Dyed Eggs
Originally, Tea Eggs acquired their unique crackle pattern from being boiled in soy sauce.

^{Link + instructions}

But over time, they’ve evolved far more colorful markings. Though they’re easily domesticated, should you spot these in the wild, approach delicately, pinkies up.

^{Link + instructions}

These cascarones — the feistiest, most festive variety of the dyed-egg family, traditionally cracked on the forehead — can achieve their brilliant colors with natural dyes.

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Tons more after the jump.

Architectural Eggs
Neither of these conceptual entities have hatched yet, but you’ll know how to spot them when they do. Designer Michael Rosenthal predicts that someday, this humungous ovoid eco-hotel will tower over Miami.

^Link

Industrial designer Zhdanova Irina’s self-contained, mobile, huevo-shaped kitchen — dubbed the EGGo — fits a water-reservation tank, a stove, and a sink in its roly-poly frame. (Click the link for more photos.)

^Link

Antique Eggs
Long extinct, here’s the outer husk of an 1895 Cadbury Egg, a specimen that enters the fossil record a mere 16 years after the first White House Easter Egg Roll.

^Link

Hollywood Eggs
These cinephile eggs — previously seen mimicking the world’s scariest Easter Bunny, Frank from Donnie Darko — have recently taken to impersonating WALL-E’s sleek futurebot EVE.

^Link

Imposter Eggs
Much like the luna moth with its predator-spooking eyespots, these strange creatures oh-so-cleverly camouflage themselves as eggs — don’t be fooled!

Cupcake as egg.

^Link

Creme brulee as egg.

^Link

Yarn as egg.

^{Link + instructions}

Pound cake as egg.

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Rice Krispies treats as eggs.

^Link

Not-So-Ancient Eggs
Despite their mind-boggling monikers — Thousand-Year-Old Eggs, or Century Eggs — these exotic edibles are aged no longer than a few months before they take on their strange black-and-amber hue (and strong sulphurous taste).

^{Photo courtesy Fotoos Van Robin
Link}

X-Ray Eggs
We’re not sure why these ethereal eggs have evolved to sport such porous shells, but they sure are lovely.

^{Link to eggs by Franc Grom}

^{Link to eggs by Ron Cheruka}

Sculpture Eggs
A close relative to the X-Ray Egg, these sculpted beauts may masquerade as houses and baby buggies, but we can see right through them.

^Link

Almost Visible From Space Eggs
Like some kind of physical manifestation of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, these enormous fried eggs blanketed the Netherlands for six months last year.

^Link

Just Plain Purty Eggs
Though not terribly functional, these eggs turn heads with their stunning plumage.

^Link

^{Link + instructions}

And here’s a far more high-tech species.

^Link

Egg Tracks: A Field Guide to Recognizing Your Egg Cartons
When eggs shed their cartons, they need not make landfills their new natural habitat. Here are a few examples of creative, eco-friendly uses of egg cartons.

Egg cartons = art.

^{Link (plus 20 other interesting green uses)}

Egg cartons = lights.

^Link

Egg cartons (recycled) = shoeboxes.

^Link

And here’s a new conceptual carton that “tessellates to allow easy stacking to minimise transport costs.”

^Link

Happy egg hunting, everyone!

Related posts: ZipiZen #1: A Field Guide to Recognizing Your Eggs

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But this year, we’re focusing on the math (sort of, anyway), with a spread of funny pie charts.

Let’s start things off meta, with a pie chart about pie.

Liked that, did you? Well, how about this? (Not sure where they’re getting their figures, but I’ll bite.)

In case this discussion was getting too cerebral for you …

No humble pie — this is pity-the-fool pie.

Because we can’t really presume to be nerdy without invoking XKCD.

Wakka wakka wakka!

Clearly, this graph has not taken these science-fair projects into account.

And an insightful peek behind the curtain of music journalism!

That’s no moon …

Not graphed: “Number of good post-Part II Godfather sequels.”

Funny? No. Delicious? Possibly.

Likewise, these Economist pizza boxes are not so much laff-worthy as they are fiendishly clever. (Or perhaps depressingly desperate.)

Not sure what this ad is selling, but looks like there’s a 60% chance I’ll be charmed by its cleverness.

And mind games, courtesy Bizarro.

