Castel Meur

More about Castel Meur at this site, translated by Google from the French. The photo is from Christian Cooper.

Sometimes a cigar isn't JUST a cigar

Sometimes, the resemblance of things is just too vivid to pass over. Take this potato for example.



Gives new meaning to tater tots. Check out these other rather interesting veggies that look like human body parts.

Lego Art and Arms

Lego Art:



because sometimes even the most basic building blocks can lead to stuff that is unusual and artistic.

And Lego Arms:



Because, sometimes, you want that little Lego dude's smile to be the last sardonic thing his Lego adversary sees before his ass gets capped.

Some amazing, and difficult mazes

This maze is a result of a human guided process using computers to define how the mazes are created. More about the mazes and more mazes at the University of Waterloo site.

Robert Bruno's Steel House

Artist Robert Bruno's Steel House which he has been working on for 28 years.

BMW Kinetic Sculpture

YouTube - Deep Forest - Sweet Lullaby

The lyrics translate to:

Young brother, young brother you be quiet
Although you are crying to me
Your father has left us
He has gone to the place of the dead
Protect the head of the living, Protect the orphan child

Young brother, young brother hey? although you are crying to me
Your father has left us
He has gone to the place of the dead
Protect the head of the living, protect the orphan child



If you follow this blog, you might realize that this sounds familiar. It is a version of the song from an earlier video post: Where the Hell is Matt?

A Man of Honor Speech -- The Musical

Where The Hell Is Matt?

Where The Hell Is Matt? is a series of rather infectious videos done by a guy who can't dance at locations around the world. He got so popular that he ended up being sponsored by Stride gum to do his stint as a commercial.

Look! I'm world famous!

A while back, a guy on Flickr asked me if he could use one of my photos for a Jazz Festival they were holding, called The Upton Blues Festival which they are holding in the UK. The guy wasn't the first to ask me about, this, and I said the same thing that I always say when people ask: Sure, go ahead as long as I get attribution and a copy of the final product. While the guy wasn't the first to ask, he is the first to actually return a finished product to me, which you can see here:



This is the original photo, taken from my Flickr photostream:



The guy chose this photo because last year the area that the festival was held was devastated by flooding, and this is their comeback year, which made the broken piano appropriate. Thanks to the Upton Blues Festival for appreciating my work, and for actually returning something to me!

Rock On

At first, this image seems impossible, and screams of someone with photoshop skills pulling a fast one on the internet.



Of course, if that were the case, then it really wouldn't have much of a place here on my blog. Rather this is the art of a man named Bill Dan, who goes around balancing rocks on each other. Be sure to check out his videos too -- they will make a believer out of you!

Thor Music

A solid-state Tesla coil with a primary running at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range. That is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones. The high voltage sparks make the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a "long" piece of fiber optics.

This Tesla coil was built and is owned by Steve Ward, who is an EE student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Hand Music

And much more here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/gunecologist

Achy Breaky Heart

It is the voice of Life that calls us

To thine own self be true...

Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts

Digg - Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts

Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts

A great card

Justen Ladda's The Thing

and from a side view which shows that it is really a 2D not 3D image:




Check out the rest of his art installations, etc. as well.

In the "There has to be a better way" category

How Not To Roll Cable Up Stairs - Watch more free videos

Travel Posters

A site of old travel posters.

E.J. Peiker, Nature Photographer

This and other great photos of a cougar and its cubs by E.J. Peiker.

Eaten by Trees

A bike and other items that have been swallowed up by trees.

Houseboats

The Trilobus


The neptus


and other houseboats
http://weburbanist.com/2008/02/20/17-extreme-houseboats-and-houseboat-designs-luxury-marine-habitats-to-humble-floating-homes/

Glass Harmonium

A guy with very dexterous fingers...

Musical Crystal Glasses Like Never Before

Home Made Drones

From Wired Magazine, comes this video on home made drones.



Thanks to P. Reid for the link.

Vegetal Alien

Using 12 digital vegetable models in 3ds max using photographic references, Till Nowak channeled H.R. Giger and Giuseppe Arcimboldo to come up with the work "Salad":




More on the making of, here.

Thanks to P. Reid for the link.

A Laser Harp

Thanks to P. Reid for the link.

The Caecilian Brunch

What nourishes baby caecilians? Apparently, their mother's skin, as shown in the video.

Parkour Soccer

The viral videos of parkour have been making the rounds for some time now, but here is an interesting twist -- Parkour techniques applied to soccer:

Skull With Cigarette, 2007

Chris Jordan 's Skull With Cigarette, based on Van Gogh's 1885 painting "Skull with Burning Cigarette", is made of images of 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarettes smoking every six months.






You can see more of his current photographic work, all of which deal in expressing large numbers relating to our daily lives through multiple images that combine into a larger visual piece.

Rinspeed Splash and sQuba

The Rinspeed Splash is a race car that becomes a hydroplane









While the sQuba hails back to the James Bond Lotus Esprit:





Both are among the 17 other concept cars that Rinspeed has developed or is developing.

