These shots by bruce Osborn of different sets of parents and their children in Japan are really interesting, and in some way unsettling. I love the fact that in some shots the kid is the non-conformist, while in others it's the parent. And how many kids have followed in their parents footsteps.

Fwis: Readymech Series 002.

Cute "Flatpack Toys" for you to make.

PSFK: Marks & Spencer Goes Green. 'M&S also aims to stop sending waste to landfill sites by that date, increase the amount of food sourced locally and regionally, increase the use of recycled materials and end the need for consumers to throw away any of its products or packaging.'

Really got to commend Marks & Spencer for this move. It doesn't matter if this is a marketing-driven idea, as long as it is genuinely implemented, and they minimise the need to use carbon offsetting to achieve their goals of being carbon neutral. It definitely seems like an ambitious but thorough attempt to cover a lot of green issues including energy consumption, recycling and carbon mileage.

I may even be forced to take a closer look at their range of men's "slacks" and underwear just so they get the consumer vote from me...

DESEO - Simply clever, the new DESEO!.

But still pretty modern.

DIY coffee roasting - Lifehacker. 'You'll bask in DIY satisfaction AND you'll save a bloomin' bunch. As for the 'specialized' coffee roasting equipment, try these two economical options: an air-pop popcorn popper or a cast iron skillet.'

Another thing to add to my list of hobbies I'd love to take up.

Boing Boing: Capsule hotels in London's airports. 'Yotel has opened capsule hotels in London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports; they're modelled on the famous coffin hotels of Tokyo, but bigger and more luxurious, aimed at business-travellers in for a meeting who don't want to haul ass all the way into London for their hotel. The cabins can be booked in 4h increments.'
For anyone travelling through...

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?.

BLDGBLOG: Fictional ruins from fictional worlds. 'Zimmerman's Landmarks of Industrial Britain, for instance, is "a photographic series of fictional public buildings derived from small scale architectural maquettes." '

These are beautiful, but entirely virtual, buildings that show a false history of industrial England. Beautiful work.

PSFK: Vertical Gardens. 'He conducts studies in tropical areas, primarily on "understory" plants which receive minimal sunlight beneath the rainforest canopy, and can thus be presumed to grow in humid indoor areas where sunlight is limited.'

I love the attention that's given to making tropical plants thrive with little maintenance in such high-tech environments. Do you think this is what Babylon was like? Only with less glass?

Cool Hunting: EcoForms. 'For an eco-friendly alternative to plastic with a no-frills look, EcoForms are made from compressed grain husks with natural, water-soluble binding agents. No pollutants are used in the manufacturing process, all byproducts are recycled and at the end of their five-year lifespan, EcoForms will biodegrade completely.'

Not sure what stops them breaking down BEFORE the end of their 5 year life span, ending in a pulpy mess of plant and grain, but it's a cool idea. Not that I feel like I throw many plant pots away.

Stormblade Turbine is More Efficient, Quietly Neighbor-Friendly - Gizmodo. 'The prototype operates quietly in wind speeds from 7mph to 120mph, twice the range of conventional wind turbines, plus it's a lot smaller and easier to maintain. Install two of them next to each other and they'll look like a pair of eyes peering into the wind.'

Weird looking, but quiet and efficient. Like having a 747 bolted onto your roof.

Movies made into games are notoriously bad. Here's a Flickr group of movies that people would LIKE to see made into games for the Nintendo DS...

Gus' great rendition of Father Christmas...

Some great efforts in the Celebrity Mii Contest (a Mii being a personal little avatar that you can design on the Nintendo Wii). My personal favorite is this one of Jack Black:

Crane Presbyterian Church burnt down a couple of weeks ago. This is the church that my father-in-law was pastor at for quite a while before moving on a couple of years ago. Very sad to see, but the message from this site is positive.