Yoshimoto Cube [Puzzle Game]

[via Gizmodo]

Super funny nerd [Demitri Martin]

Stand-up comedy routine "If I" from introspective king dorksheir himself...Demitri Martin. I have to admit that I completely identify with his presentation. It's great to have a friend that understands me, even if we never met, never hang out and he just talks about himself the whole time.

Part 1 of 6:


Part 2 of 6:


Part 3 of 6:


Part 4 of 6:


Part 5 of 6:


Part 6 of 6:

Siphonophore [strange deep-sea creature]

[via Pink Tentical]

Strange motion from a Worm

Game-play & Game design

[comments via Slashdot] ...an interesting video presentation by Shamus Young on the importance of the new Prince of Persia, calling it the most innovative game of 2008. Young brings up the fact that many of today's games punish failure by wasting the player's time; being sent back to a check point, the beginning of a level, or sometimes even further. This cuts into the amount of time players have to enjoy the meat of the game — the current challenge they have to overcome. Unfortunately, as Young notes, modern controllers are designed for players who have been gaming since they were kids, and have evolved to be more complicated to operate than an automobile. The combination of these factors therefore limits or prevents the interest of new players; a problem Prince of Persia has addressed well through intuitive controls and the lack of punitive time sinks.

[video via Twenty Sided]

Best music browser ever!!!

It's Christmas and I finally got what I wanted. A music browser that helps one find music by using the objective qualities of music like tempo, melodies, rhythm, awesomeness, etc.... Well, it's not out yet. It's just a thesis project, but I can't wait!!!!!

More info about the software here »

Swarm-bots pull child across floor

[via Gizmodo]

2000yr old astronomy calculator

Antikythera is a 2000 year old astronomical calculator that has been reconstructed from a dig.

Wunder Boner [Fishing Tool Commercial]

Robotic waiter is a table

[via Gizmodo]

Editorial Cartoonist - Chris Britt

Chris Britt - Cartoonist from Justin Fowler on Vimeo.

Robot sex ethics

Newborn Gorilla

Baby Gorilla

Kids faces while playing video games

The Immersion Project

Prop 8 The Musical

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

Poop a photo [commercial]

Japanese commercial of a camera pooping the picture out.

How to make a ghetto talk box

Japanese kid makes a ghetto talk box using a Nintendo DS the Korg DS-10 synth software and a straw.

Creepy BigBoy face painting

Bob's Big Boy

Ancient 11 year old

Brenden Foster

Rachmaninov had big hands

Igudesman & Joo - A Little Nightmare Music
www.igudesmanandjoo.com

How to charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion

Ferrari 312 PB replica

This guy spent 12 years remaking a scaled down version of a Ferrari 312 PB race car. It's fully functional in every way.

How is firewalking safe?

Fast sketchup model building

LittleBigPlanet [Game]

LittleBigPlanet is a very cool game for the PS3 that allows you to create your own levels. It's like the power of robotic lego's at your fingertips.

I would have never known how cool this game if I didn't have someone show it to me because it takes about 8 hours of playing till you have enough status to really start making anything. Essentially you can make anything out of switches, pistons, motors, shapes, springs etc... It's like a fantasy sandbox of cool capabilities. All this is wrapped up in a nice sonic / visual package that effortlessly reflects the style of Michele Gondry. The videos below highlight some unique uses of the tools.

Last night I went out and bought a PS3, just so I could play this game :)

Gradius (Side-scrolling shooter):


How to make a gravity defying car:


How to make an OR Switch:


Calculator (LittleBigComputer)


Little Big Planet - Playstation 3

Odd land formation [Russia]

My friend Aaron Shinn of mine came across this Google satellite image. It looks like a glacial land slide. It's somewhere near Belovo in Russia.

Palin get's drilled!

Crazy Protester Interrupts Palin Interview - Watch more free videos

Environmentalism is a new religion

Ian Plimer makes some interesting points about how assumptive and dogmatic environmentalists act and highlights parallels between it and religion. This doesn't mean that global warming is bull-shit, but it does mean that people are blindly following scientific evidence.

Amazing snowboard decent

Terjes First Descent on a near vertical mountain / massive clif face.

Buy a mask of your face for $299

Your face has worked out so far, but in the age of exploding laptop batteries and botched nose jobs, we can all use a spare. ThatsMyFace is a service that will create anything from a life-sized mask ($200) to a full 3D sculpture of your head ($2,000) with just two 2D images from you.

