Studio Drift created a large-scale moving block as a modern interpretation of one of the world’s oldest operas, l’orfeo. ‘EGO’ is handwoven from 10 miles of reflective Japanese fluorocarbon. Studio drift had to develop its own weaving room for the production of the moving block. Designboom has more details: 

during the performance, a puppeteer directs the block live via algorithms and software so that it is completely aligned with the dancers and singers. as the object changes shape and state, it conveys the shifting perspectives of the opera’s protagonist

l’orfeo, a major multidisciplinary performance — collaboratively created by director monique wagemakers, choreographer nanine linning, and artist lonneke gordijn (studio drift) — premiered in the netherlands on january 28, 2020. ‘developing this opera in a close collaborative process with director monique wagemakers and choreographer nanine linning opened up my eyes for the magical possibilities of a theater setting and made me re-think the role of the public and its importance in our work,’ explains lonneke gordijn, who founded studio drift with ralph nauta in 2007.

another world is created in which an entire group is immersed simultaneously,’ gordijn continues. ‘techniques can be used that create visual effects that are impossible in a ‘real’ situation. stimulating all the senses with amazing power and impact. it was a delight to be introduced to this new world and I feel inspired to explore in more depth how we can bring and audience through an emotional journey with artworks outside of the theater or gallery space. in this 

process we enhanced each other, puzzling together to sculpt an experience where dance, music, voice, sculpture and technology become one voice.’

image via Designboom

Toward the end of 2019, East Africa was met with unusually wet weather. This contributed to the massive outbreak of locusts, pests that destroy crops and can be a serious threat to food security in the region. Currently, hundreds of millions of desert locusts swarm in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The number is one of the biggest numbers seen in over 25 years.

See the photos over at The Atlantic.

(Image Credit: Ben Curtis/ AP)

“Hola!” Dr. Green greeted the student.

“So I got you a little something,” said the high school student Max, who was carrying a bouquet of flowers, as he approached his teacher, who was on her desk.

“You got me a little something?” replied Dr. Green, as she stood up immediately… “You got to Tech! OH MY GOOOOOOD!” exclaimed Dr. Green as she embraced Max.

“I just wanna thank you,” Max said, who hugged her back.

Max states that Dr. Green is one of the best teachers he’s ever had. She’s also the one who wrote Max’s recommendation letter.

(Image Credit: TODAY)

McDonald’s Japan had a cryptic tweet earlier this week asking us if we want to eat rice. The very next day, the fast food outlet announced their rice burgers, which are… well, burgers, but with lightly toasted rice instead of the usual buns. The rice burgers will go on sale in February.

There’s a problem, however. The staff of SoraNews24 can’t wait that long.

Luckily, thanks to our connections in the burger world, we were able to secure a spot at a pre-launch press conference where we got to try the rice burgers before they go on sale to the general public.

How did the burger taste? Find out over at the site.

(Image Credit: SoraNews24)

This is Leon, a car made by the automobile manufacturing company SEAT. This car utilizes a technology that allows it to converse with traffic lights so that its driver knows when the traffic light will change color.

The family hatchback uses a new built-in system to communicate with Barcelona's traffic light infrastructure as part of a test to look at ways of improving road safety, traffic flow and environmental efficiency.

When the Leon approached a traffic light, an alert appeared on the screen saying whether it will be red, green or yellow when the car arrives - and provides real-time data about how long a motorist will need to wait for them to change.

Amazing!

More details about this car over at DailyMail.

(Image Credit: SEAT UK/ DailyMail)

Deep neural networks are a type of artificial intelligence, capable of recognizing and classifying data. It is what makes a self-driving car tell a person apart from a traffic cone, and what makes Spotify effectively the songs for your “Discover Weekly” playlist. These deep neural networks, however, need a lot of computing power, as well as memory, and this is too much for an average smartphone to handle.

Typically, a mobile device needs to be connected to the internet to have access to a deep neural network. The phone collects data, but the processing is done on remote servers—this is why you can't talk to Siri when your iPhone is in airplane mode.

Enter researchers from Northeastern University, who were able to to find a way to run deep neural networks on a smartphone or similar system.

Using their method, the networks can execute tasks up to 56 times faster than demonstrated in previous work, without losing accuracy.

More details about this over at TechXplore.

(Image Credit: GDJ/ Pixabay)

It is said that we should not gaze at the sun directly so that we won’t damage our eyes, but I guess this one is an exception.

This is the highest resolution video of the Sun’s surface ever taken. The National Solar Observatory (NSO) was able to capture “features” as small as 18 miles, which is the furthest we’ve been able to zoom in on our Sun.

The resulting video looks almost like a honey comb come alive. But actually, it "shows the turbulent, 'boiling' gas that covers the entire sun." The woozy rectangles that look like cells are basically the bubbles that result from heat and plasma moving around as the sun's energy churns; by the way, each of those "cells" is apparently about the size of Texas.

Looks like something from a kaleidoscope. What do you think?

(Image Credit: NSO)

Back in 2014, Michele Köbke fell in love at first sight when she “met” and flew her “darling” at the Berlin Tegel airport. This “darling” of hers, however, is not human; it is a a 40-tonne Boeing 737-800 passenger plane. Today, Michele, 30, claims that she has been in a “physical” relationship with this plane for the past six years, and she has announced plans that she will marry the aforementioned aircraft.

