notes.husk.org

The power is on - so back off, a poster from the East London...

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:07:58 +0100

The power is on - so back off, a poster from the East London line’s late 1990s rebuilding at London Transport Museum’s Pick Mix site (thanks, Chris)

Essex Fingerposts, a set by John V Nicholls on Flickr.

Sun, 13 May 2012 17:35:06 +0100

Essex Fingerposts, a set by John V Nicholls on Flickr.

The Lunar Ranging Retroreflector, as placed on the Moon by...

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:18:47 +0100

The Lunar Ranging Retroreflector, as placed on the Moon by Apollo 15:

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment has produced many important measurements. These include an improved knowledge of the Moon’s orbit and the rate at which the Moon is receding from Earth (currently 3.8 centimeters per year) and of variations in the rotation of the Moon. These variations in rotation are related to the distribution of mass inside the Moon and imply the existence of a small core, with a radius of less than 350 kilometers.

"Tomorrow Never Knows” is a particularly interesting song to examine from a rights perspective. It’s..."

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:24:00 +0100

““Tomorrow Never Knows” is a particularly interesting song to examine from a rights perspective. It’s credited to the songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney, but it was written by Lennon, or rather it was Lennon who came up with the ten or so repeated sonorous notes. The actual words were adapted from The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was co-written by Timothy Leary (among others). But the passages used are from the Bardo Tholo, an 8th Century Buddhist funerary text attributed by tradition to Padmasambhava. So who ultimately wrote the lyrics? Musically, the importance of the song is not its (barely-present) melody or its droning harmonic structure, but its use of audio loops, a technique borrowed from Stockhausen. McCartney was interested in the avant-garde approach but it was George Martin and several EMI technicians that actually got it to work. So who ultimately made the song? And which amongst them will receive a portion of the $250K?”

- John McCoy on Pathetic Fallacy in Surrender to the void, a post about the $250k fee demanded by the Beatles (or rather, the holders of their rights, given half of them are dead). It’s probably worth reading it in context (it’s a short post) but I loved the web of creativity listed here.

The cover, Ronald Mcdonald, and colour palette pages from a...

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:35:27 +0100

The cover, Ronald Mcdonald, and colour palette pages from a 1970s McDonaldland specification manual, as posted by Jason Liebig.

variety by twak on Flickr: Sity was my master’s thesis...

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:50:32 +0100

variety by twak on Flickr:

Sity was my master’s thesis project. It’s a procedural city generator.

cartophile (via hammerandcode): Some people look at cold metal...

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:42:11 +0100

cartophile (via hammerandcode):

Some people look at cold metal type and see words to print on paper. New York artist Hong Seon Jang looks at metal type and sees a miniature cityscape. Labyrinth, a current exhibition of Jang’s installations is on view at the David B Gallery in Denver through June 16th. Among his contemporary works on display, Type City is Jang’s sprawling metalopolis seaport made of tall lead type buildings and boulevards bisecting the city into a topographic and typographic landscape. With the patience of a skilled hand typesetter, he set the tall buildings of metal type upright so they are capped with individual letters.

NYTimes.com: A Digital Manhattan in ‘The...

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:55:44 +0100

NYTimes.com: A Digital Manhattan in ‘The Avengers’ (via mappeal):

We also had a team doing something called LIDAR, which is being able to create geometry of the city by scanning it,” Mr. White said. “We take those spheres of photographs and we project them onto the geometry.

Everyone likes LIDAR and 3D flat-textured 3D renderings, right?

party outings 1964 front cover by smallritual on...

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:01:08 +0100

party outings 1964 front cover by smallritual on Flickr:

‘party’ here means a group of people. this is a book of suggestions for day trips to tourist destinations

Three Point Landing

Tue, 08 May 2012 04:46:38 +0100

Today, @dunkr premiered this supercut at @ROFLCon and blew my mind: Three Point Landing. youtube.com/watch?v=mgOtPX…
— Diana Kimball (@dianakimball) May 5, 2012

Soviet poster, 1931 (text: “We Are Building a Fleet of...

Tue, 08 May 2012 01:57:00 +0100

Soviet poster, 1931 (text: “We Are Building a Fleet of Airships in the Name of Lenin”) from The Dead Dream of the Dirigible by Megan Garber in The Atlantic.

Proposed flag designs for a “Great Britain” in the...

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:28:45 +0100

Proposed flag designs for a “Great Britain” in the early 1600s, when James became king of both still-independent countries, as covered in BBC Radio 4’s The Flag That Failed, part of the Shakespeare’s Restless World season.

