Wat Phrachetuphon Wimonmangkhalaram
Rajaworamahavihara (Wat Pho)

post from Thailand Travel Blog on 23 April 2012 11:33:09 PM. © Thailand Travel Blog

Wat Phrachetuphon Wimonmangkhalaram Rajaworamahavihara (Wat Pho), a set on Flickr.
Wat Pho is the birth place for Thai massage where, many years ago, the temple monks developed the style of massage and documenting the style on stone tablets.

Via Flickr:
Thailand Destination: Bangkok's Wat Pho

View Bangkok Destinations in a Google map

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.apllc-connect.com/2012/04/wat-phrachetuphon-wimonmangkhalaram.html

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Music from Train Tickets - Sound of the
Underground

post from Going Underground's Blog on 23 April 2012 11:31:54 PM. © Going Underground's Blog

Ever wondered whether the act of putting train tickets into gates could be turned into a musical experience? Millions of tickets go through London Underground & railway barriers each day. Inspired by watching BBC2's The Tube documentary & how Thoughts of the Day on Tube white boards brighten up our daily commute, Product Design students from the University of Dundee wondered if they could get us to think about what might happen if our collective tickets could play music. What they came up with was the protoype of an Underground music box.

Using a microcontroller programming system called Picaxe, Abi Brown, Eilidh Price and Jonathan Lawrence produced ?Sound of the Underground? an innovative reuse for train tickets, challenging the way we think about everyday objects. They said "People spend so much of their everyday lives rushing about, beetling their way too and from their destination without stopping to notice people or objects around them.

We use exciting products everyday yet with extensive use these items become mundane and boring, blending in to the dull background. Our aim is to make the mundane exciting, making people stop and interact with their environment and in turn making their everyday experiences that little bit more exciting. This will challenge the preconceptions of those who use the products and we aim to take people by surprise, make it enjoyable and overall provoke discussion."

Working around the idea that train tickets are never reused and are often binned straight after they are purchased, they came up with the concept of running a line of tickets through a sensor that detects changes in the tickets.

They said "We were thinking about detecting the magnetic strip or the text but Mike, our lecturer, suggested sensing the hole punched in the tickets by the conductor. We also want it to connect to people going through the ticket barriers, producing more or louder music when more poeple are passing through. We also want the sound to be relaxing as train stations are busy, stressful places."

Looking at other playful uses of ordinary objects they built barriers themselves which would connect the tickets with the Picaxe system: "An LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) is fitted in each of the three barriers, this is then triggered as someone places their ticket in the slot. This will then be programmed to make the display move and make sound. The idea is that as the user puts the ticket in the slot, it will trigger the LDR, turning the motors and playing music through the boxes."

Here's a video of their prototype machine in action

I think it's rather lovely. Visit their blog Sound of the Underground to find out more about their project including videos of all the concepts that inspired them and more illustrations of how they made the prototype

You might also like
Downing Street Lord asks Mayor to Replace Tube Escalators with Slides
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Slide Stairs to The Trains
London Transport Museum feature Thoughts of Angel Tube

Read The Full Article:
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2012/04/music-from-train-tickets-undergrou
nd.html

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The Meaning of Wanderlust

post from The Wanderlust Blog on 23 April 2012 08:23:35 PM. © The Wanderlust Blog

Let me see if I can explain this right. Because for me this is my way of explaining my affliction to those who can't simply understand.

The general definition of wanderlust is: "a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world."

That makes it sound so damn simple. Dictionary definitions whittle the most complicated conditions down to the most effortlessly simple explanations. Let me clear things up. Staying in one place for me must be the way alcoholics must feel about being sober. Or drug addicts to being clean. Not that I'm comparing the severity of my affliction to the struggle of being drug addict. That would make me an asshole.

Yes, I'm more responsible firmly located in Los Angeles. I go to work. I come home. I change into jeans and a t-shirt. I get on the couch. I Google things. I watch Netflix. I go to bed. But when I wake up, when pass the drawer where I keep my passport, when I pass the pictures on my walls of me in far away places...when I get in the damn car. You have no idea how hard it is not to drive away; not to ignore going from Point A to Point B. To just drive away. Every damn day, I want to drive away. I want to fly away.

