Mad Quickies: Exoplanet Travel Posters, Surreal Pairings, Wool Specimen Art, Stephen Hawking Animation & More!

#JeSuisCharlie is a hashtag that has shaken the world with the galvanized unity that it voices and the horrific events that created it. You guys, I don’t think there is anything I can add to the conversation going on right now. Certainly nothing more profound than the photos of solidarity that had surfaced. However, I did see an excellent essay calling for an end to artist exploitation. It’s the first link listed. And then there’s a bunch of cool stuff that follows. Here ya’ go…

• Erin Polgreen has a pretty important message: Hey, Media: Instead Of Lionizing Charlie Hebdo, Support The Artists You’re Exploiting.
• Simply gorgeous and free to download!. NASA’s Exoplanet Travel Posters. {via Amanda L. and @CriticalDragon1177}
• This will be the most surreal art photography you see all day: the ingeniously paired freaky figures with taxidermy animals by the Belgium-based art duo Mothmeister.
• Textile artist Lana Crooks constructs extremely realistic small anatomical specimens from hand-dyed silk and wool. Beautiful. And a little creepy.
• How LEGO Became The Apple Of Toys. Great piece which gives a look inside its top-secret future lab.
• We could really use this here in the U.S. Northeast. Please send a skabillion of these. A Smart Lamp Designed to Fight the Winter Blues.
• Firekites Sydney Festival show incorporates paintings into their live performance.
• Bonus: Ah, the memories… 12 Movies Turning Ten-Years-Old In 2015: Hold My Cane and Hand Me My Gin. Well done, Pajiba, well done.

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Stephen Hawking’s big ideas… made simple

Narration by Alok Jha.

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Featured image is a NASA exoplanet travel poster for Kepler 16b.

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