Month: June 2014

The world’s finest viola?

Sotheby’s to auction $45 million Stradivarius viola
“This viola represents the pinnacle of human achievement in instrument-making, and it is in incredibly good condition. Almost as though you ordered a viola from Stradivarius and 300 years later he handed it you.”

But then…

Rare ‘Macdonald’ Stradivarius viola fails to attract a buyer
The rare 1719 ‘Macdonald’ Stradivarius viola failed to attract a buyer when its sealed-bid sale came to an end yesterday, despite ‘plenty of interest,’ according to Tim Ingles of auctioneers Ingles & Hayday. The result comes just days after news that the ‘Kreutzer’ Stradivarius violin, valued at between $7.5m and $10m by Christie’s, failed to sell.

This stop motion fighting animation made with woollen puppets is the best

This stop motion fighting animation made with woollen puppets is the best
Short but sweet, the detail included in the puppets is absolutely astounding, including even the quirk of an eyebrow and an ambiguous puddle of vomit at the end. It’s also hilarious and really really cute, which is basically a dream combination.

The ebook equilibrium

The ebook equilibrium
If you have a smartphone or a tablet or a laptop with you this morning — and I’d be aghast if any of you didn’t — you know very well that the computer is not a tool for removing yourself from the busyness of your lives. It’s a tool for plunging you more deeply into the whirlpool. It’s a technology of action, reaction, and distraction, not a technology of repose and reflection.

The CIA is not your friend

As sinister dealers in mass death, the CIA could at least spare us its snarky tweets
As evil as the Nazis were, at least their messaging was consistent with their actions. The SS weren’t nice guys; lest anyone be confused about that, they wore skulls and crossbones on their uniforms. Had Germany won the war, you wouldn’t turn to @Gestapo for droll quips. Hitler didn’t make Holocaust jokes; Mao didn’t turn meta on the Cultural Revolution at the Forbidden City Correspondents Dinner.

How the humanities students approach the final show

It’s Nice That : Show RCA 2014: How the humanities students approach the final show
Think of the final frantic few days before an art school degree show and you picture frenzied activity as pictures are framed, walls are whitewashed and final details are finessed. But for one of the Royal College of Art’s six schools, the preparations take on a very different form.

Emma Mulqueeny’s time limited solution to email horribleness

If Google and MS Exchange were to implement this, it really would shift our relationship with email into a much more mature and intelligent place. We’ve had email for ages now, we really should have moved on more than we have.

Seven email problems – one solution, I think
You can have your inbox set to destroy email after a certain time period. The sender is alerted to the fact that their email will be destroyed after xxx number of days, so if no response has been received in that time, assume email bankruptcy on behalf of the receiver, and use a different method to communicate your demands/thanks/wishes/offers.

You can also send time limited email – if the receiver has not read the email by a certain date, it becomes irrelevant or too late, and so the email is deleted, so that saves the issue of protracted apologetic comms that are dull for everyone involved. You could set this email to alert you when it is deleted unread, just so you know, in case you want to pursue the issue on a different medium.