More Balloon Bass at inflatableminute on youtube and www.balloonbass.com
Balloon twister Addi Somekh shows us how to make and play a Balloon Bass. The instrument is based on the balloon resonator originally concieved by Canadian twister Sean Rooney. LINK: Youtube
Thursday, May 29, 2008
How To: Balloon Bass
Fullmoon by Sotirios Papadopoulos: Furniture with Lunar Glow
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Several Journeys of Reemus
The Several Journeys of Reemus is a unusual Point'n'Click adventure game: Help Reemus, the insect exterminator, and his buddy Liam defeat the Queen of the giant ants.
Click around to solve the puzzles. Click Reemus for a relevant action. Click Liam for information on the level.
Have fun!
Picitup
Picitup is a new picture search engine with a line of tools for content based image retrieval. Picitup has analyzed tens of thousands of images and classified them into categories. The outcome is a category filter that now allows a user to limit their image search to faces, products, landscapes, or color.
Picitup also provides a fun celebrity face match service. Upload a photo of yourself and receive ten celebrity look alikes. LINK
100 Essential Jazz Albums [ Online Only ]
What follows is a list compiled with the help of New Yorker colleague Richard Brody. These hundred titles are meant to provide a broad sampling of jazz classics and wonders across the music’s century-long history. Early New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, hard bop, free jazz, third stream, and fusion are all represented, though not equally.
Since the nineteen-seventies, jazz has been branching out in so many directions that you would need to list at least another hundred recordings, by the likes of Steve Coleman, Stanley Jordan, Joe Lovano, Jacky Terrasson, John Zorn, David Murray, Avishai Cohen, Béla Fleck, Eliane Elias, Roy Hargrove, Dave Douglas, Matthew Shipp, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Fat Kid Wednesdays, and many, many others. LINK
Sofa/bookcase
If you know me, you know I love bookcases built into EVERYTHING. This sofa (the Flexform Oltre) with bookcases in the arms: no exception. Link, (Via: Cribcandy), Via: Boingboing
Vintage Japanese robot gallery
Wired's posted a photo gallery from the new show of vintage Japanese robots opening at the Sci Fi Museum in Seattle.
Iconic graphic designer Tom Geismar, whose firm Chermayeff & Geismar has created memorable logos for Mobil, PBS and other U.S. institutions, has been collecting the shiny bots for decades.
The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle will exhibit toys from Geismar's collection in Robots: A Designer's Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels through Oct. 26. The vintage robots on display reflect Geismar's trained eye. "I've really restricted myself to ones that appealed to me as interesting, imaginative designs," he says.
Link, Via: Boingboing
Friday, May 16, 2008
Vintage aviation hostess photos
Wired's got a strange and evocative slideshow of paleo-air-hostesses from the early days of commercial aviation online. Did they really fly long-haul in miniskirts and knee-high high-heeled boots? Christ, they must have been in agony. Link, Via: Boingboing
New release at archive.org: The Hoodlum (1951)
Did you know archive.org has lots of cool old feature films in the public domain you can download for free? Here's one they just added to the archive that looks promising: The Hoodlum, from 1951.
I'm downloading it now.
(Here's the RSS feed for recent additions to the movie archive.)
Lawrence Tierney ("Reservoir Dogs") plays an unreformed, hardened criminal who has just been released from prison. Working at his brother's gas station, he becomes very interested in the armored car that makes regular stops at the bank across the street. LINK, Via: Boingboing
Monk building meditation center in California desert
Buddhist monk THich Dang "Tom" Phap is building a beautiful Buddhist Meditation Center in a very unusual and unlikely location: the barren high desert of Adelanto, California. The centerpiece is a 60-ton marble statue of the saint Quan yin, donated by a Malaysian businessman. Phap bought 15 acres in Adelanto four years ago as a home for the statue and the center that he hopes he can complete if enough donations come in. Right now, the place has no power or water. The Los Angeles Times created a lovely short video visit with Phap to accompany an article on his project. Link to video, Link to article. Via: Boingboing
Cameroid
With Cameroid you can take crazy snaps with your webcam straight from your browser. Then choose from the menu of special effects to be added to your image. You can change the color of your photo, morph its shape, or place it in a scene template like Mona Lisa's face, or on a hundred dollar bill. LINK
10 optical illusions in 2 minutes
Samsung presents 10 optical illusions in 2 minutes to promote the new SOUL mobile phone. LINK: Youtube
If you like the dino robot, you can make your own (smaller) version - Previously on Neatorama: Dragon Paper Sculpture. Via: Neatorama
Photosynthetic Photography: Pixels are Blades of Grass
That’s not a just any blurry photograph - in fact, it’s not made from either computer pixels or grains of silver halide, but blades of grass!
Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey of Santa Barbara Museum of Art created photosynthetic "photograph" by letting different amount of lights through on a field of growing grass.
Link, Via: Neatorama
WebUrbanist has a neat post about 6 other examples of bizarre art using grass, moss, and greenery: Link
Money Ads
Brazilian newspaper Gazeta Mercantil’s "Understand the real value of money" print ad uses shocking images of money to tout the newspaper’s analysis of the financial market, as well as political and social events
influencing the world’s economy.
Whether you agree with their political point of view, the artwork is quite interesting (the small pic above just didn’t do it justice). And they’re really not just singling out the Big Bad US - the print ads also skewer the Japanese Yen (bleeding eyes of Yukichi Fukuzawa? Whoa!) and the Euro.
Coloribus has much larger versions of the ads: Link - Via: Reddit. Via: Neatorama
Portishead "Machine Gun" 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
ASCII Maps
Dordt In Steam
Dordt is an abbreviation for the Dutch town of Dordrecht. On May 17 and 18, 2008, the largest steam power event in Europe will be held for the thirteenth time in Dordrecht.
Organisers expect 250,000 visitors at this steam celebration. The gigantic event is spread across two areas in the city which are linked with ships, trains and old-timer busses.
On the Dordt in Steam site you can play the steam organ. LINK
Wingsuit BASE Jumping
Anteater Eats from a Spoon
Last year, Neatorama introduced you to Pua the Tamandua. Pua’s owner, TamanduaGirl also has Stewie, seen here eating from a spoon. Stewie can also walk on two legs, and he is a professional painter! Both Pua and Stewie performed in the movie Dr. Doolittle 4 (availble on DVD). Via: Youtube Link -via Dark Roasted Blend, where you’ll find more irresistable tamandua pictures. Via: Neatorama
Animated Graffiti MUTO by Blu
Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin
In 2005, Aaron Koblin took all of the air traffic over United States data, as seen by the FAA, and visualized it in a beautiful animation. Aaron’s work was originally developed as a series of experiments for the "Celestial Mechanics" project (eye candy!) by Scott HEsels and Gabriel Dunne at UCLA.
The video clip above tracks all flights over the United States over a few days in March 2005, which brings this question to my mind: "where are all those people going?" Flight Pattern Website. LINK, Via: Youtube
WorldWide Telescope is Here
The website for Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, mentioned here at Neatorama a couple of months ago, went live yesterday.
The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.
Link, Via: Neatorama
Voice of Bart Simpson
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Veronicas - "Hook Me Up"
The Veronicas are an award winning Australian pop singer/songwriter duo composed of identical twin sisters Lisa Marie Origliasso and Jessica Louise Origliasso (born December 25, 1984 in Brisbane).
The duo's new single "Hook Me Up" from their second album was added to Australian radio on August 27, 2007. "Hook Me Up" was produced by Greg Wells (Timbaland, Mika, OneRepublic). The Veronicas second album also titled "Hook Me Up" was released on November 3, 2007 which contains 12 tracks. The album in its entirety was leaked on the internet 3 days before its initial release. "Untouched" is the second single off the album, and was made available in stores and online on December 8, 2007.
In their track-by-track album interview they stated that their favourite song on their new album is Revenge Is Sweeter {Than You Ever Were}. LINK: Youtube
Weird, Crazy, Stupid and Funny Car Crashes
A compilation of some very weird, crazy, even insane and funny car crash scenes that will keep you wondering how they happened. View these real car crashes caused by bad drivers who are still cruising our highways today! These funny car crashes and crazy car accidents are truly unbelievable!
The song is, "Highway to Hell" by (AC/DC). LINK: Youtube
Infected
Infected is a game designed for 2-10 people. To play: simply draw a card and use your body to communicate your new affliction to the other players. If someone guesses the illness in a timely manner, the amount of points indicated on the card are awarded to both the infected person and the player who diagnoses them.
Whoever correctly diagnoses an illness is the next player to get infected. Points are subtracted if a player passes up a card, however that player may pick a new card during the same turn. The game is over when all the cards have been played and pathogenic victory belongs to whoever accrues the most points. LINK
Hotel Everland
Hotel Everland in Paris, France, is a project by Swiss artist-duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. They are known for their installations that deal with architecture and space and invite the viewer to get involved and become part of the artwork.
