Blogbook

ICYMI: Elon Musk presented his new idea of getting people from city to city anywhere on Earth in less than an hour with the BFR. Via Techcrunch:

Elon Musk was at IAC showing off his ambitious plan to ultimately make Earth an interplanetary species, and one of the new pieces of his plan he revealed was Earth-to-Earth transport using SpaceX rockets to cut down trips to almost anywhere on Earth in under an hour, and to most destinations in under 30 minutes.

The plan would essentially fly passengers up to an altitude where the craft would encounter virtually no resistance from air or wind, which would dramatically increase potential speed and efficiency in terms of fuel use. Some of the flight times SpaceX displayed during its presentation include 22 minutes for Hong Kong to Singapore, 24 minutes from LA to Toronto, 25 minutes from LA to New York, and just 30 minutes from New York to Paris.

The demo video that SpaceX showed of this in action included an animation depicting passengers going aboard a rocket atop a launch pad in the middle of a body of water, ferried by a large futuristic looking boat. The rocket then exits Earth’s atmosphere, the booster returns to Earth and the passenger capsule continues on to its destination at a max speed of 27,000 km/h (around 16,777 mph).

Once it arrives, it executes a landing not unlike the current Falcon 9 first stage at another landing/launch pad, where passengers disembark. Musk didn’t put any specific timeline on this particular use of the company’s rocket tech, though it did look like the future BFR craft was being used, which SpaceX is set to start building in as few as 6 to 9 months. He did later add that cost for a seat on the Earth BFR express should be about the same as “full fare economy” on most airlines today.

Black Out 2022 is a Blade Runner anime prequel short by renowned director Shinchiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop / Samurai Champloo fame. Via Slashfilm:

The short film follows two replicants, Iggy and Trixie, as they evade angry mobs of humans who have militarized against replicants. Tensions between humans and replicants have reached a boiling point, with people disgusted by the genetically engineered beings’ inhuman natures taking it upon themselves to use the Replicant Registry to hunt down stray replicants. But with the help of sympathetic human Ren, who is enamored with Trixie, a few replicants plot to plunge the city of Los Angeles into a black out “like the humans had never seen.”

The result is catastrophic, with the falling cars and vehicles wreaking havoc on the cityscape, and causing replicant manufacturing to be banned, causing the end of the all-powerful Tyrell Corporation from the first film. Until the daunting Wallace Corp. takes its place a decade later.

The animation is nothing short of stunning, with Watanabe’s signature fluid and lanky animation style making the characters pop against meticulously detailed settings and landscapes. It’s not all hard edges and garish neon either — at one point, there is a smooth transition to Iggy’s flashback, in which we see the perspective from the replicant soldier, struggling against a torrent of sand and wind, of a foggy and surreal vision of the desert. It’s art. The dreamlike atmosphere is aided by a kinetic, electronic score from Flying Lotus, an experimental producer who earlier posted a snippet of his demo on Instagram.

The new Blade Runner film will be out this week!

Isle of Dogs is iconic director Wes Anderson’s latest foray into stop animation, following beloved successes like Fantastic Mr Fox. Via News.com.au:

It has been too long since we had a new piece of work from creative genius Wes Anderson. It’s been almost four years since we last drank in Anderson’s symmetrically blissful visuals with Grand Budapest Hotel.

But we won’t have to wait much longer. The first trailer for Isle of Dogs, his next film, has just dropped and it is everything you want it to be. The movie is due to be released in 2018. Isle of Dogs is Anderson’s second turn at stop-motion animation after 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. The format has suited the auteur director’s aesthetic sensibilities with his live-action films so intricately set up they might as well have been animated.

The new flick takes place in a dystopian future Japan where an outbreak of “dog flu” has seen all of our beloved canine friends banished to an island. The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Atari bravely making his way to the island in search of his pet Spots. He’s aided in his noble quest by a pack of alpha doggos who are sick of their pitiful existence picking at scraps of garbage. Like all Anderson tales, it promises to be a rollicking adventure with a touch of whimsy and a dash of drollness. Isle of Dogs reunites Anderson with many of his “players” including Bill Murray who has been in every one of the director’s films since Rushmore (1998). Other Anderson mainstayers include Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Frances McDormand and Edward Norton. Newcomers to the Anderson universe include Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig, Ken Watanabe and Yoko Ono.

“How to Solve Problems like a Designer” is a vox explainer video by IDEO’s CEO, Tim Brown, who joined the world-famous firm in 1987. Vox sat down with Tim at this year’s TED conference and asked him to break down the steps of design thinking. But what is design thinking? Here is a short explainer from Rikke Dam and Teo Siang:

Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.

