Taiwanese researchers have managed to breed pigs that glow in the dark, proving once again that everything really is made in Taiwan. The fluorescent pigs are green from inside out, including their hearts and internal organs. From the outside, the pigs appear a subtle light green, particularly their eyes, mouths and hooves.
Researchers make the pigs glow by taking an innocent little pig embryo and injecting it with protein from a jellyfish. Apparently this manipulation of pig’s natural composition will aid science in stem cell research since the pig’s green genetic material is easy to observe when introduced to cancer cells. So what’s the moral of this story?
The term "Big Brother" was made famous by George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, Big Brother refers to the totalitarian government that controls many aspects of people’s lives by refusing to tolerate parties of differing opinion. The thought of living with Big Brother frightens most everyone but as it turns out the overseer just might be you, yourself, on the Internet.
Nigel Gilbert, a professor heading a surveillance study, claims that by 2011 the Internet will hold so much information that people will be able to Google "what was a particular individual doing at 2.30 yesterday and get an answer". We’ve already started playing the role of Big Brother by monitoring each other via the Internet. On texasborderwatch.com you can assist the border police by reporting sightings of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. border. The question is, how will we utilize this new power that we’ve been given?
Space. Name a country and chances are they’re shooting something up there. Yes, the darkness beyond our planet’s atmosphere has officially become the playground of choice for the world’s politicians.
While one country is sending up a spy satellite, another country is boasting their ability to destroy such devices. George “Smoke ‘em Out” Bush just had to have his own missile defense system, so he re-launched a new “star wars” plan a few years ago. And with the recent addition of a few more bullies on the playground, more and more nations want to come out to play. Germany is in the game and China recently showcased a fierce new anti-satellite weapon that could be used to knock out enemy surveillance and communications craft. Shortly after that, Japan launched its fourth spy satellite, which enables them to survey not only China and North Korea - but the entire planet. Others are expected to follow.
At this very moment, microchips are being inserted into butterflies during their pupa stage so they can be "guided" by remote control when they're fully grown. This "brilliant" idea comes from the whiz kids at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); the US military's mad scientists.
The butterflies will be able to transmit data and provide information about its local environment via gas sensors, microphones and even video. So why stop at butterflies? There are plenty of other animals that are just sitting around wasting their potential when they could be contributing to more important things - like war.
"Live every day like it's your last." You’ve heard that before, right? But how does it make you feel? Stressed? Inspired? And what does it mean exactly; how do you truly live each day like it's your last? There are probably as many answers to that question as there are people. And that question is one that we’ve tried to answer throughout history. With that said, there’s one guy on record for having a very clear idea of what carpe diem meant to him. His name was Dave Freeman and "You should live every day like it would be your last. And there’s not that many people who do", was something that he was known for saying.
In Dave’s mind, the best way to cease the day was by doing exciting things and seeking out adventure. He often traveled alone to places because he could cover more territory that way. Dave traveled to over 50 different destinations between the years of 1996-2001. A few examples of his adventures include attending the Academy Awards and the Las Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain. This lesser-known festival features huge papier-mâché and plaster statues that satirize local political figures and celebrities. The paper statues are filled with fireworks and they’re all set on fire at the stroke of midnight. Dave witnessed land-diving in the South Pacific and he claimed it to be one of his most exhilarating adventures. Most of us know land-diving as the "original bungee jump" – where tribesmen jump off a makeshift tower with only a vine attached to their leg. Yes, Dave had seen and experienced his fair share of memorable events.
I just rediscovered one of my favorite bands of the 90’s - Souls of Mischief.
This Oakland, California backpacker crew are members of the loose underground hip-hop consortium known as Hieroglyphics. The group consists of four hardcore MCs: A-Plus, Phesto, Opio and Tajai. Their debut album in 1993, '93 Til Infinity, produced an early-'90s anthem of the same name and spawned a movement towards bohemian yet rugged hip-hop.
I’ve been driving everyone here at the office crazy with this stuff the last week. I just don’t seem to get enough of this work of genius.
Scientists have been telling us that the planet is getting warmer for over fifty years, and in classic human style, we've been denying the possibility since day one.
Once a soldier, always a soldier; could that be the case? If you consider the amount of training that goes into becoming a soldier and the effects that wartime can have on a person, it doesn’t seem completely impossible.
