Always wanted to own a Horse. Was around them a lot as a kid growing up. LINK
Monday, March 31, 2008
Beautiful Horses Pictures
Dean Kamen’s “Luke” Arm
Flickr Time - The Moment
A digital clock called Flickr Time - The Moment, uses random images from Flickr to display the current time. Click on a number to change the image, doubleclick it to view the full image. Nice! LINK
HOPE (Visions of Whitefeather)
"Hope" is a unique and powerful short film with a message of peace for the future.
'Hope' is shaped around the knowledge and ideas of Willy Whitefeather, a man in his sixties of Cherokee ancestry, a fascinating storyteller, healer, survivalist and an individual of wisdom and heart. Using traditions and stories from Native American and world cultures, the film combines dreams, images and reminiscences from our collective memory to send a message of hope for the future. LINK
BBC Motion Gallery
BBC Motion Gallery offers easy access to a wide range of high-quality video clips, including rights managed and production ready royalty-free footage. All available to preview, purchase and download immediately.
The video clips have been selected from the archives of some of the world's leading broadcasters - BBC, CBS News, NHK Japan, CCTV China and ABC Australia.
Here are a some of them - just sit back, relax and enjoy:
"Africa" LINK
"Japan" LINK
"People and Places" LINK
CCTV: An HD journey through China in all its glory,
from rarely seen rural lifestyles and its most cherished artistic
and architectural achievements. LINK
BUDDHA BAR NATURE TRAILER BY ARNO ELIAS
Trailer for Buddha Bar Nature CD and DVD ARNO ELIAS (COMPOSER AND PRODUCER). Watch and Enjoy!!!! LINK
Henri Eskenazi Photography
Mediterranee - Mer Rouge - Caraibes - Atlantique
Ocean Indien - Indo Pacifique - Ocean Pacifique
901 images in 72 galleries. All are incredible!
Henri Eskenazi Photography
Lost Treasures of the Ancient World: The Seven Wonders
Discover extraordinary Greek and Roman architecture such as: the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Statue of Zeus, the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos of Alexandria through new location footage, stylish period reconstructions, 3D graphics and animation sequences, and interpretations and analyses by the world's leading authorities.
This video is 51 minutes long. LINK
Amazing Lions
Lions were endemic throughout the middleast, into India. In fact, there are still some lions left in India. Lions were also common in southern Europe. Lions, being plains animals, were easily eliminated by humans. Tigers, more of a mountain/jungle animal, still persist in a wider range.
The White Lion was AMAZING! LINK
Dancing Art
This dancer is a solo self-taught dance performer, started out dancing Freestyle HipHop and expanding his style to Mime, House, Jazz, Contemporary and Ethnic dance. His... unique dance show with illusion effects of sound, light and visual entertains a lot of people who are not even interested in performing arts. He has been performing at many events, TV shows and teaching in USA, Europe and Japan. LINK
Man´s Creation
As cool as that sidewalk art is its almost as cool to see it from alternate angles to see just how strangely proportioned these drawings are. Nice video also. LINK
Patterns in Nature: Island Aerials
Located in the western Pacific, Palau is made up of more than 250 islands, such as these forested, sand-ringed gems studding sapphire seas. Tourism is the country's main industry; its rich marine environment invites snorkeling, diving, and lounging. LINK
Golden Earring
The Colorful Art of David C. Miller
The Colorful Art of David C. Miller.
David Christopher Miller's extraordinary palette of colors is at once exotic, yet realistic of the habitat he paints. Miller creates seashore scenes caressed by rays of warm light, underwater scenes of graceful dolphins, and brilliantly colored coral reef fish. Miller's awesome marine collection includes Treasure Reef, Deep Secrets, Rays of the Sea, and his resplendent Eternal Light. LINK
Gil Bruvel Art
Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1959, Gil Bruvel's French-born parents moved the family back to the south of France when he was 4 years old. While taking drawing lessons at age 9 and learning sculpture basics, Gil made the decision to spend his life creating art. There he found himself inspired by the light and landscapes in this region. He began working with oil paint at the age of 12 and the local environment had an enormous and lasting influence on his palette –giving him luminous colors he continues to use today.
Gil's father, being a cabinetmaker, introduced the budding artist to the inner workings of a wood workshop including furniture design, its practical function, and every aspect of hand crafting each piece. Taking this knowledge and experience with him, Gil began studies at an art restoration workshop 1974, spending the next three years learning the techniques of the Old Masters and modern Masters of fine art. Thereafter he set up his studio in St. Remy de Provence until 1986 when he first made his way to the United States, making it his permanent residence in 1990.
At that time he started to experiment more with sculptures in bronze, mixed media and digital modeling as well as continuing to learn about creative processes in artistic expression.
He is currently creating functional art, sculptures, and paintings.
Gil Bruvel has been exhibiting his work since 1974 in various places around the world and including: France, Monaco, England, Denmark, The Netherlands, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, New York, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Hawaii. His work has received many awards and his collectors span the globe.