Everland is a hotel with only one room including a bathroom, a king-size bed and a lounge. The bounteous dimensioned room represents the subjective dream of a hotel: the architecture, the playful details, as well as the request to steal the golden embroidered bath towels. LINK
Cute rescued baby squirrel
They found him on a busy road. He had either fallen out of the nest or had been forced out by dead parents, either way his was in a pretty bad way when they found him. Weak, bewildered, staggering around and on a busy road.
Figured to leave him meant death within hours, and he was just too damn cute for that!
Initially they rehydrated him, and that had a big effect. Then they started feeding him dilute fructose solution… and he loved that. After that they found him a new home at the animal sanctuary. LINK, Via: Youtube
Raku Ray Guns
West Magoon of Muddy Mountain Pottery created some awesome looking ray guns out of ceramics, with a technique called raku firing:
All of the Ray Guns are glazed and fired using the low-fire raku firing technique. The sculptures are pulled from the kiln while the glaze is red-hot and molten and placed into a metal barrel filled with newspaper which is then covered. This smothers the fire, which creates a reduction atmosphere, giving the glazes their metallic look.
West named each guns after a sci-fi author or character. This one above is the Rotwang Retrovivifier. LINK, Via: Neatorama
The Phantom Message Optical Illusion
Look closely. Or not too closely … and you’ll see an optical illusion on the album sleeves of the band Soulwax. (Need a hint? Don’t look directly at your monitor - view the picture above at an angle).
The Monkey Buddha has one more example: Link | Another Phantom Message -, Via: Neatorama
Mother Love
This photograph, originally from Cute Otters, shows an otter mom proudly displaying her offspring. It was one of many incredibly cute images of different kinds of animal mothers posted at The Pet Blog. Link, Via: Neatorama
Fractal Furniture by Takeshi Miyakawa
That’s fractal 23, a chest of drawers by Japanese furniture designer Takeshi Miyakawa. I’m guessing from the name that it has 23 drawers (indeed, if you count them, it makes sense) but to make use of them all,
you’d have to put it in the center of the room!
Link, Via: Boingboing, Via: Neatorama
Narcisse by Mathieu Lehanneur
Narcisse is an art project by French artist and designer Mathieu Lehanneur. It’s a giant bowl with mirrored surface filled with water - as soon as someone comes close to see his/her own reflection (just like Narcissus [wiki]), a promiximity sensor will trigger the interior basin to rotate and deform the reflection.
Link, Via: Neatorama
Monday, May 12, 2008
First Time In World History, Killer Whales Filmed Hunting Dolphins
A tour operator in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, along with four lucky tourists, have made the first recording of a a group of Orca whales hunting a dolphin.
Ranier Schimpf was leading a group of divers when they noticed that one dolphin had been separated from a pod by five of the killer whales then repeatedly rammed. The dolphin was sent flying through the air by the force of impact from whales that were several times its size. With the smaller creature finally left laying unconscious on the surface, the whales pulled it below.
The two 7m male, two 5m female, and a 3m calf whales were clearly working as a team against the dolphin, and it appeared it was also a hunting lesson for the calf.
LINK, Via: Youtube
BRAND NEW BACKYARD PLAYGROUND!
Some people build swimming pools in their back yards. But outdoor pools in Alaska just won't work. Since this particular family lives on the outskirts of Anchorage, they decided to build a sturdy, colorful playground for their 3 and 4 year old sons, with smooth-stone gravel all around it to avoid knee scrapes and other injuries.
They finished building it on Saturday evening, and the following morning, as mom was about to wake up the boys and have them go out to play in their new play center, this is what she saw from the upstairs window: LINK
Airbus Built Timelapse
Ever wonder how an airplane is built? Well heres a Cool time lapse video. This video shows an airbus plane being built from start to finish in 340 seconds. Who knows, some of us may have flown on this plane. LINK: Youtube
New Gnarls Barkley video and backstory
John Paul sez, "My sister Wendy went to Jamaica to make a music video for Gnarls Barkley. I've always found it fascinating how she listens to songs and just fantasizes about what imagery or story goes with the music, and then struggles to make the video happen in an incredibly short time frame and on a tight budget. This video is maybe her finest. The imagery comes out of her head, partly inspired by a trip we made to Africa, partly inspired by Jamaican dance hall glory.