The service appears to first 3Dize your pictures by hand, then use 3D printing technology for the physical production model. At least in this clip, the result is scarily realistic, even if a bit dead looking. Then again, with the lights turned low enough, it may be just enough to test whether or not your spouse would cheat on you for Josh Hartnett. (Saving you the money, we'll just let you know that the answer is yes...be they your wife or husband.) [ThatsMyFace via Gizmodo]

The Matrix runs on WIndows XP

Cat plays theremin

SnifTag - Pet monitor

This is crazy, stupid and cool. It's like Nike Plus + Social Network + Pet activity monitor all in one.

Chain surfing

French dude

Phun - Physics Simulator

Phun is a simple but powerful physics simulator that lets you create elaborate designs kinda like robotic lego's. Not as cool as PS3's LittleBigPlanet, but it's free :)

Water channeling:


Dirtbike:


Tractor:


Binary Calculator:

SoundCloud.com

Seems like a potentially cool service for sharing and distributing home brewed music.

The Persuaders [Frontline]

I've worked in and around advertising for the past 10 years. During that time, I have learned that the same techniques used to sell sneakers are the same we use to sell an idea to a friend. The 2004 mini-series called "The Persuaders" does a great job at reminding us of what attributes make up a good sell and how to craft one.

The documentary is a little creepy, a little revealing and enlightening. We all try and get our points across, and it will probably help you to learn a little more about all this by watching the videos.

Watch all 6 videos now »

Learn even more about the show »

Prop 8: Mormons pay 20 million 4 yes on 8

I have no idea what each of you think of prop 8 (the California proposition to ban gay marriage...a right that already exists in CA), but I'd like to share mine.

From my experience every culture in history has had gay people in it, and they have always been a minority. Therefore, there is no reason to assume that the majority should tell this minority of brothers and sisters who they should kiss and share a life with.

Most gay people and "since birth" gays believe that they do not choose there sexual preference. They cannot just change who they are on a whim.

It hurts to see that people out there want to tell people who they can marry. And it hurts even more to see Mormons trying to buy away this right with over 20 million raised.

More info about the story »

Under the bridge: Literal version

Red Hot Chili Peppers

How the ecenomic mess happened, and what to do

Best-selling author and debt crisis expert Juan Enriquez catalyzed a vigorous debate on the impetuses of the current American economic meltdown – and the immediate actions the country and next U.S. President will have to take to address the situation. Combining information and ideas from many sources, Juan enumerated an urgent, non-partisan10 point plan, to be implemented during the next administration’s first 60 days. Enriquez posited that failure to act – or, in his view, further misguided efforts – run the risk of triggering an irreversible economic collapse that could plague the American economy for decades.

Mech halloween costume

Kid, robot

The Hills Girls Analyze the Large Hadron Collider

The Soup

Visual housing browser

A tool (craigslist & google maps mashup) that helps you find a home near the amenities that are important to you.

http://gentrify.r08.railsrumble.com

Solar oven melts steel

Using only the rays from the sun, scientists are able to melt steel in seconds.

Electroshock your face to the beat

Daito Manabe's tapes electric stimulators to his face and syncs them with his music so his involuntary facial contortions match up with the tune.



[via Gizmodo]

SNL Touchscreen

Music to Cardiograph

Music Video: I'll Be Gone

Easier to pick up coins

Coins haven’t really changed their function or core design since their inception. For the most part, they’re all flat and round - two characteristics that make it difficult to pick up. This coin by designer Hyun Woo Kim has a beveled edge. Apparently it’s angled just enough for easy pick ups. Hey, anything to shave a few seconds off from bending over to pick a coin up is aces in my book.

Designer: Hyun-Woo Kim [Yanko Design]

Sampled video sequenced with body suit

A body suit controlled by Eboman to modulate and sequence samples recorded from a live video camera. Mattijs Kneppers built the software to make this all happen in Max/MSP for Eboman.


» Mattijs Kneppers website
» An interview with Mattijs from Cycling '74
» Mattijs Kneppers Cycling '74 user page

Turn a speeding ticket into jail time

This guy is pissed...heheheh.

RjDj - iPhone Generative Music

RjDj is a generative music toolkit for the iPhone that uses PD (PureData) patches as it's engine. The first version of the app comes with six scenes to play with and more scenes to download at the RjDj site. A scene is similar to a song only that the user contributes and influences it using the iPhones microphone and/or accelerometer.

