The Daily Goodness

Twitter is alive

2010-05-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

For anyone out there who follows this... I'm now changing the medium. For cool shit go to http://twitter.com/stapletonclaire. That's right - it's time to embrace Twitter!

Mexican Film Festival in Wellington for one week! Check it out.

2010-01-19T16:41:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow night is opening night... $20 for a film and Mexican drinks (Tequila Tequila) and food at the Paramount.

http://www.holamexicoff.com/NZ/wellington/index.html

Cool song and vid to make you smile on this beautiful day.

2010-01-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

check it out on youtube - link

Men talking in the bedroom and at the brekkie table...

2010-01-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

Working within a traditionally conservative sector, Profero were challenged by Bayer Schering Pharma to reach an audience of 40+ men and tackle a highly sensitive subject about which millions of men around the world find it difficult to talk let alone seek help: Erectile Dysfunction (ED).

Together Aardman and Profero created Dennis, a character who not only offers a light-hearted window onto a serious subject but also provides a personality around whom they can empathise and connect.

In “one man’s journey from droop to Don Juan” Aardman have taken Dennis and animated a series of eight, brilliant 30 second short films detailing chapters in his life, from the realisation that he is suffering from erectile dysfunction to the strains that this puts on his private life and, ultimately, the steps he takes to a reach a solution and restore his confidence.

watch the episodes on the site:

http://www.in-bed.info/en/home/index.php

Newest Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch commercial with alien Miles Melman.

The spot stars an alien venting about how his life changed when he met the taste of the cereal brand. For now he has some time to take a good breakfast and is no longer a predator that goes around killing humans.

Very funny commercial. Watch the video - http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=26158

pinata man

2010-01-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

check out link for more pics

Picture is Unrelated

2009-11-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

Photo at PictureIsUnrelated

To see the cream of the croppings, the best in WTF photo and video, head on over to Picture is Unrelated, a blog (a Cheezburger Network concoction) dedicated to the absurd. From their About:

This website is about pictures that DO NOT make sense! I love images
that don’t make sense and YOU SHOULD TOO! Can you even understand
how awesome it is when you see a yeti serving in the armed forces? Can
you grasp the concept of someone creating SCIENCE in a field of daisies on
a beautiful summer day? I totally can, and that’s why I started Picture is Unrelated.

Link (some pics NSFW).

Design Your Own Chocolate Bar

2009-11-24T11:49:00.001-08:00

Did you ever wish you could create the chocolate of your dreams? A German company named chocri allows people like you and me to customize chocolate bars, not only by determining which name is printed on the packaging, but more importantly by combining a base chocolate (dark, milk or white) with your choice of more than 90 toppings. The toppings can be dried fruit and nuts (what we would expect), but can also be crazy, like chive rolls, jalapenos or real gold flakes. The chocolate is fair trade, organic, and sales benefit kids on the Ivory Coast.

One percentage of our revenues goes directly to the organization DIV Kinder, which supports and protects children on the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast is the biggest exporter of cocoa beans on this planet. Our customers also get a chance to donate a small amount at checkout. Together, we’ve already raised thousands of Euros to benefit the children.

Chocri is expanding their sales into the United States beginning in January. Link

Wellington blog - The Case

2009-11-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Two Wellington misfits have created this awesome blog - full of local, NZ and international work. Nothing's the same and everything's cool.

Sign up for the newsletter... and watch this space as the word on the street is that The Case will have a container set up in Welly for exhibitions one day soon.

Thecase.co.nz

Some pics from the site.

be a little more responsible...

2009-11-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Good Vibrations

Jérémy Clapin has directed this delightful film for the Responsibility Project, an initiative by US-based insurance firm Liberty Mutual that encourages us all to be a bit more responsible...

The Responsibility Project (which was created by ad agency Hill Holliday in Boston) has been running for a few years now, and is online at responsibilityproject.com. Alongside a blog tackling a number of moral questions, the site contains a number of other short films commissioned on the theme of responsibility, which are worth checking out.

AT LAST – How to Use An Apostrophe online! And it's uber cute to look at.

2009-11-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

How to Use An Apostrophe

Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has just released another web project, How to Use An Apostrophe. It’s a hoot! (Notice the proper use of apostrophe in the preceding sentence).

Link

The Most Popular Christmas Toys, By Year Since 1960

2009-11-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

If you are a sucker for nostalgia, this will make your day. I can remember getting that amazing trio of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Super Soakers, and then a Gameboy. In fact, those would still make great gifts for grown men with a penchant for walks down memory lane.

The holiday shopping season is quickly descending upon us, which means this year’s more popular toys and consumer electronics are soon to become in increasingly high-demand. In recent memory, the Sony Playstation III, Beanie Babies, and of course, the Tickle-Me-Elmo have generated a considerable amount of hype – quickly selling out, and then establishing a re-sale market. But have you ever wondered what the “it toys” have been throughout the decades? We have, and as a result, we decided to compile a time-line which illustrates the top toys from the last 50 years. Here they are, the most popular Christmas toys since 1960:

(click image to enlarge)

How many of these do you recognize? All 50?

10 Neat Facts About Google

2009-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Google in 1998 (notice the exclamation mark)

Sure, everybody knows that Google was created by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin who became gazillionaires. But did you know that Google's first storage device was cobbled together with LEGO? Or that Google's first investor wrote a $100,000 check even before the company officially existed? Or that it has its own "official" Google dog?

