It's not uncommon for nature to inspire technology and innovative products. Airplanes were inspired by birds, Velcro by burrs and dog fur, bullet trains by owls and kingfishers, and gecko tape by... well, you can probably figure that one out. And one of the deadliest fish ever to swim the oceans has also influenced its share of merchandise; Sharks made humans faster in the water with Fastswim Suits, and now they've helped make one of the most rugged smartphone cases in the world—SharkEye's Ru...
As of right now, Guinness World Records claims that the highest human flight with a rocket belt is 152 feet, accomplished by Eric Scott in 2004. But they may need to update their records soon thanks to Martin Aircraft Company in New Zealand, whose Martin Jetpack finally showed the world it can fly—really fly.
In recent years, communication has become more intimate with the advent of applications like Skype and FaceTime, but what about the longing for actual physical contact? What if you could feel a loved one's hand, or even exchange a kiss? Impossible, right?
Not since JC de Castelbajac's infectiously fun LEGO fashion line have I seen such energetic geek-inspired ware. Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga pays homage to ye olde 8-bit days with his extensive catwalk of video game inspired womenswear—ranging from dresses to suits to streetwear. The pixel-printed Fall/Winter 2011/2012 collection debuted during Tokyo Fashion Week under his label Anrealage. Not only did the models don classic pixel prints, but they also strutted to a live pianist perfor...
The war against machines is near, thanks to Cyberdyne... I mean... the German Aerospace Center. The DLR Hand Arm System is a terminator-like anthropomorphic appendage that functions just as a normal human hand and arm would. Only it's way more durable and can take a beating from not only a hammer, but a baseball bat. Possibly the next-gen soldier?
First, I have to apologize—this is really old news. But when it comes to Nele Azevedo's Minimum Monument project, it's well worth digging into the archives. It's one of the most amazing street art installations I've ever seen.
Nintendo's Wii Remote came close, but never has a video game peripheral garnered such adoration from the hacker community than the Kinect.
Being a Southern Californian, I typically miss out on the incredible springtime bloom of flowering trees in the East. But not this year. By some stroke of luck, I was in Boston early last week, and witnessed the most spectacular trees and foliage at their prime—lilac, magnolias, crabapples, dogwood, and many more.
Last week, a waiter showed me something pretty neat. A habitual customer had made a tradition of leaving behind an impressive tip—not so much in terms of dollar amount, but in the presentation. Next to the check sat an amazing pyramidal structure, folded with multiple single dollar bills, and a tightly folded moneygami shuriken (AKA ninja star).
Flowers can be just as delicious as they are beautiful—as long as you know which flowers to choose and what to use them for. Nasturtium salads, rose jam, chrysanthemum-sprinkled cakes—the possibilities are as endless as the shapes and colors the flowers come in.
The da Vinci robot has proven to be an endless source of amusement to surgeons everywhere; in Japan, it folds origami cranes, at the state of Washington's Swedish Medical Center, it flies paper airplanes and gives manicures. It's a battle of the hospitals—who can make their pricey pony perform the greatest trick?
Being a street food fanatic I took a picture of one of my favorite street foods. This street food belongs to the super cholesterol loaded level. But the taste was so awesome and only @ P5.00 I am having a hard time saying no to this:
Here's a two-in-one "tutorial" for you today; how to fold a paper airplane, and how to execute a belated St. Patrick's Day manicure. Just follow along and do as the da Vinci does—our adroit instructor is a surgical robot, with a hefty price tag of approximately 1.3 million dollars, plus several hundred thousand dollars in annual maintenance fees. In truth, the da Vinci doesn't have the brain power to dictate the folding of a simple origami plane, nor does it know how to paint orange and green...
It's tough to figure out what a mummy would have looked like when he was alive; soft tissue of a human body decays, even in ice. But, Dutch brothers Adrie and Alfons Kennis took the challenge. Using techniques that belong to both science and art, they managed to reconstruct the face and body of Otzi the Iceman, a mummy who was found in the Italian Alps in 1991.
The footage you're about to watch may look CG, and while it is indeed animated, the 5,600 frames used to composite this fly by glimpse of Saturn aren't fabricated—they are real hi-res photographs taken by the Cassini orbiter. Outside In—an "IMAX in a basement"—is a DIY not-for-profit IMAX project-in-progress by filmmaker Stephen Van Vuuren.
Has the famous Cadbury Creme Egg recipe finally been cracked? There's only one way to find out! One delicious, delicious way.
Scanner photography + sandwiches = Scanwiches (simply put: "scans of sandwiches for education and delight"). The web-famous Tumblr is the invention of Jon Chonko, a NYC-based designer at thehappycorp global.
You have two choices for keeping your living room looking fresh: A. constantly update the decor by tripping out on acid—NOT recommended—or B. paint your living room white and get two video projectors. Created by Mr. Beam:
Inspired by the vast and exotic geography of Iceland, Canadian-Hungarian artist Eszter Burghardt uses food and wool to reconstruct her memory of the landscape. The series, "Edible Vistas and Wooly Sagas", is molded from "poppy seeds, coco powder, coffee, milk, and chocolate cake crumbs" and Icelandic wool—there are endless herds of native sheep wandering the countryside. She then captured the dioramas with a macro lens.
