Fun

Formula E is the All-Electric Alternative to Formula 1

- Adam Clare

Car racing is a popular sport around the world and it used to be a great testing bed for new, more efficient, technology used in internal combustion engines. Today, the technological improvements seem to be more on material science rather than fuel efficiency (most racing leagues still allow leaded gasoline).

Formula E will have it’s first season in 2014 and the new FIA-sanctioned championship wants car companies to focus their efforts on electric cars.

Formula E’s intent is to show how exciting electric vehicles can be as they race around inner city street courses. Ten cities are being lined up for the stage races in 2014 – with nine announced so far: London, Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janerio, Bangkok and Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur.

Formula E has the backing of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) – motor racing’s global governing body, which also oversees Formula One.

Landing Renault is significant. Renault is the engine supplier and a big sponsor of Red Bull Racing and a former F1 champion itself. Renault has also invested more in all-electric cars than any other manufacturer and believes Formula E will give it a global marketing opportunity to show off the performance and safety of electric cars.

Read more here.
Check out the Formula E Reddit here.

Embrace Serendipity With Shuffle My Life

- Adam Clare

Shuffle

Shuffle My Life is a cute website that encourages you to bring some randomness into your life by giving fun and easy tasks. It’s a play on all those to-do lists people have which tend to be filled with boring activities.

To bring a sense of adventure into your life you should check out the nifty tasks they suggest. You can track what you’ve done on their website too.

Get Rid of Stuff, Do What You Love

- Adam Clare

Often we hear that spending on experiences make for a happier life than buying into consumerism. In concept it sounds great, but many people think that it’s hard to rejig their life to be focused on doing things rather than consuming things. This TED talk is about breaking free of that passive normality and living life to its fullest.

Better Block is Bettering Cities

- Dan Harrison

The Better Block initiative was started in Dallas, Texas as a rapid urban revitalization project of an underused, nearly abandoned block of  old buildings along an old streetcar line.  They project takes the “pop-up” business model to completely revitalise old city blocks with storefronts, community events, and cafés, and sustainable transportation (like bikes and streetcars)!   By combating out-of-date laws, re-purposing unused space, and connecting with engaged citizens, the Better Block has spread to multiple cities in the USA.

Watch an energized, exciting, and inspiring talk by Jason Roberts (who started The Better Block) from TEDxOU (Oklahoma University):

Thanks to urbanvelo and Upworthy for posting the original story!

Lars Von Trier Challenged by Gesamt

- Adam Clare

This year, as part of the Copenhagen Art Festival, film director Jenle Hallund will use crowd-sourced video from around the globe to make a film. Not just any film, but one that challenges the rules that Lars von Trier created for making a certain style of art house film.

A community masterpiece
The concept gesamtkunstwerk can be explained as ‘the universal work of art’ or ‘synthesis of the art’. It refers to a piece of art that has been made up of many different types of art. Film is one of the only types of media which can accommodate several types of art forms at once. By using the idea of ​​Gesamt in a user-generated film project we are taking the concept one step further: A universal work of art is not only created by many different art forms but also by a diversity and multitude of people.

An experiment
What the result of Gesamt will be, no one knows – yet. There is no script, just a cinematic experiment that gradually comes to life by people, thoughts, images and sound that merge into each other and form new meanings and constellations. The final work, which will premiere on October 12.2012, is a reflection on our time and the people who live in it: a community masterpiece.

More info here.

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