08 Ago 2008

Look at the image I just copied from Google Map. We are in the very heart of Rome, where via Arenula crosses river Tiber. Notice that on the left of the street you can see the northern façade of the buildings (shaded), while on the right you can see the southern (in full sunlight). This “Escher style” effect would be possible if buildings were bending in different directions due to a strong motion earthquake, or if the satellite were approaching the surface at almost the speed of light. Another explanation is that geeks at Google juxtapose images from different geostationary satellites (look at the tracks near the blue car turning on the bridge, they are slightly displaced). That’s real hard work guys, I appreciate it, but the result is a mess! Link to this article

28 Apr 2008

Talking about fatherhood, I suggest you the novel “The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy. Father and child stumble across a nuclear desert avoiding contact with what remains of humanity. The landscape is gray, ashy and oppressive, colors survive only in dreams, or on the surface of a coke can skipped by looters. And from landscape, McCarthy lyrically diverts to hallucinated concerns on mankind. Occasionally I had to shut down the book, due to the anguish and pity overwhelming me: protect the child, because if he dies, life has no meaning at all. In the meanwhile a movie version was shot, distributed in Italy only in 2010: too depressive. That witnesses how depressed my country is… Link to this article

18 Apr 2008

Finally I saw “The Future is Unwritten“, a documentary by Julien Temple on Joe Strummer, leader of The Clash. As a fan, the movie often touched my heart, as a man it made me question: “Where am I at?” But one thing, maybe more than Joe Strummer’s loss, left me highly disturbed: the silence of the bass player, Paul Simonon. I’ve always admired him, because he was handsome, cool and tender, clumsy in his first performances, classy later on. A hard worker, a classmate rather than an elder brother like Strummer. His absence in the movie seems to endure the hostile atmosphere that poisoned the backstage as The Clash disrupted. Beyond death. I saw Joe and Paul play toghether twice in Rome, mid eighties and mid nineties. Second time they performed “Straight to Hell“, one of my favourite tunes (I used it as a lullaby to put my daughter asleep!). In that moment, they were playing for me. Link to this article

06 Apr 2008

IKEA products are experiencing a shrinking process. A case history of this disturbing phenomenon is described here. First image shows LAMPLIG, a stainless steel travit purchased in 2001 (boiler is a non-IKEA item). LAMPLIG has 10 ribs spanning 30cm, and it weights 1500 grams. Same article seven years later (second image). Two ribs disappeared, width shortened to 25.5cm and weight decreased to 600 grams. Rib diameter is constant, while rib interleave slightly increases. The graph assumes that shrinking process is linear in time. According to this, LAMPLIG will become weightless during the summer of 2012, and will continue to lose ribs at a rate of two each seven years. Last image shows LAMPLIG as in the 2029 edition of the IKEA catalogue. Link to this article

25 Mar 2008

I posted some of my drawings from the mid eighties. They are not directly related with Sir Arthur, but they strongly witness my background. Computheroes was intended to be a serie of short comics. Fellows with jacks sticking from their brain were in direct contact with powerful machines. Notice the Aracno-mobile: a similar vehicle can be seen in “Ghost in the Shell”. Last entry is a Hibernaut. Space travels are something for lonesome folks. Link to this article

28 Feb 2008

I like homemade carnival disguises. My son wanted a Transformer outfit, he loves the 1986 version of Optimus Prime (Commander in some italian versions). First we did some research, drew sketches, took measures. The mask proportions were obtained folding a sheet of paper around my son’s head. Elements of the outfit were drafted with CAD and plotted in full scale. Download here the AutoCAD file (64kB). Paper was spray glued on cardboard (light for mask, heavy for body and other elements), cut and folded. Below you can see my son proudly wearing his Commander disguise. Check out this site for amazing paper robots! Link to this article