Instructable user samsmith17's solution for riding in the dark is a lot snazzier than your typical bicycle light:
Well, maybe not a real invisibility cloak—sorry Harry Potter fans—but a team of scientists at MIT's SMART Centre are on their way to producing materials that mimic actual invisibility.
Below, two different sets of schematics for mixing cocktails: the first is the "Engineer's Guide to Drinks" designed some time in the '80s; the second is a set of sleek infographics for mixing the perfect drink, from Brazilian illustrator Fabio Rex.
This is an amazing resource put together by the Monterey Bay Aquarium called "Seafood Watch". You can look up any type of seafood on their website, and they will tell you whether that seafood is good for your body and for the environment!
In the far away land of Japan, gold is out, glow-in-the-dark is in. LED "grills" were recently conceived of by two Japanese designers/hackers for a winter advertising event at clothing store Laforet Harajuku. The LED teeth attachments quickly became a hot item. Foreseeably, one of the two designers demonstrating the teeth in the video above is the familiar Daito Manabe (our favorite "self-electrocuting" mad hacker). Manabe's partner, Motoi Ishibashi, came up with the idea when "he saw a video...
In the picture for this post you can see a grab of David Kassan's DVD sales page. The reason it is there, is if you really want to be the best, you should know how to draw. I suggest buying this DVD and anything from David Kassan, Jeremy Lipking or Tony Pro. If you want to learn, why not learn form the best?
Check this out! It is a music synthesizer that you can create sounds & music with just your webcam. You can also print out some 'Markers' to create even more unique sound. It is interesting that a gum product is creating music mixing software & Augmented Reality toys...
For all pickle aficionados, apparently the combination of sour pickles and sweet Kool-Aid is surprisingly delectable. Popular in Mississippi, Kool-Aid drenched pickles are a popular treat coined Koolickles. Sound unappetizing? Don't knock it 'til you try it. The New York Times reports, "[Koolickles] have an arresting color that combines green and garnet, and a bracing sour-sweet taste that they owe to a long marinade in cherry or tropical fruit or strawberry Kool-Aid."
I admit it, I'm lucky - I currently live about an hour away from the Fabric District in LA, and was recently just about ten miles down Pico Boulevard from it. So I'm incredibly spoiled - I'm used to being able to find crushed panne velvet for four dollars a yard, or a rich brocade for six dollars a yard. A friend and I once found some faux fur for about fifty dollars a yard - which sounds expensive until I say that the pile was about two and a half inches long, a rich brown color and 60" wide.
These Cupcake burgers are so much fun. You can make them yourself and serve them at the party, or make them a part of the fun. The last 5 pictures are pics of the burger cupcake craft at my daughter 4th of July summer school party. These 4, 5, and 6 year olds did an amazing job. The sloppier the burgers the better! With colored frosting for the ketchup and mustard, chopped up gummy bears for the relish and tomatoes, and coconut for the onions, and died coconut for the lettuce--the burgers wer...
If you missed our tips on taking top-notch photos New Year's Eve, you may want to tune in for Lifehacker's tutorial on making your smartphone pictures look like they were taken with a quality camera. Below, learn how to:
A group of nano-scientists from the University of Glasgow have created the world's smallest Christmas card, measuring in at 200 micro-meters wide by 290 micro-meters tall. (BTW, a micro-metre is a millionth of a meter, and the width of a human hair is about 100 micro-meters.)
WonderHowTo favorite NurdRage once again triggers the inner mad scientist in all of us (well, all of us WonderHowTo-ians at least). Below, watch what happens when steel wool- found in every common household Brillo Pad- is lit on fire.
In 1782, an English plumber named William Watts came up with a clever method for making shotgun ammo. Watts constructed a six story "shot tower", consisting of a series of perfectly lined up holes, drilled into all six floors of the structure. Watts then poured molten lead through a sieve from the top story, through the holes of each floor, finally landing on the bottom floor in a pool of water. The cushioned impact resulted in a perfectly formed bullet.
If you're not familiar with the animations of Jan Švankmajer, you're in for quite a trip. The Czech artist and filmmaker is known for his metaphorical, captivatingly surreal stop-motion and claymation films, and is God to many (including talents such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Quay).
Nearly all humans (admittedly childishly) admire the ability to emit uncannily musical armpit or hand farts, or even rarer- mouth fart motor engine aping. However, it is the rare occasion that a performer's gaseous-sounding melodic notes are indeed truly gaseous (meaning literally discharged from the butt-hole).
Who other than Mother Earth? Below, a selection of 10 images from the USGS' Earth as Art, a collection of stunning photographs from the Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites. The bright color is a false effect produced by satellite sensors, but the texture, shapes, patterns, scale- that's all real.
Items needed: 1/4 cup of henna powder
As Theo Gray of Gray Matter demonstrates below, contrary to what the ads may say, diamonds CAN expire. Especially when attacked with a blow torch and liquid nitrogen. Gray says:
