Category Archives: I-miX

inspirational, intelligent, interesting miscellaneous varied topics to knock you out

nano numbers

nanotech & Nobel

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nanoart1.gifHow it is possible to store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard drives. How is billions of bits of information stored on something the size of a dime. The miniature your device (specially the hard disk) gets – Blame it on nanotech!

Blame it on a very specific discovery called ‘Giant Magnet-o-resistance’.

The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery.

In 1988 the scientists, Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect called- Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR.

The first real application of the promising field of nanoart2.gifnanotechnology was ushered in by using GMR effect, the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. So the nanotech owes it real application to these two scientists who has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics only minutes ago!

(nano art images via northwestern edu.)

go to another level

black and white staircase poetry

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Staircases fascinate me to no end. As I have a small home I want to incorporate only its elements. Simple solution is to have a staircase-look cabinet but that box-furniture does not appeal to me!

At the moment I have no clue as to how I am going to bring elements of staircase in overall design without curbing space!

I am searching…..

Meanwhile I am (seating cross legged, my face resting on left hand) looking at the poetry in these two staircases-wide eyed!

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Photograph by Andy Ryan, image via dezeen

This is a recently completed renovation interior project for NYU Department of Philosophy (1890 building) New York by NY based Steven Holl Architects.

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And this is a Marcel Wanders creation for Mondrian south beach hotel, Miami (planned opening in early 2008).

barren walls

hidden finds

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I saw this image on emmas lovely blog and got curious. 

I clicked the link and found these very cozy and full of hidden surprises- home. This lovely home belongs to designers  of something’s hiding in here. (hello there! I did not find your names anywhere. One of you Philly?) There blog too is full of funny and cute little things they sell.

                                  hi hidden, coming out?

       deery, why bother yourself with vintage dictionaries!

            can’t say ‘outside there window’ view is not engaging.

barren walls, Craftworm, DIY

design-ancient scripts

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               (In Brahmi script I have tried to write read me)

                                          read me ?

                         Harappan script (ca. 2600-1900 BC)

                          Magical Stela, 360-343 B.C.E, Egypt

I can’t read these!

Can you?

But I think I read these scripts.

I read: —

That our ancestors wrote too beautifully! Do you agree?

That curious caterpillar in me gets so aroused I go green.

(Please donot correct my words I want to describe this way only.)

That mystery of not knowing what is written arouses what I call lovely fear in me.

That my fascination drives me to use these scripts/images in various DIY ways:–

? All the time I use these kinds of images as my desktop background.

                                          my desktop

?Years ago I had copied these scripts in clay and put on wall as a decor piece.

                                     in this shape now

?I want to do walls of narrow passageway in my new home with these scripts translated in clay including the lippankam method of Kutch, Gujarat.

(Lippankam is a dying art & craft I just love so much. Simple motifs are made with clay and small mirrors on the walls. Will do a post on lippankam later though I am terribly short of images.)

 

                                          Stela, Egypt

 

                           Indus script (ca. 3000-1200 BC)

              

                         Brahmi script- ca. 3rd century BC

                                      (click to enlarge) 

barren walls

dance with peacock

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In all pristine glory he is ready to dance for her, too woo her. He is all decked up as there is competition. Not a feather without preening as she is going to select.Nature has her strange reasons to make males rather beautiful in animal kingdom. Female species are not that attractive but mostly in position to choose.Once again I have chosen him (earlier as simplest mor), now as most fabulous peacock. He is my favourite craft-bird.See how all over the world (mainly in public places) this bird is loved in mosaic magic. Let’s start the peacock dance now…..peasongsupon-sea1.gif  exmsftcom.jpg     Mor chowk, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. Via songsuponsea

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                                            Udaipur, India

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                                                In Libya

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                              Detroit Zoo,Michigan,USA

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the photo is of not good quality and he is also not in his colourful glory but I like this one too. It was a private home in Paphos, Cyprus

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                  In Santa Barbara, flickr photo by jimkster

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This is on garden wall of a private home. This is one of my what I call ‘enduring images’! via Plasitasartists

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How can I not include her! Anyway she is not to be left behind.The she-pecock mosaic some where in Florence, Italy. Photo on flickr by Gauis Caecilius.

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I just love this pebbled peacock, cover of The complete Pebble Mosaic Handbook, via builders booksource

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This is not a display at any public or private place, This one is straight from artist Martin Cheek. It is available in kit-form .