The Matazone blog

How cool is this? A bunch of architecture students are getting university credits by going to Burning Man and building a structure there. Frankly, I think that’s pretty damn awesome – it gives them all the design side of the process and then the practical experience of making sure the damn thing stands up when the desert wind blows up. What a great way to get through university!

In other news, Apple released the iPad and were trying to keep it free or ‘adult’ material. Guess how long that lasted? Less than a day. Oops. The internet exploded into popularity as soon as you could put pictures on it, and guess what those pictures were of? The home video camera became popular because people could use it to video themselves in private moments. Why did Apple think that they might be able to keep the iPad smut free? On a more realistic level, a good business model should take a realistic approach to human desires and respond to them, and so tech will only succeed if it can support people’s needs.

There are some brilliant photos from the Burning Man festival over at Burn Monkey. Phil Steele’s images really capture the spirit of the event – fun, profound, silly, beautiful, passionate, and ready for the end of the world.

Many images contain partial or full nudity, so it’s probably best to not click on this one while at work, eh?

What happens when you combine advertising for a medical imaging scanner with pin-up calendars? Well, this, pretty obviously.

Answer: running a 31 mile marathon in a Nevada desert. Why on earth woudl you do this to yourself? Personally I think entering the marathon could probably be used in court as evidence on insanity, but some people will be doing it at the Burning Man this year. Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers.

I know what you’re thinking – “I’ve got a bottle of wine and nothing to open it except a shoe, how on earth do I get to the tasty liquid?”, well wonder no more!

By ‘aliens’ the writer of this article is talking about a species that has evolved independently of known life.

The basic idea is this:
Nonlife can turn into life.
If life can appear on earth once then there’s no reason that it can’t have happened twice, or still be happpening all around us.
If we can prove it’s happened twice, that tells us that it’s a relatively common event (on an astronomical scale).
If the beginning of life is a common occurence then that significantly increases the chances that it has happened in many other places.
… But first we have to find life that hasn’t descended from the same ancestor as all of the rest of us!

This little article is about the search for life that is descended from a fresh ancestor – life with which we have no common living ancestry. ALIENS! Click here to read it!

Bloomin’ teenage octopuses, hanging around on reef corners, nicking people’s cameras…

Actually, this is rather cute!

I know what you’ve been thinking. No, not that thing, the other thing. No, not the one that’s red and pulses, the other one…

Yes! That’s it! You’ve been thinking ‘I wonder what it would be like if the Muppets featured in a remake of the horror classic The Wicker Man?’. Well wonder no more, instead just revel in the glory of The Muppet Wicker Man.

Now that’s what I call a light show. A 40ft shark leaping out of the water to attack a bridge. Now all it needs is dinosaurs and explosions to get up to the level of astonishing awesomeness.

A new series of pictures of the fall of the World Trade Centre has been released. Taken by a detective from the New York City Aerial Investigation Unit, it shows the moments before, during, and after the collapse of the buildings. Sometimes it’s worthwhile looking back on these things, not to remind ourselves of justification for war, but to remind ourselves of the urgent need for peace and understanding.

The Burning Man festival has long been an interest of mine after I attended in 1999 and 2002. I will get back there again! In the meantime, the art that is produced there continues to amaze me.

Here’s a lovely selection of photographs from the 2009 Burning Man festival, taken by Wendell DeLano.

And here are a few favourites from the set:
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Enjoy!

Gods bless those bonkers LA people: have you ever wondered how would a stormtrooper would look in a corset? Or if C3P0 would look good with boobs? Then wonder no more – Star Wars Burlesque is here to help!

Between a couple of months and two years, apparently. That’s a lot of water, very fast.

So, interesting stuff to think about, but the best bit has got to be in the comments when the Christian who posts saying that geologists could save a lot of time by starting from the Bible and working out from there. Religious extremists: as long as you lock the weapons away, then they’re a constant source of amusement.

What’s bigger than the sun exploding? Well, an object with the mass of eleven suns exploding. Astronomers have witnessed an antimatter supernova. There are many complex things going on inside the whole mess, but the result is this – compared to the scale of this release of energy, our lives are absolutely nothing at all. Now, you could use that as a reason to feel down about our insignificance, or you could turn it to think how lucky we are to even exist in the first place, how incredibly unique we are, and how amazing the universe is that we live in. Seriously. It’s a wonderful and awesome world out there.

There’s a festival called Burning Man that I’ve been to a couple of times in America, but beyond being a cool get-together, there’s also an agenda of ‘leave no trace’. The idea is to make sure that you leave places in as good, or better, state as the one you find them in. I like to apply this to as many activities in life as is practical, and one of the ways of doing this is to support renewable energy sources.

A little while ago I sent a donation over to a small town in Lovelock, Nevada. Due to budget cutbacks, they were having to lay off some of their teachers. The organisers of Burning Man stepped in and asked the world if we could send a donation to build a solar array. By removing their electricity costs, they could afford to save jobs, keep teachers, and be environmentally friendly too.

The project has come to fruitition, and there’s even a lovely plaque with ‘Matazone’ on it, listed among the supporters.

I went through some hard financial times over the years, and it was thanks to the support of the visitors to this site that I got through them and I’m now in a position to help others. Keep passing on the favours and we’ll make this world a better place for everyone.

Ever looked at something small and horrible and thought ‘I wonder what would happen if a huge version of that existed?’ Well, wonder no more. (Contains swearing, but it is rather funny.)

In the game Metal Gear Solid the main character hides in a cardboard box to evade detection by soliders and guards. ‘That would never work in real life!’ I hear you chortle over your cornflakes, but apparently it does:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6163821/Prisoner-escapes-jail-in-cardboard-box.html

http://bobbasset.com/ is the home of a group of Ukranian leatherworkers who make some very odd things indeed. There’s a running theme of steampunk and masks, veering occasionally into moderately kinky items (so caution is advised if you’re browsing at work) but the craftsmanship and odd designs are well worth a look. The Cthulhu masks that they make are particularly incredible pieces of work.

Like most people, I never met Michael Jackson, but there’s something curiously touching about seeing a thousand people’s arms go up in the air when the chorus of ‘Billie Jean’ kicks in at the flash mob-esque ‘mass moonwalk’ tribute to Michael Jackson at Liverpool Street Station in London last Friday 26th June 2009.

With the number of people there, I doubt many could actually manage to moonwalk, but I think that Jackson would have been very happy to be remembered this way, with people dancing to one of his greatest tunes and having a bloody good time.

I remember walking across the desert, the sun beating down on the parched and arid mud flats. It was Nevada, and just around the corner (geographically speaking) from Death Valley. In the distant heat haze I saw two shimmering figures strinding across the desert in enormous boots, dressed head to toe in black, and huddling a black umbrella. It was great.

I love the tenacity of Goths to wear utterly impractical clothing in the most severe conditions, and now there’s a blog to celebrate their excess. Go visit Goths in hot weather, for all your sweaty Goth needs.