1. Before Google, There Was BackRub

In 1996, graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on a research project to understand the link structure of the World Wide Web. They're particularly interested in determining the importance of a given web page based on its backlinks or how many other web pages link to it (which later became the concept behind Google's "PageRank" algorithm).

The project was named BackRub (yes, a play on the word "backlink"). You can see an archived page of BackRub in the Wayback Machine:

8) Your logo is upside down: Why is the light source obviously below the image? It looks quite unnatural...

The logo is simply a scan of my hand, from a flatbed scanner converted to black and white. The "back" in the picture is the scanner cover, and the shadows are from the scanner light.

2. The Original Google Computer Storage

Photo: Stanford Infolab's Computer History Exhibits Photo

Larry and Sergey needed large amount of disk space to test their PageRank algo, but the largest hard disks available at the time were only 4 GB. So they assembled 10 of these drives together.

While he was an undergrad at Michigan University, Larry had built a programmable plotter out of LEGO, so it's only natural that he used the colorful bricks to create Google's first computer storage!

3. Google's First Investor

Sun Microsystem co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim knew a good thing when he saw it. After talking to Larry and Sergey about Google for 30 minutes, he whipped out his checkbook and wrote a check for $100,000, made out to "Google, Inc." Problem was, Google, Inc. hasn't existed yet!

Oh, by the way, the Sun in Sun Microsystem stands for "Stanford University Network."

4. Google Garage

Talk about getting lucky tenants. In 1998, Susan Wojcicki rented her garage to two Stanford students - you know who they are - for $1,700 a month to help out with the mortgage. That turned out to be a life-changing decision for Susan - it got her a key early job at Google which translated to a top executive position later on, introduced a future husband to her younger sister Anne, and created a mini cottage industry for the rest of her family. (Photo: Jack Gruber/USA Today)

In 2006, Google bought the house which had become a tourist attraction (the busloads of people who show up to take pictures were so annoying that Google decided not to publish the address - though ironically, you can still Google Map it.)

5. Google's First Dog

Despite the Internet's obsession with cats, dogs rule Google. In 1999, a Leonberger breed named Yoshka came to work with Google's first VP of Engineering Urs Hölzle and became the company's "first" dog. (Photo: Google Timeline)

If you must know, Leonbergers are big dogs with lionesque mane that look really majestic. They are, however, useless as guard dogs because they're much too kind and gentle.

6. Just How Many Servers Does Google Have?

A sign near the Googleville data center. Photo: ahockley [Flickr]

The real Googleville. Photo: Melanie Conner/NY Times

Good question. Nobody outside the company knows, and Google ain't talkin'. The company's famously secretive when it comes to its data centers (Heck, no one even knows for sure how many data centers the company has!)

For example, The Dalles or "Googleville" data center in a small ~~Washington~~ Oregon town, was cloaked in secrecy:

"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."

Recently, Google Fellow Jeff Dean gave a revealing talk on large-scale computing systems in which he discussed technical details of a new storage and computation system called Spanner, which is designed for up to 10 million servers. Skynet, anyone?

7. "Green" Search

All those hardware must use a lot of electricity (indeed, Googleville data center is calculated to require about 103 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 82,000 homes or a city the size of Tacoma, Washington), but just how much energy do you use when you perform a Google search?

Google calculated that it uses about 1 kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average search query. It's so efficient that your PC will likely use more energy in the time it takes to do a Google search.

Photo: Google Solar Panel Project

To offset its electricity consumption, Google even installed 1.6MW solar panels on the rooftops of the Googleplex. A total of 9,212 solar panels generate 4,475 kWh daily, the equivalent of about the amount of electricity used by 1,000 California homes.

8. Google Trike

[YouTube Clip]

I'm sure you're all familiar with Google Street View and the camera-topped Google Car, but what about all of the interesting places inaccessible to cars? Enter the Google Trike, which started as a project by Daniel Ratner, a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Street View team:

"I began thinking about building a bicycle-based Street View system after realizing how many interesting places around the world - ranging from historic landmarks to beautiful trails to shopping districts - aren't accessible by car," says Dan. "When I'm riding the trike, so many people come up to me and ask where it's off to next or how they can get imagery of their favorite spot, so I can't wait to see what our users come up with."

Previously on Neatorama: Google Car Pulled Over by the Cops - Now in Google Street View!

9. I'm Feeling Lucky Costs Google $110 Million a Year

The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's homepage takes you straight to the first web page result. Because it bypasses Google's own search result page, where users are shown ads, the button actually costs Google around $110 million a year.

Why keep it? Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marisa Mayer said:

You know Larry and Sergey had the view, and I certainly share it, that it's possible just to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. And you know what I think is really delightful about Google and about the "I'm Feeling Lucky," is that they remind you that the people here have personality and that they have interests and that there is real people.

10. Googlebot, Revealed At Last!

Image: Ben Rathbone

In 2005, Ben Rathbone (then at Google's Hardware Operations) gave us a glimpse of humanity's future. I, for one, welcome our new Googlebot overlord:

Then I pondered the question: what does Google do? The grossly simplified answer that I came up with is Google connects the world with the Internet.

It all snapped into place: the idea of a robot, connecting a world with the Internet, with wires, that connect to big cabinets of computers. It was not hard then to make the leap to representing the internet as a world, or globe, made up of pages.

Scary Ketchup and more talking food idents for FSA

2009-11-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

Mark Denton of COY! has shot a series of fun new idents for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that sees various foods conversing with one another to comic effect...

