Vadim Ryazanov built a robot that rolls away from you as you reach for it. He calls it “Mr. Wake.” As soon as the alarm goes off, an IR sensor on the robot turns on. The robot is programmed to move in the opposite direction of any object moving toward it:
Now, to give you idea how Wake works: Alarm clock mechanism I used has 3 contacts, Plus, Ground, and Alarm, which goes high when alarm goes off. This was really fortune for me, as I had only to connect the grounds and use this Alarm pin as analog input (Could not use it as digital as clock runs on 1.5V) and it workes just fine. So, whenever Alarm pin goes high, my code picks this up and switches Mr. Wake from “standby” to “alarm” mode, which makes him switch on IR leds and red LED in Magic Button on, read ambient reading from IR transistors and wait till the reading inceased above ambiant one, which means something is aproaching from above (I have the detection only from above, where clock and Magic Button are.
Have you seen this old man? He’s the "Geezer Bandit," a serial bank robber than has robbed three banks so far (once while carrying an oxygen tank!):
Authorities say he walked in to a Bank of America branch in Rancho Santa Fe Monday, handed the teller a demand note, and showed a black handgun. It happened at the beginning of the business day around 10 a.m. at 17008 Avenida De Acacias. FBI agent April Langwell said investigators believe he’s hit up three other banks in the last two months. He’s suspected of robbing the U.S. Bank branch inside the Von’s grocery store in Santee on Aug, 28.
Two weeks later, on Sept. 12, he walked in the National Bank branch in La Jolla and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. Surveillance video showed him carrying an oxygen tank with tubes running up to his nose.
Then two and a half weeks ago, on Oct. 9, he targeted another U.S. Bank inside a Von’s grocery store in Carmel Valley.
Last week, a surveillance video of a drunk guy at a convenience store became quite popular. However, it was almost eleven minutes long and was, well, a store surveillance video. The guys at Mustache and Monocle re-edited it and gave it the silent movie treatment, making it much easier to watch, and just as funny. -via Gorilla Mask
So the gals over at Lemondrop and the guys over at Asylum each came up with a list. What are the best professions to date, and what are the worst, regarding both men and women?
While these definitely qualify as stereotypical, the results are pretty funny; just remember that grain of salt.
Best – Librarian She’ll be pretty smart about lots of random things, great at Googling and a good connection for free books. Bonus: say goodbye to those nasty overdue charges. Plus, everyone knows librarians are sexual dynamos waiting to explode. Right?
Worst – Singer/Entertainer There may be potential perks if she makes it to the big-time, but it’s statistically likely she’s not very good at what she does and you’ll have twice the fibbing to do in your relationship, answering not only “How does this look?” but the frequent “Did you like my show?”
To promote In This Light And On This Evening the new album by its band The Editors, Sony Music has turned to an unusual media channel: Google Street View... This is how it works: a cleverly hacked version of Google Street View allows users to preview tracks from the album in the areas of London that inspired them. As well as being able to move around as you would in the normal Google Street View, there are red arrows to find in nine different London locations (one for each track of the album) that each point to a location off the road - click it to find custom panoramic photographs of the band, shot at night by photographer James Royall.
"The images feature the band and a group of their fans performing surreal activities which have cryptic meanings relating to the songs," explains Phil Clandillon, creative director at Sony Music. "The locations are normally unavailable on the regular Street View," he continues. "Our modified version of Google Maps allows users to enter into these locations and make the transition from light to dark so fans can explore the band's atmospheric vision of London at night."
"The custom panoramas were shot by photographer James Royall in multiple parts using a 180 degree fish-eye lens, and stitched together using a piece of software called PTGui," explains Clandillon. "The modified version of Google Maps uses a custom Flash and JavaScript wrapper which employs some clever hacks on top of the Google Maps and Street View APIs. The project is a collaboration between Editors, Kitchenware Records and Steve Milbourne and myself. Programming was by Davex in Edinburgh, UK."
Artist Karolina Sobecka and software designer Jim George created Sniff — a computer generated projection of a dog that responds to the actions of people passing by a storefront. Here’s how it works:
People on the sidewalk are monitored by an IR camera in openFrameworks. In oF each individual person is isolated and assigned a unique id for the duration of their interaction. Each persons’ position and gesture information is continually sent to Unity3d via OSC networking protocol. In Unity, an artificial intelligence system representing the dog forms relationships with the individuals. He chooses which person to pay attention to, is able to move towards them or back away, responds to their gestures and initiates gestures of his own. Based on the interaction he gets excited or bored, friendly or aggressive, which is reflected in his behavior.
"I want to be wasted this weekend," says Gordon Brown to rapturous applause in a short film created using Speechbreaker - a new online toy created by Lean Mean Fighting Machine in which you can piece together various words uttered by the three main UK political party leaders at their recent party conferences.
Here's how Speechbreaker looks onscreen:
When you've constructed your "speech" from the available words, you can preview how it will sound and look before either sending the film to a friend by email or uploading it to the Speechbreaker YouTube channel.
