I said I’d update when there’s something interesting, and now there’s something interesting. The Consumerist reports on a new study by the University of Rochester shows that:
bisphenol-A (BPA), a potentially toxic chemical found in many plastics, can enter the body via non-food sources and lingers in the body longer than previously thought.
What is BPA? Since I have no clue either, let’s discover together. Reading the article(s), it turns out that BPA is in plastic everywhere, and more importantly can enter into tap water and household dust. Which means that you don’t even have to consume foods contaminated by BPA to be effected.
The good news is that there is an FDA ruling that BPA won’t kill you; however it doesn’t say that BPA won’t cause cancer, which is the primary concern of pretty much everyone. From what I can gather, this study will probably cause the FDA to reconsider their ruling.
You know what’s the saddest thing? Every once in a while I’ll check GrandLarseny.com to see if there’s anything new. For those who may be a little slow, GrandLarseny.com is the website you are reading now, written solely by me. There is nothing new unless I write it.
You know what, though; that’s just the way I want it.
And I’ll update more as soon as more interesting stuff happens.
Having done audio tech work before, this really made me laugh. That’s not to say I know what anything is/does in this video, just that it’s really funny. The humor just speaks to me in a special way because I’ve been there.
A couple years back a phenomenon began when members of a designers forum posted images from their current projects for critique, as is want to happen. Out of bored creativity, other designers took the original spirit of the work and turned it into a completely different work. Although the two pieces shared themes or elements or styles, they were a testament to the random directions different artists can take their work.
This creative one-upsmanship was so fun that artists began to be called out in competitions to see who could come up with the most comical, beautiful, or overall creative pieces. The two artists would take turns creating an image, video, or other artwork and pass it along to their competitor, who would the modify the artwork and pass it back. Each piece passed among the competitors was called a “volley” and the challenges were called “matches.” Eventually, a tennis style format emerged as the most natural expression of the nature of competitive artwork. This is the birth of Photoshop Tennis (or at least it should be).
The rules are simple: There are no rules. Wait, no. There are a lot of rules.
Each match is between two artists respected in a common field
After receiving a volley, you have no more than two hours to return fire
Winners are decided by a panel of your peers
All work must be done in the agreed upon medium
Don’t use anyone else’s work
I’ve witnessed the “official” Layer Tennis (so called because of copyright issues with Adobe Photoshop) championships sponsored by Coudal Partners last year, and it is amazing. Take a look at one of my favorite matches from the Season One Archive for an example of the raw creativity on display. There’s something about a time deadline and competition that puts super-creative ideas on paper that would never had a chance otherwise. Good stuff.