Friday, February 22, 2013

Jupiter Embroidery based on NASA pics of Great Red Spot

Pardalote made this beautiful Jupiter embroidery loosely based on a series of photos by NASA showing Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surrounding area. She writes: "I sketched the bands and spots onto paper, and decided on colours. Next I used measurements from my sketch to draw this on the linen using a water soluble embroidery marker."

Full size ED-209 robot model from Robocop movie on eBay

Fans of Robocop with US$25k cash to spare can buy this 10 foot tall Enforcement Droid Series 209 (ED-209) robot model made for the movie Robocop 2. The seller says: "It may have been used as a stand-in for the robot during production or created as a marketing piece to promote the movie. It stands on two hind legs built with pneumatic cylinders."

18 officially sanctioned women hairstyles in North Korea

Women in North Korea just like their male counterparts have to wear their hair according to these officially sanctioned haircuts. North Korean women get 18 officially sanctioned haircuts that will most likely make them look like they are still stuck in the 70s to 80s era. They shouldn't complain. Men in North Korea only have 10 hairstyles to choose from.

(Thanks Hanna)

Cramped Apartments in Hong Kong shot from directly above

Human rights organization Society for Community Organization commissioned a series of photographs showing what a number of unacceptable living spaces in Hong Kong look like when viewed from directly overhead. The photos were taken by a camera placed on the ceiling of the apartments show how small these apartments really are.

Chocolate Canon D60 made from a real Canon D60 mold

Hans Chung is selling a limited edition solid chocolate Canon D60 camera with battery grip that costs US$500! He explains how he made it: " I buy a real camera and a real lens. Then I make a mold box and make a mold. The camera is pretty much destroyed in the process. Each camera takes about 5 hours of elapsed time of tempering and pouring."

One Thousand Ksoids Project

Danil Krivoruchko writes about his One Thousand Ksoids Project: "The project is my experiment on procedural generation of huge amount unique characters based on relatively small amount of creation rules. The project was done using visual programming environment ICE in Autodesk Softimage."

Create your own Lego toys for Lego to sell

LEGO CUUSOO allows you to share LEGO set concepts you'd like the whole world to enjoy and aim for their eventual release as real products. Projects with 10,000 supporters are reviewed quarterly by LEGO for a chance to become an official LEGO product. 1% of the total net sales of the product goes to your pocket!

Griz Coat keeps you warm while making you look like a bear

Nothing like putting on the Griz Coat when the temperature outside gets a bit cold. The Griz Coat is made of faux fur of course. No bears were killed while making the coat. Includes a kick-ass looking detachable Bear Head hood with eyes, teeth, claws and nose - everything to make you look like a grizzly bear.

Your eyelashes will never feel naked with Eyelash Jewelry

Eyelash Jewelry sells hand made false eyelash art. Each Eyelash Jewelry is made by hand-weaving tiny glass beads onto ultra thin wire. This creates a light-weight, flexible band that can be formed to the shape of any eye. Simply bend the jewelry into the proper shape, apply a thin layer of adhesive, and press it directly above your eyelashes.

Facebook profile pics drawn by strangers

Selfless Portraits is a collaborative art project which invites strangers from around the world to draw each other's Facebook profile pics. To take part, upload your profile picture to be hand drawn by a Facebook user. To receive the finished portrait, you must complete and upload a drawing of a randomly-assigned person’s profile picture.

Calvin & Hobbes superimposed on real photographs

Michael Den Beste used real photographs and then superimposed characters from Calvin & Hobbes into them! The popular Calvin & Hobbes comic strip follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Russian Meteorite: A tale of two cosmic visitors



Earth witnessed two extremely rare cosmic events in one day yesterday. First a 17m wide meteorite exploded above Russian skies and injured 1,200 people! Watch the spectacular footage of the meteorite as it exploded. NASA says an event of this magnitude occurs once every 100 years on average.



Many hours later, the 45m wide Asteroid 2012 DA14 made its historic close flyby of Earth. At its closest approach, Asteroid DA14 was within 28,500 km of Earth’s surface above Sumatra, Indonesia. It was the closest known flyby for a rock of its size. That’s closer than some satellites that orbit the earth! Luckily for us, Asteroid DA14 did not hit Earth and has moved safely away. Video above shows the asteroid as a starlike dot 2 hours before closest approach moving very quickly in front of the stars. Here's a pic of me getting my telescope ready for the asteroid. Yes, the asteroid was visible in Singapore for those with binoculars and telescope and know where to look.

