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
Evolver
Try to evolve your monkey into a modern human being. Can it be done? Click, click, click and see where that gets you: Evolver.
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
TimeTube
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
The Most Listened To Melody in the World
If you hit the “Play” button you can listen Peppe Giorri playing this beautiful Gran Vals para Guitarra a.k.a. Valse Grande… If you listen carefully, just after the 15-second mark you’ll probably recognize the so called Nokia Tune, which rings in more than 800,000 phones all over the world every day. It’s repeated through the whole vals, making it the world’s most listened to melody in the world.
The song is composed by Francisco Tárrega Eixea (1852, 1909) [wiki].
Listen the whole track, it’s wonderful.
Link: Youtube
WWII German Infantry Weapons
This very interesting 14 minute video demonstrates the functionality as well as the effectiveness of Germany’s infantry weapons during WWII. Listed is a description of the Karabiner 98K, MP40 Machine Pistole, the famous Luger, the Stielhandgranate or better known as the Potato masher both MG34 and MG42 machine guns and more.
The video appears to be a vintage color film that was probably used for training purposes between 1939-1945 (unconfirmed)
Link: YouTube
Illusion Sciences
Arthur Shapiro is an associate professor at Bucknell University, Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience. Now that academic obligations are winding down for the school year, he’s started a blog about optical illusions called Illusion Sciences. He posts illusions, then explains why they fool the eye (or the mind). There are also links to further research. This particular illusion is called Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Go to the site to see the flash version “move”. Link -Via: J-Walk Blog, Via: Neatorama
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Aerial Balloon Panorama
The hot air balloon is one of the most enticing things to fly. Slow, lulled by the winds and basically old fashion, it permits to take interesting panoramic images, as German photographer Bernd Dohrmann shows in this panoramic picture. The picture was taken over Northern Germany at a height of 390 feet. LINK
Funny Shaped Japanese Watermelons
There's one thing you just have to enjoy in Japanese summer, and that are watermelons. But Japanese watermelons are no longer round! PingMag shows some funny shaped watermelons and gives a bit of insight into plant breeding. LINK
Rotating House
In the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Everyone who approaches the city from the north runs up against a roundabout. This roundabout constitutes one of the most important gateways to the city. Thus it is not surprising that the municipality dedicated this location as an art location.
The roundabout is now the scene of a large-scale and unusual work of art. The Rotating House of Dutch designer John Körmeling, which looks as if it is real, rotates on the roundabout in the direction of the traffic and completes one full round in 20 hours. The house is a full-scale model and has an open and friendly look and feel. It is not fit for human habitation.
More about the Rotating House. Via: Presurfer, Via: Youtube
Cozy Chair: Part Chair, Part Radiator
Waterfront Park Time Lapse Video
Now this is a time-lapse video! Andrew Curtis stitched over 2600 photos he took in the Cinco De Mayo Carnival in Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon to make this neat video:
Shooting 1 second exposures every 2 seconds
A total of 2683 images in this video, played back at 12fps.
Shot on 2 consecutive nights. First night was the panning tripod. While we were shooting, a guy called me back about an ad on craigslist for his Peleng 8mm fisheye. We went and picked it up at midnight and brought it along the 2nd night, when we did all the still shots.
LINK: Neatorama
Planet Earth
The Secret Team has created a gift for you. This clip features our beautiful Planet Earth. As you experience this clip you will emit positive forces of energy across Planet Earth that will reach every single living thing on it. You will lift yourself, and as you lift yourself, you lift the entire world.
The magnificent music was composed and graciously gifted for this clip by composer Jo Blankenburg.
From The Secret to you, here is Planet Earth - our home. LINK, Via: Youtube
Ancient Theaters
ProTraveller looks at 17 theaters and auditoriums that survive from ancient times.
It’s hard to believe that some of these theatres are close to 3,000 years old, and it’s amazing that they’re even still standing. The amount of engineering knowledge that our ancient ancestors had developed is just as mesmerising especially when some of these auditoria rival present-day outdoor theatres in terms of acoustic properties.
On the one hand, it’s difficult to imagine drawing such large crowds in times when there weren’t as many people as now. On the other hand, there were few other forms of entertainment, so most likely everyone went to every performance. Pictured is the Aspendos Theatre in Turkey. Link, Via: Neatorama
NY Times Crossword Drawings by Emily Jo Cureton
Emily Jo Cureton has a fantastic blog featuring her NY Times Crossword Drawings. These are illustrations inspired by the daily New York Times crossword puzzle, where she cleverly incorporates two or more answers from the puzzle in her art! LINK
Crazy Canon in D
Korean break dancers
accompany Cannon in D played on asian instruments
and mixed. LINK: Youtube
Persistence of Time
This animated film is an attempt to revive the philosophical values of some of the great artistic vanguards of the last century
It combines the surrealistic ideals of Salvador Dali with the mysterious creations of Niki de Saint Phalle and moulds together these two artistic approaches into the mind of a young Israeli kid in Jerusalem.
