A testament of man vs. machine will air on February 14th, 15th, and 16th when IBM's supercomputer "Watson" is pitted against the world's fiercest Jeopardy players, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, for a chance to win a cool $1 million. It took researchers four years to build Watson, a machine mastermind the size of ten refrigerators and equipped with complex algorithms capable of decoding the complexities of the human language (no small feat). Watch below as Watson kicks ass in a practice round ...
Hold the repulsion- we're talking art, not lice. Seattle artist Adrienne Antonson makes tiny insect sculptures with recycled human hair and glue, and they're pretty spectacular.
Luckily for us, human aging is a long, slow process. One day newborn babe... 36,500 days later, you're old. Really old. And how you looked in between is all but forgotten. To see a side-by-side mapping of the long and slow human mutation process, check out Danish photojournalists Sofia Wraber and Nanna Kreutzmann's 101 photographs of males, ages 0 to 100.
What if you skinned a muppet and wore it as a mask? In the virtual 2D world of the internet, it might work a little something like this: photos of muppets + photos of human eyes x Photoshop = weirdest Tumblog ever, muppetswithpeopleeyes.tumblr.com by Mike Lacher.
Imagine walking around and everyone looks awesome! Ok, maybe this beauty is only skin deep or shall we say AR deep. Coming soon to a pair of glasses near you, you will be able to put on glasses that actually make people look more muscular, have bigger boobs, look tan & blonde, etc... Now imagine that you can push a button or say a word and now all the people around you become brunette. Then another setting makes everyone slightly shorter than you. All of this in realtime!
All hail artist, programmer and human electrocution music-machine, Daito Manabe. He's back, and better than ever: Read more about his process.
A major milestone in aviation occurred this past August, when the human-powered Snowbird, an aircraft made of carbon fiber and balsa wood, achieved the first successful flight of its kind.
The battery-operated, Bluetooth-controlled pieces use downward-facing sensors to read grids built into the individual squares on the board. They then communicate with the controlling computer to keep track of their location in relation to other pieces. The computer tells each piece which direction to go, and how far, on its turn.
Don't worry, the robot apocalypse is not upon us...yet. Wired reports it may be closer than you think:
We have seen it before (previous post: Human Powered Ferris Wheel), but it never gets any less amazing. Talk about resourcefulness. No need for electricity. Use humans to power your ferris wheel (if you had one sitting around... I wish I had one). Via Make,
Check out this science video tutorial on how to apply a C. elegans dopamine neuron degeneration assay for the validation of potential Parkinson's Disease genes.
No exaggeration in today's headline, design student Anna Schwamborn has actually designed a jewelry line made from the hair and cremated ashes of dead loved ones. Human hair sure makes a nice accent to the black bone china (note the word "bone" - human ashes are mixed in).
My stomach is doing somersaults just watching this. Looks fun, albeit incredibly dangerous. Take it down a notch (or fifty) and build an indoor swing this winter. Previously, Deeply Trusting Female Volunteers Bod to Redneck Science: First Human Slingshot.
Well, maybe these folks aren't redneck. That is a pretty nice house, and that slingshot doesn't look too jery rigged. But the idea of a human slingshot is certainly redneck (and lotsa fun). Previously, Build a Redneck Roller Coaster.
6 billion humans vs 1 quadrillion ants. What to do? This tutorial preaches a solution of canola oil and mason jars.
Amazing. Truly. This is a WonderHowTo weekend digression. When we get excited, we just gots to share. Ok. Ok. Almost all of our tutorials possess a DIY sensibility and bias. Education is a complex relative of DIY and causes us taxonomical gas. But we love the category, nonetheless.
I present you... The Eggroll... Get a human sphere, fill it up with eggs and a poor poor man (as you can see, I choose Preston in my illustration) , and roll it down a hill, onto a ramp and right onto a lake! :)
CARRION n pl. -S dead and putrefying flesh 59 points (9 points without the bingo)
Artist Austin Houldsworth of the UK has come up with a device that drastically speeds up the process of fossilisation. Entitled Two Million & 1AD, Houldsworth is capable of creating a fossil in a few months (which otherwise might require thousands of years). Houldsworth is currently experimenting with objects such as a pineapple and phesant, but ultimately hopes to fossilize a human. Houldsworth proposes:
Okay, I discovered (while googling a photo for such a thing) AFTER conceiving this idea for this prank that there was actually a mammoth-sized inflatable toilet- that we would need for this skit- shown in the Kate Winslet/Hugh Jackman movie, "Flushed Away" (which I have never seen.) So, to me, I still consider this an original idea of mine.