“The 737-800 is very attractive and sexy to me,” she previously said. “He’s the most beautifully built, and he’s a very attractive and elegant aircraft.”

She also one told how she was overawed by the jet's wings and thrusters, but since the first encounter she has only been able to see him through glass.

Because of this she has had to settle with cradling a smaller model replica of “Schatz” – German for darling – at night in bed.

More details about her plans over at the DailyStar.

I don’t know what to feel about this. What are your thoughts?

(Image Credit: Kseniia Posadskova / Barcroft Media)

Koalas are really really not smart.
If you change the form of their food (put eucalyptus on a plate, for example) they will starve to death rather than eat it bc they can't recognize it. https://t.co/732YnZKErZ

— Jessi (@OlMumsyJess) January 28, 2020

Writer Brittany Packnett Cunningham asked Twitter users the most random fact they know. “I mean RANDOM random,” she clarified.

And the answers are scientifically and mathematically accurate, and hilarious at the same time.

Good to know these facts! At least now I have some answers when somebody asks me what I know.

(Image Credit: OIMumsyJess/ Twitter)

Tired of plain and boring note sheets? These colorful LEGO note sheets, which looks like a LEGO baseplate on one side, and a blank writing surface on the other, might be just for you. As part of LEGO’s new stationery collection, the LEGO Note Bricks is sold in 224 sheets in blue/green or yellow/orange color schemes.

This product will ship in April 2020, but it is already available for pre-order now, along with LEGO erasers, and LEGO journals.

These would work well with LEGO Gel Pens. What do you think?

(Image Credit: The Awesomer)

Have you ever wanted to play the well-received Pokemon game for the Nintendo DS? Here’s a very simple and intuitive guide to the game, for those who are new to the game itself or Pokemon in general. For players who just want to have a good laugh, this video is for you. 

#HazMat 11 35 a.m. 2929 N. Orange Blossom Trail: A #floridaman was so excited to go fishing with his buddies today, he accidentally put the gas nozzle where the fishing pole goes and pumped 30 gals. of gas into the cockpit of the 18-foot vessel. pic.twitter.com/GyVhRJPL1j

— OCFire Rescue (@OCFireRescue) January 27, 2020

A Florida man was so excited to go fishing with his pals he did not notice he was putting 30 gallons of gas on the boat’s cockpit. Apparently, he did not notice that he put the gas nozzle on the fishing pole holder instead of the gas tank.

“After the 32-year-old boat owner from Orlando realized he just pumped $60 of fuel into the wrong place, he pumped $40 more into the right place,” the Fire Rescue told the story in a Twitter post.

A hazmat team was dispatched and they were able to siphon most of the gas out of the boat. Thankfully, nobody was harmed. 

I pity the man and his friends, however, as they surely got delayed.

I wonder if they were able to go fishing after.

(Image Credit: OCFire Rescue/ Twitter)

This is even better than the collision of shapes implied in the title. Tadashi Tokieda passes a round coaster through a square hole that is much smaller than the coaster's diameter! The simple explanation is that he folded the paper in a way that made a slot as long as two sides of the square. He has a more detailed explanation in this video from Numberphile. This will make a great parlor trick to impress your kids. -via Damn Interesting

Joseph Pilates was always into fitness, as were his parents. But the athlete and bodybuilder didn't come up with the fitness regimen named after him until World War I, when he was living in England. As a German national, he was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man, along with ten of thousands of other foreigners. Due to the German blockade, they were starving. Pilates wanted to do something, and was inspired by observing cats.

“Though they were nothing but skin and bones — even the most animal-loving prisoners could hardly spare them anything from their own pitiful rations when their own children were begging to be fed — they were lithe and springy and terribly efficient as they aimed for their prey,” waxed Sports Illustrated journalist Robert Wernick in a 1962 interview with Pilates. The answer, apparently, was stretching: Pilates observed the cats constantly stretching and limbering up, and used that to inspire and refine the poses of his own exercise system. Pilates would later boast that when the 1918 flu pandemic — which killed approximately 50 million people worldwide — hit the camp, none of the men practicing his exercises got sick.

Read about Joseph Pilates and the exercises he developed at Ozy.

(Image credit: Keiichi Yasu)

This might just be the soft robot that possesses the most human traits of all: sweating. This robotic finger breaks out in a sweat to prevent itself from overheating, similar to what our bodies do during hot days or when we exert ourselves physically.

Soft robots are already useful because they can resist damage and grasp slippery things, but sweating might one day let them work in warm environments or handle hot objects.

[...]

While we've already seen a metal "brobot" that can sweat while doing pushups, this one [was] the first types of soft robots to get the tech. Scientists think that the tech could keep robots and other machines cooler than their surroundings in hot conditions. They also believe that the sweat pores could absorb liquids for analysis or coat the robots with protective chemicals.

It still is not perfect though, as scientists are still thinking about how to make it more mobile. More details over at EnGadget.

(Video Credit: IEEE Spectrum/ YouTube)