"She says that the struggles of shooting in Jamaica were harder than anything she had ever attempted. A combination of bureaucracy, corruption, and thuggery confounded her at every turn but she pulled it off all the same. I know when I picked her up at the airport she was completely spent, exhausted. Her words were, 'I don't know how much longer I can spend being the general in a war zone, shouting commands at everyone.' Fortunately, the release of the video to wide acclaim has revitalized her, and I can't wait to see what she does next." Link, Via: Boingboing, Via: Youtube
Song made from Call of Duty gun-sounds
Graham sez, "tpimovies.com user Serpento has created this catchy little ditty out of nothing more than samples of firearms discharging in Call Of Duty 4.
And, naturally, the video is all machinima. Go to Link to watch the video. Via: Boingboing
1GB Camcorder Pen
This quite discrete “secret agent pen” features a built-in 1GB flash memory and it is capable or recording almost 3 hours of video with audio.
Sitting in your shirt pocket, standing in the pen cup or lying on the desk no-one will ever notice as you secretly capture their every move. The built in flash stores the video until it is ready to be downloaded to a computer via USB, and with 1GB of memory you’ll get almost 3 hours of recording time.
The video is encoded on the fly through a buffer system to MPEG 4 and if the battery runs low during a recording session the pen will ensure it writes the video from the buffer to flash before shutting down. All video is captured with audio making this the perfect tool for recording confessions, secret rendezvous or interviews.
The pen itself is an attractive writing instrument with a gloss black finish on the main body, rubber finger grip and chrome detailing.
Features:
* Rubber Finger Grip
* Universal Replaceable Ink Cartridge
* Easy USB Charging/ Transfer
* Internal Flash Memory: 1GB
* Improved CMOS sensor
* White Balance Adjust
* Focus Range: 150mm~Infinity
* Format: MPEG4 -AVI
* Frame Rate: 15fps
* Capture Resolution: 352×288
* Audio Format: 128kbps PCM Audio
* Power Source: USB Charging -Internal Battery
* Built In Microphone: Max Audio Range 10 Meters
* Dimension: 148mm (L) x 16mm (Diameter)
The Secret Agent Pen Camcorder with Audio (1GB) is available over at the Chinavsion website for 138.18 EUR (about $212 USD). LINK
Digital LED Shelf Displays SMS and RSS
This digital shelf, developed by a French designer named Jean-Louis Frechin, was recently showcased at the International Milan furniture show.
WaSnake, as the product is called, is made from wood and an elastomer material. The shelf is capable of displaying SMS messages and news items from RSS feeds selected by the user.
Head over to Newlaunches.com for more information about the WaSnake. LINK
Jay Leno Reads the Paper
Beautifully Dangerous (Dangerously Beautiful?) Staircase by Jordi Vayreda
Is a Nine-Tentacled Octopus a Nonopus?
Last fall, a seafood shop owner in Marugame, Japan spotted this rare Octopus with nine tentacles. While he apparently boiled and sold the oddity to a “lucky customer”, I think he may have generated more marketing appeal if he had tried to pit it against the Henry the Hexapus or had it try out for Gimme Gimme Octopus. LINK
Skybridge in Langkawi, Malaysia
Princess Pauline, the Smallest Woman in History
Look down at the man’s feet: that was a not a child, but a grown woman named Pauline Musters. At 1 foot 11.2 inches, Pauline is the smallest mature woman ever recorded:
Born on February 26, 1876 in Ossendrecht in the Netherlands Pauline Munster’s was almost half of her final height straight from her mother’s womb. At birth, she was just over 12 inches. At age nine, the tiny dynamo weighed only three pounds and in adulthood Pauline Munster weighed less than nine pounds. Her measurements at age 19 were 181/2 -19-17, meaning she had curvy little figure and in truth she had no shortage of male suitors.
The Human Marvel has more on the story of "Princess Pauline": Link, Via: Neatorama
Pine Needle Bear by Richard Carpenter
xoxoxoBruce, a regular at the Cellar Image of the Day forum, posted a series of fascinating photos of this pine needle bear sculpture by Richard Carpenter. The pine needles were gathered off the ground, sorted, washed, trimmed, and hand woven over the period of 8 months to make a life-sized bear.
Link, Via: Neatorama
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Molecular Visualizations of DNA
Amazing CGI visualization of molecular biology's central dogma. It shows animations of DNA coiling, replication, transcription and translation.
It was created by Drew Berry of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. LINK
Squirrel Humor
It looks like the guy on the left spends too much time with a computer keyboard on its lap:
Goldfish taught to perform tricks
A man has taught his goldfish how to dunk a basketball, score a goal at football and limbo under a bar.