Should you be in the market for more graph-related humor, you will not be disappointed by:
GraphJam
Indexed

Related post: http://zipinotes.com/happy-pi-day/

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^{A member of Unidos do Peruche samba school parades at the Sambadrome, as part of carnival celebrations, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, late February 20, 2009. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images, via www.boston.com)}

Virtual Carnival Cruise

Fat Tuesday is bearing down on us, and this boston.com roundup of Carnival festivities from around the globe was just too jaw-dropping not to share. Most of the photos were snapped in Brazil (natch), but this collection includes shots taken in such far-flung locales as the Canary Islands, Italy, France, Hungary, Germany, Haiti, and Colombia.

Enter the Sambadrome, if you dare:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/carnival.html

Mardi Hearty

[View with PicLens]

On the more provincial side, here’s a quick rundown of various Mardi Gras-related festivities happening in our neck of the woods (for this humble blogger, that’d be Boston).

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO
Zydeco music | Showcase Live, Foxboro | Tue.2.24 @ 3 pm | $25-$50 | showcaselive.com

MARDI GRAS MADNESS
R&B with Soul City | Dick’s Last Resort, Boston | Tue.2.24 @ 5 pm | free | dickslastresort.com

FAT TUESDAY
Special Cajun menu and blues with the Gumbo Kings | Smoken’ Joe’s BBQ, Brighton | Tue.2.24 @ 6 pm | free | smokenjoesbbq.com

MARDIS GRAS PARTY
Jazz and R&B with Henri Smith’s New Orleans Friends & Flavours | Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | Tue.2.24 @ 9 pm | $5 | mideastclub.com

BEAUSOLEIL
Cajun music | Regattabar, Cambridge | Thu.2.26 @ 7:30 + 10 pm | $25 | regattabarjazz.com

VOODOO MARDI GRAS
Live percussion and mashups with DJs AA and Franklin | Underbar, Boston | Fri.2.27 @ 11 pm | free before midnight | underbaronline.com

Bonus tangentially Mardi Gras-themed joke:

Q: What’s the loneliest place in Louisiana?

A: Bayou Self.

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[View with PicLens]

Once again, Oscar night is upon us, and in just a few short hours, we will all be rapturously gazing upon Hugh Jackman throughout an evening of television sure to be at least one-tenth as suspenseful as the final act of Slumdog Millionaire. As a champion of both art and brief attention spans, ZipiNotes is proud to present a quick rundown of this year’s nominees for Best Animated Short. (For a refresher on the 2008 award contenders, check out our post from last year.)

**UPDATE**: La Maison en Petits Cubes won! Click here for the full list of winners.

La Maison en Petits Cubes (clip)
The most languid of the bunch, the melancholy La Maison en Petits Cubes is animator Kunio Kato’s first Oscar nod. Set in a steadily flooding world, the film follows an old man who tries to keep his head above water in a house built of memories. (And if you like what you see here, take a look at this YouTube user, who has a pretty extensive collection of Kato vids.)

Official site: http://kiteretsu.robot.co.jp/kunio/

Lavatory: Lovestory (full)
From Russian animator Konstantin Bronzit, Lavatory: Lovestory is a sweet, simple tale about a lonely washroom attendant and her secret admirer. Get a little more info (and a duplicate video clip) here: http://haha.nu/beautiful/lavatory-lovestory/

Official site: http://www.melnitsa.com

Oktapodi (full)
Put together by a crew of mighty talented film students, Oktapodi is a frenetic romp through windy Euro streets, as one very determined squid fights to save his leggy paramour from certain calamari doom. Oh, and as much as I love the lightweight convenience of YouTube, you really owe it to yourself to watch this one in high-res.

Official site: http://www.oktapodi.com

Presto (clip)
Backed by mighty Pixar muscle, Presto — a manic battle of wills between an uptight magician and his ornery rabbit — is an awfully promising contender in this competition. Actually, my favorite part of this film was the intro: a tip-o’-the-hat to classic Disney shorts. (See the full version here at Truveo.)

Official site: http://www.pixar.com/shorts/presto/index.html

This Way Up (clip)
I saw this BBC-produced short three times in theaters last year (thanks to the always-excellent Animation Show), and it only gets better with every viewing. Two undertakers — glowering dad and hapless son — end up going through a bizarre journey through hell and back when they let their latest corpse slip through their embalming-fluid-stained fingers.

Official site: http://www.thiswayupmovie.com/

Bonus Oscarificness

Let the Right One In

Recently, I polled a bunch of Boston film luminaries (i.e., theater directors, indie filmmakers, festival organizers, etc.) on their fantasy Oscar picks. Here are the results, as published in Stuff magazine (nee Stuff@night) last week.

http://stuffboston.com/get/archive/2009/02/09/oscar-wild.aspx

Their answers were all illuminating, but here are the major lessons I took away from this experience:

1) Everyone needs to watch Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In, pronto.
2) Someone decided to pair up Will Smith with a jellyfish.
3) Boston’s film elite have no problem dispensing the lulz.