Of course, writing speeches for leading political figures is not, we'd imagine, the most fun job in the world - which is probably why re-arranging the words of these pompous wind-bags to make them say ridiculous things is such enormously good fun.
Making David Cameron say that he loves "nurses and cheerful druggies because they all love a crazy party and nothing else matters" and then adding an applause is almost as entertaining as getting Gordon Brown to say "At our overnight party President Obama will teach me good hard explicit punishments - all for money." (applause)
However, turning our attentions to Nick Clegg, the only words available to play with are "choose", "the", "liberal" and "democrats", making it more than likely that this little online toy, created by Lean Mean Fighting Machine was funded by Clegg's party, the Lib Dems. As negative campaigning goes, it's brilliant because the Lib Dems don't actually say anything bad about their two rival parties - they let you do it instead. This probably shouldn't be as much fun as it is...
Forget the CIA, Frank Warren is probably the world's best keeper of secrets.
In 2004, Frank started a project called PostSecret, in which he printed 3,000 blank postcards inviting people to mail him their secrets anonymously. He handed out the postcards to strangers, left them between book pages in bookstores and libraries, and even left some on park benches. He got 100 back and posted the secrets on his blog.
Apparently, that struck a nerve: PostSecret went viral and since he started it, Frank has received nearly half a million postcards in his mailbox and over a quarter billion visitor to www.postsecret.com. The website spawned various exhibitions, events and PostSecret books, as well as various parodies (a true measure of one's popularity in today's world, I'm afraid).
The latest book, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God was inspired by a collection of more than 300 postcards that were part of the "All Faiths Beautiful" exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum. The book contains never-before-seen secrets that, as Frank so eloquently wrote, "expose the common landscape of our private lives - from our embarrassing desires to our hidden acts of kindness; from the private prayers of atheists to the voiceless doubt of believers."
Frank, a Neatoramanaut himself (that's him wearing one of our T-shirts), has kindly agreed to sit down for a virtual interview with us. You are invited to submit comments and questions for Frank - we'll pick 5 of the best comments/questions to get a free autographed PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God book.
Neatorama: Congratulations on the new book (it's fantastic, by the way, I was engrossed reading it for a couple of hours) - did you ever think that PostSecret would be as popular as it is today when you started it?
Frank Warren: No, I have been shocked. In addition to the five PostSecret books, the website has had over 250,000,000 hits.
I knew that if I could earn people's trust and build a collection of creative and authentic secrets it would be very special for me. It's great to know so many others appreciate these extraordinary confessions too.
Neatorama: Why do you think it has been so successful?
Frank: I think people find some of the funny and sexual postcards amusing but eventually you come across a secret that you might recognize as one of your own. One you might be hiding from yourself. I think it is those moments of epiphany and empathy that have allowed the PostSecret community to grow.
Neatorama: Your latest book focuses on life, death, and God. Can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind the topic?
Frank: PostSecret started as a lark, maybe even a prank, but over the years the secrets have become more meaningful to me. This new book, like all the books have never-before-seen secrets that touch on sexual taboos and some outlandish humor, but more than the other books, the new book has postcards that share some our deepest and most private feelings about the greatest mysteries of life. The parts that are always there beneath the surface but we sometimes forget about during our everyday lives.
Neatorama: What are some of your favorite PostSecret secrets?
Neatorama: It's been five years since you started PostSecret - how has it changed your life?
Frank: Knowing all these secret stories that are happening in so many of our lives makes life, people, and riding the subway more interesting.
Neatorama: What's next for you and PostSecret?
Frank: My favorite part of the project now is traveling to college campuses and sharing the stories behind the secrets at live events where audience members can share their own secrets - without anonymity, but sometimes with great emotion.
From PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God:
Frank has kindly offered 5 free autographed copies of the book for a giveaway. Got any questions for Frank? 5 lucky commenters with the most interesting questions and/or comments will win a copy of the book (I'll post Frank's replies as an update).
Last year, the Jiangsu Head Investment Group and the government of Nanjing, China held a competition for designing a museum for the automobile’s history and achievements. Italian architect Francesco Gatti and his team won with this entry featuring an interactive element: you drive into the museum.
The architect describes the museum as a “movie sequence in which the principal actor is the car”, a building where two car-related panorama go hand in hand: on the one hand the architect’s conscious attention to motorway aestheticism and urban scale – the structures and materials remind one of a viaduct – and on the other, his transportation into the museum of the ergonomics of the interior of a car. The furbishing and details within the edifice are related to and on a scale with its specific functions and it is not difficult for the visitor to imagine that he is in a car on a highway, rather than in a museum.
Artist and environmental activist Oliver Bishop-Young’s project “Skip Conversions” tried to find creative and often amusing ways of recycling unwanted products. One example was a dumpster, which he turned into a swimming pool, a skateboard ramp, a living room, a garden, and a campsite. More pictures at the link.
Bad idea: being a Somali pirate and attacking … Really bad idea: … in the middle of the night … Goodness-worthy: a ship that turns out to be a French navy ship!