Written by ad agency RKCR, each of the eight FSA idents are split in half, with the first half of each appearing at the beginning of an ad break in the Good Food Channel's Family Supercooks program - and the second half denoting the end of the adbreak. Here are our favourite two from the series - although it's the Ketchup / Fishfinger one that provoked the most glee here at CR towers...

And here are the links to watch the rest:

Cell Size and Scale

2009-11-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

click here to go to tool - very cool.

This is a fun little learning tool, provided by The University of Utah. Use the slider bar to zoom smaller and smaller in scale, from 12 millimeters (coffee bean) to 140 picameters (carbon atom), and track progress with the graph in the upper left. And if something looks fishy about that sperm cell…

How can an X chromosome be nearly as big as the head of the sperm cell?

No, this isn’t a mistake. First, there’s less DNA in a sperm cell than there is in a non-reproductive cell such as a skin cell. Second, the DNA in a sperm cell is super-condensed and compacted into a highly dense form. Third, the head of a sperm cell is almost all nucleus. Most of the cytoplasm has been squeezed out in order to make the sperm an efficient torpedo-like swimming machine.

Link

The run-away alarm clock...

2009-10-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Robot Alarm Clock Flees From You When You Try To Turn It Off

(YouTube Link)

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.

Link

"Surveillance video showed him carrying an oxygen tank with tubes running up to his nose."

2009-10-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Geezer Bandit

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.

Link

lamebook.

2009-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.lamebook.com

Hitler Flummoxed by “Balloon Boy” Hoax

2009-10-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hitler Flummoxed by “Balloon Boy” Hoax

Link.

2009-10-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Larry Goes to the Market

(YouTube link)

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

Media guys are one of the best to date - go boys!!

2009-10-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

Media guy: They're creative but not the d-bag kind of artiste creative. And they usually make pretty good money -- a.k.a have real beds.

Best/Worst Professions To Date

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?”

Link to Asylum. Link to Lemondrop.

Google Street View: destination The Editors new album

2009-10-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

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."

Here's a YouTube film showing how the app in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc5lD03sSKM&feature=player_embedded

"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."

To check the app out yourself (and preview the Editors new album), visit editorsofficial.com/streetview

Interactive Storefront Display

2009-10-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

(Video Link)

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.

Link via Urlesque | Artist’s Website

2009-10-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

http://ferrariguyforhire.com/index.html

Cool viral... ick who says 'viral' anymore... but it is cool.

2009-10-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Remix a Gordon Brown speech

"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...

Here's another one that tickled us:

Make your own version at speechbreaker.co.uk/

In 2004, Frank started a project called PostSecret, in which he printed 3,000 blank postcards inviting people to mail him their secrets anonymously.

2009-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Post Secret: New Book Interview with Frank Warren

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.

__________

Frank's message on YouTube

__________

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).

Links: Post Secret Book official website (with bonus secrets) | Post Secret website | Post Secret Community | Post Secret Book on Amazon (affiliate link, here's the clean non-affiliate link if you'd like)

Drive-In Auto Museum

2009-10-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Drive-In Auto Museum

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.

Link (rendering courtesy of 3GATTI.)

How Many Ways Can You Reuse a Dumpster?

2009-10-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Link via Urlesque | Artist’s Website

Dead Flies as a Comic Medium

2009-10-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t know who created these little comics using dead flies, as the source site is not in English. Some are very funny! Link

Two big mistakes for the goodness.

2009-10-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

Oops! Somali Pirates Attacked French Navy Ship

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.

Link

Thugs’ Intended Victims Turned Out To Be … Cross-Dressing Cage Fighters!

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)

You tube link

The Impossible Project

2009-10-06T01:02:00.000-07:00

Bringing Back Polaroids

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).

Link

French MPs want health warnings on airbrushed photographs

2009-10-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

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 beauty Photo: 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."

15 Strangest Breast Cancer Awareness Products

2009-10-04T12:45:00.001-07:00

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?

Video Game Questions Your Ethical Standards While Deleting Files from Your Computer

2009-09-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

(Video Link)

Zach Gage says that he created the free video game Lose/Lose to make people question their ethical assumptions. The game is similar to Space Invaders, but every time you kill an alien, the game deletes a randomly-selected file from your hard drive:

Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted. Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player’s mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land? Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?

Clicking on the link below will not download the game onto your computer and begin deleting your files. But it will give you the option to do so.

Link via Geekologie

1987 Dating Video

2009-09-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

This completely hilarious montage of circa 1987 video dater men was featured on Boing Boingyesterday, and as one commenter mentioned, the guy at 3:34 was a dead ringer for Seth Green. Upon second viewing, I noticed that the guy at 2:27 looks and sounds like Seth Rogen.

That got me thinking. Is the Seth Green guy really Seth Green, filmed recently? Slipped into a montage of real 87 vid-daters? And if that is Seth Rogen, is it also current footage with makeup, because if it was really him he’d be about 5 years old in 1987. It seems odd that two Seths appear in one seemingly random new (old) funny video.

Anyway, aside from that, there’s lots of funny to be found in this new viral gem. Hard to pick a favorite, but the Goddess guy/ Bon Jovi afficionado is impressive.

Dating Montage

New kind of music vid

2009-09-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

I Fell in Love at the Apple Store (YouTube Link)

“Apple Store Love Song” is a song by Fatty Spins about meeting a girl/Apple product at a brand store. Although one might think that it was green-screened, it was actually shot at the Apple Store in New York City:

This is an original Fatty Spins song, and yes I actually went to the Apple Store on 5th Ave in NYC and filmed it on one of their demo laptops. If you’re wondering why the other people in the store hardly turned around, then you’ve obviously never been to New York. And yes, there does appear to be a homeless giant standing behind me. LOL.