I thought that growing up, the feeling of wanting to run away was a part of puberty. Of course, you want to run away. Do you remember being a teenager?! It's fucking awful. High school is retarded. People constantly telling you what to do and where to go. I get it, that's a normal thing to want to get away from. But I distinctly remember being 17 years old, months away from graduation, and breaking into tears in front of my parents at 9 o'clock at night in our driveway. I just kept sobbing, "I can't be here anymore."

I currently live in an apartment in one of the most exciting cities in America. I work for a fashion label and I also do wardrobe and costumes for movies and projects. I make very little money, but it's a brilliant life. I dress actors, have lunch with producers and do kareoke with directors. And I feel guilty every time I wish it away so that I can go back to living out of a 40lb backpack, riding elephants and eating beef and noodles for every meal.

But what I think kills me the most these days is a couple times a year when I have to go to back to my hometown to see the same things I see every time. I enter the airport terminal and I have to pass all the kiosks that have scrolling names of cities and departure times. I take a long look at the door that takes me to my plane then I look at the one to the right. That one goes to Tokyo. 20 steps to my right and I could be off to Tokyo. That kills me.

So, to my friends here in Los Angeles: if I ever get that look on my face, that bounce in my leg, that fidgeting in my hands, it's not that I'm not interested in what you're saying. I just get that way when the Wanderlust sets in. I'm sorry to my readers for not posting in the blog, but it's kind of damn painful blogging in a travel blog when you're not traveling. In 2010, I had an amazing year, that I was never in one spot for long. I was blissfully happy. But it has been expressed to me that blogging through the painful parts might help me to get to back to the blissful parts faster. So heres hoping that some venture in my life makes me lots of money so that I can fly off into the sunset.

Read The Full Article:
http://thewanderlust.us/theblog/2012/4/23/the-meaning-of-wanderlust.html

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PHOTO: Intricately Sculpted Church Facade on
Jiron de la Union, Lima, Peru

post from Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel on 23 April 2012 07:45:49 PM. © Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

Read The Full Article:
http://holeinthedonut.com/2012/04/23/photo-ornate-church-lima-peru/

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Googa Mooga announces partial band list

post from NewYorkology on 23 April 2012 06:30:30 PM. © NewYorkology

Hall & Oates, Fitz & The Tantrums and Holy Ghost are among the bands that will play the free Great Googa Mooga Festival on May 19 and 20 at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, organizers announced today.Saturday performers announced today are Holy[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewyorkologyANewYorkTravelGuide/~3/w6o_4e-GaAE/goo
ga_mooga_ann.php

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Spa Week extends at more than 50 NYC locations

post from NewYorkology on 23 April 2012 05:30:37 PM. © NewYorkology

More than 50 New York City locations will offer $50 Spa Week deals just a little bit longer than originally promised.Spa Week, which ended Sunday at most locations, will be extended at spots including Aqua Vitae Spa, Dyanna Body Nail Salon, Faina[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewyorkologyANewYorkTravelGuide/~3/anROTerOdvE/spa
_week_extend_2.php

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Overnight work to disrupt A/C/E this week

post from NewYorkology on 23 April 2012 04:01:28 PM. © NewYorkology

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority tonight will begin another section of overnight Fastrack work, this time completely stopping service on major sections of the A/C/E lines from about 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.The A, C and E trains will be completely[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewyorkologyANewYorkTravelGuide/~3/u5iX6LRNQE4/ove
rnight_work.php

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Icelands former PM : guilty verdict by the
National court

Mr Geir H. Haarde,the former Prime minister of Iceland ,was found guilty of one charge of four of negligence and mismanagement during his time in office,before and during the banking crash in 2008.
He will receive no punishment, and the Icelandic state has been ordered by the court to cover his legal expenses, amounting to 24 million ISK.

Mr. Haarde was not pleased witht the verdict ,and said that he was convicted on a minor matter .

He said that the court proceidings where politically motivated,and he is thinking about appealing the European Court of Human Rights.

Read The Full Article:
http://iceland-dori.blogspot.com/2012/04/icelands-former-pm-guilty-verdict-by.htm
l

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Buddhist Office Blessing

Today my office had the office blessed for the new year. I have experienced this before and this time I thought I would share with you. Nine monks came into the office and chanted some prayers to bless the office with good luck for this year. I took the video clip below so you could hear the chanting.

After the prayers were said the Monks drew special symbols on doors in the office, again to give luck to those who work within.

After the blessing was over, we had a catered meal of Delicious Thai food!

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.apllc-connect.com/2012/04/buddhist-office-blessing.html