Scenes can be created and shared by anyone that has PD and installed on the iPhone!!!

» Official Site
» Download RjDj from iTunes
» Download more scenes

» Making and installing scenes
» RjDj & PD


Overview:


Beatboxing with the WorldQuantizer scene:

Sick Violin Tricks

Almost feels like beatboxing. He plays "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" and "Smooth Criminal".

HowTo: Recover blurred text

Recovering Censored Text Using Adobe Photoshop CS3 from Tom Robinson on Vimeo.

Learn more »

Get the code here »

Earth From Above [Photo Exibit]

Learn about the exhibit and see all the photos »

Kid Glitch

The Office Paranoia Mix

Why you should tuck in your shirt

Space Invaders Music Video [Player One]

This video is dedicated to Kantor!

Product Information - GoodGuide.com

GoodGuide.com provides highly detailed and accurate information about what's in consumer products and how they effect the environment and your body. Each product is reviewed and rated by staffed scientists that know all about what specific chemicals do.

Being productive on Salvia

Driving on Salvia:


Gardening on Salvia (part 1):


Gardening on Salvia (part 2):


Writing a letter to congress on Salvia:

Cat vs Printer

The end is adorable.

What is Superstition?

An entry via Slashdot

"The tendency to falsely link cause to effect — a superstition — is occasionally beneficial, says Kevin Foster, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University. For example, a prehistoric human might associate rustling grass with the approach of a predator and hide. Most of the time, the wind will have caused the sound, but "if a group of lions is coming there's a huge benefit to not being around." Foster worked with mathematical language and a simple definition for superstition to determine exactly when such potentially false connections pay off and found as long as the cost of believing a superstition is less than the cost of missing a real association, superstitious beliefs will be favored. In modern times, superstitions turn up as a belief in alternative and homeopathic remedies. "The chances are that most of them don't do anything, but some of them do," Foster says. Wolfgang Forstmeier argues that by linking cause and effect — often falsely — science is simply a dogmatic form of superstition. "You have to find the trade off between being superstitious and being ignorant," Forstmeier says. By ignoring building evidence that contradicts their long-held ideas, "quite a lot of scientists tend to be ignorant quite often."

Read more »

What is a web designer [diagram]

This map helps explain what a web designer does. I don't know where this image came from.


Click on the image to view full-size

Rapid Prototyping A Building

Research into the concrete-jet printer is being carried out by USC, and their technology can already build up complex concrete structures using technology that's half-CNC machine and half inkjet-like. They've just got funding from Caterpillar to further the research.

[via Gizmodo]

Our Satellites [Google Earth]

A company called Analytical Graphics, monitors of all the satellites orbiting our earth. It tracks over 13,000 objects! They just made there data free and public in the form of a Google Earth add on. It's simply insane how much crap we have floating up there. It's nutty.

To view it follow these instructions:
• Install Google Earth if you haven't already (http://earth.google.com)
• Open Google Earth
• Click on the "Add Content" button within the "Places" pane
• Paste this link into your browser URL:
http://adn.agi.com/SatelliteDatabase/SatelliteDatabase.kmz
• When it asks, choose to open the link in Google Earth

DJ Rocket Car [Awesome]

This car looks so cool. [rent it now]

Fireman Sprinkler Suit

An old time German idea from 1931 for enabling humans to enter fires.



[via ModernMechanix]

FANTASTIC Rocket Explosion

The footage of the aftermath is beautiful. Fireballs raining down everywhere.

Asteroid + Earth Impact Simulation

Quoted from the video: "Evidence shows that asteroid impact like this have happened 6 times in earths history." Amazing.

Truth In Advertising

What it would be like if you could hear the internal thoughts of advertising folks.

Downhill Mountain Bike Crash

Vote for my brothers Remix

Instantanious Painting of Mona Lisa

Adam and Jamie (from the show Myth Busters) unveiled a 1100 barrel paintball gun that instantly paints a lo-fi version of the Mona Lisa.

Backflip Darkslide Snowboard Trick

Reinventing the Stop Sign

Check out this well designed Traffic Sign »

Growing Fungi [Time Lapse]

Slime Mold, Mushrooms

Strange Toothpaste Commercial

Balloons

How people count money in different countries

Finish Heavy Metal Squirrel

Cheesy operatic metal seems to be common place in Finnland...as common as Madonna is in the US. Everyone here is familiar with metal and instead of crappy pop music like Britany Spears, the 10 year old kids here like crappy metal instead.