LINK
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Mario Sanchez Nevado’s Digital Art
Mario Sanchez Nevado (pseudonym of Aegis) is an digital artist born in Murcia (Spain), who creates some impressive photo-manipulated artwork. His art is a lush combination of traditional and digital drawing, vectorial art and photographs. This is dark and surreal imagery, combined with conceptual themes as Mario works within many diverse styles and genres. Equally integrated is his use of digital softwares: Photoshop, Corel Painter, Marinates Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Dreamweaver - all contribute to the completed designs. LINK
Dog prays at Japanese Zen Temple
NAHA, Japan - At a Zen Buddhist temple in southern Japan, even the dog prays. Mimicking his master, priest Joei Yoshikuni, a 1 1/2-year-old black-and-white Chihuahua named Conan joins in the daily prayers at Naha's Shuri Kannondo temple, sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar.
It took him only a few days to learn the motions, and now he is the talk of the town.
"Word has spread, and we are getting a lot more tourists," Yoshikuni said Monday. LINK
Whose Line is it Anyway
Robin Williams
Friday, March 28, 2008
Fantasy Art (Some NSFW)
About the Artist - Will Murai
Born in April 20th 1985 in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brasil. Lives in a small town called Arujá. LINK
Luna Watch is Exotic
The Luna Watch you see here shares some very exquisite construction materials - it is made out of crystal, stainless steel and a Spessartite Garnet. Where's the time, you ask? Well, to know just what hour and minute of the day it is, all you need to do is touch the two contact points and the time will suddenly appear right inside the crystal. This fashionable watch will come in a wide range of colors with coordinated Signity gems, so should it ever be manufactured, be prepared to fork out a small fortune. LINK
Drum Table Plays It Loud
This drum table will certainly get on your nerves much more than that pesky colleague who has developed this nasty habit of drumming his fingers on the table throughout the entire day. Well, at least this drum table produces way more authentic sounds, but seriously - unless you're a modern musician who finds inspiration from weird gizmos, I suggest giving this a pass since your own kids might drive you mad with this new 'toy'. Good thing it isn't cheap, since a four-instrument drum table costs $800 while a sixteen-instrument drum table will set you back by $2,900. LINK, Via: Youtube
Wiimote Extreme LED Mod
Don't you just love folks who have that streak of genius in them? They tend to come up with the wackiest inventions even Einstein would be proud of. The Wiimote Extreme LED mod is one of them, featuring an array of bedazzling lights to keep you mesmerized and entertained. There is always something about lights co-ordinating with music to keep one's attention transfixed, and it all started from Pac-man all those years ago. How else do you explain kids being hooked to munching pills while listening to repetitive music and seeing flashing strobes of light all around them these days? LINK, Via: Youtube
Good with Numbers? Try Math Popper!
This is a great game to play with your little kids: Math Popper challenges you to add, substract and multiply by "popping" the balloon with right answer.
Sure it’s easy at first, but it gets harder … and harder … and harder … Link [Flash game] - Via: Ursi’s Blog, Via: Neatorama
Rug Glows with Each Step
It only makes sense: a rug that lights up when you walk on it. They call it Footlume.
“The glow that the rug emits is very soft,” said co-inventor Leona Dean, of London South Bank University, who also noted the innovation’s party applications, “It can provide ambient mood lighting or flash in time to music as a talking point at a party.”
Dean and another LSBU engineering student Zoe Robson developed the light-up rug, called Footlume, for a college course, and they will exhibit the innovation at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show in London this month.
The electroluminescent rug uses rechargeable batteries and lights up in response to the weight applied when a person walks across the carpet.
It could also light the way to the bathroom in the night and serve as a child’s night light. Footlume is a prototype, but could be produced commercially if investors are interested. Link -Via: Digg, Via: Neatorama
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Red Hot Riding Hood
Visual Acoustics
Visual Acoustics is a concept for interactive expression. A canvas to paint reactive music and vision as a real-time artistic performace.
Brushes are painted across the screen, each consisting of an instrument (piano, violin, flute, guitar, harp, strings, bass, tenor sax) and accompanying visual. The position of the mouse pointer on the screen determines which instrumental note the brush paints onto the screen. LINK
The Supra Glacial Stream
Matt Nolan, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, spends most of his time studying the changes in glaciers and his projects range from hydrology, limnology, and science outreach, to glaciology, which is his favorite.
Meltwater on the surface of the glaciers drains into small streams that feed into this large one, which has melted itself several meters into the glacier. The stream ends in a moulin - a more or less vertical shaft carrying this melted-water to the bottom of the glacier. Falling into this stream is not advised. LINK
Linerider - Transcendental
The Subway Car Room by Michal Tatarkiewicz
For his art exhibition, Michal Tatarkiewicz turned a room into the inside of a subway car! Link | Michal’s website. Via: Neatorama
Barcoded Gravestones
Japanese gravestone maker Ishi no Koe ("Voice of the Stone") is going to sell gravestones with embedded two-dimensional bar codes called QR code (common in Japan).
When scanned with a QR capable cell phone, visitors can view pictures, video and other information about the deceased: Link - Via: Tokyo Mango, Via: Neatorama
These People Should’ve Died …
Bizarre Furniture Made From Recycled Materials
The four above are: light made from old fluorescent light tubes by Castor Canadensis design collective, a Lamponi lamp made from an old iron, a shopping cart chair by reestore, and a bicycle wheel table by Andrew Gregg.