Adam Frucci of Gizmodo notes that another vlogger used the same demonstration products to shoot a music video without spending any money. Perhaps this is an emerging trend.

Musician’s Website (NSFWish content) via Gizmodo

“I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland.” Yayoi Kusama

2009-09-27T14:42:00.004-07:00

you may not normally visit the wellington city gallery but you really should check out this show (which marks the reopening after a year of rennovation) by Yayoi Kusama. Among other things is this room - you enter through the door and then get sealed in by an attendant. Inside, it's dark, the walls and ceiling are mirrors, the floor is a pool of water and you are standing on a narrow gangplank. All around you are thousands of little LEDs suspended in the space. Very hard to describe how fantastic this experience is - go see it for yourself..

Beneath the Neon

2009-09-24T13:51:00.001-07:00

Hundreds of couples are living underneath the US gambling mecca Las Vegas and living off the scraps left behind by its patrons. It’s claimed that up to 700 people call the network of tunnels beneath the casinos home.

They make their living by scavenging, and working their way down the strip of casinos. Steven moved into the tunnels two years ago after he lost his hotel front-desk job due to a heroin problem he claims he kicked in January. “The most I’ve ever found is 997 dollars on one machine. I’ve found about $500 a few times. But normally $20 or so is enough to call it a night.

“We buy food and supplies like shampoo and soap. Last night I went and watched the new Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds up at the Palms Hotel.”

Pete Sampson wrote the article for The Sun: Link

Woofer: The Anti-Twitter

2009-09-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

For those of us who simply don’t get Twitter or are tired of the Web’s fascination with the 140-character microblogging platform, here’s the anti-Twitter. Introducing macroblogging wonder Woofer, where each post has a minimum of 1,400 characters!

(And yes, the entire thing is a spoof/homage of Twitter, made by Join the Company)

Link

Do Schools Kill Creativity??

2009-09-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

Thought you guys would be interested in this. Well worth the 20mins out of your day.

Anyway Enjoy.

Miss you!

Anita :-)

Click Here

Unusual way to launching the new Nokia N900

2009-09-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

PUSH N900
September 23rd, 2009
PUSH N900 is a competion organised by Nokia to promote it’s new N900 smartphone. Everyone is invited to come up with projects how you could hack or mod the N900 and its open-source Maemo operating system. You have to submit your idea by October 11th, a jury will then decide who will get a N900, funding and support to make them real.
Hyper and Tinker it! were asked to develop some sample projects. They decided to use 4 objects from the 80’s: the Viewmaster, the Rolodex, an FM Radio and the Speak & Spell.

Phone FM

You can send a text message to your phone and it will read the artist’s name and send that information to last.fm. MP3’s will start streaming and the cover art will appear on the screen. The N900 has a build-in FM transmitter, the signal will be picked up by any radio nearby when it’s set to the right station.

Leave a Message

An Arduino connected to the Rolodex detects the position of the wheel and sends that information over bluetooth to the N900. Each position indicates a specific contact. Without touching your N900, you bring up the contact you need to the screen of the N900.

Talk & Text

A Nokia N900 and an Arduino are hidden inside a Speak & Spell. The keys are connected to the arduino which sends the signals over bluetooth to the N900. So you can write and send a text message using a Speak & Spell.

Now in 3D!

They’ve fitted a N900 inside a Viewmaster, when you move the Viewmaster to the left or the right a switch is triggered. The signal is then passed on through an arduino board and a bluetooth signal to the N900. The camera of the N900 takes now 2 images, a few centimeters apart. The two images are colored red and blue and superimposed and displayed on the screen of the N900, so when you look through the Viewmaster you’ll see a 3D image.

Two awesome sites to make you smile.

2009-09-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

http://whythefuckdoyouhaveakid.com/

http://dontjudgemyhair.com/

That Kanye, he gets everywhere

2009-09-21T13:48:00.001-07:00

Kanye West has been in a bit of trouble of late. In case you have been living in a hole, he got a bit over-excited at the recent MTV VMAs when he felt that Beyonce was the rightful winner of the best female video of the year, and interrupted the actual winner Taylor Swift to tell her so. And now he's popping up on desktops all over town...

To see Kanye on your own site, follow the instructions here...

Rotterdam’s Temple of Trash Built From PET Bottles

2009-09-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

In 2007 at the folly festival FollyDock in Rotterdam, the creative designers from SALZIG Design Team have come up with this intriguing Temple of Trash. Located in an old district of Rotterdam, this 7m high, 25m long and 10m wide trash pile consists of 100 tones of PET bottles compacted into rough cubes. The structure, which was meant to inspire recycling to both the casual visitor and the green minded, has now become an attraction serving its purpose with ease. It would be interesting to know how the Temple of Trash will look 1,000 years from now when future generations will dig it up.

Hangin’ Out at IKEA

2009-09-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Capitalizing on the viral popularity of People of Walmart blog, there’s a new blog called the People of IKEA.

While that’s nifty and all, there’s an even stranger IKEA phenomenon: Chinese people love to go there, not to shop, but simply to hang around!

With no plans one Saturday, Zhang Xin told his wife, son and mother to wear something smart and hop into the family sedan. He could have taken them to the Forbidden City or the Great Wall, but he decided on another popular destination — IKEA.