Design Thinking revolves around a deep interest in developing an understanding of the people for whom we’re designing the products or services. It helps us observe and develop empathy with the target user. Design Thinking helps us in the process of questioning: questioning the problem, questioning the assumptions, and implications. Design Thinking is extremely useful in tackling problems that are ill defined or unknown, by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing. Design Thinking also involves ongoing experimentation: sketching, prototyping, testing, and trying out concepts and ideas.

Kenzo’s “Cabiria, Charity, Chastity” is a new concept surrealist short film following its popular, highly awarded Spike Jonze film. Via Adweek:

On the heels of winning a Grand Prix at Cannes this summer for the “My Mutant Brain” film, directed by Spike Jonze, Kenzo is back with another stunning piece of work. This time around, the brand tapped Orange is the New Black actress Natasha Lyonne to direct a nearly 15-minute film for the brand’s new fall-winter 2017 collection.

The film, titled “Cabiria, Charity, Chastity,” marks Lyonne’s directorial debut and it does not disappoint. Lyonne wrangled a star-studded cast for her film including Maya Rudolph, who plays Chastity, a woman on a journey to discover her true self as she grapples with her past. She truly shines in the film, even creating her own language (“a version of gibberish,” according to Lyonne) which she delivers with perfect ease throughout the story.

The full cast includes Fred Armisen, Greta Lee, James Ransone, Matt Lucas, Macaulay Culkin, Waris Ahluwalia and Leslie Odom Jr. Lyonne also makes an appearance.

This marks Kenzo’s fifth film under the brand’s creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon. Each of the five films have had different directors, including Carrie Brownstein and Khalil Joseph. Lyonne starred in the film directed by Brownstein, which debuted this time last year.

“We don’t like to call them fashion films,” Lim said. “I think there is a pretty free way that people will interpret the story and then take it. The clothes are almost secondary in many ways because it needs to fit with the characters.”

Project Invincible by McLaren Applied Technologies is a fully wearable composite shield designed to protect bodies after surgery. Via McLaren:

Introducing Project Invincible, the latest innovative personalised healthcare solution made from materials that will be used in next season’s Formula 1 car.
McLaren Applied Technologies, the advanced technology, innovation, and design company has revealed the latest addition to its portfolio of personalised healthcare solutions.

The Invincible shield is in response to a challenge from a single client to design a device to help protect vital organs after surgery.

The fully wearable composite shield does the job of the rib cage – protecting vital organs including the heart and the lungs, with the garment providing further protection from unexpected low energy impact.

The multi-material shield features high-failure strain Dyneema fibres (as used in body armour) for damage containment, and a highly-toughened resin system with woven fabrics for impact resistance. The shield borrows F1 technology including Zylon fibres, used by all F1 teams on their cars for protection against side penetration. If that wasn’t enough, stiff carbon fibres ensure flexural rigidity and load carrying capability.

McLaren’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Adam Hill said: “From digital therapeutics, to tailored human performance programmes and bespoke medical devices, our aim is to innovate health care solutions that can be tailored for individual patients.

“The common thread in all of our projects is data. We use data to build a digital picture of how a patient is performing or recovering, and then create solutions, or in the case of the Project Invincible, devices, to aid our users.”

Not quite at the level of space marines yet, but nearly there!

This Vox explainer is accurately titled “Why these all white paintings are in museums and mine aren’t”, something that has also troubled us now and then. More on Bloomberg:

In a record month for New York art auctions, one standout was an all-white work that sold for $15 million. Even if one lacks Tom Wolfe’s courage to doubt the value of contemporary art, the multi-million-dollar price tag for some white paint on canvas cannot but raise existential questions.

White paintings are something of a philosophical tradition. Kazimir Malevich started it in 1918 with “Suprematist Composition: White on White”. […]

So what is so special about the 1961 work by American conceptualist Robert Ryman that fetched $15 million in New York this week? Or the nearly identical one below, also by Ryman, which sold for $5.2 million yesterday?

The most probable reason for the price lies outside the realm of art, even defined broadly as a symbiosis of painting and explanation. Alexander Rotter, co-head of the contemporary art department at auction house Sotheby’s, simply decided that Ryman needed a push. “I thought there was really something to be done with the market, that’s why it’s been priced so high,” the New York Observer quoted him as saying of the untitled painting. “The public needs a great piece to elevate the market and give it an indication of where it could go. The sky is the limit for this painting.”

If one wanted to be poetic about this piece of marketing wisdom, one could say Rotter is talking of the same sky whose lining Malevich claimed to have overcome. I’m more inclined to call it cynical. In the end, the value of art is in the emotions it conveys, its power of holding one’s eye and occupying one’s thoughts. A white canvas may have had the requisite powers in 1918 or even in 1951, because it made a radical statement. In 2014, it’s meaningless. The business decision behind the insane price is the only true piece of art in the case of Ryman’s works.

