I happened to find the photography works of Julius Shulman wondering the internet of the world. I was fascinated by his work and his use of different angles, styles, and lighting that he used to capture his images. So while I was doing some research I found that he has a movie about how his works have coined today's view of modern architecture, many of his photographs became iconic shots. Especially famous are his photographs of Californian modernism, buildings by Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, Pierre Koenig, and Charles Eames.

Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930's. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images. The movie came out October 2009 and was narrated by Dustin Hoffman. I rather enjoyed watching the trailer to Visual Acoustics and enjoyed his photography. Therefore, my hat goes off to you Julius Shulman.

The people at the University of California, San Diego are looking to find out how babies develop and it's importants of understanding how the human brain works. So to do that they built a creepy robotic baby. In cooperation with Japanese robotics firm Kokoro Co., Ltd., the team constructed this rather complicated machine that is meant to mimic the actions of a one-year-old human child. I still can't figure out why they gave it a baby face but they forgot to give it body skin.

The robot, named Diego-san, has over 60 moving parts in its body. Its five-fingered hands are able to grasp objects, and the robot can even stand up from a sitting (in a chair) position. The head contains more than 20 moving parts that allow Diego-san to create facial expressions. The head also contains high-res cameras in the eyes, a speaker in the mouth, and accelerometers in the ears that detect the robot’s movement and position.

Diego-san is also learning while he is being taught which I think is pretty cool for a robot to do but on the other hand if he got mad. That would not be good. It could turn into a really disturbing Chucky movie.

The KODAK SLICE is not an ordinary camera. It’s an instant connection to all of your memories. With its sleek touchscreen interface, you can cruise through thousands of your favorite shots. And with just a tap, the unique SLICE Search feature lets you sort pictures by person, place, occasion, or date. The KODAK SLICE also recognizes friends by face, so even the moments you can’t put a label on are as easy to find as they are impossible to forget. You’ve always kept your pictures close to heart. Now you can have them all right at your fingertips.

The Kodak Slice is an ultra-thin camera with a decent price tag of ($350) to match the other competitors in the touch screen sector of cameras. It has a large 3.5-inch, 16:9 touchscreen on the back, the Slice also features a 14 megapixel sensor, a 5x optical zoom lens, 720p/30fps HD video recording, optical image stabilization, an included rechargeable Li-Ion battery, and more. The Kodak Slice will not be available until April of 2010. If you want to find out more about this new camera check out Kodak's website.

Do I have a nice treat for you. In this playlist I decided to do a deep house/house mix. I have been digging on some good deep house lately and thought I would share some of my most liked tracks with you. So have a listen and get down. Listen to the stream mix or download it. If you want to hear other Playlist sets click here.



Cover Art by Damion Schweizer

Tracklist

1. Bay Hum (orginial mix) - City Walkers
2. Volar (Montano Sunset Mix) - Mike Montano
3. Beautiful - Stryke
4. Yearning (Shingles Edit) - Basti Pieper & Florian Dalinger
5. You're Special (Ralf Gum Gogo Music Dub) - Soul Creation Feat. Stephanie Cooke
6. Fearless - Nacho Marco
7. Keep On (original) - Pascal Dubois
8. Remember When (Orgininal Mix) - Phonic Funk & Teika
9. Que Me Levante (Original Mix) - Miss Jools
10. Schaumbad (Original Mix) - Smalltown Collective & Dj Miguel
11. Gotta Use it (Gorge Remix) - Solan
12. Garuna (Original Mix) - Gorge
13. Solbel - Kresy & Handrus

Ecospace

We’re entering the realm of ‘affordability’ in 2010 with this green studio composed of roughly 120 sq feet of room. I dig the large windows and such features as a green roof, heated water-resistant rubber flooring, sustainable red cedar insulated walls, and the small footprint offered by Ecospace. A standard model costs about $37K. Check out there website as well its very well designed and gives great information on there product.

The Mini-Jot

Although if your looking for another cheaper alternative to align with your budget then how about the Mini-Jot. At roughly $100 per square foot, this 120sq ft. studio can fit perfectly as a home office, guest house, etc. The structure is designed with passive solar in mind to reduce heating and cooling costs; as well as insulated lightweight structural panels, super-efficient windows, and optional concrete flooring to act as a heat sink. With the money you save on building costs, you could also add on solar, a wood stove, or other cool green features.

I was looking for some inspiration for some poster designs and I came across Mihail Mihaylov. He is a graphic designer and illustrator from Sofia, Bulgaria. Mihail designs are influenced by the aesthetics of modernism. He says that he loves doing minimalistic graphic design and playing with type, colors and shapes. Which you can tell he does by his work.

If you haven't heard Andy James then you should. Andy is an up and coming Techno DJ/Producer. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio where he was inspired by earlier electronic groups like Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Orbital etc. He started spinning back in 1998 and hasn't looked back.

Now in 2010, Andy has risen to become one of the Midwest's hardest working techno DJ/Producers. Some of the DJs/Producers he has played alongside are Richie Hawtin, Barem, Dan Bell, John Tejada, Stacey Pullen and more. He is a very talented DJ/Producer who I know personally so I can say that this guy has skills. If you don't believe me then listen to his new January 2010 mix. This mix is full of some hard hitting bass that will fill any techno head with enjoyment. This mix will definitely have you bouncing the whole time. Take a listen below with the stream version or click the link to download. You can also check out some of his tracks he produced as well on soundcloud.