We’ve seen it in movies a hundred times. A soldier attempts to return back to society only to find himself fighting for a place back in "normal" life. And if it happened to Rambo, it could happen to any soldier. What is a military man supposed to do when there’s suddenly no war to fight? Dress up like a ninja and rob people? That’s what former Russian soldier Igor Vaclavic decided to do.
Armed with a knife and a bow and arrow, Igor recently pillaged the hills of Northern Italy, robbing rural farmers and disappearing into the night. Dressed in an all black suit complete with a black head dress, he was virtually invisible in the cover of darkness. His reign of terror continued for weeks as word of the "ninja" quickly spread throughout the countryside.
After having redefined hardcore with his band Refused and worked with the demon producer Rick Ruben (the original DJ of Beasty Boys and the founder of Def Jam Records) on his project The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Dennis Lyxzén is now joining forces with the Swedish punk band "Invasionen" (translates Invasion).
This is their kick-ass first single "Får Aldrig Tro" which along with the rest of the songs on the album are all recorded in Dennis country house in the woods outside of Umeå, Sweden. Very Punk Rock!
This beautiful video is made by the great Swedish director Jakob Arevärn. Who also happens to rent a space here at the T-post office.
Neuroscientists recently discovered that a section of your brain is actually dedicated to selflessness. They’re calling it the brain’s "charity spot".
Sure, this benevolent chunk of grey matter is more active in some brains than others, but one thing is consistent – its location is the brain’s posterior superior temporal sulcus (or for those of you without a PHD in Neurology – that’s the top, back section of the brain).
To identify this "kind" section of the brain, scientists scanned the brains of 45 people with functional magnetic resonance imaging while the volunteers played a computer game that earned money for charity with each win. Every time that the game earned money, the charity spot got excited.
Some time ago T-post sponsored a short film made by the brilliant filmmaker and friend Patrik Eklund. We ended up putting 4 T-post issues in the picture on one of the characters.
Once finished it was selected to be shown at both Cannes and Sundance Film Festival, where it won best short film. To top everything of it got nominated for an Oscar (best short) early this year. Here's an interview made with Patrik after the nomination was announced on Swedish television (see the clip here).
But however sad it was to watch Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson enter the stage and receive the Oscar for their short film "The New Tenants" instead of Patrik. I'm ecstatic about what doors that will open for Patrik after this fact. My guess is that the financing for his feature film just got a hell of a lot better.
When The Nobel Committee announced the winners of the Nobel Prize for 2008 they must have left something out. Even if some of the research awarded was quite all right, an invention of outstanding importance was left unacknowledged. Surely there must have been some sort of a mistake.
I mean, sure, discovering and developing a green fluorescent protein is nothing to sneeze at. And yeah, discovering the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature was ok, I guess.
But still, an amazing invention slipped through the committee’s fingers. An invention of great magnitude: the Alco-lock for email!
Why can’t someone just let me be Dave Grohl. Just for one day at least.
For those of you who doesn’t know and love Dave Grohl yet, here’s a little something that will lead you back on the right path.
Grohl grew up in Alexandria, Verginia where he drummed his way through various punk bands in the Washington DC area. He later quit school to join the band Scream.
When Scream dissolved back in 1990 his friend Buzz Osbourne mention it to the, at the time, unknown band Nirvana. And the rest is as they say history. Here are some of the projects he’s been involved in: Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Probot, Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy and Them Crooked Vultures.
I think my work on this subject is done. I’m off to put on a FRESH POT!
I almost got killed in Harlem. All for the sake of jazz.
Harlem is a very dark and desolate place at one o'clock in the morning. The cab dropped us off on a quiet and empty street, just across from the Lenox Lounge.
While crossing the street it felt just like stepping in to a record cover from the 40’s. One step through the front door - remember that scene from Animal House when the frat boys walked into a blues bar and the music stopped? - that was us.
The back room, also known as the zebra room, was small and intimate. It was open mic night and there were some stellar acts playing. We were two of the four non - African Americans in the entire joint. It was dark and the smoke covered the floor just like in a film noir. All the greats played at this cool art deco spot, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday who still to this day has her own private booth.