What these two cosmic events have showed us is that we are vulnerable to being hit by a rock from space. The Russian meteorite may have injured so many people but thankfully no one died. Asteroid DA14 may have flew very close to Earth but we did not get hit. We are safe... for now. But we WILL get hit one day. The question is when. And when it happens, are we prepared? We may not get so lucky next time.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Gravitaty? CNN fix spelling error I spotted on their homepage



CNN lead homepage editor Carl Lavin responds to my tweet about their "Gravitaty" spelling error on the CNN homepage and fixes it! Cool!!!

Friday, February 01, 2013

Keppel Sinkhole and Dr Koh Waving videos make it to the most popular on YouTube



The two videos that I uploaded recently to YouTube have made it to YouTube's most popular videos in Singapore. Thanks everyone for watching and sharing!


Car falls into Keppel sinkhole: A car fell into a sinkhole caused by a burst water pipe at the junction of Keppel Road and Cantonment Link, in the direction towards HarbourFront.


Who is Dr Koh waving to? - A Video Analysis: Who was Dr Koh Poh Koon waving to during his thank you parade? Dr Koh from the PAP lost to Lee Li Lian from the Workers Party in the 2013 Punggol By-Election.

Batman The Animated Series Title Cards

Some dude has uploaded all the Batman The Animated Series title cards! Batman The Animated Series originally aired in the early 90s and it is one of my favourite cartoons of all time. I love the artwork on the show and its dark theme. It won four Emmy Awards and was nominated for nine others.

Awesome Gundam sculpture made from beer cans

Japanese dude Makaon makes sculptures using beer and soft drink cans. His work pretty impressive like this awesome Gundam sculpture. Yes, Gundam!!! His Ultraman and Batman sculptures are also not bad. I noticed he does use a lot of Asahi beer cans. Nice beer!

(Thanks GeekGod)

CalypsoKey lets your iPhone be the key to your house

Now you can open any door by just tapping your iPhone. The CalypsoKey makes this possible using NFC (near field communication). It has one 13.56 MHz RFID, ISO 14443A antena with 1k memory capacity and a second 125kHz RFID antena built-in. Compatible with most RFID NFC worldwide access points.

Barbie Cafe opens in Taiwan and its full of pink

Fans of Barbie can now eat what Barbie and her friends will probably eat in real life thanks to the new Barbie Cafe that opens in Taipei’s Da’an shopping district. The cafe, from the photos posted on its Facebook page and this video revealed that it's covered in pink. Yes, pink sofa, pink walks, pink plates, pink menu. It serves American cuisine, French food, Italian fare, seafood and sandwiches.

BeetBox play drum beats by touching beets

BeetBox is a simple instrument that allows users to play drum beats by touching actual beets. It is powered by a Raspberry Pi (a credit-card-sized single-board computer) with a capacitive touch sensor and an audio amplifier in a handmade wooden enclosure.

(Thanks ChePaul)

Kamasutra Cookie Cutters

Valentine's Day is coming and if you are into impressing your date by baking cookies, why not get these Kamasutra Cookie Cutter set. The cutters will cut your your cookies into the most popular love making positions. Give it to your date on V-Day and he or she will get the hint. Here's a recipe.

(Thanks Shy)

Starship U.S.S. Enterprise made from recycled computer parts

This model of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 is created entirely from a hard drive, a laptop keyboard, and various parts from a dead motherboard. The maker Shankalonian sells all sorts of other cool models from recycled computer parts and electrical products. I also love his mini X-Wing Fighter and the Y-Wing Fighter.

Steinway Piano Bag and bags that look like everyday objects

KRUKRUstudio makes designer objects from felt. The owners Lyba and Max from Russia sell a wide range of bags on their Etsy site. This one is an eye-catching and highly-detailed bag is made in a shape of a Steinway piano. The bag is made using 100% woolen Spanish felt and it is water resistant.

iPhone Karaoke Mic lets you sing without disturbing people

The iPhone iPad Noiseless USB Karaoke Mic is a noise reduction karaoke microphone. The sound-proof urethane cup fits around your mouth and the whole set connects to your iPhone or iPad by a USB cable and Sega's karaoke app. It's perfect for those of you who want to karaoke while taking the MRT if you don't mind looking silly with the huge thing covering your mouth.

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