Check out the full list here: Link, Via: Neatorama
Bronze Sculpture
Born in Oxford in 1966, David Goode grew up in the small Midlands town of Leek, Staffordshire, just north of Stoke on Trent. Stoke on Trent, also known as The Potteries, was the heartland of the Victorian pottery industry, and to this day is still home to many world-famous pottery houses such as Royal Doulton and Wedgwood.
The inspiration for David’s work stretches back to a childhood fascination with myths and folklore, and a love of the writings of Tolkein.
All the pieces are cast in bronze, using the ‘lost wax’ process, a method developed by the ancient Egyptians, whereby a new ceramic shell mould is both made and destroyed for each individual piece cast. This is one of the most costly methods of casting but its worth is that the nuance and detail of the original work is preserved in every successive casting. LINK
Wolf Prints
Giclee, MUSEUM QUALITY FINE ART PRINTS
FROM THE ORIGINAL WOLF PAINTINGS
BY WILDLIFE ARTIST
TRUDY LEE ESTES
LINK
Subway Stations in Moscow
The Subway in Moscow deserves a special visit. You will have the opportunity to go thru these images and appreciate Moscow's Subway Stations Architecture...
Baumanskaya - Work on the Subway started in 1930 - Its length is approx. 256 km (159Miles), actually the subway has 138 stations, and the most beautiful stations are located near the center of the capital.
A Special Visit is very impressive to the foreign tourists, who will think they're in a museum or even a palace with very spacious hallways. LINK
Photo Glass Space
Let me take you on a trip to space... But not " the Space ", this is trip is little different, this space is photo glass space... LINK
Eating at the top of the World
Anyone interested in having a unique dining experience? You can have breakfast, lunch, dinner or cocktails. Invite your boss for a meeting while enjoying your meal 50 meters above ground. Dining events arranged by a professional event arranger of Benji Fun company. It provides 22 seating complete with Chef, server, musician and you can select your own location, without limitation. Guaranteed safety with the hoisting crane, which can accommodate the whole band of musicians, or for making a presentation to your customers. This restaurant is in Belgium. LINK
Robot Drummer has plenty of Rhythm
This little yellow robot does one thing really well. He likes to play drums. What’s funny about the little guy is that he likes to play music on just about any surface other than an actual drum.
The Yellow Drum Machine drives around the room looking for things that might make an interesting sound when tapped on. If he likes what he hears, he starts going to town with a little riff. Once he’s bored, he moves on, looking for something else to make noise with.LINK
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The 7 Fingers
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." - Leonardo. LINK
George Carlin
Saturday, March 22, 2008
CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS | LIVE IN CONCERT
Good stuff: Carolina Chocolate Drops Live in Concert. Recorded March 18 in Amsterdam, I Think. LINK
Debra Hampton’s Multi-Media Collages
Agressive energy, Erotism and Horror feature highly in (NYC based) Debra Hampton’s large, encapsulating multi-media collages. The core of Hampton’s wonderful figurative collages is the color photograph. In particular, from a magazine cut out Hampton intricately places each piece in intentional, random and symbolic presentation. This process is coupled with ink and paint in the exploration of patterns of chaos, chance, and definite order.
To view more of Debra Hampton’s collages / and for more info visit her website, LINK.
Netsuke & Inro pool at Flickr
COOP points us to the marvelous Netsuke & Intro photo pool at Flickr. Netsuke are tiny Japanese sculptures, first appearing in the 17th century, that were attached to traditional robes. They acted as fasteners for Inro, cases that held small objects because the clothing had no pockets. Seen here, a "frustrated rat catcher" netsuke from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. LINK, Via: Boingboing
Lampshade that knits itself
Nadine Sterk's Sleeping Beauty lamp is on exhibition at a show of design school projects, on display at the Design Huis in Eindhoven, The Netherlands -- it's "a lamp that develops like a living organism: switch it on and it slowly starts growing by knitting its own lampshade at a speed of three rotations per hour." Link, Via: Boingboing
Banded Icebergs
One of them looks like a giant mint humbug, with its clear blue, green and brown stripes. The other looks as if it has been shot through with a streak of spearmint.
These stunning banded icebergs - formed over hundreds, if not thousands, of years - were pictured floating in the waters of the Antarctic. LINK
The Fuehrer Bunker
"The Fuehrer Bunker (1935 -- 1942)" describes the construction of the Bunker from its planning phase in 1935, until it was extended in 1943. The film covers the interior of the Fuehrer Bunker, its different construction phases, as well as the New Reich's Chancellery and its system of underground air raid shelters. LINK, Via: Youtube
Korea Inline Slalom Club CrazySlalom Chunguk
Korea Inline Slalom Club CrazySlalom Chunguk
http://joystick6.com, Via: Youtube
Freeboarding Kennesaw Mountain
Snowboard the Streets! This video shows off the spinning and sliding capability from the board's point of view. 1.5 mile ride down. Great views and smooth pavement. LINK
Friday, March 21, 2008
Electric Origami
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
“The most complicated thing that humans have ever built” describes the Large Hadron Collider ready to begin operations next month. Built underground, it runs 17 miles across the borders of two countries (Switzerland and France). The world’s largest particle accelerator will smash protons together to create conditions similar to the “Big Bang” and maybe warp the space-time continuum. Statistics on the size and possibilities of the collider’s work, as well as pictures to give you an idea of its size, can be found at Dark Roasted Blend. LINK
Reel Furniture
David Meddings of reelfurniture makes chairs and tables out of recycled timber. One of his specialties is this rocking chair made from those giant wooden reels (like the ones used to transport power lines). Link, Via: Ectoplasmosis, Via: Neatorama
The finest impressionist entertainer on Earth.