Admiral Prazuck told French TV station La Chaine Info the pirates seemed to be surprised that the navy ship fought back.
"Once they realised they were facing a ship that was responding and was heading towards them, they stopped shooting and attempted to flee," he said.
If you think the Somali pirate had a bad case of mistaken identity, check this one out: when two thugs decided to attack a pair of transvestites, they found out the hard way that their intended victims were cross-dressing cage fighters!
The Daily Mail has the story:
Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, singled out the two men walking along a street in wigs, short skirts and high heels.
Bare-chested Gardener was caught on CCTV confronting one of the men in a pink wig, black skirt and boob tube – then seen swinging a punch, a court heard.
But the other cage fighter, wearing a sparkling black dress and matching long wig, sprang to his friend’s help, delivering two lightning-quick punches to the two stunned yobs.
The defense attorney for the two remarked:
Mark Davies, defending, said: ‘You know it cannot have been a good night when you get into a fight with two cross-dressing men.
No words on why the cage fighters were out wearing such lovely dresses in the first place: Link (CCTV still image: Wales News Service)
The Impossible Project is a worldwide effort to restart and reinvent and save instant photography – their aim to re-start production of analog instant film for vintage Polaroid cameras in 2010.
Personally I love the instant photography as it gives a really unique effect it’s impossible to gain from other photography effects.
This is a really clever campaign backed by the likes of Urban Outfitters and Wallpaper.
Polaroid is transforming itself from an analog Instant Film Production Company to a global Consumer Electronics and Digital Imaging company.
Production of analog Instant Film stopped in June 2008, closing the factories in Mexico (Instant Packfilm production) and the Netherlands (Instant Integral production).
Airbrushed photographs could be given government health warnings in France to protect women from 'false' images of female beauty.
Airbrushed photographs could be given government health warnings in France to protect women from false images of female beautyPhoto: AP
A group of 50 politicians want a new law stating published images must have bold printed notice stating they have been digitally enhanced.
Campaigning MP Valerie Boyer, of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, said the wording should read:"Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person's physical appearance".
Mrs Boyer, who has also written a government report on anorexia and obesity, added: "We want to combat the stereotypical image that all women are young and slim.
"These photos can lead people to believe in a reality that does not actually exist, and have a detrimental effect on adolescents. "Many young people, particularly girls, do not know the difference between the virtual and reality, and can develop complexes from a very young age.
"In some cases this leads to anorexia or bulimia and very serious health problems.
"It's not just a question of public health, but also a way of protecting the consumer."
She said the law – which had its first reading in the French parliament last week – should also have a wider scope than simply photos used in newspaper and magazine advertising.
Mrs Boyer added: "Billboard photos and those on product packaging, as well as photos used in political campaigns or artistic photos, should also be included."
President Sarkozy was himself airbrushed two years ago, when Paris Match magazine 'rubbed out' his love-handles in a photo of him canoeing.
First Lady Carla Bruni is known to have been airbrushed using computer programmes like Photoshop hundreds of times during her former career as a supermodel.
Mrs Boyer said she wanted a fine of 30,000 pounds, or up to 50 per cent of the cost of the publicity campaign, for advertisers that break the law.
But she added: "It is not an attempt to damage creativity of photographers or publicity campaigns, but to advise the public on whether what they are seeing is real or not."
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so you’ll see a lot of items produced in pink. Some product tie-ins will make you scratch your head and smile trying to figure out how they might have anything to do with breast cancer. Most likely, the people in charge of these companies are committed to the cause and this is the best way they can show it. Still, how can you see a pink cement mixer and not do a double take? Link
13. A DMPS Panther Lite 16″ Rifler Special Edition PINK This one can be found on a hunting website. So, are women killing deer to promote breast cancer awareness? Kill a buck, save a boob. That seems right.
12. SpongeBob Special Edition Even in a pineapple under the sea, this Nickelodeon star uses his fame to spread awareness. Unfortunately, this particular shade makes poor SpongeBob look a little seasick.
2. Prairie Material Cement Mixer This construction company’s concrete may be hard, but the hearts of the employees are definitely aren’t.
1. Sabre Pepper Spray When you are being robbed and attacked in a dark alley, why not use that opportunity to remind your mugger to encourage women over 40 to get their yearly mammograms?
Have you seen this old man? He’s the "Geezer Bandit," a serial bank robber than has robbed three banks so far (once while carrying an oxygen tank!):
Media guy: They're creative but not the d-bag kind of artiste
was inspired by a collection of more than 300 postcards that were part of the "All Faiths Beautiful" exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum. The book contains never-before-seen secrets that, as Frank so eloquently wrote, "expose the common landscape of our private lives - from our embarrassing desires to our hidden acts of kindness; from the private prayers of atheists to the voiceless doubt of believers."
If you think the Somali pirate had a bad case of mistaken identity, check this one out: when two thugs decided to attack a pair of transvestites, they found out the hard way that their intended victims were cross-dressing cage fighters!