January 2010 Mix by AndyJames

Tracklist

1. Intro
2. Greg Kobe - Good Deal (Mikael Jonasson Remix) - Definitive Recordings
3. Alessio Mereu - S' Accabadora - CMYK
4. Monokao - En Casa de Paola - inoQouo
5. Davide Guigliano - Banging Shit (David Padilla, Juan Kue, Juano Velino Remix) - Dropkick Records
6. DJ Mickey Da Funk & Costantino Nappi - Feeling Your Soul (Andrea Di Rocco & Ivan Di Blasio Remix) - Italo Business
7. Speedy J - Minimal (John Acquaviva & Oliver Giacomotto Remix) - Plus 8
8. Sascha Krohn - A Tree Is A Tree (Tim Xavier & Camea Remix) - Dreielf
9. Dandi & Ugo - Deep Putka (Alex D'Elia & Nihil Young Remix) - Kol Mojito Records
10. Andy James - Uno - Unreleased
11. Deepbass & Roman Toletski - Oddity (Mark Broom Remix) - Dark Beat
12. Andy James - Profundo - Unreleased
13. Kevin Gorman - Shakey Stripped - Mikrowave
14. Alan Fitzpatrick - Bumblebee - Drumcode
15. Pfirter & Monoloc - Trucker 2 (Ascion Remix) - Synewave
16. Martin Mazzola - Hoppa - Machine Jockey
17. Alex D'Elia & Nihil Young - Surrogates - 1605
18. Wehbba - The One With The Disco Stab - 82 Recordings
19. Kevin Gorman - Shakey Metallic Beats - Mikrowave
20. Mi'ka & Kala - Mochi - SubSensory Recordings
21. Hollen - Annoying People - N.O.I.A. Records
22. Mickael Davis - Karnage (Orakls Remix) - Impulsif Records

Graphic and image editors can help you create beautiful graphics and give your digital images amazing effects, but they can be expensive. So I can understand that some people just don't want to buy an expensive program just to make a couple of alterations. So I have decided to provide you with some Free Graphic and Image Editors that can fit your needs. These programs can be used by graphic designers, photographers, animators, and artists. Some have basic functionality, for the amateur or learner, others are very powerful and professional, suitable for the professional.

Project Dogwaffle

Project Dogwaffle offers both freeware and commercial versions, the freeware version is fully functional, lacking only the advanced layer and scripting tools of the full version. Project Dogwaffle (current version 1.2) is based on its commercial big brother, Project Dogwaffle 2.0. It’s a lighter, yet powerful tool for graphic designers and animators. Its features include realistic paint effects, a frame-based animation tool, the standard paint tools common to most modern bitmap paint programs, an alpha channel for transparency effects and support for plugins.

Pixen H3

Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. It’s designed from top to bottom for pixel artists—people who make low-resolution raster art like the sprites you see in old video games. But it’s great for artists of all arenas: Pixen is like a very powerful MSPaint or a simpler, more agile Photoshop. And best of all, it’s Free!

Inkscape

Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor just as powerful (perhaps better?) to Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.
Inkscape does not have all the features of the leading vector editors, the latest versions provide for a large portion of basic vector graphics editing capabilities. It is not unknown for Inkscape to be used on different projects, it can be successfully used to create web graphics, technical diagrams, icons, creative art, logos and maps. It can also be used on Windows and Mac OS.

PhotoFiltre

PhotoFiltre is a great freeware bitmap graphics editor program. I have been using this one personally for my photography and giving it that vintage look. This program has a lot of different features. One that I like the most is the quick contrast/hue and saturation buttons because you can check out the effects and immediately and easily correct the image if you’re not satisfied with its quality.

Paint.net

Paint.NET is a free image and photo editor, it features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
It was originally intended as a free replacement for Microsoft Paint, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool, not quite as powerful as Photoshop or Gimp, but a damn good replacement. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.

Pixia

Pixia is a freeware bitmap graphics editor program originally developed for the Japanese Manga but has become very popular with all graphic designers.
This Japanese application, is also available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Polish, Korean and German. The program supports multiple layers, transparency effects, standard file formats and a number of RGB file formats including .PSD. The main file extension used by this program is .PXA.

While being stuck in a traffic jam the other day I was thinking about the designs of the cars on the road. I was thinking about the futuristic type designs and practicality of the automobile. Then it popped into my mind what about the bicycle. What kind of designs have come out that are futuristic looking but yet still have some practicality?

Creative design can be pure art or it can add usefulness to its product. When an item combines beauty and practicality, then it becomes an excellent product. So check out some of these beautiful designs.

Oryx

Designer Harald Cramer decided to integrate handle bars, stem and fork in the same piece. The crank is designed like a ring and mounted in the inside of the frame by two ball bearings.

Grasshopper

Designer David Goncalvez decided that its folding composition be partial, so that it can be carried as a trolley and fastly charged without unfolding it. I think this one is pretty sweet for anyone who lives in a high populated sector.

Unknown Name

This prototype has a built-in locking system that can only be activated and opened by the owner’s fingerprint. The computer-equipped machine can also monitor the amount of calories burned, and its battery will assist you when going up a steep hill. The tires are puncture-proof and self-inflating.