Dreams and reality are fused together in an atmosphere of surrealistic images. The fine line between these two worlds leaves us with a sense of confusion and questions the reality of dreams!
By animating the works of Dali and breathing life into the ''monster'' sculpture (in Jerusalem) of Niki de Saint Phelle, I have endeavored to honor the great talents of the words great artist. In addition, I have been able to acknowledge a fascinating, and hidden landmark of Jerusalem. LINK: Youtube
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Tegan And Sara - Back In Your Head [OFFICIAL video]
Tegan And Sara Back In Your Head The Con Sire Records Directed by Jamie Travis...Tegan And Sara Back In Your Head The Con Alternative Vapor/Sire. LINK: Youtube
San Francisco sculpted in cookware
Zhan Wang is among the most respected artists in China, having become world-renown for his stainless steel sculptures of “scholars' rocks,” the graceful, craggy boulders found in several provinces around China that seem to have been sculpted by natural forces into complex forms worthy of thoughtful contemplation–almost like mental or spiritual landscapes. Collecting these rocks from around China, Wang painstakingly pounds, bends, heats, and molds sections of stainless steel plate across the cloud-like topography of each rock, as if wrapping it in steel–in essence, applying a modern industrial skin to an ancient geologic body. After the steel has been shaped around the rock it is peeled away in sections, welded together as a single unit–a now-hollow duplicate of the rock–and polished to a flawless steel sheen, in some cases almost a mirror finish. The resulting play of light upon their surfaces has the effect of seeming to disembody and even liquefy the steel sculptures, as if they were luminous floating masses or shimmering topographies.
Link to Asian Art Museum exhibition page, Link to more photos, Link to Ethicurean post. Via: Boingboing
X-Ray Photography As Art
The first ever X-Ray photograph of a human body part was taken on December 22, 1895, by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen. It was a photo of his wife's hand.
Here is a selection of contemporary X-Ray photography artists who all make spectacular images from everyday objects. While each of them has its own unique language, style or preferred subjects, all of them are hunters in a fascinating, sometimes shocking, inner-space reality. LINK
Natural Building Colloquium
The search for housing that is healthy, affordable and environmentally responsible is leading a growing number of people to take a fresh look at building techniques long shunned by the modern construction industry. Earth, straw and bamboo are now being rediscovered as materials of choice by those who are embracing an ethic of natural
building.
Natural builders emphasize simple, easy-to-learn techniques based on locally-available, renewable resources. These systems rely heavily on human labor and creativity instead of on capital, high technology and specialized skills. LINK
The Celebration Of Pixel Art
Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. Graphics in most old computer and video games, graphing calculator games, and many mobile phone games are mostly pixel art.
Smashing Magazine presents over 50 excellent pixel art designs - illustrations, paintings and posters. Some of the works presented have an extremely high level of detail which is why you can observe pixel art for hours and still miss some details it contains. LINK
Tenori-On
Media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha have collaborated to design a new digital musical instrument for the 21st century, Tenori-On. A 16x16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a 'visible music' interface.
By operating and interacting with the LED buttons and the light they produce you gain access to the numerous performance capabilities. The Tenori-On provides six different performance and sound/light modes and these can be combined and used simultaneously for rich, complex musical expression. LINK, Via: Youtube
World’s Longest Foosball Table
Max Knight’s Walking Bike
Shy Child plays Musical Chairs live
Timothy Horn’s “Medusa” Jellyfish Lamp
Inspired by the illustrations of the 19th century German Zoologist Ernst Haeckel [wiki], Australian artist Timothy Horn created this 9 ft wide "jellyfish" lamp, titled Medusa, out of cast silicone and fiber optics.
Link: Timothy’s Website | Medusa installation at the Hosfelt Gallery in New York. Via: Neatorama
Office Snapshots
Office Snapshots blog, like its name suggests, is all about where you work. Well, if you work in a tech company or for a successful blog (not in a dumpy ol’ warehouse like me!).
Here are some fun photo galleries of the offices of Digg, Apple, Adobe, and even Om Malik’s neat tech blog GigaOM. Via: Neatorama
Greenpix: Giant Solar-Powered LED Wall in China
Greeting visitors attending the Xicui entertainment complex near the site of the games is a 20,000 square foot wall of computer-controlled LEDs, the largest of its kind ever built. Better yet, the wall manages to power itself completely using only the sun.