André-Philippe Gagnon [Wikipedia] is a Québécois impressionist entertainer. His act is unique for his specialized talent in impersonating the singing voices of celebrities as opposed to his contemporaries who typically can do only the speaking voices. He’s known for doing all the 18 voices in the classic We Are The World. He even imitates a saxophone here [Youtube], the Pink Panther anyone? LINK, Via: Neatorama, Via: Youtube
Puzzle Boy Flash Game
Animals Are like People ; They Like Getting Drunk Also!
In this 1974 cult favorite documentary by Jamie Uys, titled Animals are Beautiful People, there is a segment where they showed that animals are just like (some) people because … they like getting drunk, too!
… But after a few weeks the Merulas get overripe and they start dropping from trees. Then all of the animals wade in and gorge themselves on the rotting fruits. It starts fermenting in their tummies and turns into very a potent brew. So on the way home, things start happening to them …
The only difference is Humans know they are consuming, the animals get a surprise BUZZ!! LINK, Via: Youtube
Rabbit Massage
Monday, March 17, 2008
Leningrad Cowboys & Red Army Choir - SWEET HOME ALABAMA
The Leningrad Cowboys (from Finland) and the Red Army Choir perform Sweet Home Alabama. It’s a small world after all.
The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock and roll band famous for its humorous songs and concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir.
Currently, the band has eleven Cowboys and two Leningrad Ladies. The songs, all somewhat influenced by polka and progressive rock, and performed in English, have themes such as 'vodka', 'tractors', 'rockets', and 'Genghis Khan', as well as folkloric Russian songs, rock and roll ballads and covers from bands as diverse as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, all with lots of humour.
The Red Army Choir (Choir Aleksandrov) is a performing ensemble that served as the official army choir of the former Soviet Union's Red Army. The choir consists of a male choir, an orchestra, and a dance ensemble. The songs they perform range from Russian folk tunes to Church hymns, operatic arias and popular music.
In 1991, The Red Army Choir participated in Roger Waters' The Wall concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. They performed an anti-war song "Bring the Boys Back Home".
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Red Army Choir has continued performing, entertaining audiences both inside and outside Russia. LINK, Via Youtube
Eight Museums You Won’t Be Bored By
Mütter Museum, Philadelphia, Pa.
There’s all kinds of bizarre stuff, from a tumor removed from Grover Cleveland’s jaw to a corpse that turned into soap to a plaster cast of Siamese twins.
It’s really fascinating stuff. The museum itself is located in a really unassuming building of the College of Physicans of Philadelphia,Pa. LINK
Flashlight Machine Gun
Clearly this will be the hot toy for Christmas 2008. Here’s Magpul Industries official site, which is worth the trip for a fun desktop wallpaper. Via StrategyPage.
Previously: Maxblaster Flashlight. Via Youtube, Via Neatorama
Radical Rodents: Surfing Mice from Down Under
Sagrada Familia Cathedral and Other UNESCO World Heritage Sites in LEGO
Photo: hatayanaorg favorite blog on all things LEGO (here’s one reason why), has a really neat post about the piece of Peace exhibit in Japan. It features UNESCO World Heritage sites built out of LEGO bricks by Kazuyoshi Naoe.
This one above is the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which looks just as impressive in real life. LINK, Via Neatorama
Open Doors, a Flash Game
Questionaut
Questionaut is a beautiful click game where you answer and collect elementary-level questions. From the picture, you may have guessed it’s from Amanita Designs (yes, the Samorost people). Link, Via Metafilter, Via Neatorama
Fetch
Tatiana Parcero’s Cartographies
Mexican artist Tatiana Parcero’s series entitled “Interior Cartographies” consists of constructed photos (transparency overlays) in which anatomy diagrams and ancient Aztec codices adorn parts of her body - her face (as above), hands, feet, mouth, and pregnant abdomen. Using her body as a subject, she superimposes engravings from 19th century medical books and veiled and coded by her anatomy Intricate maps, charts, medical illustrations, symbols, and diagrams are all mapped onto parts of the human body. Conceptually, her self-portraits blend biographical and mythical retrospection, and relate to the intersections of gender, identity, memory, and territory. In Parcero’s powerful icons, physiology and individual memory are embodied expressions of cultural lineage. LINK
Nelly Recchia: Painter of Bodies (Some NSFW)
For Nelly Recchia, the body is her canvas. Whether it’s to your taste or not, this French artist definitely took body painting beyond the simple concept of “painter of bodies”. The body paintings of Nelly Recchia are sometimes intense and diverse, many have somewhat dense complexities, they play with feelings, fetishes and even with surrealism. Her concepts and themes have diversity too, be it by working with her model and generating ideas from the form, shape and/or its intrinsic capabilities of expression.
