Holy crap! This guy’s balls must be so massive I’m surprised they aren’t dragging him down to crash on one of those cliffs!
[Via noob.us]
ENVISION: Step into the sensory box [Video]
ENVISION : Step into the sensory box was created by French media agency Superbien and shown at the last Mobile World Congress. The public was invited to enter the “box” to discover the philosophy behind the 2010 edition of the congress: Transforming the Mobile Experience.
Ig Nobel Prizes bring the wackiness once again
It’s once again the time of year for rewarding some of the most truly remarkable efforts in various fields of science and other research. And no, I don’t mean the Nobel Prizes. I mean the Ig Nobel Prizes.
Now in their 20th year, the prizes are awarded by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Unlike the Nobel prizes, the Ig Nobels can and often do reward efforts from previous years that have only just come to the judges’ attention. And rather than marking advancements in human achievement, they recognize projects that “cannot and should not be repeated.” In most, if not all cases, the apparent wackiness of the study does not detract from some genuinely useful findings.
This year’s winners in full:
Biology: A study documenting the sexual behavior of fruit bats, showing that they engage in fellatio to extend the period of intercourse. (Winners: Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang and Gareth Jones)
Chemistry: A 2000 experiment involving deliberately releasing oil and gas off the coast of Norway to simulate an accidental underwater rupture, research that has become particularly relevant this year. (Winners: Eric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University, Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP)
Economics: “The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting new ways to invest money — ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.”
Engineering: A technique using a remote control helicopter to collect whale mucus. (Winners: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, Agnes Rocha-Gosselin and Diane Gendron.)
Management: A mathematical study showing that organizations could improve efficiency by promoting staff at random. (Winners: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo.)
Medicine: A study showing that the thrills of a rollercoaster could ease asthma. (Winners: Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest.
Peace: A study showing that swearing out loud helps people decrease their perceived pain. (Winners: Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston)
Physics: A study showing that wearing socks on the outside of shoes makes you less likely to fall over on icy days. (Winners: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest)
Public Health: A 1967 study showing that beards are bad news in labs because they attract microbes. (Winners: Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor)
Transportation: A study of the expansion of slime mold to find the most efficient way of expanding a railroad network. (Winners: Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Dan P. Bebber, Mark D. Fricker, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Nakagaki)
Featured 3D Short: The Sad Tale of Sintel and Scales [Video]
Sintel is an independently produced short film, initiated by the Blender Foundation as a means to further improve and validate the free/open source 3D creation suite Blender. With initial funding provided by 1000’s of donations via the internet, it has again proven to be a viable development model for both open 3D technology as for independent animation film.
Metroid’s Samus Aran with Bunny Ears [Pics]
A few days ago, we wrote about Samus Aran parading at a burlesque show somewhere in LA, and now, here she is dressed as a bunny. But “why would Samus wear something as ridiculous as bunny ears” I hear you ask. And the answer is: this particular incarnation of Samus Aran is cosplayed by Jessica Nigri, who seems to like putting ears of all sorts on top of her head. Don’t ask me why, she just does. Hit the Jump for additional pics of Jessica.
Duke Nukem Forever Live Demo
Robot Art on Display at MASS MoCa
Robot Art? Yes, indeed, you read that right. Starting October 23, 2010, visitors to MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, are in for a big surprise: a work of art conceived and created without human hands.
From designbloom:
…diaz’s ‘geometric death frequency—141’, a sculpture made from 420,000 black spheres made and assembled by robotics. the final sculpture will measure 20 feet by 50 feet and sit in the courtyard of the museum. the installation is precisely crafted from robotics, milling and assembling the entire sculpture sphere by sphere, completely void of any human interaction. diaz developed this process for building on his own using CAD software and manufacturing techniques along with pure data and algorithms based on particle physics. with this system each sculpture is completely untouched by human hands from concept to materialization. [sic]
You can read more about the exhibit at the MASS MoCA site here.
The final work is surprisingly intriguing–certainly no stranger than the work you see by other human contemporary artists–and has a certain industrial elegance to it. I, for one, welcome our new robot artist overlords.
[Image: Fedrico Diaz Studios]
Amazing 3D Light Show [Video]
This 3D Light show was projected on the Kharkov Regional Administration building in Ukraine on August 24th to celebrate the country’s independence day. The interesting part only starts after about 30 seconds, so if you don’t want to wait, don’t hesitate to skip ahead in the video.
Santa vs. Edward Cullen [Pic]
[Via 9gag]
50 years of Japanese Concept Cars
Pink Tentacle, a Japanophile focused blog, shows 50 years of concept cars from Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and others.
Some of these concept cars showed off features and designed that made it into later year models – the 1997 Nissan Hypermini looks very much like the Smart Car that made it into production in 2000, and even some of the wilder cars, like the 1999 Honda Fuya-Jo shows a boxy, tank-like design that brings to mind the Nissan Cube.
Even so, some of these concept cars are Jetsons-level out there, including the 1993 Mazda London Taxi (which looks like the car Homer Simpson designed), the 1987 Daihatsu TA-X80, and the 1969 Toyota EX-II (which also brings to mind the Smart Car… which makes me wonder if maybe these things have a 30-year or so time from concept to production…)