Even in the highly unlikely event that certain art lovers are moved by the spectacle of unadulterated whiteness, there’s no need to pay millions of dollars for the pleasure. They can simply follow Rauschenberg’s advice: “Want one? Paint one.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc32z-wgxU4

Game of Thrones: Conquest and Rebellion is HBO’s latest attempt to help you with your Game of Thrones withdrawal symptoms. Via Gizmodo:

Game of Thrones may be focused on the war for the Iron Throne, but there’s another epic battle in the past that’s just as iconic, and it’s finally getting a miniseries of its own.

HBO has unveiled a sneak peek at its storybook-style animated series called Game of Thrones Conquest & Rebellion, which looks at Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, likely leading all the way through Robert’s Rebellion. The first episode, which is available online, is called “Valyria’s Last Scion: House Targaryen”. It tells the story of the Doom of Valyria, and ends on Aegon Targaryen’s sideways glance at Westeros.

Oh yeah, that boy’s gonna conquer so many lands.

Bonus: The episode is narrated by Game of Thrones actor Harry Lloyd, in-character as Daenerys’ dickish brother Viserys. And he sounds a lot nicer than he did in the show — you know, before being burned to death by liquid gold. The afterlife must have done wonders for his personality.

There is speculation that Aegon Targaryen’s conquering of Westeros could be one of the prequels HBO is planning after Game of Thrones ends, so this could be HBO testing the waters on whether Aegon’s story could carry an entire series. Meanwhile, I’m still hoping we could get a prequel about Valyria, one of Game of Thrones’ coolest mysteries. But considering how many freaking dragons they would need, it seems highly unlikely.

Ken Burns is back with an epic, 18 hour, 10 part series documentary on the Vietnam War, via PBS. Looks like it’s going to be amazing. Via Vox:

The projects of Ken Burns are designed to illuminate the past and, thereby, illuminate the present. You can’t watch, say, The Civil War and not see the barely papered-over fault lines that still exist in American politics, and a miniseries like Baseball could present a different prism through which to consider what America cares about.

Many Ken Burns projects are easy to leave in their space — earnest, occasionally dusty chronicles of the past. They reflect the present, but in ways that usually allow us to say, “Well, things have certainly changed since then.” You might find them intensely moving or graceful, but you may not return to them much after you’re done watching. You’ll think of them fondly when you stumble upon them on Netflix or a DVD shelf.

But The Vietnam War, the filmmaker’s latest, which he co-directed with Lynn Novick, reflects the present in ways that can be uncomfortable. It’s about an unpopular president — actually, two unpopular presidents — who stews about unfair treatment from the press and protesters. It’s about a country that seems on the brink of fracturing over very different ideals of what that country should be. And it’s about the rise of a movement that believes “law and order” is more important than any other fundamental right.

I watched all 18 hours of the miniseries (which are spread across 10 parts) way back in July, but I’ve found it returning to my thoughts, often unbidden, ever since. It feels, more than any of Burns’s projects, like a living document, about something that’s not entirely in the past and keeps haunting us.

The Vietnam War is, in some way, about right now, while also being about something else entirely. I don’t know if it’s the best film Burns has ever made, but it’s certainly the one I’ve thought most about.

Vir Das’s take on modern day sexist advertising in this hilarious new video for HE Deodorant with a parody of all sexist commercials out there. Via Brown Girl Magazine:

On one hand, Goddess Durga is worshipped and on the other, women are reduced to sexually provocative body parts in ad commercials to drive sales. With growing competition to be the largest seller, the demands of the modelling industry have also shot up. In the documentary “The World Before Her,” Nisha Pahuja analysed how in Indian society’s women are constantly told they are not good enough—how they do not have perfect legs, and that they must submit to the patriarchal society.

This mindset is true to the ad commercial world as well—not just in India, but around the world. An easy way out for marketers to increase their brand’s presence is a sexist ad commercial. Be it mango juice, beauty soaps, bikes, furniture or any other object, a perfect model with flawless skin and figure can make your product worth it! And in case the model is not as perfect as the competitor’s, then there is photoshop to edit faces and bodies of the featured models. Some of them even succumb to botox injections to get a consummate camera-friendly appearance.

This is largely impacting the society. Young girls are believing that how they look is more important than who they are. And boys are growing up thinking that how the women look is the only thing that matters.

In a new deodorant ad, comedian Vir Das ripped apart objectification of women in Indian ad commercials. In the ad, Das sarcastically mimics ads that portray women as sexual objects. Some of the scenes in the ad depict a Das dressed like a woman squeezing a mango, sitting in a bathtub with bare legs and the director tells Das “Thoda aur sexy chahiye!” (Make it sexier!).