The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, designed by Simon Giostra & Partners and Arup, uses thousands of solar capture cells attached to each of its glass panels to charge up during the day and then release dazzling light shows at night. It’s the first time perforated photovoltaics laminated in glass have ever been used in a building in China, but if all goes off without a hitch, it most certainly won’t be the last. Link | Greenpix website. Via: Neatorama
LINK
Gallery of 50 excellent pixel art designs
You’ll find a gallery of 50 excellent pixel art designs at Smashing Magazine. Pictured: “City Glow” by Chiho Aoshima. LINK
Friday, May 02, 2008
3D Tattoo`s
If anyone knows where these originally came from please leave a comment.Would like to credit the tattoo artists. LINK
Mudpuppy Magnet Monsters in a tin
Mudpuppy's Magnetic Monster figures tin is a great gift for the monster-loving kid in your life -- it's a set of lovely illustrated magnetic monster body-parts to mix and match into your own gruesome creations. Comes with four reversible backgrounds for enacting monstrous dramas of your choosing -- and the tin is just the right size to stick the backgrounds on and build monsters upon -- great for car trips and the like. I found mine at the wonderful, friendly kid store Hello Sunshine in Toronto, but they don't seem to have it in their webstore, so here's a US retailer that'll sell you one over the web, for those of you not local to the shop. Link, Via: Boingboing
Transcendence by Keith Jellum
Keith Jellum hand fabricates and casts large scale sculptures and unique weathervanes in bronze, copper, and steel. Drawing on animistic themes, he creates one-of-a-kind artworks for both public and private locations. This commissioned bronze fish piece (shown above) highlights his work strikingly. It’s part of the South Park building, a popular restaurant and wine bar in Portland, Oregon. View more of keith’s sculptures here. LINK
The Cans Festival: A Street Party of Stencil Art
Internationally renowned street artists such as Bansky, M-city, C215, Eelus and others are traveling to London this weekend (3rd, 4th and 5th May) to participate in a street art battle in a location which will remain undisclosed until Friday morning. This is an open event (with free admission) and anyone lucky enough to to participate in this festival can spray their own art within the designated areas. More info and location (when available) can be seen here. Via: Paintalicious
Femke Hiemstra’s Quirky Lowbrow Style
Here are a some example pieces by Dutch artist/illustrator Femke Hiemstra. Am sure you will agree Hiemstras paintings have an incredibly unique and quirky Lowbrow style that evokes the work of Mark Ryden and Robert Williams. LINK
Linkwasher's awesome junk robots
Flickr user Lockwasher collected a bunch of junk to make rayguns out of, and then decided to use the leftover junk to make a stunning collection of junk robots. Link, Via: Boingboing
Japanese anatomical illustrations from 1819
These two happy indiviuals are featured in the Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls from 1819. Pink Tentacle has more on the scrolls, painted by a physician named Yasukazu Minagaki. Link, Via: Boingboing
The Mended Spiderweb Series
The Mended Spiderweb Series came about during a six-week period in June and July in 1998 which Californian artist Nina Katchadourian spent on Pörtö. In the forest and around the house where she was living, she searched for broken spiderwebs which she repaired using red sewing thread.
All of the patches were made by inserting segments one at a time directly into the web. Sometimes the thread was starched, which made it stiffer and easier to work with. The short threads were held in place by the stickiness of the spider web itself; longer threads were reinforced by dipping the tips into white glue. LINK
The History Of The Cathars
High on a sacred mountain in Southern France, the whitened ruins of Montségur are a reminder of the last actively visible gnostic school in the West, the Cathari. Below Montségur lies a peaceful meadow, its name, 'Field of the Burned', the only indication of a grim event that took place there a little over 700 years ago. In March, 1244, 205 Cathars were burned alive on the site, rather than renounce their creed.
The name Cathari, means 'pure' in Greek. Cathars in general formed an anti-sacerdotal party in opposition to the Catholic Church, protesting what they perceived to be the moral, spiritual, and political corruption of the Church. They claimed an Apostolic succession from the founders of Christianity, and saw Rome as having betrayed and corrupted the original purity of the message.
The History of the Cathars. Via: Presurfer
Performance Art With A Difference
Dangling horizontally out of a skyscraper, this hovering figure looks set to fall to his doom. But Chinese artist Li Wei hasn't just lost it all on a game of chance - this is performance art with a difference. Li Wei has produced an unsettling series of self-portraits involving his face reflected in mirrors in public places, and photographs of himself crashing into walls and sidewalks.
