Sacha Jafri is using his art to raise funds for kids in need. His upcoming piece, The Journey of Humanity, will be the world’s largest painting on canvas. The artwork will also be used to raise $30 million to fund health and education projects for children living in poverty. The painting is approximately the size of two soccer fields, and will be unveiled to the public in November to be evaluated by the Guinness Book of World Records to certify that it is, indeed, the world's largest painting on canvas. My Modern Met has an exclusive interview with Jafri about his goals for this project and what it feels like to complete the world’s largest painting. Check the full piece here.
Microsoft’s new “Video Authenticator” tool can analyze photos and videos and provide a “confidence score” that can tell you if these photos or videos have been altered. If a video is being analyzed, the tool can provide the “confidence score” on each frame as the video plays. The tool works by detecting the blending boundary of the deep fake and subtle fading or greyscale elements that might not be detectable by the human eye.
Everybody likes Shrek. Some people like Shrek so much, they travel from all over the world to attend the annual Shrekfest. This year, the event is still on, and it's still free, but it will be online so you can attend without all that travel. Enjoy communing with other Shrek fans, and enjoy cosplay, fan art, animations, and other entertainment, ending with a screening of the movie Shrek Retold. It all happens online Saturday, September 19th.
2020 marks Shrekfest’s 7th year. It started out in 2014 as an internet joke, but blossomed into an actual event that same year thanks to 3GI Industries, a comedy troupe in Milwaukee, WI. The event has exploded into an international event since then, seeing Shrekheads travel from all across the world to celebrate the big, green ogre. Shrekfest has always been free to the public and is known for its inclusive, easy going atmosphere. The physical fest event included live music, a costume contest, a roar contest, an onion eating contest, and an outdoor screening of Shrek.
Shrekfest has shifted gears into an Online event this year amidst the ongoing pandemic. While typically a physical event, this transformation opens the doors for an even larger audience and larger, more interactive spectacle. Earlier in the year 3GI had requested fans send in their artwork, films, animation and music. The end result is hours of content submitted from artists all over the world. They will be streaming these carefully curated Shrek tributes on September 19th as part of the Shrekfest 2020 Online experience.
In order to encourage private companies to explore the lunar surface, NASA has taken a big step once again. This time, the agency is asking private companies to collect moon dirt, and it will pay them for doing so.
"The bottom line is, we're gonna buy some lunar soil for the purpose of demonstrating that it can be done," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said today (Sept. 10) during an online presentation at the Secure World Foundation's Summit for Space Sustainability.
The agency just issued a request for proposals (RFP) to this effect, Bridenstine explained in a blog post today. NASA wants private companies, from the United States or abroad, to snag 1.8 ounces to 18 ounces (50 to 500 grams) of lunar material by 2024 and officially transfer ownership of the stuff to the space agency on the lunar surface.
NASA will pay $15,000 to $25,000 for each of these caches, with 80% of the money delivered after sample collection. Companies will get 10% upon signing a contract and 10% after launching their spacecraft, Bridenstine added.
It is for good reason that they are doing such a thing.
The use of lunar resources is critical to establishing a sustainable human presence on and around the moon, a goal NASA aims to achieve by the late 2020s via its Artemis program of crewed exploration. This lunar work will help the agency prepare for crewed trips to Mars in the 2030s, NASA officials have said.
You know Centralia as the Pennsylvania coal town that has been on fire since 1962. The burning subterranean coal seams finally forced the town's residents out by 1992, although eight people still remain. As the town grew smaller, it became a tourist draw, first for the smoldering fires, then later for an organic art project that grew up on the pavement of Route 61.
Formally closed in 1993 due to a decades-long mine fire simmering beneath its surface, this abandoned 0.74-mile stretch of road had achieved cult status in the first decade of the 2000s. After years of disuse, it took on new life as an artistic commons adorned with everything from pineapple-carapaced turtles to less-than-family-friendly fare, often of the male anatomical variety. By 2017, it was anecdotally cited by some locals as the sixth-most-visited attraction in the state. Its warped surface was a magnet not just for taggers, but also for horror fans and gamers in search of one of the inspirations behind Silent Hill (the 2006 movie based on the video game), mountain bikers, skaters, ATV enthusiasts, photographers, local party people, ghost hunters, and the generally curious.