Apparently, Nelly Recchia does not use photoshop nor any form of digital image manipulation for that matter. Everything you see, all the effects and deformations are the result of body paint alone. The creation of her body paintings, Like the Bushido painting (pictured above-top), can take up to 13 hours. It’s not hard to believe that someone putting so much effort in the search for perfection is an admirer of my all time favorite master painter Caravaggio. And it’s not only the body paint that’s of an intense beauty, the photography displaying her art is adding even more layers.
The talents of Nelly Recchia have not remained unnoticed, shes won several awards in Make Up and Body Art competitions. And she worked for music videos and promos for giants like Britney Spears, Madonna and Marilyn Manson among many others. LINK
Wang Yi Guang:Retrospective of Tibet - The Spirit and Movement
Wang Yi Guang is at the forefront of the Chinese contemporary art scene. His passion for painting followed in the footsteps of his older brother and pursued his ultimate desire to become a painter. The painting above (River of Paradise) was part of Wang’s first solo exhibition Retrospective of Tibet - The Spirit and Movement (shown in Dec, 2004). This series (in part) was inspired by the humble beauty of the Tibetan plateau along with Tibetan way of life, their respect for the environment and nature, as well as their optimistic approach to life. have provided an infinite source of inspiration to his body of work. LINK
Eva Eun-Sil Han: On The Soul Collages
Eva Eun-Sil HAN was born in Korea and is currently residing in Belgium. All her sibylline collages feature the element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions. Her works are constructed of three parts: the ego (conscious mind), the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. In this way, (as you might of guessed) she works with many elements from the tradition of Surrealism. I must point out, ALL her wonderful collages are done without using any kind of digital materials and are all hand-made collages. LINK
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Fabergé Eggs
Easter is coming and it might be a good idea to have a look at the most expensive Easter eggs in the world. They were produced by Peter Carl Fabergé and are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones. The term ‘Fabergé Egg’ has become a synonym of luxury and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler’s art. LINK
Incredible Mat Blamires Photos
Here are some nice works of a famous photographer from New Zealand! LINK
Queen Elizabeth II - Leaving Australia
March 6th, 2008. The Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) luxury ship left Melbourne (Australia) for the last time before being retired as a floating hotel in Dubai in November this year. LINK
Amazing Wooden Structures
These objects are carved from wood with great care and sophistication. LINK
UFO Lands On Desktop
Trivia: The Awesomeness That Is Bic Pen
The Bic ballpoint pen was invented by Frenchman Marcel Bich in 1950.
He dropped the "h" from Bich because he feared that people would call it the Bitch pen. Technically, it’s name is the BIC CRISTAL.
Each Bic pen has enough ink for up to 2 miles (3.2 km) of writing. If you accidentally get its ink on clothing, just use alcohol-based hairspray to dissolve it.
Bic pen is incredibly useful. Besides writing, it can be used to unlock a Krytonite bike lock, make a chandelier and a weapon for intra-office warfare, as well as to perform an emergency tracheotomy (as Hawkeye did in M*A*S*H).
In 2005, BIC announced that it has sold its 100 billionth pen. LINK: Neatorama
Olla Podrilla Puzzle
Here’s a jigsaw puzzle with people and animals as puzzle pieces. You can turn them around and see how they fit together. When you find pieces that fit, they will stick so you can manipulate them together.
Link -Via: Dump Trumpet, Via: Neatorama
Sungha Jung
Sungha plays "You are the sunshine of my life." arranged by Ulli Bögershausen. LINK
Living On A Prayer - Sungha Jung: LINK
Sungha plays "Wake me up when September ends." arranged by Ulli Bögershausen. : LINK
I totally appreciate the talent of this young man. Plus Love all 3 of these songs. Many more when you check out the links. He is great.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Two Impressive Shiny Balls
Can You Sit on This Chair Without Falling on Your Butt?
This peculiar chair, called the An Lena chair, was created by Simone Harbert as part of a student exhibition at the Burg Giebichenstein College of Art and Design in Germany.
The piece was a commentary on parasitism, as it supported itself from gripping two surfaces: the floor and the wall (I know, I know, I didn’t understand it either - anyhoo, the student expo is about Parasites & Hybrids).
But the bigger question is, without looking at Simone’s website, would you say that the chair will be able to support your body? Or would you fall flat on your butt if you try to sit on it?
Link - Via: MoCo Loco, Via: Neatorama
Ice Cube Shaped Like a Guitar
The cool factor is pretty high on this one: Cool Jazz guitar-shaped ice that doubles as a stirrer.
The silicone ice tray makes 3 ice guitars and costs $8.