WOOP WOOP BLING BLING

A post of some exotic cars that serve in the line of duty, such as this Spyker:

The Skelewags

Some cool concept art that I found on the internet.





More here.

An Awesome Shotgun

More info.

Balloons

An interesting webpage of balloon sculptures.

The Jedi Ginsu Knife!

Jedi Ginsu Knife Commercial

Rube Goldberg Webpage

A webpage that acts like a Rube Goldberg device... be patient as it takes a second to get going. Excellent!

Godsbot

Ever wanted to talk to God, but found the church always got in the way? Are you one of those who goes up to the balcony in St. Peters, and shouts “I mean really, who elected you Pope anyways?” Well, now you can skip the line, and talk to divinity just as Moses did – through a direct intermediary like a burning bush except that the burning bush in this case is Godsbot:



And you know it must be a divinely inspired bot by the way his eyes mysteriously follow where ever your mouse is.

Synchronized Off Roading

I have posted here before with various commercials that have vehicles seeming to dance a ballet. Today, I present to you some synchronized off-roading -- definitely not a ballet but still awesome to watch.

Jen Stark's Paper Sculptures

Jen Stark is a Miami, Florida based sculpture that works in paper. Here are a couple of examples of her work:





The simple material of construction paper, and a lot of cutting result in some pretty amazing sculptures!

Realistic Paper Model

This ultra-realistic paper model of the Yamaha MT-101 can be downloaded and is a model . The detail is amazing, and undoubtedly would take hours to make. There are other models on the site as well, including bikes, animals, and seasonal items.

Nifty Painting Mosaic

More about the painting by Lewis Lavoie here.

Marion Hyper-Sub

The Marion Hyper-Sub is a boat that converts into a submersible.

What happens when you get 100,000 North Koreans in a Stadium

The picture is from an article in Foreign Policy's Friday Photo, where there are more examples as well.

Of course this is kind of display is hardly new. I came across a US example on my visit to the Metropolitan Museum yesterday:




The photgraph is by Arthur Mole who did many photos using men in the armed forces. Among them were pictures of the American flag, Abraham Lincoln, the Liberty Bell, and this one of the Eagle and Anchor, the symbol of the USMC:

Coin Dominoes

Lord of the Rings Origami

Each figure is made from one sheet of paper. The detail is amazing. On the same page that this comes from, is a barbarian that is equally stunning:



The artist, Eric Joisel, also does some very amazing animals, humans, faeries, musicians, and has a very interesting section on the origami design process.

Cage Cups

Cage cups from the Corning Museum and the Getty Museum's exhibition Reflecting Antiquity.

The Aurora

An interesting car, the Aurora, that was ahead of its time and snuffed out, much like the Tucker. More pics and info here.

Rotary car door

It has been a while since I have found something worth posting here, but this car door was as astounding as it is ingenious:



You can see more about this at http://www.disappearing-car-door.com/

I Gave Him a Dollar For Being Original on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This guy on Flickr took a pic of a panhandler and "I Gave Him a Dollar For Being Original" and a year later...

17 unusual book titles

1. How to Avoid Huge Ships by John W. Trimmer
2. Scouts in Bondage by Michael Bell
3. Be Bold with Bananas by Crescent Books
4. Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself by Dale L. Power
5. The Flat-Footed Flies of Europe by Peter J. Chandler
6. 101 Uses for an Old Farm Tractor by Michael Dregni
7. Across Europe by Kangaroo by Joseph R. Barry
8. 101 Super Uses for Tampon Applicators by Lori Katz and
Barbara Meyer
9. Suture Self by Mary Daheim
10. The Making of a Moron by Niall Brennan
11. How to Make Love While Conscious by Guy Kettelhack
12. Underwater Acoustics Handbook by Vernon Martin Albers
13. Superfluous Hair and Its Removal by A. F. Niemoeller
14. Lightweight Sandwich Construction by J. M. Davies
15. The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes by Michel Pastoureaut
16. How to Be a Pope: What to Do and Where to Go Once You're in the Vatican by Piers Marchant
17. How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren

From:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/17-unusual-book-titles.htm

The Gomboc

A self righting object that has no counterbalance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09selfrighting.html?ex=1354856400&en=709ba9d5b34c4d12&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

and the site for Gombo (with an animation showing it in action):
http://www.gomboc.eu/site.php

Cardboard Bridge

Shigeru Ban creates a footbridge out of carboard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_9_bridge.html?ex=1354770000&en=4b7b15e892ef42e0&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The God Effect

Altruism can be induced, and the idea of religion may have sprung from that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_21_godeffect.html?ex=1354770000&en=2cd0063612224544&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Crab in a Glass

An excellent photo and an excellent idea. What a great way to demonstrate how a hermit crab lives!!

The Bravit Candle

A neat time lapse video of the interesting candle concept.

Tree That Owns Itself - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tree That Owns Itself - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia