Little Big Love is an award winning stop-motion short in which a tiny robot falls in love with an electric kettle. The whole project was written, directed, and animated by Tomas Mankovsky with a total budget of less than $500.
Pistol Shrimp Fires Sonic Wave to Stun Prey
In the following video, you’ll see how pistol shrimps use their claws in a surprising way to incapacitate preys and predators alike.
Printer Choreography
Who knows how much is paper and how much is special effects in this ad made in response to a challenge from Hewlett-Packard. The finished product, named “Invent” is impressive! Created by Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth. Music by Round Table Knights.
[via I Am Bored]
DATAFLUX 0.1
Located at the RMIT School of Art Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, DATAFLUX 0.1 is a new media gallery installation that investigates the possibilities of using live software codes to render synesthetic audio and visual experiences. The installation uses a counting mechanism to step between scenes and sequences. Projections are beamed onto a motorised mirror allowing for wider displacement, sound and lighting effects are all triggered at specific synchronized moments.
[Vimeo]
Sit Back and Relax: Kuroshio Sea
Well, it’s Friday evening folks, so right before going to bed, be sure to sit back and watch this absolutely gorgeous video of the Kuroshio Sea tank, which is located at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. This thing holds around 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Oh, and be sure to dim the light and to maximize the video before hitting that play button!
The Features It Needs Next: Facebook
By Andrew Sparkes
Guest Blogger
As part of an on-going series, we’ll be looking at the features that top hardware, software, and websites already have and imagining the features it would be logical and useful to add in the next update. Today we’re examining Facebook.
Facebook goes through hell every time it has a redesign. People threaten to leave (though most never do, or come back shortly after) and Facebook applications are put out that try to make your profile look like it used to – though I’ve seen never seen one that actually works. However, when it introduces small features one at a time, like news feeds, instant messaging, and videos, they are usually accepted and well-liked much faster than the redesigns. With this in mind, here are a few extras they should try.
Liquid Nitrogen and the Leidenfrost Effect
Have you ever seen someone dump his hands in a tub of liquid nitrogen and quickly pull it off without having it frozen in the process? Yes, this is possible, thanks to what is called “the Leidenfrost Effect.”
The Leidenfrost effect is a natural phenomenon in which a liquid, (in this case liquid nitrogen), contacts with a surface that is significantly hotter than the liquid’s boiling point, producing an insulating vapor layer which keeps that liquid from boiling rapidly. This layer of vapor causes water droplets to skitter across the surface of a hot skillet – or protects the hand of a mad scientist from being frozen.
Please note that even though the procedure appears to be relatively safe on video, we do not recommend anyone trying it out.
Six Worst Fight Scenes – EVER!
By Mic Mell
Guest Blogger
We all love a good fight scene, and sometimes we love a bad fight scene even more. After some research, we have found six fight that can only be described as WTF moments. From the poor choreography to the horrible dramatics, these scenes are guaranteed to leave you saying “SO BAD!” From the lousy beginning to the stupid endings, I couldn’t help but laugh when watching them, realizing that somewhere, someone thought this was really good stuff.
Obviously, there are thousands of bad fight scenes out there. Let us know what some of your favorite horrible fight scenes are.
How I Use My Mobile Internet Device
By Xavier Lanier
Guest Blogger
I’ve been using a mobile internet device for the past couple of months and have enjoyed the experience so far. My MID of choice is the Viliv S5 and I’ve used it much more than I expected to.
I’m a Web publisher and spend most of time online, so it’s important to have Internet access wherever I go. I’ve helped put together a Web site that demonstrates how people are using MIDs in real life called MIDStories.com
Having a MID enables me to have a Windows XP experience anytime, anywhere, with a gadget that fits in my cargo shorts. MIDs are more powerful than smartphones and can run many of the same applications that I run on my larger PCs. This reduces the learning curve of using a new device and reduces the chances of mix ups when editing files across devices.
I bought the base-model Viliv S5, which comes with a 1.33 GHz Intel Atom processor, 60 GB hard drive, GPS, Bluetooth and a battery that lasts about five or six hours. It can stay in standby mode for up to 200 hours and takes less than five seconds to wake from sleep. It weighs less than a pound. I didn’t get the version that has integrated 3G because I use a Sprint MiFi 2200 (I can share the mobile broadband love with all of my devices).
There are several things that I do with my MID that I can’t do with any smartphone and I recorded a few of them in the videos below.
One shortcoming of MIDs is that they can be hard to type on, since they have on-screen keyboards or small keyboards. They work just fine for quick emails, updating my Facebook status or replying to comments on a blog, but you wouldn’t want to create long documents with them. I’ve gotten around this problem by using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 and my Ultimate Ears 5vi headset. In fact, this is the setup I’m using to write this article right now.
Photography is my number one hobby and I drag my camera just about everywhere I go. My mobile photography studio includes a Nikon D300, Eye-Fi card, MID and the Sprint MiFi 2200. I can instantly upload my photos on Flickr and to my MID with this setup. I use Google Picasa 3 to perform basic edits if needed. MIDs aren’t powerful enough to run apps like Photoshop, but Google Picasa 3 does most of what I need on the go and I save serious editing for my more powerful notebooks.
I also installed Microsoft Office 2007 on my MID so I can work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the go. My iPhone 3GS and other smartphones are ok for reading Office documents, but they are far from ideal for editing these files. Having a full install of Office has come in handy several times when I’m collaborating on files with team members and outside partners.
MIDs fit in somewhere between netbooks and smartphones. Some may have trouble justifying the cost of yet another device, but I’ve found my Viliv S5 to be an indispensable tool for my mobile lifestyle.
Xavier Lanier is the publisher of Notebooks.com, GottaBeMobile.com and MIDStories.com. GottaBeMobile.com is a community focused on Tablet PCs, touch computing and netbooks. Notebooks.com is a site dedicated to helping people learn about notebook computers. MIDStories.com explores how average people use Mobile Internet Devices.
Creative Ad: “The Can”
Written and directed by Carlos Lascano, The Can was realized for a program organized by Red Bull and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. We’ve also featured Mr. Lascano’s work in the past when he released A short love story, a short film that was produced using similar animation techniques.