This cartoon “Вор” (Vor) or ‘The Thief’ (1934) is considered one of the most interesting cartoons of early 20th century Russian animation because of the techniques it uses. Instead of hiring a composer to write the audio track, the animators/director had noticed that if they were to make marks with pens on the audio track of the film, they could compose the music to accompany the animation by hand in a term later named ‘paper sound’ (“бумажная звука”).
As a result of this process, the music sounds way ahead of its time, sounding like a sort of analog 8-bit music.
Sutyagin house - Russian skyscraper made of scrapwood
Sutyagin house is a wooden house in Arkhangelsk, Russia. The 13-story, 144-ft tall residence of the local entrepreneur Nikolai Petrovich Sutyagin is reported to be the world’s, or at least Russia’s, tallest wooden house. Constructed by Mr. Sutyagin and his family over 15 years (starting in 1992), without formal plans or a building permit, the structure deteriorated while Mr. Sutyagin spent a few years in prison on racketeering charges. In 2008 it was condemned by the city as a fire hazard, and the courts ordered it to be demolished by February 1, 2009. On December 26, 2008, the tower was pulled down, and the remainder was dismantled manuallyover the course of the next several months.
Balding female bears at Germany’s Leipzig Zoo are baffling vets working to figure out the condition’s cause— especially since the normally fluffy brown bears should now be growing a thicker coat to keep warm during the winter.
(via)
New Bald Bird Discovered in Laos
from wired.com
Dubbed the “bare-faced bulbul” because of its unusual feather-free head, the newly discovered species is the only example of a bald songbird in Asia and the first new type of bulbul reported in the last hundred years.
I am seriously and deeply creeped out by this doll.
Your unborn baby cast in bronze ... it's the new foetal attraction
Not only is this creepy, but the fact that the title uses a pun just adds to the weirdness factor
‘A 3D printer uses ultrasound images to build a cast of the child. The models cost £1,200, take up to two-and-a-half weeks to make, and are created when the mother is at a safe stage of pregnancy at 24 weeks.’
Optical Illusion: The Blue and Green in this Spiral are Actually the Same Color
from discover.com:
You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue? Incredibly, the green and the blue spirals are the same color. The reason they look different colors is because our brain judges the color of an object by comparing it to surrounding colors. In this case, the stripes are not continuous as they appear at first glance. The orange stripes don’t go through the “blue” spiral, and the magenta ones don’t go through the “green” one.
The orange stripes go through the “green” spiral but not the “blue” one. So without us even knowing it, our brains compare that spiral to the orange stripes, forcing it to think the spiral is green. The magenta stripes make the other part of the spiral look blue, even though they are exactly the same color.
"Honey, this is a nursing home, in Texas" (wrong number)
- Phone shows one missed call from an unknown number. No message, I decide to call it back.
- Stranger: (in a tenor animated tone, maybe gay male) Hello?
- Me: Hello. Who is this? I just got a call from this number and they left no message, so I decided to call back.
- Stranger: What?
- Me: I'm calling back because someone called my phone
- Stranger: I don't think anyone called you here dear.
- Me: Are you sure? This is Brendan. Bradshaw?
- Stranger: No, this isn't Bradshaw. This is a nursing home.
- Me: Oh, I know who it might be then, is this nursing home in Lansdale?
- Stranger: No it's in Texas.
- Me: Texas! Oh, well I guess it was just a wrong number.. thank you very much sir.....ma'am (upon realizing it might be a woman after all.)
- (click)
“Ich Bin 8-Bit” Post-It Art @ Neurotitan Gallery Berlin
Philadelphia artist Jude Buffum has recently returned from this exhibition he created at the Neurotitan gallery in Berlin, an 8-bit resolution inspired exhibit created using only post-it notes. Not only is creating a room full of art with small sticky squares of paper difficult enough as it is, but the beauty and vibrancy of this exhibit is nothing short of stunning. Awesome job Jude. More pictures below. Check out more pictures on the Flickr here
As you can see, a lot of the smaller pink post-its were actually drawn on by various artists. An exhibit within one, so to say.
Promo poster, of course.
Ich Bin 8-Bit installation timelapse from Jude Buffum on Vimeo.
And nothing would be complete without a time-lapse video, right?
Japanese Find Out How to Make Heart-Shaped Watermelons
Probably a really good valentine’s idea.
Use SOBEaR to cuddle/check your BAC
So this Bear is not only a lovely cuddling companion, but he also contains a breathalyzer. Perfect for her sweet sixteen!
Search For Missing Tourist Turns Up Seven Bodies, But Not the Right One
So apparently people die a lot around this mountain in China and no one really noticed until now. They still haven’t found the body of the guy they were looking for, though.
um, is this real?
“This is my extreme body wrestling champion”
Cheers to you!
In case you need a little rallying cheer when you’re feeling blue, this CD series gives you the pick up you need
Kryptos: Not even the CIA can solve its own commissioned sculpture
So more than 20 years ago, the CIA commissioned a sculpture to be erected in the courtyard to increase the beauty of the place as well as pay homage to the smart cookies that worked within. American artist James Sanborn was hired for the project, and he created the work Kryptos, a rather large bronze work with encoded letters cut into it. Sanborn worked with a top CIA cryptologist in order to learn how to create codes.
So what makes this work so special? Even after almost 20 years, no one has been able to fully decode Kryptos, even the CIA’s top code breakers. The first three sections, K1 K2 and K3 have been successfully solved, but K4 is yet to be broken. Not only are CIA agents working on it constantly, but there is also a Yahoo! Group with over 1000 members dedicated to the solving of K4.
Here is a rather in depth article about the structure that was in WIRED this month.