Link - Via: Clusterflock, Via: Neatorama
Time Expired: The Parking Meter Tombstone
Barbara Sue Manire, who died in 2005, had a great sense of humor. Her tombstone has a parking meter with time expired (of course). Snopes has the scoop:
blockquote>
The above-displayed [picture does] show the Okemah, Oklahoma, gravesite of one Barbara Sue Manire, who passed away on her 64th birthday in 2005 and is now interred at Highland Cemetery beneath a whimsical symbol of time expired: a parking meter with a "64 year time limit." (Her headstone also bears the legend "OUR MOM … HER HUMOR LIVES ON.")
As Barbara Sue’s daughter, Sherri Ann Weeks, explained, the unusual decorative feature at the gravesite was indeed her mother’s idea:
Mom always said she wanted a parking meter with ‘time expired.’ And she watned to be on the front row of the cemetery so she could see what was going on. We gave her what she wanted. LINK, Via: Neatorama
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Play 8-bit Games Straight From Your Browser
One Log House
The Famous One Log House is a one-bedroom house hollowed out from a single log that came from a 2,100-year old redwood tree:
After felling this 13 foot diameter forest giant, Art Schmock and a helper needed 8 months of hard labor to hollow out the log into a room 7 ft. high and 32 ft. long, weighing about 42 tons. LINK
Whack Your Boss
The object of the game Whack Your Boss is to find all 17 ways to beat your supervisor up. Warning: lots of cartoon blood. Link -Via: Gorilla Mask, Via: Neatorama
The World’s Largest Natural Mirror
Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high. When it is covered with water, the Salar de Uyuni reflects the sky.
The salt is over 10 meters thick in the center. In the dry season, the salt planes are a completely flat expanse of dry salt, but in the wet season, it is covered with a thin sheet of water which makes the most beautiful reflections.
Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.
You can see every mountain and every cloud reflected in the salar and you can't tell how far away they are or where the sky starts and ends.
Due to its large size, smooth surface, high surface reflectivity when covered with shallow water, and minimal elevation deviation, Salar de Uyuni makes an ideal target for the testing and calibration of remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites used to study the Earth.
In addition to providing an excellent target surface the skies above Salar de Uyuni are so clear, and the air so dry, that the surface works up to five times better for satellite calibration than using the surface of the ocean.
LINK, Video 1, Video 2, are from Youtube
3-Way Chess
This 3-way chessboard was purchased in the Czech Republic. The pieces move in the same way as normal chess, but that becomes a little weird in the center of the board, where six “squares” ajoin. The first person to checkmate either of the other two wins.
Link -Via: The Presurfer, Via: Neatorama
Bookseat by Fishbol
Fishbol is a Canadian design team that got its start in Ottawa, but is now based in Toronto. Bookseat, a bent plywood chair that combines shelving with seating was presented at IDS08 and will be available (with a felt cushion) this spring. Bookseat is only one of a selection of unusual chair designs by this young company, including the Lobster Trap Chair and the Gazebo Chair. Also of interest is Fishbol’s Wine Bottle Shelf. LINK, Via: Neatorama
Friday, March 07, 2008
Baby Can Read!
Elizabeth Barrett looks like any other 17-month-old babies, with one exception: she can read!
Her mother Katy, a speech pathologist who is married to Michael, another speech pathologist, said that most people don’t believe their infant is a reader.
"The joke is that since we see kids with language problems, we think anybody with normal language skills is a genius. But as time goes on, it’s harder to deny that she’s exceptional," said Katy. […]
Elizabeth talks like she’s 1, but she reads like she’s 7.
So what does her doctor think? Dr. Steve Stripling, Elizabeth’s pediatrician, says at 14 months he saw her sight read the word avocado. "I was floored", he said.
This is amazing, you need to watch the video.
Link (with video), Via: Neatorama
NASA Lunar Illumination Movie
Two-wheeled Nazi mine-sweeping Vadermobile
This giant, mysterious two-wheeled mine-clearing tank was taken from the Nazis by the Russians at the end of World War II. As Coop notes, "We have achieved total Hell Yeah. It looks like the car Darth Vader drove to high school." Link, Via: Boingboing
Animated Space Invaders welcome mat
Firebox is selling this outdoor welcome mat with motion-sensing, light-up LED Space Invaders that blink back and forth when visitors approach. Link, Via: Boingboing
Wake up Kitty
As we all know, cats can talk, obviously. This little guy gets kind of moody when his owner wakes him up. Hilarious! LINK
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Computer can Tell You What You’re Looking at by Reading Your Mind
Neuroscientists from UC Berkeley have developed a rudimentary brain scanner that can "read your mind" to tell you what you’re looking at:
The scientists used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine — a real-time brain scanner — to record the mental activity of a person looking at thousands of random pictures: people, animals, landscapes, objects, the stuff of everyday visual life. With those recordings the researchers built a computational model for predicting the mental patterns elicited by looking at any other photograph. When tested with neurological readouts generated by a different set of pictures, the decoder passed with flying colors, identifying the images seen with unprecedented accuracy. LINK, Via: Neatorama
Silhouette Masterpiece Theater
Wilhelm Staehle created Victorian scenes by superimposing silhouettes over paintings, and gave them somewhat subversive captions. Link -via: The Presurfer, Via: Neatorama
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Skeletal Bones Wedding Cake
Jodie Carey created this fearsome looking "bone" wedding cake out of plaster, steel, wire, and sugarpaste icing. Link | Her homepage - via: Who Killed Bambi? Via: Neatorama
Echochrome
"The Travelling Salesman"
In this video "The Travelling Salesman" program is drawing a three-dimensional map of the world, visiting in one uninterrupted line 16189 places:
How do you draw a world map on a globe in one continuous line that does not intersect itself? One way to do this is to get a set of places by an organized sampling of the world, and to find the shortest closed loop through them all, which has the nice property of not intersecting itself. LINK: Youtube
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Creative Masterpieces of Commercialism
Some dark humour is in play here:
nuclear mushroom cloud as a clown head(s) -
Similarly-shaped, and also sinister is this head of cabbage: NOTE: I have came across this piece of Commercialism before. Just wanted to note, this is not cabbage it is BROCCOLI. Photo below.
