Lisa Black’s Steampunk Taxidermy

You have probably seen taxidermy and steampunk art before, but have you ever seen them combined?

Lisa Black, a talented young artist from New Zealand, creates the most amazing works of art, by adding cool steampunk elements, like gears, screws, and other metal pieces, to taxidermy animals. This unusual combination creates unique art pieces that are absolutely amazing. LINK

Check out her portfolio at Behance.net

Shagged by a rare parrot - Last Chance To See - BBC Two

Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine head to the ends of the earth in search of animals on the edge of extinction.

In New Zealand the travellers make their way through one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. They are on a journey to find the last remaining kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot which, when threatened with attack, adopts a strategy of standing very still indeed. LINK: Youtube

Orange Pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera)

"Found in Madagascar and Australia, this species has become invasive in New Zealand."

Found at Electric Orchid. Via: TYWKIWDBI

Stealthy anti-whaling powerboat

That is not Batman's boat but rather Earthrace, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ultraslick bio-diesel-powered anti-whaling speedboat. It's 80-feet long and very stealthy. Next month, it will head out to the seas around Japan to, er, protest the country's whaling industry. Life magazine has photos of Earthrace currently docked in Auckland, New Zealand. (Click image to see full photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images.) "Superbad Anti-Whaling Stealth Boat". LINK: Boingboing

Out of the Blue: Islands Seen From Space

Atafu Atoll, Tokelau, Pacific Ocean

Around 500 people live on Atafu Atoll, mostly in a village that can be seen on the corner in the left of the image above. Atafu is just five miles wide and is the smallest of three atolls in the Tokelau Islands, a New Zealand territory.

Atafu is made up of coral reefs that surrounded the flanks of a volcano that has since become inactive and submerged. Like many tropical atolls, Atafu is very low lying and vulnerable to sea-level rise. This photograph was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station in January.

Image: NASA. More photos of other islands at this LINK.

Man Builds Submarine Home Theatre

Tina Law writes in New Zealand’s Stuff magazine about one man who wanted to own a den that looked the interior of a submarine. Wayne Eyre of Spencerville, NZ hired special effects artist Dean Johnstone to design it. These were the results:

Custom wood has been sprayed with concrete and painted to resemble rusting steel beams, while plastic sheets have been melted to give the impression of bent steel ripped apart when the submarine hit an island. Speakers emit sonar and ocean sounds throughout the 12-metre by 5.5m room.

At one end of the room, a bar has been created from materials likely to be found on a deserted island. Shelves have been made out of halved tree trunks, while there is a washed-up surfboard.

The bar top is engraved with the random writings of a shipwrecked soul, while vines work their way through the submarine and smoke seeps out of interior walls.

Link, Via: Gizmodo, Via: Neatorama, Via: Youtube

YikeBike - pre launch party

Designed and constructed in Christchurch New Zealand, the YikeBike is the worlds smallest, lightest electric folding bicycle at less than 10kg. LINK: Youtube

The Beauty Of New Zealand

“Quality stuff,very inspiring.” LINK

Spectacular Shots of Comet McNaught

Here’s a view of the comet from Matakohe, New Zealand: LINK

The Shweeb — A Human-Powered Monorail

The Schweeb is an experimental transit system in New Zealand that combines the bicycle and a monorail track. Users lie down individual pods and work the pedals to move forward: LINK, Via: Youtube

Nevis Arc Swing

Thw worlds highest swing in Queenstown, New Zealand. LINK: Youtube

No way, I can't scared to death of heights.

Entoloma hochstetteri

A beautiful, vividly all-blue mushroom of New Zealand, apparently with pink spores (!).

More pix at Google Images. Credit for this one here, Via: Neatorama Upcoming Queue, Via: TYWKIWDBI

Videos of New Zealand

"Auckland, New Zealand" LINK

"Christchurch, New Zealand" LINK


"Queenstown, New Zealand" LINK

Pure New Zealand

100% New Zealand Tourist Board video. LINK: Youtube

Images of New Zealand

Tranquil landscape collage. LINK

The Trons - Self playing robot band

The Trons are a band of robots from New Zealand.
Here’s an interview with The Trons, by David Farrier of TV3 Nightline: Link, Via: Neatorama, Via: Youtube

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

Incredible Mat Blamires Photos

Here are some nice works of a famous photographer from New Zealand! LINK

Amazing and Record-Setting City Roads and Streets

Dunedin, New Zealand features the steepest street in the world. As with many other parts of Dunedin, and indeed New Zealand, streets were laid out in a grid pattern with no consideration for the terrain, usually by planners in London. In this case the result was a dizzying incline. More of the world’s steepest roads can be found here..



LINK VIA: Youtube