Riding an escalator past a man lying on a display bed with a book opened on his belly, the clan sauntered into the crush of visitors squeezing onto the showroom path, bumping elbows and nicking ankles with their yellow shopping trolleys.

Zhang said the family needed a respite from the smog and a reliable lunch.

"We just came here for fun," said the 34-year-old office manager. "I suppose we could have gone somewhere else, but it wouldn’t have been a complete experience."

Welcome to IKEA Beijing, where the atmosphere is more theme park than store.

David Pierson of the LA Times has the intriguing story: Link

Gen Y research. Thoughts from 25-30 year olds.

2009-08-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

Highlighted some favs.

- More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

- Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong.

- I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

- Have you ever been walking down the street and realised that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

- I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

- Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

- Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

- There is a great need for sarcasm font.

- Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realise I had no idea what the f*** was going on when I first saw it.

- I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

- How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

- I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies".

- What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

- Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories.

- Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning that just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

- If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

- Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem …

- You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

- Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

- I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

- I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

- When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

- I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

- Why is a school zone 25 km/h? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for paedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

- Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

- My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

- I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

- I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

- Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

500 Colored Pencils

2009-08-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

We all know that you can use colored pencils to create art, but can a collection of colored pencils themselves be art?

Apparently so! Here’s a beautiful yet stunningly simple arrangement of 500 colored pencils by Felissimo for Social Designer, a website that aims to crowdsource designs for charity causes.

Designboom has the story:

designed by felissimo for social designer this complete set of 500 colored pencils consists of 20 units, each pencil telling its own story with a unique name.

you cannot buy the complete set of pencils all at once, but you can receive them over the course of 20 months.

four different display methods let you keep your pencils at hand, while being displayed either as an artwork, or kept aside as a special collection.

the cases have been designed especially for the 500 colored pencils and are available in a limited edition.

Link

How to Cook Salmon in Your Dishwasher

2009-08-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

MacGyver Chef is a new series at the gadget blog Gizmodo about attempts to cook meals without conventional cooking implements. Author Dan Nosowitz has previously poached chicken and couscous in a coffee maker. In his most recent post, he experimented with steaming salmon and cilanto sauce in a dishwasher. You can view read a step-by-step guide and view photos of the process at the link.

Link

MacGyver Chef archive

Air Travel’s Glory Years - I love Stewardesses!!!

2009-08-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Flying these days is about as pleasant as a root canal, with security hassles, delays, poor service, expensive or nonexistent food, and cramped seats.

But was it always this way? The answer, of course, is no. And so, we decided to take a look back to the glory days of flight - when the stewardesses resembled beauty pageant contestants, when pilots seemed likes heroes, and when flying still seemed to be an adventure - to remind us, of just how things once were.

Enjoy 50 photos of stewardesses from the good old days of air travel. Link -via Gorilla Mask

Cockney ATM

2009-08-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Photo: Times of London

Bank Machine, an ATM operator in Britain, now has five cash machines in London that offer users the opportunity to conduct their business in the cockney dialect. It’s a promotional gimmick designed to amuse customers:

“Readin’ your bladder of lard”, read the message on the screen. It asked for his “Huckleberry Finn”. Then more bewildering questions: did he wanted to see his balance on the Charlie Sheen? Did he wish to change his Huckleberry Finn or did he simply require sausage and mash, with or without a receipt?

Link

"How often do you really meet your co worker's children?"

2009-08-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Office Kid — Your Source for Excuses from Work

Need a good excuse for why you’re late to/absent from work? The Office Kid kit lets you pretend to have a child, which you can then use as an excuse for your questionable work ethic. Each kit comes with a framed picture of a child (ethnicity of your choice), a work of children’s art, and a list of suggested excuses. For additional fees, you can have the child photoshopped into a sports team picture or a doctor’s note on official-looking stationery.

http://www.theofficekid.com/

Mad Men BMW Ad

2009-08-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

I’m a real fan of Mad Men, a TV series by AMC about the men and women of Madison Avenue advertising in the 1960’s. The acting, art direction and camera work are outstanding.
The advertising agency GSD&M Idea City, a real one, came up with the idea to do a collaboration between Mad Men, BMW and Vanity Fair. They produced on the set of Mad Men and with the show’s stylists and art director, a 5 page pictorial fold-out which will be published in the September issue of Vanity Fair. The idea behind is that America’s perceptions of diesel is still stuck in the 1960’s and wanted to juxtapose this with reality.
What about that? Mad Men really advertise something.

Personas

2009-08-19T14:39:00.001-07:00

Personas is an application that searches your name on the web and returns a profile of what it finds. Mine is pictured.

Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

the most interesting part was seeing all those things people said about me while it was processing.

Try your own name and puzzle over the results. Link - you need adobe flash!

Cheeky Squirrel Photo Crasher

2009-08-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

Melissa Brandts and her husband were hiking in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada and decided to take a portrait of themselves with spectacular Lake Minnewanka in the background. Melissa set up the camera and went back to pose, and her husband held the remote shutter release.

Meanwhile, attracted by the sounds of the autofocus, an inquisitive Columbian ground squirrel,common in the park, popped up to investigate. Click! "Self-Portrait With Ground Squirrel" was born.

Knowing she had struck photo gold, Melissa sent the pic to National Geographic magazine'sYour Shot, and photo editor Susan Welchman chose it for her Daily Dozen gallery last week. You can find it in all its furry glory by clicking here.