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Tomorrow, World Fair Trade Day 2008 is being celebrated in over 70 countries, with free food, lectures, concerts, fashion shows and art exhibits. Surrounding WFT Day is the first-annual Fair Trade Fortnight, which is running through May 18. For this inaugural Fortnight, the theme is environmental justice.

For example, Trade Aid New Zealand is going all-out with their “Junk 2 Green Funk” contest, in which participants re-fashion trash into art. The aim is to to heighten awareness of conservation and the role of the artisan in fair-trade craftsmanship.

So what do you get out of World Fair Trade Day?
Retailers all over the country are going to be handing out free fair trade coffee, chocolate and other samples. And we’re not talking just any caffeinated swill here — this is quality stuff. Great art and film events abound, too.

What do the fair-trade craftsmen and farmers get out of it?
Where to start? Living wages; safe working environments; ecologically sound production methods; long-term working relationships between producers and retailers.

Of course, just because Mother’s Day comes only once a year (you didn’t forget, did you?), doesn’t mean you should ignore your mom for the other 364 days. So it goes without saying that it’s important to support fair-trade producers whenever you can. At zipiZape Artisans, we celebrate Fair Trade Day every day, offering handmade crafts from artisans from all over the world — Mexico, Nepal, South Africa and Peru, to name just a few of the countries our producers hail from, as well as Navajo and Zuni art from right here in the US.

Back to WFT Day: There are fair-trade throwdowns going on all over the country this weekend. These 6 listings should give you a little taste of what’s going on in our neck of the woods (New England), including trunk shows, free coffee and chocolate, film screenings and wine samplings:

Worlds Biggest Coffee Break
Saturday, May 10 | 3pm-4pm

Description: “Aiming to set a world record for the biggest ever coffee break, Amherst Fair Trade Partnership (AFTP) will stage a ‘Fair Trade Coffee Break’ on May 10, World Fair Trade Day. It will be one of hundred’s of Fair Trade coffee breaks held simultaneously around the world, and will focus on the benefits of Fair Trade for farmers, consumers, and the environment. AFTP will distribute Free Fair Trade coffee, chocolate and flowers at various businesses throughout Amherst at 3pm. Live music will be at some locations. AFTP will also distribute a guide to all the places that carry Fair Trade products in town. In order to set the world record, the events will have to draw over 5,000 people throughout the U.S. participating at the same time.”

Participating venues: Black Sheep Deli/Cafe, Loose Goose Deli, Henions Bakery, Wheatberry Bakery, Bart’s Ice Cream, Collective Copies, Tabella Restaurant

[Amherst, MA (downtown). 413.687.1434. amherstfairtrade@earthlink.net]

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Fair Trade Film Screening: “Chocolate Country”
Saturday, May 10 | 2pm

Description: “This 30 minute film won Best Short Documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival and is an exciting, positive story set to local Dominican folk music. It will take you into another world and culture and show you where chocolate comes from, how it’s grown and prepared, and how you can support a better life for the farmers who grow it. You can read about it and see the trailer at ChocolateCountryFilm.com. The director, Robin Blotnick, and the producers, Northampton locals Jill Higgins and Joe Blotnick, will be there to present and discuss the film. Chocolate Country came into being while Jill and Joe were Peace Corps volunteers in the Dominican Republic working with the cacao farmers’ cooperative and their film maker son came to visit.” Admission is $3, and apparently comes with free Pierce Brothers coffee and Divine chocolate.

View trailer (click here if you’re having trouble viewing the embedded video below):

[Amherst Cinema, Amherst Cinema Arts Center, 28 Amity St., Amherst, MA. 413.687.1434. $3. amherstcinema.org, chocolatecountryfilm.com. amherstfairtrade@earthlink.net]

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World Fair Trade Day @ Made on Earth and Lydia’s Cafe
Saturday, May 10 | 9am-5:30pm

Description: “Made on Earth and Lydia’s cafe will join together to celebrate Fair Trade Day. Lydia’s will provide free Fair Trade coffee between 3-3:30pm and Made on Earth will donate 10% of it’s sales to GALA, a local organization promoting just and equitable commerce and environmental intergrity on a local level.”

