Animation

tags: insects, comedy, humor, satire, bentekr, animation, streaming video If the previous video wasn't enough to make you laugh, then this one will do the trick. Silly, funny, fun, but .. is there a meaning to this? Or maybe I should instead have entitled this "Ladybug pwns Dragonflies"?

tags: insects, comedy, humor, satire, bentekr, animation, streaming video This is a silly video that will make you smile.

from the always excellent Creature Comforts: For those sensitive to meaningless violence against ants, you might want to look away around 5:20.

tags: penguins, humor, funny, animation, streaming video Below the jump is an amusing video, that asks the question, "Do Penguins Fly?" and makes an unexpected discovery [2:15]

My first thought on seeing the new Toyota Prius commercial was, "are those cells and membranes?!" No, they're people in costumes, but the resemblance of the Prius' cartoon world to a cell animation is pretty remarkable. The sun TOTALLY looks like it has transmembrane receptors on it. My second thought was, wow, this is perhaps the first commercial I have seen to really make compelling use of high-definition TV. I kept getting closer and closer to my screen. So do yourself a favor, and click through to watch it in high-def if you have a decent connection. It's hypnotizing.

In her recent TED talk, JoAnne Kuchera-Morin described UCSB's AlloSphere, a new project that enables scientists to literally stand inside a three-story projection of their data: The AlloSphere space consists of a 3-story cube that is treated with extensive sound absorption material making it one of the largest anechoic chambers in the world. Standing inside this chamber are two 5-meter-radius hemispheres constructed of perforated aluminum that are designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent. (source) Scientists and artists can stand on a bridge through the center of this…

No, it's not how evolution really works, but it's awfully cool anyway. The Experiment from Colin Trenter on Vimeo. I love Photoshop, but am I the only one who thinks this resembles a cross between a Rorschach test and a SyFy Channel commercial?

tags: sand monsters, animation, children, streaming video This streaming video presents a fascinating world of sand animation where a child fights monsters, dragons and ghosts with the power of his violin's sound, a melody that is able to make all these scary characters run away [4:45]

For any animal, it pays to be able to spot other animals in order to find mates and companions and to avoid predators. Fortunately, many animals move in a distinct way, combining great flexibility with the constraints of a rigid skeleton - that sets them apart from inanimate objects like speeding trains or flying balls. The ability to detect this "biological motion" is incredibly important. Chicks have it. Cats have it. Even two-day-old babies have it. But autistic children do not. Ami Klim from Yale has found that two-year-old children with autism lack normal preferences for natural…

Another classy animation from Creature Comforts:

Courtesy of Miniscule:

Disney's pesticide-induced hallucination from 1935:

Apparently, the world ends in a stream of Japanese narration.

From Creature Comforts:

Via The Other 95% comes an absolutely charming animation set to the British public's opinion on evolution. If the style looks familiar, it's from Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit.

Interesting sand animations done by Sigrid Astrup.