In the past few days, this photo has appeared on the popular blogs Nothing to Do With Arbroath,Neatorama, and that bastion of adorableness, Cute Overload. Today the photo surfaced on theDaily Mail.

Some commenters claim the photo was manipulated in some way, but one Daily Mail reader pointed out:
"You can tell this photo is legitimate because the squirrel's ears are pinned back like it was trying to figure out the camera sounds."

A Neatorama reader added: "The camera is autofocusing on the critter and not the couple. The perspective and lighting are absolutely consistent, and those whiskers are just too perfect to have been dropped in. Most of all, you can easily imagine the little guy being curious about the camera's delayed shutter countdown beep."

Some of the comments over on Cute Overload are pretty hilarious.

All of the Daily Dozen photos get made into online jigsaw puzzles, and if you'd like to do the squirrel puzzle, it's on page three of the Jigsaw Puzzle Generator today (tomorrow it will probably move to page four).

If you want to see this photo published in a future issue of National Geographic magazine, go to the Voting Machine and choose "August Week 1" and you can vote for it there (it's image #9 in the gallery).

and now there's the SQUIRRELIZER.

add your own pic with squirrel - link here

worth checking out what other people have added... te he

Patent says: PS3 just wants to see you laugh

2009-08-16T14:58:00.002-07:00

Like any self-learning sentient world-destroying super-computer, PS3 just wants to understand human emotion. One of the crazier patents discovered by Siliconera reveals Sony's plans to put areal emotion engine into the PS3. The example above highlights the system's ability to detect laughter, but that wouldn't be all the PS3 would be able to feel. The patent notes other emotions: sadness, excitement, anger, joy, interest, and boredom.

We're not entirely sure the gaming applications of a system like this (and clearly, neither doesNintendo). We can hypothesize a few scenarios. Perhaps if a game detects boredom, it can increase the number of enemies on screen. If it detects anger, the difficulty can go down. And finally, if it detects sadness, it'll tell you to just please stop playing Lair.

2009-08-16T14:58:00.001-07:00

Patent says: PS3 just wants to see you laugh

2009-08-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

Patent says: PS3 just wants to see you laugh

LOVE FB

2009-08-13T14:00:00.001-07:00

Google street view... not just for the streets anymore.

2009-08-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Street View of a Racetrack

The Google Street View photographs of Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California were taken during a race! Unfortunately, the photographs don’t go all the way to the finish line. Link -via reddit

2009-08-11T14:24:00.002-07:00

Video: Rescue robot can pull victims into its body

Tokyo fire department rescue robot . The newest model [JP] can be used for those cases in which the rescuers can’t reach people in an emergency, i.e. if the area is too dangerous for the rescuers themselves.

The so-called Robocue can be remote-controlled and is able to pull victims inside its body via a conveyor belt. After that, the person in question can be driven to a safe area.

The Robocue is equipped with a number of sensors and cameras and can be used as far as 100m away from the operator. It’s sized at 3.98×1.74×1.89m and weighs 3,860kg.

Watch it in action in the video below.

2009-08-11T14:24:00.001-07:00

2009-08-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

Digital goodness

2009-08-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's Red Bull Soapbox Racer Time!

Ever fancied taking part in a soapbox derby but been

just a little bit too scared to do it? ThenLess Rain

has created the perfect site for you...the

Red Bull Soapbox

Racer.

Just as in the real life Red Bull Soapbox Race events, which happen all over the world, Less Rain's site allows users to create their own uniquely designed vehicles online in a 3D garage, and then paint and decorate them with go-faster stripes and bumper stickers. Along with looking good, the design and construction of the machines will also effect how they handle on the race track.

Players can then pick which course they'd like to race (panoramic views of the Alps, the Bosphorus, the Wild West and the icy climbs of Canada are all available) and then set off. New courses can also be designed, with the steepness modified and obstacles added. As in the real Red Bull Soapbox event, only one car is allowed on the track at a time, but the website does allow players to challenge their friends, with your opponent's car appearing as a semi-transparent ghost on the track while you race. Virtual prizes are then rewarded to the winners.

The Red Box Soapbox Racer follows Less Rain's equally charming Red Bull Flugtag Flight Labsite, which allows users to design and fly their own planes. As on that site, the vehicles designed on the Soapbox Racer can all be saved on the site to be viewed by others and returned to for later races. Let's go racing!

Hammer - pumps in a bump. Enjoy your Monday evening gangster hit.

2009-08-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

check out vid here

Jackson's latest

2009-08-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.lovelybones.com/

The Ready Meals Quiz - can you guess which box the food came from?

2009-08-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

Microwave dinners usually don’t look like the picture on the front of the package. In this quiz, you’ll be given a picture of what the food actually looks like. Can you tell which box the pictured food came out of? In the second part of the quiz, you select which meal is homemade and which is a microwave meal, which just proves that real food doesn’t photograph all that well, either. I scored only seven out of 15. Be warned, this is British food.

Link to Quiz

http://dontjudgemyhair.com/

2009-08-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Don’t Judge My Hair

From the people who brought you There, I Fixed It, Don’t Judge My Hair is a photoblog of disasterous hairstyles, cuts, and colors.

Link

13 Bad Ass Prosthetics

2009-08-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

Never mind that four of these are fictional, two are concepts, and two are in testing. The other five artificial body parts are quite amazing in the real world, like Cody McCasland’s sled that allows the 7-year-old to play hockey even though he has no legs. Link

Bugs + street light + long exposure

2009-07-30T19:25:00.001-07:00

Michigan-based filmmaker Charlie McCarthy shot 156 photographs of insects flying around a street light, each at a four second exposure. He then put them together at 12 frames per second to make this delightful little film...