One of the clients I worked with in Finland has a child that begs for this video to be played every night in order to go to bed. This squirrel is not just a one off, but considered a music artist. The US has Barney & the Finnish have a metal squirrel.



More videos from the squirrel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbx6QUoGpdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxrNyOhld0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnczxedm0L4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiCJKKOYalQ

Funtional Body Modification

Although this talk is probably most know for magnetic implants, I personally find in more interesting in it's ways that it prods at ethics, social norms and taboos. It's fascinating.

In general, this falls into the category of us as humans testing our limits and finding out what we are made of. There is no wrong answer, even a hick blasting a bullfrog to bits with a shotgun can help him get his thick skull around what he and the world around him is made of.

The Human Skateboard [Stop Motion]

How to use the 5 star rating for music

I have tried to use the five star rating system to help organize my music, but could not decide on a system. My work mate Chris Nyffeler told me about his system and it seems pretty useful, so here it is :)

1 star: Marked for deletion
2 stars: Dislike it, but for whatever reason I want to keep it
3 stars: No strong feelings
4 stars: Good feelings and would like to hear it again
5 stars: Specifically go to find this song and play it again

This rating system is *****

Genetic map of Europe

Learn more about it »

Biologists have constructed a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between its various populations.

All the populations are quite similar, but the differences are sufficient that it should be possible to devise a forensic test to tell which country in Europe an individual probably comes from, said Manfred Kayser, a geneticist at the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands...

Photo Tourism 3D-Photo Browser

This 3D browser elegantly solves a lot of the problems with the first version. It's great to watch simply to see how problems were solved. The video gets more and more juicy up until the end.

This was presented at Siigraph 2008.
People: Noah Snavely, Rahul Garg, Steven M. Seitz, Richard Szeliski
Resources: University of Washington, Microsoft Research
Learn more »

Get PhotoSynth »

14-year-old interviews John Lennon about peace

I Met The Walrus - www.imetthewalrus.com

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message.

Rainbow Conspiracy Lady

Politics of Preschool [Short Film]

Magnetic Liquid Art

Nulla Minimalist Bike

Nulla is one way of saying “nothing” in Italian. It's not every day that I see a bicycle I like. Read more about it »

I wish the web worked this way

Click to view the interaction »
http://www.telescopictext.com/

Game: LevelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run

http://julianoliver.com/levelhead

Bowser's Minions Revolt

All the evil characters from Super Mario Brothers revolt against their leader Bowser.

Cuil Search Engine

http://www.cuil.com

A new direct competitor to Google. Cuil “supposedly” returns search results based on the quality of content as opposed to Google’s results which are ranked by how popular a page is. They also are claiming to have more pages indexed than Google.

Read the article »

RAP The Musical [Mr Show]

Scraper Bike [Music Video]

Down home scrappy music vid by the Trunk Boiz.

Dream Omelet

Chef Cooks 'Dream Omelet' From Recipe That Came To Him In A Dream

Confusing guitar lesson is easy to laugh at

This video of Richard Lloyd (from Television) is wonderful and bonkers. Highlights: 3:00 when he starts chanting numbers and says "Agriculturalcadabra" and 5:38, when he orders his guitar to obey him. If you're really clever, there are lots of guitar lessons on his site, which includes Why is the guitar tuned like that?. (Thanks, Drew)
UPDATE: An anonymous commenter points out uncanny similarities between Richard's lesson and Alan Partridge explaining World Cup '94.

[via MusicThing]

Lionel Richie fed through the sick mind of another

Such creepy comforts woo my soul.

Australian Dust Storm

I drove into something like this in Phoenix AZ once. I was scared to shit. I couldn't tell if it was natural or an atomic explosion or something.

3D Framework tug of war

Artist: Brandon Morse
Tools: Houdini

Nearly every fixed gear trick.

Code: Linear Transform

AS3 code that calculates a mathematical linear transformation on a value given a min and max for the original scale and the min and max for the target scale. I use this on nearly every project. Thanks to David Bliss of Odopod for writing the code.

