Art
pharyngula | April 15, 2010A church in Oklahoma is actually losing members over a crucifix on display. The problem is the artist has painted Jesus with a 'distended abdomen', or perhaps a six-pack (actually a four-pack in this case), that is making all the filthy-minded Catholics think of something else.
I'm looking at the dimensions of that thing and thinking that they also seem to have a highly unrealistic expectation of Jesus' endowment. Also that he gets aroused in very peculiar circumstances — who knew Jesus was a masochistic sub?
pharyngula | April 14, 2010The idea that he could have been half-human/half-alien is even more ridiculous than the idea that he could have been half-human/half-mollusc. Although…the concept is intriguing.
grrlscientist | April 8, 2010tags: Lego Monsters Attack NYC, Lego, art, animation, technology, weird, offbeat, NYC, New York City, streaming video
This is a silly video but the technology that was used to create it is really interesting to watch, especially for this NYCer!
grrlscientist | April 3, 2010tags: cartoon, easter, humor
I know this cartoon is as old as I am so you've all seen it a hundred times already, but it never fails to make me laugh, so I am sharing it with you anyway.
grrlscientist | April 2, 2010tags: Another Housefly, machine, sculpture, gadgets, humor, funny, silly, Arthur Ganson, streaming video
Another Housefly, a creation by Arthur Ganson. Ganson writes: To be honest, I never really liked Housefly because it made too much noise! This is a rethinking of the original mechanism that takes into account more aspects of the fly. The linkage arms which move the base of the spring-wire purposely mimic the front legs of the housefly as she cleans herself.
Here's the original housefly machine that Ganson was improving upon:
grrlscientist | April 1, 2010tags: marshmallow peeps, Optometry Peeps, eyecare, easter, humor, funny, silly, health, streaming video
This is an amusing and creative video of Marshmallow Peeps Bunnies having an eye exam.
grrlscientist | March 31, 2010tags: Peep Microwave Disaster, marshmallow peeps, easter, humor, funny, silly, health, streaming video
This video is a demonstration of what happens when a marshmallow peep is placed in a specially modified 100,000W microwave oven. The result? Well, it's not pretty!
cagapakis | March 25, 2010
Cellularity is a new project by James King, a speculative designer working on biotechnology and interaction design. The project focuses on the potential future of smart pharmaceuticals, drug molecules surrounded by membranes that over time as technology advances may come to more and more closely resemble actually living things. He proposes a cellularity scale from totally non-living to really alive artificial cells. This quantification of "aliveness" in a way is something that may need to be done if some of the proposals of synthetic biology come to fruition. When does a membrane surrounding…
grrlscientist | March 25, 2010tags: nature, numbers, geometry, mathematics, Fibonacci sequence, Golden Ratio, Angle Ratio, Delaunay Triangulation, Voronoi Tessellations, filmmaking, animation, Cristobal Vila, Nature by Numbers, streaming video
In this beautiful video, "Nature by Numbers," filmmaker Cristobal Vila presents a series of animations illustrating various mathematic principles, beginning with a breathtaking animation of the Fibonacci Sequence before moving on to the Golden Ratio, the Angle Ratio, the Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi Tessellations. The words are scary-sounding, but the math is beautiful and the…
grrlscientist | March 25, 2010tags: Resonant Chamber, music, music video, film, animation, technology, computer graphics, Animusic, streaming video
This interesting animation is an argument for how a self-playing harp might work. The one thing that would improve its efficiency is to have a "plucker" that is dedicated to each string (as you see on the bass part of this contraption) rather than have each plucker pick at any or all of the strings. What do you think?
You can learn more at Animusic.
neurophilosophy | March 23, 2010Click to enlarge images
ARTISTS employ a number of different techniques to represent implied motion in two-dimensional works. One of these, commonly used in posters, comics and animation, is the affine shear effect, whereby a moving object is depicted as leaning into the direction of movement. Cartoonists also use action lines to depict movement and speed, with straight lines conveying fast movements and wavy lines conveying slower ones. Motion can also be conveyed by superimposing several images showing the successive positions of a movement, or by a blurred image showing the different…
sciencepunk | March 22, 2010Jim Tierney designed a beautiful set of covers for some of Jules Verne's most famous works. The project was carried out as part of his senior year thesis.
He says:
I'm a big Verne fan, but a chance to re-design any classic book is always exciting. Classics usually allow for a more personal interpretation, since most people are already vaguely familiar with the premise of the books, and I didn't have to compete with one well-known cover, as I might have with a more recent book.
You can see the full set on the Faceout website.
grrlscientist | March 18, 2010tags: public service announcement, Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, seatbelts, automobiles, vehicles, safety, safer roads, Embrace Life, streaming video
This is a very touching public service announcement (PSA) by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, asking people to always wear their seatbelts when in a moving vehicle. Is there an Academy Award for PSAs? If so, this one deserves to be nominated!
grrlscientist | March 17, 2010tags: online advertising, Samsung, digital camera, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, profile pictures, streaming video
This video clip is a hilarious ad for a Samsung digital camera that is aimed specifically at all of us online personalities. We all know the infamous "MySpace angle" of profile pictures, and who can ignore the slew of pouty-mouthed snapshots on Facebook? Well, universally flattering angle, the gig is up. Heck, even Samsung knows the tricks of the profile pic trade and calls out the most common photo maneuvers in a new ad. Quite clever, Samsung.
ddobbs | March 16, 2010it doesn't get better than this. The part at about 1.45 where he gets the stick stuck in the strings: Really takes off there.
;
© Extracts from Ariane Michel's film, Les Oiseaux de Céleste.
awild | March 16, 2010You may remember Wesley Fleming, the glass artist I blogged about last year. It seems he's accomplished a remarkable new piece: a leafcutter ant infected with a parasitic Cordyceps fungus. As far as I know this is the first Cordyceps ever created from glass.
If you'd like to see it in person, this and some of Fleming's other pieces will be on display at the Racine Art Museum this summer.
What is Cordyceps, you ask? Watch:
grrlscientist | March 16, 2010tags: Bill and Coo, Tour of Chirpendale, film, movies, silly, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, animal training, birds, parrots, streaming video
I have never seen nor heard of Bill and Coo (1948), but it's a real treat. It features an all-bird cast (trained by George Burton) acting out a story involving Taxi Driver Bill Singer wooing his beloved Coo whilst fighting off a parakeet-devouring crow! This clip features a tour of the town of Chirpendale and its inhabitants. Oddly enough, the film won a special Academy award "In which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of…
grrlscientist | March 15, 2010tags: British humor, cricket, sports, The Full Monty, silly, satire, parody, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, cultural observation, streaming video
I am not sure which form of torture would be most likely to make me crack first: being forced to watch paint dry, being forced to watch golf or being forced to watch a cricket match. This British film trailer parody is an amusing look at one of the world's most boring and inane sports.
I had to share this here since the person whom I share a flat with happens to be obsessed with this lameass sport.
grrlscientist | March 15, 2010tags: !Kung, ÇʼOÇKung, beatbox, beatbox girl, performance art, linguistics, streaming video
This woman is ridiculously awesome: she beatboxes for the camera. I have never seen anyone better than her. Which of course, makes me wonder if she might be the one Westerner who is able to learn to speak the !Kung language, ÇʼOÇKung, fluently?
Any linguists out there who might know if she has been contacted about learning to speak the !Kung language?