Aren't the corkscrew spirals great? Via Andrew Sullivan's blog.

Charlie's main Vimeo page is here and the Flight Patterns film, here

Earthquake Survival Suits for Pets

2009-07-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Earthquake-prone Japan has a market for these suits that you strap onto your cats and dogs so that they can survive for days after a major earthquake. Each suit contains all of the necessary gear including water, biscuits, aromatherapy oils, and rubber foot pads, all contained in the pockets of a flame-resistant coat.

Link (in Japanese) via Rinkya via Popped Culture

Robert harris boring arty ass.. .this is what they should be doing

2009-07-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

Coffee Cup Art

Cheeming Boey creates small pieces of art by sketching on foam coffee cups! His friends told him they would never sell, but that was before Marion Meyer saw them.

“I personally liked them,” says the former president of the Laguna Beach Art Walk. “And that’s how I select artists. When I connect to the energy and passion someone creates in their art, that’s when I like it.”
Meyer invited Boey to display his cups at her gallery during the monthly Art Walk. They sell for $120 to $220.

Link to story. Link to Flickr set.

I see dead people

2009-07-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Personalized Urns for the Deceased

Would you like to keep your departed loved ones in an urn on the mantle? How about in an urn that looks like the deceased person’s head? Cremation Solutions makes personalized urns using facial reconstruction and 3D mapping software.

Link via Oh Gizmo!

Rubik’s Cube Sandwich

2009-07-28T21:27:00.001-07:00

From the food blog Insanewiches:

The Rubix Cube has confounded us for years. Maybe the sandwich version of this puzzling brain teaser will do the same. The Rubix Cubewich contains cubes of pastrami, kielbasa, pork fat, salami, and two types of cheddar.

TV3 Hitched: Stag Do

2009-07-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

A good stag do often ends with the groom being hand cuffed semi-naked to a street sign - which is exactly what Colenso BBDO Auckland did to help promote the premiere of the new reality TV show Hitched (which follows kiwi couples in the lead up to the big day). The text on his chest written in lipstick reads 'Hitched tonight 8PM TV3'.

What we know about men.... hmmm

2009-07-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

AskMen’s Great Male Survey 2009

AskMen has just released the results of their second annual Great Male Survey, involving more than 50,000 of their readers worldwide, to find out what the modern man is thinking about.

As with their first survey last year, some results are interesting and some are quite unexpected. For instance, here are the top 100 most interesting answers:

10. 38% - Own more than seven pairs of shoes
9. 78% - Require more than $1 million to retire comfortably
8. 77% - Think moral standards in business are on the decline
7. 84% - Think it’s important that a girlfriend have "wife potential"
6. 83% - Are actively environmentally friendly
5. 48% - Would dump a girlfriend if she became fat
4. 78% - Exaggerate in the sex stories they tell to friends
3. 36% - Are scared of terrorists
2. 83% - Surf the web on their phone
1. 91% - Believe in marriage

Check out the full survey result here: Link

Post-it Note Stories

2009-07-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Cartoonist Arthur Jones writes stories through text and doodles on Post-It Notes, then reads his stories live to audiences as his cartoons scroll in the background. There are a few on his site, but my favorite is actually a translation of Jonathan Goldstein’s “Man Not Superman”. This is the story of the ordinary guy who dates Lois Lane after she breaks up with Superman, and tries to overcome his feelings of inadequacy. Jones’ comics just make this funny story even funnier.
Official Website

Man Not Superman by Jonathan Goldstein

She missed normal men. Lois wanted someone normal. That’s how I won over a class act like Lois Lane — it was the fact that I was a mere mortal.

I first met Lois at a charity penny arcade event. At one point in the evening, as I stood hunched over a pinball machine,

I looked over to my side, and there was Lois Lane just standing there, watching me.

The left flipper wasn’t working, so I tried to keep the ball on the right, but when it came down the left,

we yelled like a couple of kids rolling down the side of a mountain together.

“I’ve always wanted to reach in there and hold the silver ball in my hand,” I said.

“I never thought of it that way,” said Lois,

and five minutes later she was ripping open an empty pack of Clorets and writing her number down on the white inside.

Lois was the kind of woman I had always dreamed of. Even her name — so cool and crisp — Lois Lane. It pierced my ear like an arrow.

Lois was the kind of woman who made you feel like “I am a man who dates Lois Lane,” and as simple as that sounds, it is the best way I can describe it.

At first I was a novelty. In the beginning, Lois would kiss my forehead and tell me she loved how squishy my arms were.

Once, I even gave my nipples eyelashes and smeared lipstick around my belly button. Lois swooned as I made my fat gut sing her sweet songs of love.

I liked making Lois laugh. One evening I purchased a jar of olives simply because one of them, pressed up against the glass,

looked like an old man’s head, with a little skewed stroke-mouth full of pimento.

I gave it a voice.

I made it say things like, “Get me out of here,”

and “My ass is asleep,”

and Lois appeared to find this delightful.

Although they were broken up, Lois and Superman decided to remain friends, and since they traveled in the same circles, I knew it was only a matter of time before Superman and I would meet,

and I knew that when we did, by any possible system of measurement, he would destroy me.

Lois told me that I should expect a call from Superman. She said he was really anxious to meet me, and several weeks into our relationship, I got the call. When I answered the phone, I felt my chest tighten.

