Mak­ing a macro lens and a light for the iPhone | Hi, I’m Colin Devroe.

So this is one of the most ana­log hacks I’ve seen in a while. Sorta looks like a pirate or a borg. Colin must have been really bored. Or maybe cre­ativ­ity just over took him and this is what hap­pened. Either way I’m dig­ging it.

Check out his post : http://cdevroe.com/notes/iphone-macro-light/
You can also take a look at some of his iphone pho­tos at flickr. This link will take you to a macro shot of an m&m you’ll like it.
Check out the m : http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdevroe/2278326372/

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Tags: Col­in­De­vroe, iphone, macro lens, hack, super hack, cam­era, fun

“One SEPTA rider con­sumes about half the amount of oil than that of a pri­vate com­muter. Imag­ine what a bus­load can do.“SEPTA also has been work­ing to min­i­mize the envi­ron­men­tal impact of its fleet.

It oper­ates 32 diesel-electric hybrid buses and plans to add 400 more by 2011. These are 30 per­cent more fuel effi­cient and emit sig­nif­i­cantly less car­bon monox­ide and car­bon diox­ide, accord­ing to SEPTA. Other buses have been retro­fit­ted so they can use cleaner, ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel.

SEPTA’s new theme: ‘Go Green’ | Philadel­phia Inquirer | 02/26/2008

Ok so who knew?

I hate buses, I love trol­lies. I want more trol­lies. I hate the noise that buses make and the smell when the engine isn’t run­ning clean… the heat from the engines. I hate buses.

But, at least some­thing pro­gres­sive is hap­pen­ing. And if rid­ers are up maybe we can get some­thing bet­ter than a bus — like a trolly.

So, when do we make the taxis hybrid?

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Tags: SEPTA, trans­porta­tion, green, philly, philadel­phia, nixon, buses

The space race was an impor­tant influ­ence in my youth. My fam­ily was glued to the news about astro­nauts, cos­mo­nauts, and pro­posed mis­sions. I can remem­ber watch­ing the land­ing on the moon. I love space, the cos­mos, cos­mol­ogy, and heav­enly bodies.

Last night it was the last lunar eclipse until 2010. It was freez­ing cold. I luck­ily sat in my loft look­ing up at it through the sky­light. I watched as the planet on which I reside placed itself between the sun and the moon. The shadow being cast to block our moon.

Too cool.

Wanna have some fun explor­ing the moon? Check out this great site.

visit : google moon

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Tags: lunar, eclipse, moon, space, explo­ration, cosmos

Pa. Con­ven­tion Cen­ter Approval Revoked
It’s pretty clear that Penn­syl­va­nia offi­cials didn’t bar­gain on a pub­lic fuss when they decided uni­lat­er­ally to tear down the two pro­tected Broad Street build­ings that were sup­posed to be part of the expanded Penn­syl­va­nia Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Nor, I sus­pect, did they expect any trou­ble from one of Philadelphia’s more obscure agen­cies, The Philadel­phia Art Commission.But now the project’s archi­tects have some explain­ing to do.The art com­mis­sion wants to see the revised design for the facade — sans the Philadel­phia Life Insur­ance Co. head­quar­ters — before it will allow the $700 mil­lion mega-project to receive a build­ing per­mit. That’s sort like hav­ing your dam project derailed by a snail darter.

Sky­line Online

Hip hip!

This project gives me the creeps. I’m not for the expan­sion of the con­ven­tion cen­ter. How­ever, if it has to hap­pen why can’t we keep some kind of street level design that doesn’t feel like a park­ing garage. This is like those mys­te­ri­ous fires that enable devel­op­ers to move for­ward with projects.

Thanks to Inga Saf­fron for the update. Check out Sky­line Online using the link above. See pic­tures of the demo­li­tion and more about the his­toric piece of Philadel­phia lost.

Thank you to the Philadel­phia Art Commission!

Oh, btw can some­one remind me why we are expand­ing the con­ven­tion center?

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Tags: philadel­phia, con­ven­tion cen­ter, archi­tec­ture, design,

Brick­shelf Gallery

I found this lego model of Stephen Hawk­ing the other day. I thought about this por­trait that ties the human body but not the human spirit to the chair. I won­dered what it was like for him when he was weightless…

Thank you Stephen Hawk­ing for your humor and brilliance.

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Tags: sci­ence, por­trait, lego, genius, universe

Another great change for Philadel­phia. Neigh­bor and much admired painter Moe Brooker is the new chair. Yip­pie, and con­grat­u­la­tions to Moe.

stella

Nut­ter names new art commissioners

By Stephan Salisbury

INQUIRER CULTURE WRITER

Mayor Nut­ter has named sev­eral new mem­bers to the city’s Art Com­mis­sion, a panel estab­lished by city char­ter to mon­i­tor the streetscape, pub­lic art, and the area around the Ben­jamin Franklin Parkway.

In the most notable change, painter Moe Brooker, pro­fes­sor at Moore Col­lege of Art and Design and already a com­mis­sion mem­ber, has been named chair­man, replac­ing William Wil­son, a friend of for­mer Mayor John F. Street and head of the land­scape firm Synterra.

Wil­son has stepped down.

Nut­ter also named sev­eral new mem­bers, includ­ing José Almi­nana, a prin­ci­pal of Andro­pogon Asso­ciates Ltd., a land­scape archi­tec­ture firm; Sean Buff­in­g­ton, pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­sity of the Arts; Karen B. Davis, head of the Arts & Busi­ness Coun­cil of Greater Philadel­phia; and sculp­tor Robert Roesch, chair of the sculp­ture depart­ment at the Penn­syl­va­nia Acad­emy of the Fine Arts.

Other mem­bers of the com­mis­sion are Emmanuel Kelly, of Kelly/Maiello Archi­tects and Plan­ners; Robert N.C. Nix 3d, pres­i­dent of the Fair­mount Park Com­mis­sion; and Patri­cia Alexan­der San­ford, founder of Alexan­der Perry Inc., a design firm.

Nut­ter said his appoint­ments would “bring great per­spec­tive and exper­tise” to the art commission.

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Tags: pliladel­phia, philly, mo brooker, art, arts, com­mis­sion, news, sher­man mills

Rent­ing stor­age space is some­thing I don’t under­stand. Why do peo­ple lug all the junk they never use to a locked box some­where? Do peo­ple really remem­ber what they put in these boxes?

The video waves of stuff freak me out. Your thoughts?