His work is a mixture of performance art and photography that creates illusions of a sometimes dangerous reality. Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and works with the help of props such as mirror, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics. LINK
Preservation Photography
Preservation Photo's motto is 'Documentation Through Photography.' They are a small dedicated group located in the Baltimore/Washington DC area that specializes in architectural photography with a strong interest in historic preservation.
The history of the United States is written in its buildings – churches, schools, hospitals, prisons, government and industries. Every building has a story; it is Preservation Photo's goal to document that story before the wrecking ball buries it forever. LINK
Addictomatic
Addictomatic searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It's the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what's up and what's now.
After you search, you can personalize your results dashboard by moving around the source boxes. When you're done, bookmark the page and keep coming back to your personaized results dashboard for that search. LINK
World’s “Un-thirstiest” Animal
Thirsty? Consider this: when it rains in the arid floodplains of Australia, the water holding frog absorbs water through its skin and then burrows into the soil. It then sheds a layer of its skin which harden into a cocoon to keep it from drying out. The frog then enters a deep resting stage and stays there until the next rainy season, which can be a full year away or longer.
The Aborigines sometime dig up the water holding frog from its burrow and squeeze it for a sip of water. LINK, Via: Youtube
Biggest Suspension Bridge
Today's biggest suspension bridge was built borrowing ancient technology. LINK: Youtube
Struck by Lightning
A golfer is struck by lightning on the links and his heart stops. Hear the tale he lived to tell... LINK: Youtube
Talking Elephant?
Talking elephants are not just fictional characters in Dumbo. At the Oakland Zoo, a biologist is discovering that elephants do communicate with each other. What makes this discovery more surprising is that they can send and receive messages with their feet. LINK: Youtube
Maker Faire Bay Area 2008 Photo Gallery
Maker Faire is this weekend in San Francisco. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid has already posted a gallery full of fascinating photos. Via: Neatorama
David Wasserman’s Tin Can Art
Neatorama reader Steven Wasserman told us about his dad’s tin can art:
My father, David Wasserman was a successful commercial artist. In his spare time, he created monumental and beautiful works of metal collage depicting a variety of subjects, using small pieces cut from tin cans & soda cans. He never exhibited his works during his lifetime, but since his death I have been able to arrange museum, university, and gallery shows, & this website is another way to introduce him & his achievements to the world.
Check it out - they’re amazing! Link, Via: Neatorama
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Google Drive
Google Drive is a little Google Maps mash up that allows you to drive a little car around on the maps. Click on the flash to activate it, you'll need to do it after you update the location as well. Arrow keys to accelerate, left, right, and reverse. LINK
Numbers Station Bingo
Press the play button to start the station, and cross out the numbers as you hear them. If you get a straight line in any direction, then congratulations!
Numbers Station Bingo. Via: Presurfer
Mutapic
Mutapic is an online picture generator. It's a free tool you can use to rapidly create original art. Pick a shape, an icon or a symbol and click generate. LINK
Colossal Squid at Te Papa Museum in New Zealand
That’s Dr. Steve O’Shea and Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, preparing to preserve their colossal squid specimen, caught in the Ross Sea in February 2007 and kept frozen until now.
Everyone’s enthralled with the squid’s eyes, which are the size of dinner plates. But I was more amazed at the tentacle hooks:
The arm hooks are set in fleshy, very muscular sheaths and are strongly attached to the arms. They are likely to assist in holding and immobilising struggling prey as it is being killed and eaten. Most of the arm hooks have the main strong ‘claw’ (visible below), and also two smaller auxiliary cusps closer to the hook’s base, making them three-pointed and maximising their ability to hold and dig in. The base of each hook also has a complex structure that is set deep into the surrounding musculature.
The Te Papa’s Blog has the entire story: Link, Via: Neatorama
Toughest Movie Characters of All Times
1: Harry Callahan
Actor: Clint Eastwood
Movie: Dirty Harry (1971) and sequels
Who can argue with the most legendary tough-guy line in the history of motion pictures? the lines of the lines. The one that gave the .44 Magnum its notorious name, making it perhaps the most commonly known handheld weapon model in the history.
"Dirty" Harry Francis Callahan is a fictional San Francisco Police Department inspector in the films Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988) all played by one of my favorite tough guys Clint Eastwood. I vote for Harry Callahan as the number one tough character in the history of motion pictures. Be sure to check out the others here - LINK, Via: Youtube
Shipwrecks and Sea Disasters
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