Photographs were meant to immortalize unforgettable moments — funny, shocking, historic, and romantic moments that you could look back from. Of course, we don’t just photograph ourselves. We photograph nature and animals, too, and their moments could also be as funny and as shocking as ours.
There are times when you don’t need to make your child hold the real thing for him or her to understand how you use the object. Sometimes, a creative approach, and a child’s highly imaginative mind, is enough. It has many benefits, too. Not only do you put your child away from harm and the danger of breaking the real thing; you also give him or her a toy to play with.
Sydney Piercey recycles and repurposes her excess cardboard into delightful replicas of everyday items for her children to enjoy. Starting as a few projects (a quarantine hobby) for the amusement of kids in her neighborhood, it soon shifted as Piercey’s young daughter drew interest in the creations as well. Piercey’ love of creativity and engineering kicked in further as she started brainstorming different types of items to construct and materials to use.
“We buy dog food, beer, baby wipes and the like in bulk, and these boxes turned inside out become perfect for creating appliances out of,” Piercey tells My Modern Met. The pieces not only afford her with ample opportunities to continue in a day to day practice of sustainability—something that she’s committed to—but also adds an entertaining spin on early childhood education.
Check out Piercey’s creations over at My Modern Met.
Being drunk is such an interesting state to be in. I believe that no one has experienced the same thing when they were in this state.
Perhaps what’s interesting about this is how people reveal a different side of them when they are drunk. Some people become creative, while others become apathetic. But if there was something common to drunk people, it’s the way they give the people a reason to laugh.
See 50 of these funny drunk people moments over at The Mind Circle.
Phosphine can be created in the lab, but as a naturally-occurring chemical, it is usually formed by the decay of organic matter. At least here on earth. It appears that astronomers have detected phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. It's too early to say what that really means, but the news is exciting.
The presence of phosphine is seen by many astrobiologists as a "biosignature" i.e. an indicator of the possible presence of life. The detection was made by the Atacama (ALMA) array located in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell telescope located in Hawaii. The research team includes members from the University of Manchester, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cardiff University. A paper will appear in the 14 September issue of Nature Astronomy.
From what we're told the researchers have concluded that abiotic mechanisms (i.e. ones that do not involve life) that might produce phosphine cannot account for the large amount that they have detected. The phosphine has been detected in the region within the atmosphere of Venus that is considered by some to be potentially habitable.
Much more research is needed to detect whether this might mean that microbial life forms are floating in Venus' atmosphere, or possibly that some life existed long ago. Or maybe it means that some mechanism for producing phosphine exists on Venus that does not exist on Earth. See a video on the subject at Astrobiology. The announcement from the Royal Astronommical Society is here. -via reddit
Angels, in some paintings, are portrayed as strong creatures, radiating majesty and glory. In other paintings, angels are portrayed as cute innocent babies, blowing bubbles and playing harps, displaying beauty and goodness. But I believe that both of them are inaccurate portrayals.
If the qualities in both of these portrayals are true, then angels should radiate majesty and glory, but at the same time display beauty and goodness. And these qualities are present in the humble cat.
Summer is coming to an end, and it is now time for the leaves to fall from the branches. And what a happy time this is for dogs, who love to play with the falling leaves. Their happiness can not be contained!
This simple science experiment/DIY can be the perfect at-home activity (with or without company). If you have kids at home, this will be a great bonding time with them! ABC News’ Ginger Zee made a lava lamp with her kids at home, and was able to wow and entertain her kids without much of a hassle. The lava lamp recipe only requires four ingredients!
Have you ever wondered why your dog’s nose is cold and wet? Don’t rush your furry companion to the vet for this one, as it’s a normal trait! Most of the time, that’s how a dog’s nose is, and the only time it gets warm and dry is when it's asleep! Livescience talks about the possible cause of this odd but normal phenomenon in dogs. Check out the full piece here.
There are two kinds of people in autumn: those who consume pumpkin spice in every form possible, and those who blow up pumpkins. Lauri Vuohensilta (previously) is squarely in the second category. Here he experiments to find out whether gunpowder or dynamite is better at making a pumpkin explode. Either will do the job, but these guys employ a high-speed camera to get a real good look at what they have wrought. -via Digg
JunsKitchen decided to teach his adorable cats how to ring a bell, and the hilarity that ensued brought joy to my heart. He shows us that training your pets to do a certain task is difficult, and takes a lot of effort and patience. His cats ringing the bell everytime they want something just makes Jun a big butler for his cats.
