Jud Turner has been a metal sculptor for a good many years, but only just decided to piece things together from a trash heap. Here is what he came up with. Creatures that look as though they’d come to life from a Steampunk novel. Just gorgeous!
This is slightly morbid and not funny or hilarious in the least, but it is something that we should at least keep in the back of our minds.
Recently a WoW player passed away and his daughter was tasked with tracking down his online family and alerting them of their guild members’ passing. With the growth of the internet and online relationships becoming the norm, the ability to be able to notify these relations in the event of a death has become an ever-growing problem.
With this in mind, David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has had plenty of time to solve this little dilemma.
“I work in the world’s largest medical center, and what you see here every day is people showing up in ambulances who didn’t expect that just five minutes earlier,” he said. “If you suddenly die or go into a coma, there can be a lot of things that are only in your head in terms of where things are stored, where your passwords are.”
David has created a site called Deathswitch where for a small fee you can set up a process that notifies your online friends in the event of your death. It works like this, you set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if you don’t check in at intervals that you specify. For $20 per year, members can create up to 30 e-mails with attachments that can include video files.
If Deathswitch is not morbid enough for you, there’s always, Slightly Morbid. A site created by Mike and Pamela Potter, which also sends e-mails when a member dies, but doesn’t rely on them logging in periodically while they’re alive. Instead, members have to give trusted friends or family the information needed to log in to the site and start the notification process if something should happen.
Even if death is something that we’d prefer not to think about online death notification is a growing business, which makes perfect sense since we all have one thing in common….
It’s that time of year where you have to scrounge around trying to find that very special gift for the steampunk in your life. It’s easy for me, all I have to do is check out this blog here and it has everything a girl could ever want.
I especially love the etched Moleskine journal…I’m a big Moleskine fan anyway, but having one etched with a cool steampunk motif just makes my heart soar.
Do you have a small child? Would you like to give him some steampunk cred? Well, there’s no better way to do that than with The Pramulator! It’s a one-of-a-kind baby carriage, made of shaped aluminum and carriage parts.
The artist, and his other work, can be found here.
Although this table is contemporary, it hearkens back to some 19th century quack-medicine contraptions. It straps you in, and treats “stress” via vibration, much like some Victorian medical equipment from years gone by. According to the manufacturer:
The Sonic Lounger massages and resonates the entire body with crystal clear vibration, transferring high fidelity music into the skin, bones and tissue, allowing the subtleties and depth of sound that cannot be heard with the ears to be viscerally experienced. Unlike the static vibration of commercial massage chairs, the dynamic vibration of the Sonic Lounger is harmonic, refined and rhythmic. Music is heard through the body, engaging the senses, stimulating the mind, relaxing the body and inspiring the spirit.
It’s also a bit naughty. A table that straps you in, with adjustable vibrating thingamabobs that you can position to isolate specific stress locations on your body? Hmmmmm. Of course, at nearly $10,000 it’s a bit expensive for that kind of, um, ’self-realization’.
An artist by the name of Marina Bychkova makes some dolls with an extraordinary amount of detail. Many have a whimsical, Victorian feel to them, while others are a bit more faerie-like. All in all, they’re outstanding and even a bit disturbing.
Our favorite is her interpretation of the Bride of Frankenstein (seen here), but the others are equally awesome.
This week people have gotten all hot and bothered over the new drug-dealing mini-game that comes with GTA: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. The truth is, I agree with the masses this time. I know, how anti-gamer of me.
I seriously think that Rockstar needs some bitch-slapping at this point. I was all for them taking a stand with the release of their whole GTA franchise, but this DS business seriously needs some re-thinking. The majority of DS owners and gamers are children. We are trying to end drug-abuse and having a mini-game like this on a system focused on attracting children is irresponsible. Rockstar wasn’t even concerned enough to change the names of the drugs. When you play the mini-game, you get to deal heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, acid, weed and downers. Foolishness.
I hope that Rockstar gets the crap that comes to them on this one. The release of this game and the negative attention that it’s receiving is obviously what Rockstar wants. Sad.