Two-year-old Comet the fish cam also swim through a tube and collect hoops after the positive reinforcement training by owner Dr Dean Pomerleau.
The technique is the same as those used to train dolphin. By rewarding the common goldfish with food each time it does a trick Pomerleau is now able to get it to perform on command.
One of Pomerleau's fish "Albert Einstein" is recognized in the Guinness Book of Records his as the fish with the largest repertoire of tricks.
"With the correct tools and the basic promise of a food reward, fish can very quickly learn complex tricks - like the limbo, slalom or playing fetch," he said.
Pomerleau working with R2 Solutions has now released a kit (R2 Fish School kit) for other fish owners to teach their pets to perform. Each kit includes an extensive collection of fish training tools, as well as an illustrated manual and DVD that provide step-by-step instructions.
LINK, Via: Youtube
Pink Floyd Extreme Case Mod
If you happen to really like Pink Floyd, (or any band for that matter) this is a great tutorial that demonstrates how to mod a case and dedicate it to your favorite band. This one uses an actual hammer soldered to the top as a case handle. From the full tutorial "Some modders with great talents came up with a terrific case mod computer based on the successful album "The Wall". It includes recognizable parts of the album and movie like the hammers, the emblems, and the bricked design. The result is absolutely breathtaking.
LINK
Massive guitar for sale
Landscape artist Mike Shubic can make you a humongous guitar like the 12-foot-long beaut seen here. This particular style starts at $6500 plus shipping. From his eBay listing:
This is an acoustic style guitar sculpture that can be made in any size, finish or style, and, you can actually strum it. The strings are piano wire in various sizes and the piece can be tuned (to some degree). LINK: Ebay, LINK
17 Stunning Auditoriums And Theatres From The Ancient World
Some of the most fascinating man-made structures on earth are the massive auditoriums that were once used for theatrical performances, music shows, as well for more sinister purposes such as violent wild animal shows and gladiatorial contests.
It's amazing that some of these Theatres are close to 3,000 years old, and it's amazing that they're even still standing. LINK
Seashells And The Birth Of Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel Aviv is an ultra-modern city located on the Mediterranean coastline of Israel. From the appearance of the city, it is hard to fathom that the city is officially just 100 years old.
Even harder to believe is the story, some will say legend, that the original settlers determined which plots belonged to which settlers by virtue of a 'Seashell Lottery.' LINK
Concrete Thoughts
Joan Perry of Walk this way... takes pictures of sidewalk graffiti. She has been walking the streets of Charleston, South Carolina with her camera for twenty years.
Finally paying attention what was underfoot she's found a treasure trove of inscriptions in the sidewalk from humorous to profound. LINK
Stupid Creatures Sock Monsters
Stupid Creatures Sock Monsters by John Murphy.
They're cheaper than taxidermy and nothing has to die. LINK
Furniture Made from Shredded Paper
Belgian designer Jens Praet created this little cabinet called "One Day Paper Waste" from shredded paper waste:
I was so shocked about the enormous office waste and amount of shredded documents, that I wanted to react to this by reusing those documents and to transform them into a usefull object with a new dignity.
One day paper waste is a little cabinet. Obtained by taking shredded confidential documents, mixing them with resin and compressing them into a strong mould… End result: a new interesting object that has the strength of wood.
Talk about recycling! Link, Via: Make,Neatorama
How to Create Invisible Shelves
Friday, May 09, 2008
Giant eggs in Dutch city
Artist Henk Hofstra installed sunny-side up egg sculptures in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. The "Art Eggcident" will remain in the city square for the next six months. Link, Via: Boingboing
Soviet science fiction illos
Phil sez, "Dark Roasted Blend has posted a collection of illustrations from early Soviet science fiction, most by Yury Markov. Stunning artistry!" Link, Via: Boingboing
Trophy head belt buckle
Artist Justin "Scrappers" Morrison and Studio Acorn collaborated on this incredible trophy head belt buckle. Only two of them were made. One is holding up Morrison's pants and the other is for an upcoming art show at Giant Robot New York. LINK, Via: Boingboing
Convert Your Webpage To PDF
Create Your Own Online Radio Station
With Radionomy, you can create your own radio station on the Internet. You can tap into the contents of vast music libraries. You can integrate your own musical creations. You can add your own audio content, sequences, reports and podcasts. And it's free.
Radionomy will broadcast these radio stations around the world and take care of all costs, including royalties. Radionomy even shares its revenue with radio station creators, based on the size of their audience. LINK
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