Last time we took a look at some of the creatures of the pond, including the dragonfly nymph. Today, we examine the all-grown-up dragonflies in the field you are used to seeing on summer days! Dragonflies are not dangerous, but the extra large ones can bite you something fierce if you handle them wrong.
In my early life I was deeply impacted by the work of physician and psychoanalyst John C. Lilly. I still have my dog-eared copies of The Mind of the Dolphin (1967) and Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer (1968). Lilly's work, with dolphins and the development of the sensory deprivation tank, has formed the basis of movies, music and television productions.
I'll admit it, yes, I support protesting. It doesn't matter what my opinions are about any individual protest—overall, it is a human right and the only way to avoid tyranny. We can't deify Ghandi and demonize American protesters. That shows a silly shortsightedness that we can't afford to dabble in.
It's officially the last day of the year and there's no better way to end 2010 at WonderHowTo than with our own Top 10 list.
What feature would we most like to see in the robots of tomorrow? Why, the ability to interact with human beings without crushing them to death, of course. Happily, thanks to a new pressure-sensitive synthetic skin technology, the dream is within reach:
In this video magician David Zanthor shares an age old magic trick. You will need a willing human, a deck of cards, a rubber band, two identical coins and skills. The trick? It involves Ing Ping Ching energy and it is quite involved...so you will have to watch the video! Do the Ing Ping Ching magic trick.
The human flag is one of the hardest tricks in all of gymnastics, parkour, freerunning and general playground acrobatics.
Build platform on top of motor or side of boat. Strap Preston onto top of platform holding the legs of the first person in the chain. (If Preston can't hold the first person, have fist person of chain strap onto the platform by feet/ankles or legs.) Each person holds the legs or ankles of the person in front of them. Skier/boarder holds arms of last person of chain
While most people go to great lengths to conceal their emotions, Japanese company Neurowear is offering a product that would reveal states of tension, excitement and relaxation—all by the up-and-down motion of a pair of cartoony cat ears. Necomimi is a "new communication tool that augments human’s body and ability." The device reads your brain waves and communicates your emotions before you even open your mouth:
Visit www.studiorealism.com to see other tutorials on how to sculpt the human figure in clay. This figure showing the 3 masses was taken directly from my Beginning Figure Sculpting DVD, and both the figure, and the DVD are available at my website.
Visit www.studiorealism.com to see other tutorials on how to sculpt the human figure in clay. This figure showing the 3 masses was taken directly from my Beginning Figure Sculpting DVD, and both the figure, and the DVD are available at my website.
Visit www.studiorealism.com to see other tutorials on how to sculpt the human figure in clay. This figure showing the 3 masses was taken directly from my Beginning Figure Sculpting DVD, and both the figure, and the DVD are available at my website.
Visit www.studiorealism.com to see other tutorials on how to sculpt the human figure with clay. This is a deleted scene from my new DVD about sculpting clay figures, which can be found at www.studiorealism.com
Pom-pom pyramids? Kids' stuff! When it comes to building sky-high human towers, who could ever match the skill and heroism of the castellers—or castle builders—of Catalonia, Spain? Nadie! Nobody! These colorful climbers have only one rival: They know it as la gravidad. You know it as gravity. Watch them contend with it in the video clip below.
Careful or you may find yourself crushing on this cute little Android named HRP-4C. From the head up, the Japanese robot could easily be mistaken for one of her human backup singers. Freaky! Previously, Robot Dance Off Gets Creepy.
Wingsuits are an invention of the Gods. Why? Because they give human beings incredible superhuman powers. First in the gallery below, a compilation of world renown daredevil Jeb Corliss' most amazing jumps. Second, Jeb's epic flight under the arms of Rio's gigantic Jesus Christ. Previously, Adrenaline Rush vs. Death: The Science of Risk.
Joseph L. Griffiths, an Australian artist who resides in Paris, has created a DIY bicycle-powered drawing machine. I'd like to see a video of the piece in action.
What do you get when you mix water-filled bowls with electrical wiring and human hands? The answer may shock you. Artists Ion Furjanic & Isaac Souweine write, "Electric Tea 1.0 is the first in a series of works that put sound where it doesn't belong. [It] uses porcelain bowls, metal orbs, speaker wire, water, and the conductive power of the human body to create a water based musical controller."