"Because Vegetables Are Scary"
LINK
Sidekick Arbyn------ Excellent Illusion art by Donald "Rusty" Rust
http://rustyrust.dreamg8.com/
click the "Illusion" link in the upper left to see more of this type of art from Rusty.
via
http://www.neatorama.com/
Can Sculptures
Canstruction currently has an annual event - entries for 2008. Drink your beer, but keep the cans... for a purpose:
Canstruction, Inc. President/Executive Director, Cheri Melillo, was thrilled to be on hand for opening festivities at the 6th Annual Vancouver Canstruction Competition hosted at Vancouver’s Cruise Ship Terminal, February 22 - 26. LINK
Raising Baby Giraffe Presents Tall Order At LA Zoo
LOS ANGELES -- Zoo officials said a baby giraffe is ready to make her debut after she was hand-raised because her "disinterested mother" refused to nurse her young.
Images: Baby Masai Giraffe
Images: Endangered Animals
The baby Masai giraffe -- the second newborn to arrive at the zoo within three months -- was nursed in the Children's Zoo Nursery. The baby was scheduled to make her public debut Friday morning.
The calf was 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed 156 pounds when she was born Feb. 6. The baby receives nine quarts of whole cow's milk per day.
She grew 5 inches and gained nearly 40 pounds since birth.
The giraffe will move into the main exhibit with her parents within three months. LINK
Echidnas on display
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo now has 3 of the egg laying mammals.
There's a new female echidna at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, joining two males who already residing in the Koala Building.
The Zoo's Travis Vineyard says echidnas come from Australia, and are rare, egg laying mammals. Vineyard explains echidnas spend most of their time digging in the ground, where they like to hide out.
Echidnas are small mammals that are covered with coarse hair and spines.
They are like a cross between a porcupine and an anteater. Echidnas have snouts which function as both a mouth and nose. They have very short, strong limbs with large claws and are powerful diggers.
Echidnas have a toothless jaw. They feed by tearing open softlogs, and eating the insects inside, such as ants and termites.
Vineyard reports that the three echidnas will be on display at the Zoo indefinitely. LINK
Light source glows for 12+ years without power
Lightroenergy is an amazing new source of illumination which can produce a bright glow for up to a dozen years without any electricity or exposure to sunlight.
Litrospheres are tiny self-luminous particles which can be injection molded or embedded into paints. Brightness is said to be about the same as that of a 20-watt light bulb, but I’d imagine that would depend on how much surface area is covered with the particles. The material is extremely cost-effective, covering an 8.5 x 11 surface for about 35 cents. The particles can even be customized to give off just about any light color. There’s a good description of how the technology works over on PESWiki.
MPK, the company that manufactures this glowing goodness expects Litrospheres to make their first appearance in safety gear, but I’d love to coat all kinds of surfaces with this stuff. Can you imagine how cool it would be to drive down the street in a luminescent car? LINK
LYRICS DIRECTORY
A good site if your looking for Lyrics to a song. A must check out. Copy the link so you have it on hand when you need it. LINK
Dubai Artificial Island City Mixes Mythic Past and Future With a Death Star 3D Neighborhood for Kicks
From afar, Dubai is the most exciting place on earth, almost every day shaping up to be more like the utopic sci-fi fantasy city we had in our heads growing up. Its latest architectural stuntwork/masterpiece is the 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City designed by Rem Koolhaas, an entire self-contained city resting atop an artificial island that mixes inspirations from ninth-century mosques to Koolhaas's own ideas about the THX 1138-esque generic city.
The island will be divided into 25 identical blocks, which will be populated by a mix of tall and squat towers punctuated by more fantastic buildings, like a spiraling 82-story tower, and a 44-story sphere (trendy now, no?) that will be its own mini-city within a mini-city complete with a sprawling network of escalator tubes (pictured in the gallery). There's also traditional parks and stuff inside to keep it a little more earthly, but every new gargantuan development like this makes us wonder just how far Dubai will push it next. LINK
Unusual realistic baby sculptures
A woman named Faith "reborns" unusual looking ones called Ooaks and offers them for "adoption" on eBay. Link, Via: Boingboing
Previously on Boing Boing:
• The creepy, creepy world of "reborn baby dolls"
• Real people who have (un)real relationships with Real Dolls
• Documentary about women who collect fake babies
25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies
Beautiful animated short movies are excellent for tedious coffee breaks and uninspiring monday mornings. To put some beautiful story in a short 2-5 minutes sequence isn't easy, but even in this case designers and artists are quite creative and manage to come up with very surprising and unusual results.
