Aquaria are usually known in the form of big cuboids. The Silverfish Aquarium belongs to the more exotic specimen.

» The Silverfish Aquarium

The large connected bowls look beautifully strange and futuristic. Commenters over at Boing Boing are worried, though, whether this aquarium could be a royal pain to clean. :) The manufacturer, Octopuss Studios, claims that it is no more difficult to clean than other aquaria.

A definite downside with the Silverfish Aquarium ist he price: 2300 Euro. :)

By the way, does anyone know why this aquarium is named like a rather unloved insectoid species?

(This article is also available in German)

Jennifer Maestre creates small sculptures with crayons, nails and other materials. According to her the spiky sculptures are inspired by sea urchins.

The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences.

I like how she transforms such ordinary things into artworks. Crayons or nails are probably not going to impress many people in everyday life. This seems to be one of their central approaches.

Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature.

» Jennifer Maestre
» » Crayon sculptures
» » nail sculpture
» Interview with Jennifer Maestre

(via Wooster Collective
via electro^plankton
via Neatorama)

(This article is also available in German)

Satanic messages in music are usually found in form of passages which, played in reverse (and with much fantasy), result in subversive texts.

A satanic message for advanced satanic followers discovered Alberto Garcia: The band Urusei Yatsura placed an acoustically coded computer program at the beginning of one of their songs. Decoded and run with a computer it writes a satanic message on the screen. :)

» read on!

Did you ever feel inferior to the almighty tentacle monsters of the world? Fortunately, you can now mail-order your very own tentacle arms for only 15 bucks each. :)

While we’ve been using our primitive, apelike arms like a bunch of jerks, the squids of the world have been clutching their prey with their superior tentacles and laughing at us. Until now! For the first time, you can have tentacles of your very own. Equipped with suction cups and plenty of creepy greenness.

Now that is a cheap bargain for an impressive evolutionary advatage. :)

» Tentacle Arm @ Gaia Online Store

(via Boing Boing)

More Tentacles

Tentacle chandeliers

(This article is also available in German)

On June 17, the Czech art group Ztohoven hacked into a weather channel showing panorama views. Into the peaceful panorama of a mountain view, they inserted a pretty realistic nuclear explosion:

Ztohoven see their hack as a comment on media credibility:

» read on!

Deserted and slowly disintegrating buildings are always an interesting subject for photography (see also Urban Remains) . “Sweet Juniper” found an especially interesting ruin in Detroit: A decommissioned warehouse filled with rotting school books from the 80ies.

One can still see the remains of the shelves which once held the books. Now, only the iron stands are left and the books are scattered over the floor.

Seemingly, the books and the building fell victim to a fire in the upper floors ages ago. Everything which did not immediately burn was damaged by the fire fighter’s water beyond rescue. The whole building was given up.

» The photos at Flickr
» Accompanying article

(via Boing Boing)

(This article is also available in German)

I have finally got a new monitor! After sending back my Samsung SyncMaster 245b because it was too noisy, I now got a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw.

First of all a few facts:

Screen size: 22“
Connections: VGA and DVI
Speakers: No
USB-Hub: No
Resolution: 1.680 x 1.050

» read on!

Soon, I will have to write my master thesis. I’m still not absolutely sure if I should follow the chosen topic, so I’m posting the synopsis of my idea here to get some feedback.

For example: Is the title too lurid? ^_^

Update: I chose to work on this topic, but I focused it on the dramaturgy part. I did not think that building the formerly proposed installation would be possible in this timeframe.

» read on!

I finally wrote my first WordPress plugin: Social News On-Demand (or just SNOD). It displays buttons of social news sites only for visitors who come from those sites.

What’s it doing exactly?

Most if not all social news services like Digg or Reddit offer cute little JavaScript buttons which site owners can include on their own pages. Using those buttons, users can vote for an article directly on this article’s page.

This is a cool feature in theory, but not everyone is using those services. If you include such buttons on your site, you will most likely unnecessarily bug a lot of innocent visitors with them. That’s why I rarely used such buttons on my sites.

SNOD is a plugin which includes these buttons only for users who come from a social news site. If someone comes via Digg to an article, he/she will see a Digg button. If someone comes from Propeller, there will be a Propeller button, etc…

» read on!

Content

Dexter is a serial killer. And Dexter is working for the police. Not as a killer, of course, but as an expert for blood patterns. He knows blood like nobody else. In his spare time he continues hunting Bad People[tm] – but unlike during his official work, the hunt usually does not end with an arrest, but with a ritual murder.

Review

» read on!