Ever since my YouTube-scouring Cookie Monster roundup, kenspeckle-reading Cookie fiends have hounded me daily, begging for more Cookie media.

Unfortunately the number of vintage Cookie Monster clips on YouTube is (inherently) not increasing, so to tide you all over, here's the finest Cookie Monster imagery available on flickr (in order of flickr's possibly-some-day patented computation of interestingness).

Cookie Monster Cupcakes by princess of llyr

Are You There God? It's Me, Cookie Monster by jason.s

Good thing "interestingness" isn't patented yet. Any algorithm that ranks this pic below the cupcakes needs a lil' tweaking. [also recently seen on ffffound]

Cookie! by Hoser Dude

I like this one because he looks sad. Must've been a day without cookie.

For even more Cookie pics, make the jump.

read on »

"memory box"

I'm not totally convinced by the idea of universal serial bus as a metaphor for non-computer-related connectivity, but I really wish someone would make working flash drives based on these conceptual pieces [via ffffound] by dialog05.

"eternal love" ("it's all about give and take — synchronize!")

Except I'm not sure what the "female" piece of the ring set above would be. Obviously it should be a reader, but where does it output the data?

"data injection" ("not only for data junkies, also in the event of a virus. or simply for your daily data rations!")

From the statement on dialog05's site:

USB, an abbreviation for a technical user interface, is nowadays often used as a synonym for a universal connection. originally only used by computer experts and nerds, this so-called former high-tech standard has developed into an every-day item and low-tech symbol for such universal connections.

this is an example of technology being clearly understood and accepted by the general public. something democratic evolves and develops and therefore often even receives a totally different usage than was originally intended. given the current, often exotic use of USB, it would even be argued that there is a 'USB subculture'!

"french connection" ("unplug and play!")

Tellingly, the metaphor works best in reverse, with "french connection," the bra with USB closure pictured above. But they definitely should've thrown in some sort of joke about hot swapping.

Apparently hip typophile types have known about Bembo's Zoo since 2005, but since I only found out about it this week from word[is(not equal to)]art, it's time to share the awesomeness!

The flash version of Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich's children's book by the same name morphs the names of 26 animals written in bembo into illustrations of said animals using nothing but the letters that make up their name and the occasional punctuation mark.

Ok, it's a lot cooler than I made it sound. My faves are the unicorn (above) and flamingo (below).

It's been, like, a full two minutes since Sean sent me LOLinator [via tech crunch], and the humor has still not worn off!

Especially since the LOLified version of my last over-excited post is actually disturbingly similar to the version not actually written by a kitteh.

Or was it??

The Library of Congress has a flickr account! [via metafilter] With awesome photos from their archives! And no copyright restrictions!

I'm their new biggest fan.

From your favorite federal institution's flickr profile:

Yes. We really are THE Library of Congress.
We invite your tags and comments! Identifying information is also appreciated–many of our old photos came to us with very little description.

How sweet!

Some notable NYC photos:

The New York Public Library on opening day.

The original Penn Station.

And, unbelievably enough, a photo of orphans being driven to Coney Island. "In Autos," the photo caption notes. Autos!!!

Library of Congress, accept my love. You're my newest flickr contact.

Happy 2008! How better to celebrate than with some kenspeckle tech art that crossed my desk in December 2007?

Camera Obscura 1-∞

To create Camera Obscura 1-∞ [via Network Research], Przemek Zajfert and Burkhard Walther auction off two holes of a pinhole camera on eBay every week. The camera is sent first to one high bidder to take a picture with it, then to the other bidder to take another, usually in a different part of the world, creating an overlapping composite picture.

The example above is from Pinholes #207 and #208. The right shot (#207), called Higher Education, was taken by a John Earl Jones in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, and the left shot, called Higher Hey du Kaetzchen (unfortunately Google translator renders this as "Higher Hey du kittens") was taken by Manfred Rosenthal in Stuttgart, Germany.

Sounds fun, but I couldn't find any current eBay listings.

Why are numbers so comfortable?

Cody Trepte's hand-quilted binary blanket, Why are numbers so comfortable? [via rhizome] needs little explanation (except for the fact that the binary pattern actually represents the title of the quilt, unless you are actually a computer), but here's his statement on his binary work (which also includes binary needlepoints):

With only a one and zero, all information can be described in binary; it has become the universal language that connects both physical and technological spaces. Binary is so fundamental to our everyday lives, yet when seen out of context it appears abstract. While computers use binary as an efficient method for processing data, I am interested in the process of manually executing information, bit by bit, to explore the differences between human and technological expression. Each cross-stitched piece is the artifact of a performance of inefficiency, an attempt to hold onto the rapidly disappearing human hand in modern life. As each piece is stitched, a bizarre combination of new and old technologies is mixed together to form an image of information, the literal translation of the title into binary.

Encyclopedia of Radio Waves

Encyclopedia of Radio Waves [via information aesthetics] is a book of fanciful drawings by Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas of radio technologies (Bluetooth, DMB, GSM, RFID, Wifi, and Zigbee, to be exact) represented biologically. Pictured above is the drawing of Bluetooth from her book.

Ingeorg created the project for Timo Arnall's research project, called Touch, which "investigates Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things."

Timo refers to the book as resembling "an age-old dusty guide to flora and fauna," but I think these drawings look more like microorganisms. At any rate, I love the latin names she gave her radio "species":

Bluetooth: Nevrotis Dentus Aquarae
DMB: Spherum Elektrum Multanum
GSM: Spherum Magnea Globalum
RFID: Raptus Arphadus
Wifi: Videus Fidelus
Zigbee: Nevrotis

data.tron

I admit, after reading the installation description, I have no earthly idea what data.tron [via rhizome] actually is, but all those numbers look awesome in a sort of monolith-from-2001: A Space Odyssey way, no?

Here's the explanation, such as it is:

How many points are there in a line?
What is the number of numbers?
How can we verify that the random is random?

data.tron and data.film are parts of the datamatics project, which is a series of experiments that explore such questions, physically and mathematically. Visitors will experience the vast universe of data in the infinite between 0 and 1.

data.tron is an audiovisual installation, where each single pixel of visual image is strictly calculated by mathematical principle, composed from a combination of pure mathematics and the vast sea of data present in the world. These images are projected onto a large screen, heightening and intensifying the viewer’s perception and total immersion within the work.