[Made on Earth and Lydia's Cafe, Wolfeboro Marketplace, Wolfeboro, NH. 603.569.9100. madeonearthwolfeboro.com

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World's Largest Coffee Break
Saturday, May 10 | 10am-5pm

Description: "Join us in Celebrating World Fair Trade Day on Saturday, May 10th. Simply Unique Boutique will join with people from 70 countries worldwide to celebrate World Fair Trade Day. We're trying to set the World Record for the Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break at 3:00pm. Come learn about Fair Trade and How you can Make a Difference. We will be introducing Fair Trade Coffee, Tea and Chocolate. Don't forget to put your name in for Fair Trade Gift Raffles!"

[Simply Unique Boutique, 206 East Main Street (Rt. 16), Milford, MA. 508.473.3473. simplyuniqueboutique@verizon.net]

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Faith Brewing Justice
Saturday, May 10 | 1pm-5pm

Description: “World Fair Trade Day Resource event for Christians and Churches (and anybody else!) in the Boston area: –Fair Trade Coffee Break –Interactive Workshops –Local Fair Trade Organizations –Ecumenical Worship.”

[Harvard Epworth Church, 1555 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA. 978.979.7878. bostonfaithjustice.org]

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WFT Day Trunk Show and Wine Tasting
Saturday, May 10 | 3pm-5pm

Description: “Autonomie Project, a new Fair Trade fashion company, is hosting it’s first trunk show in honor of World Fair Trade Day. Shop Autonomie’s new collection of Fair Trade sneakers, flip flops and hand bags; hear a presentation about the workers behind the products and how Fair Trade helps them and their communities; sample Fair Trade wines while you shop; get a free goodie bag full of Fair Trade swag and coupons!”

[Greenward Shop, 776 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA. 617.395.1338. autonomieproject.com]

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Check out the rest of Mr. Lee’s day, as well as the exploits of a handful of other feline Ansel Adamses. Want to build your own CatCam? Perthold shows you how! (And for only $31, you can order a CatCam kit from Juergen himself.)

From a similar vein comes “Stranger Photos Have Happened.” For this experiment, Jay Carlson (the founder of online ‘zine The Plug) left a disposable camera tied to a bench, accompanied by this note:

Good afternoon,
I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I’ll be back later this evening to pick it up.
Love, Jay / The Plug

And lo, the passers-by obliged, begetting much cheesy mugging unto the camera — enough to fill up the whole roll.

See the rest here: http://theplug.net/28/strangerphotos.htm [via Make]

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Fee fi fo fum, I smell a bloody good photographer. Flickr user christopherdale snapped this eerie shot of “The Awakening,” a 100-foot sculpture of a panicked giant struggling to to free himself from the sod of Washington, DC (or thereabouts). His long-exposure technique gives the whole scene an otherworldly feel. Here’s a nice detail of the giant’s gaping yap, complete with gnashy choppers.

^{[image courtesy christopherdale]}

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Enter Javan Ivey.

^{[images courtesy Javan Ivey]}

Inspired by the mind-blowingly intricate strata-cut stop-motion technique used in some claymation, Ivey uses an approach he dubs “stratastencil,” in which each frame of the film is a layer of cut paper. The results are eerily beautiful, as the motion flows like a river of time. Link [via Make]

Bonus video (discovered while doing research for this post):

Here’s “Buzz Box,” the epileptic opus of strata-cut master David Daniels. This film demonstrates the slice-and-shoot process pretty clearly — maybe not terribly pleasant to watch (and YouTube’s pixelation is brutal), but it’s quite a marvel nonetheless. (For beautiful high-res videos by Daniels, go to BentImageLab.com and click on “New Scientists.”)

In case you’re having trouble viewing the embedded video, here’s a direct link.

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^{[image courtesy sushiesque]}

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Bored Night has three great 2-D illusions on their site (definitely check out that lurking pool mosquito), but this creepy humanoid is my favorite.

[images courtesy Bored Night]

I can’t even fathom the kind of logistics needed to execute this decorative trickery.

[image courtesy 2Loop]

With this painting (a comment on the the California Water Wars), I spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out where the art ends and reality begins. Ceci n’est pas une pipe?

[image courtesy John Pugh]

Blue Sky’s “Tunnelvision” mural gives me chills for some reason. (It’s something about the colors — it’s like a tunnel through time.)

[image courtesy Blue Sky]

Behold: Trompe-l’oeil at its most freakout-inducing.

[image courtesy Hemmy.net]

This handpainted eagle ruffles a few feathers … IN MY BRAIN. (Click here for loads more.)

[image courtesy yoke.cc]

A bit of Banksy for you.

[image courtesy canonsnapper]

And of course, no post on modern-day trompe-l’oeil would be complete without Sidewalk Chalk Guy.

[image courtesy gprime.net]

Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

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