Handily, there’s a transcript available:

Looking at our flag designs, you can see the intractable politics of union being played out in graphic form. All the designs stumble on the one key problem facing James’s project: how do you combine two kingdoms, but allow each to retain equal status? Crudely put, which national cross gets to be on top, St George or St Andrew’s, and does size matter?

If you’ve never seen a Union Jack, it is surprisingly difficult to come up with an even-handed solution to this particular problem.

The programme page has a zoomable image of the designs. As it was, in 1606 a recognisable Union Flag that has evolved into the current design was used, although England and Scotland were not formally joined as a single country until 1707, after the failure of the Darien Scheme (as covered by CP Grey in one of his informative videos).

Studio Parris Wakefield: Tasked with the brief of ‘deep...

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:32:11 +0100

Studio Parris Wakefield:

Tasked with the brief of ‘deep space and nebulae’, Howard Wakefield researched through the collection of Nasa imagery at SpaceImages. While tempted with a nebula called Factory, its name was too good to be true, for it didn’t compare with the more expansive deep blue nebula of Hubble NGC 346 SMC. Peter Saville was keen to see how it could be transformed from being purely documentary, so suggested an inverted, monochrome version.

A Week in the Life of London’s Public Transit System, by Jon...

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:21:26 +0100

A Week in the Life of London’s Public Transit System, by Jon Reades (via):

This visualisation shows average entries at each and every Underground, Overground, and DLR station over the course of a week using a 10-minute interval. So in theory there are some 300 * 7 * 24 * 6 data points in this image.

Oyster Card signed by William Gibson at the Zero History blog.

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:14:19 +0100

Oyster Card signed by William Gibson at the Zero History blog.

Oyster, Transport for London’s smart card, was introduced...

Mon, 07 May 2012 07:12:00 +0100

Oyster (red roundel)

Oyster (white roundel)

Oyster (white roundel, BR)

Oyster Visitor- Tutankhamun

Oyster Visitor Card

OnePulse Oyster Barclaycard

Oyster: Royal Wedding limited edition

London 2012 Oyster limited edition

Diamond Jubilee limited edition

Oyster, Transport for London’s smart card, was introduced in July 2003, but for the first eight years of its life it was wonderfully change-free. The top row of these Oyster card images shows that the only changes were to the TfL roundel, first from red (associated with buses) to white, and then adding the old British Rail logo (now used by National Rail) once ATOC finally allowed sorted out allowing pre-pay on their services.

As early as 2007 there were Oyster visitor cards co-branded with the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2. There are still visitor travelcards, and there was also an attempt to fuse a debit card and NFC payment system with an Oyster card, although apparently that’s no longer available.

It was last year, however, after TfL took control of the Oyster brand, that they were really able to let rip with custom designs. After the success of last year’s Royal Wedding cards, as predicted, this year sees special cards for 2012 and Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee.

Me? I’ll be happy using my 2003 vintage, red-roundel card, even if nobody gets to see the front any more. (The nice thing about NFC cards? You don’t even have to take them out of your Tube map holder.)

The Metrocard Project (via nevver, cesart): The Metrocard...

Mon, 07 May 2012 02:57:08 +0100

The Metrocard Project (via nevver, cesart):

The Metrocard Project is an ongoing project that aims to redesign the iconic New York City Metrocard in a fresh way. The project was created by Melanie Chernock, a graphic designer studying at the School of Visual Arts.

Muni Fast Pass Adult 2010 by jamesim on Flickr. A small cache of...

Mon, 07 May 2012 01:54:39 +0100

Muni Fast Pass Adult 2010 by jamesim on Flickr.

A small cache of SF Muni Fast Passes (2005-2011) to aid a casual study of urban wayfinding, social design processes and their influence on visual culture.

This was the last full year of SF Muni “fast pass” go-anywhere tickets on paper. (The same fare is still available, but only on the Clipper smart card.)

toffeemilkshake: On the subject of shipping containers: Here’s...

Sat, 05 May 2012 18:58:19 +0100

toffeemilkshake:

On the subject of shipping containers: Here’s a papercraft BBC News branded shipping container! (pdf link) It was made by a fan of this project our team was involved with a few years back.

Quite probably the best response to anything we’ve produced.

The top ten container shipping companies by TEU equivalents, in...

Fri, 04 May 2012 21:43:14 +0100

The top ten container shipping companies by TEU equivalents, in order. Container images taken from Eiji Hoshiai’s forty-foot dry freight page. Full size image.