After the show we stepped bravely into the cold Harlem night with our souls still warm from sweet jazz and too much whiskey but with a strange feeling of discomfort. It’s something about Harlem, which make you feel like you’re always two steps away from being shanked by a total stranger, and for no reason.
We ran across the street and luckily hailed a cab coming towards us. All the doors were looked, and when the cabbie saw that we where all white he unlocked the doors. "Around this neighborhood, you can never be too careful", he said. In my eyes the yellow cab was illuminated with rays of light, a holy taxi saving us from a certain death.
"Where to now?" asked the cabbie. We looked at each other and knew there was only one place to go from here. And that was two blocks over to The Smoke Jazz Club and Lounge.
A man in Poland recently woke up from a 19-year coma. Yes, 19 years. Waking from a coma after such a long time has provided the man with a unique perspective on modern life.So how does such a man view the world? Like no one else. He has, after all, practically traveled in time.
Imagine the insight he must have gained from experiencing a phenomenon so uncommon. His interpretation of society is entirely independent and untainted by media that slowly forms our opinions over time. He has surely gained great wisdom from such a surreal event. But when he was asked what amazes him the most regarding world change, he summed up our civilization’s achievements by saying: "What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning."
Once again blessing us with its beacon of light, science has recently uncovered findings of immeasurable value to everyone from used car salesmen to Casanovas. Two different research teams, independent of each other, have developed computer generated images that settles the score on an ancient mystery: what the worlds most evil and most honest faces look like!
On his part, the logician Selmer Bringsjord, chairman of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Cognitive Science, has come up with the evil face. His facial representation of the “checklist for determining whether someone is demonic” is the culmination of his work on “what is evil and how to formally define it”. The inspiration for the image was taken from the character Mr. Perry in the movie Dead Poets Society.
Roughly during the same period, Dr Chris Solomon at the University of Kent has done the same thing – but opposite. He has established what the most trustworthy and honest face looks like. A verbal description: rounded face, soft jaw line, thin eyebrows, bright eyes, small nostrils, large mouth, thin lips and a warm, bright complexion and no facial hair.
I don’t know why, but it feels like movies back in the day (read 80’s) somehow made a much bigger impact than movies do today.
After E.T. was released we all went straight for the woods pretending to have a cool B.M.X. bike with a bicycle basket, while trying to out run the sheriff. And when Karate Kid came to our theater we suddenly crowded sewing class so we could make and wear the same awesome headband as Daniel Larusso while we practiced our crane kick on every stub available.
I don’t know if it had something to do with us getting just one new movie release every 6 months and we had to make it last until the next watchable one came along? Or that they just did more memorable movies back then?
Ether way, I revisited one of my childhood favorites this weekend, The Lost Boys. It was a nice reunion with a movie that has served me well over the years.
I’m proud to announce that the opening event for the T-post Exhibition at the Red Fox this weekend was a huge hit. Over 200 people turned up for some T-post action.
Our creative director Chad Rea sent me this (not so early) the morning after:
"First of all my head hurts so, that's one sign of a good night. People where super stoked to see T-post come to Portland and exhibit in a bar instead of a gallery and loved the idea of subscriber models, too."
If you haven’t already, make sure you check it out at the Red Fox. It will be on display until April 9th.
A book called "The Cozy Darkness of the Apocalypse" was recently released in Sweden. The author Mr. Bolling argues that the predictions of pessimists, so popular in the news, always turn out to be wrong. He defends the straight line of Human Progress, and argues that everything is steadily getting better—not only are wars and poverty decreasing; even the environment is getting better!
Mr. Bolling’s cheerfulness is heavily influenced by Francis Fukuyama and his notion of the "End of History". In a nutshell: after the fall of the Soviet Empire, global neoliberal capitalism is the end of the line of all social systems. We now live in the best of all possible worlds.
Yes, you’ve guessed right: Mr. Bolling’s book was written before the economic crisis.
My name is Peter Lundgren and I'm the founder and editor-in-chief on T-post. 'A Day in the Life of a T-shirt Maker' is a daily update on T-post, the life around it and stuff that simply interests and inspires me.
Should you ever have any thoughts regarding what we have or haven't done, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail on peter@t-post.se and let me know. I'd really enjoy reading your thoughts and opinions.