“I’d like to keep Lois in my life,” he said, “and I guess that means we should get to know each other. I don’t want to make this into a big deal or anything, but Lois tells me you’re sort of between jobs right now, and I could use a sidekick.

When I saw Lois that night for dinner, she had already spoken to Superman, and she was going on about my sidekick-ship like it was already a done deal.

Before I knew it, we were drinking glass after glass of red wine,

and I was agreeing that it might be a good idea.

Lois is just so beautiful when she’s pleased.

The next morning, I met Superman for lunch. He handed me a rumpled paper bag.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Your new outfit,” he said.

He shooed me off to the bathroom, and in the toilet stall I changed into what was essentially a skintight black unitard. There was no cape.

The whole thing succeeded in making me look both skinny-legged and rotund around the middle.

Across the chest, in small Courier font, was the wordStuart.

“It’s your sidekick name,” Superman said. “And you’re not supposed to...”

“...wear your uniform with underwear.”

I spent most of my time wearing my Stuart outfit in Superman’s apartment, ironing his costume, fielding calls from the press,

and popping boils on his back with a nail and an atlas.

In between, Superman had me doing nonstop sit-ups. He called my gut “a crime against humanity.” His favorite joke was to put his hand on my stomach and ask, “How many months?”

But he wasn’t perfect, either. From up close Superman stank of Brylcreem, and when he was being all solemn, he would use words like shall and vex. He was also really full of himself. At one point he even told me I should use the word super sparingly. He said its use was only appropriate when describing works of God or Superman’s own feats and properties.

As horrible as it all got, in the evening there was Lois, and she seemed so proud of me. Still, Superman was a constant, unspoken presence between us.

I always knew he was out there, feeling better than me. And when I looked at Lois sometimes, I knew she knew I was thinking it, and I guess it made her want to think about it a little herself.

It all came to a head one Thursday night. There was this Thursday-night tradition where all the superheroes got together for beer and chicken wings, and on this particular evening, Lois was going to join us.

The superheroes sat together at one table, capes all undone, laughing and slapping each other on the back,

while the sidekicks sat at another table, commiserating and trash talking.

I looked around my table. There was the angry-looking hunchback the Green Lantern worked with, and Wonder Woman had brought along a sad-eyed, mousy college-aged girl who sketched on napkins all night.

And then, of course, there was Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

Robin told me that the Caped Crusader was such a control freak he had continued to bathe Robin well into his late teens. “I can scrub my own ass,” Robin would yell, but Batman was so strong. When he put his hand on Robin’s shoulder, Robin wasn’t going no place.

I looked over at Superman laughing it up with Batman-- the best of buddies- their massive upper torsos jerking in an impossibly manly manner. Suddenly Superman turned to me, and our eyes locked. Much has been written about Superman, but there is an aspect of him that is very difficult to describe. There is a certain feeling one gets when looking into his eyes, and of all the articles I have read, there isn’t one that touches on it.

Being looked at by Superman makes you feel more there than even a dozen TV cameras. And it’s not simply that you’re there, but that you’re there swaddled in fur coats while sipping warm cider. When Lois walked in to the bar, instinctively, she made her way over to Superman and kissed his cheek hello.

I got up and walked out of the bar. Because I was in my Stuart outfit, I didn’t even have pockets to dig my fists into.

Some time after one in the morning, Lois showed up at my place full of apologies. She had spent the whole night talking with Superman. She said that he was really depressed.

“I’ve never seen him like this. I’m actually a bit worried,” she said.

“He’s obsessed with the emptiness of the universe. He said that after we broke up, he went looking for God — literally looking for God, zipping across the universe — and he came up with nothing. I never realized how obsessive he can be.

He told me there was once a certain way I flipped my hair that so beguiled him he spun around the earth reversing the moment 75,000 times. I never knew that.”

I felt myself grow queasy.

“He’s just so intense,” she continued, “and this planet can be so cold. Did you know that on Krypton, when two people fell in love, they became inseparable? They even had special clothes they wore together, and they learned to move together in unison. He said that on Earth these kinds of garments have names like Fundies and are sold only in the pages of pornographic magazines. He said Earth is a sick, sick place.”

After she left my apartment, I decided to take a walk to clear my head. I did so while cursing Superman until there were tears in my eyes. I had walked only a couple of blocks when I ran into Clark Kent.

I had been introduced to Clark at a couple of Lois’s soirees and, although I hardly knew him, he was someone I really liked. He possessed a kind of small-town warmth that I genuinely enjoyed being around.

Clark told me I looked terribly sad. Terribly sad. People didn’t say stuff like that anymore. Having him call meterribly sad, instead of depressed or bummed made me start to feel a little bit better. He asked me if I wanted to grab a beer, and I said sure.

I told Clark all about the evening, and he listened to me. That was all I really needed just then: to be listened to.

“How do you know she’ll go running back to Superman?” asked Clark. “You should hear her talk,” I said. Superman once went back in time and beat up Hitler.’ I mean, who can compete with that?”

Clark started laughing so hard that people at the other tables turned around to look at us. I was on a roll. With his laughter egging me on, I told him all the things that over the last few weeks I wished I had said to Superman. I wished I had said,

“You’re such a phony,” I said. “You have this idea of what it means to be human, but it’s a parody. Humans feel pain, and you don’t understand what pain is. You may be super, but you are certainly not a man.”

Clark thought that was just perfect. He put his arm around my neck and rocked me back and forth as we both laughed.