Smashing Magazine put up a collection of 25 brilliant animated short movies. Among them you'll find funny cartoons, typography-related movies as well as artistic masterpieces. LINK
Darwin Foiled. For Now.
Apartment Room Addition: Hope the Cables are Strong!
Are you outgrowing your apartment? Need an extra room? Well, just hang one outside your window (hope those cables are strong!). Here’s a "walk-in sculpture" called the Rucksack House in München, Germany.
The cube is a light and empty space, free from connotations and open to its user’s needs. While still being inside a private atmosphere, one has the impression of floating outside of the confines of the actual dwelling above the public space. Folddown furnishings and a multitude of built-in openings on the inside provide extra living space with direct daylight. Sections of the walls unfold, with the help of hidden magnets, into a desk, shelves, and a platform for reading or sleeping. The Rucksack box is suspended from steel cables that are anchored to the roof or to the facade of the existing building. The construction is a welded steel cage with a light birch veneered plywood interior cladding. The outside cladding is exterior grade plywood with an absorbent resin surface punctuated by plexiglas inserts. LINK
Unplugging Oneself From Cyberspace
I know someone that is just like this, heaven forbid if both phone and laptop weren't functioning.
Do you find that you’re overwhelmed by the need to check your email every hour, read hundreds of feeds on your feedreader, or chat with everyone on IM? Do you need an off-ramp on the Information Superhighway?
Here’s what Mark Bittman, a self-professed tech-addict, wrote in the New York Times about unplugging himself from teh interwebs for one day a week:
On my first weekend last fall, I eagerly shut it all down on Friday night, then went to bed to read. (I chose Saturday because my rules include no television, and I had to watch the Giants on Sunday). I woke up nervous, eager for my laptop. That forbidden, I reached for the phone. No, not that either. Send a text message? No. I quickly realized that I was feeling the same way I do when the electricity goes out and, finding one appliance nonfunctional, I go immediately to the next. I was jumpy, twitchy, uneven.
I managed. I read the whole paper, without hyperlinks. I tried to let myself do nothing, which led to a long, MP3-free walk, a nap and some more reading, an actual novel. I drank herb tea (caffeine was not helpful) and stared out the window. I tried to allow myself to be less purposeful, not to care what was piling up in my personal cyberspace, and not to think about how busy I was going to be the next morning. I cooked, then went to bed, and read some more. LINK, Via: Neatorama
Monday, March 03, 2008
Puppy Screen Cleaner
Ornamental Typography of the 18th Century
They certainly don’t make alphabets like this anymore! The ‘A’ above is an excellent example of ornamental typography, as designed in 1730 by Mauro Poggi in his book ‘Alfabeto di Lettere Iniziali‘:
The capitals are elaborated with scrolls and flourishes and then inhabited by satyrs, mermaids, Medusa heads, birds, cats, dogs, snakes, and other creatures. The letters were designed by Poggi, drawn in ink by Andrea Bimbi, and engraved by Lorenzo Lorenzi. LINK: Neatorama
BibliOdyssey has more (from Poggi and other 18th century designers) : Link
Giant Huddle of Penguins Look “Like Frothing Coffee” From The Sky
Well, believe it or not, the image on above is a one such crèche as seen from the sky, formed by as many as 25,000 king penguins in the shoreline of South Georgia, a British territory close to Antarctica.
From the sky, it looks like a giant swirling frothy coffee.
Yet this scene shows an extraordinary community at work - thousands of king penguins instinctively herding their recently born young into giant huddles to stop them freezing to death.
Parental instinct takes over in the inhospitable climate of the South Atlantic and the furry brown chicks are made to crowd together to retain their body warmth in the equivalent of bird creches - visible as brown swathes on our photo. LINK, Via: Neatorama
Canyon, the Sand Cat
The Sand Cat is indeed the cutest cat in the world. The Sand Cat (Felis margarita) lives in the deserts from north Africa and throughout Asia. Sand Cats are about the size of a small house cat. They are lised as a near threatened species, but experts feel numbers (like most wild felines) are declining. LINK, Via: Metacafe
Fly me off the Handel
Insane Architectural Geniuses
I think we’ve posted about all or nearly all of these buildings on Neatorama, but it’s nice to see ‘em all in one neat post. Here’s WebUrbanist’s 5 Incredible Works of Insane Architectural Genius: Wooden Skyscrapers to Recycled Wonderlands.
The one on the upper right hand corner is Forevetron (previously on Neatorama here):
Tom Avery (aka Dr. Evermore) is responsible for the world’s largest scrap-metal architectural sculpture known as Foreverton. Weighing in at over 300 tons this amazing structure climbs 50 feet in the air and reaches 60 to 120 feet in either direction. Once the owner of a salvage business, Avery began turning his talents to this bizarre architectural pursuit over two decades ago and (supposedly) believes a spaceship contained within will launch him eventually into supernatural world beyond our own and bring him into contact with the Divine. LINK: Neatorama