Example:
var sourceValue = 50;
var minSource = 0;
var maxSource = 100;
var minTarget = 0;
var maxTarget = 200;
targetValue = linearTrans(sourceValue, minSource, maxSource, minTarget, maxTarget);

Returns targetValue: Number between minTarget and maxTarget = 100

Function:
public static function linearTrans(sourceValue:Number, minSource:Number, maxSource:Number, minTarget:Number, maxTarget:Number):Number {
if (minTarget
var range = Math.abs(maxTarget - minTarget);
var direction = 1;
} else {
var range = Math.abs(minTarget - maxTarget);
var direction =- 1;
}

var sourceRange = maxSource - minSource;

var progress=(sourceValue-minSource)/(sourceRange);
progress=Math.max(Math.min(1, progress), 0);
// now progress is between 0 and 1

progress *= direction * range;
progress = progress + minTarget;

return(progress);
}

Lyre Bird

A bird that can mimic any sound it hears. Sounds like a low-fi digital recorder.

Nemisis Required [Best of Craigslist]

Here is a really funny craigslist posting.

=============================================

Nemesis required. 6-month project with possibilty to extend

Date: 2008-05-07, 2:49PM PDT

I've been trying to think of ways to spice up my life. I'm 35 years old, happily married with two kids and I have a good job in insurance. But somethings missing. I feel like I'm old before my time. I need to inject some excitement into my daily routine through my arm before its too late. I need a challenge, something to get the adrenaline pumping again. An addiction would be nice, but, in short, I need a nemesis. I'm willing to pay $350 up front for you services as an arch enemy over the next six months. Nothing crazy. Steal my parking space, knock my coffee over, trip me when Im running to catch the BART and occasionaly whisper in my ear, "Ahha, we meet again". That kind of thing. Just keep me on my toes. Complacency will be the death of me. You need to have an evil streak and be blessed with innate guile and cunning. You should also be adept at inconsicuous pursuit. Evil laugh preferred. Send me a photo and a brief explanation why you would be a good nemesis.

British accent preferred.

Actual craigslist posting »

Constarch + Water + Subwoofer = Awesome

Bad ATM Experience

Photos: Characters in their natural habitat

View all photos »

Photos: Deathstar Billboards

I would normally suggest not looking at billboards because they suck balls, but these photos are amazing. They are all taken from the trunk of the billboard...so cool.


View all photos »

3D Medical Animations

View Animation »

Amazing medical animations. Now I am re-questioning all those acid trips. Maybe I was just somehow peering into my body instead of visiting other worlds.

Laser Etched Tattoos

Real-Time Gradient-Domain Painting

Click to play the video »

Project Page »

Avoid CFL Bulbs

Compact florescent light (CFL's) bulbs are very toxic and a pain in the ass to dispose of. If your concerned about energy use your money is better spent on an LED light bulb. They require less energy, last longer and are non toxic.

LEGO Gun

Thriller Automatic is a LEGO gun designed by http://www.xubor.com

Eat and dance for no reason or for bread

Raymond Scott Documentary

Raymond Scott's son Stan Warnow is making a documentary about his father's live. Here is a quick preview.

Large Bird Swarm

Ghost

Russian Grandmas...

Finding ARPANET: The First (Physical) Site of the Internet

The birth place of the first internet transmission was on October 29th 1969 at 10:30pm from room 3420 (aka 3424) in Stanford University. ...uh supposedly!

BMWs Cloth Shapeshifting Concept Car

[via Wired]

Fast 3D in Flash

Click here to view the demo.

Alternativa3D tech specs:
• signals system — only nesessary calculations
• BSP — quality polygon sorting, "sharp" crossings
• n-gons support
• reusing layers (only changed regions redrawing, polygons are independent)
• objects hierarchy
• only necessary matrix, coords and UVs recalculating
• perspective correction — dynamic triangulation
• collision detection

And this is not all. In a future we’ll create and implement some new features:
• dynamic lighting and shadows (point and directional lights)
• bump lighting
• parallax mapping
• automatic UV-mapping
• sprites, 3D-sprites
• sprite lighting
• texture objects
• Global Illumination imitation
• sprite pre-render system (phases render on server using uploaded 3D-models)
• animation system (including inverse kinematics)
• 3D-objects interactivity
• physics simulation

Source code and more info »

[via 3D Thing]

Penguin Shit, Nuclear Reactors, Technical BBQing and Whale Sex (TED)

A very funny and entertaining video about renaissance man Nathan Myhrvold and the things he does.



Nathan Myhrvold talks about a few of his latest fascinations -- animal photography, archeology, BBQ and generally being an eccentric genius multimillionaire. Listen for wild stories from the (somewhat raunchy) edge of the animal world

Weathered walls repaired by Legos

Artists repair walls in Italy with Lego's [via Gizmodo]