I began folding my series of miniature models around the beginning of April 2008. One day I took a random strip of paper and cut a square to fold a crane out of it. I was daydreaming so I wasn’t paying attention to how small the paper was. After completing the crane I realized it was rather tiny. This is the crane I present in my piece called Born from the Hand. I only used tweezers for the last few folds. The paper size must have been about 15×15mm. After I folded that crane I decided to try folding an even smaller crane, which I present in Born from Fingers and Born from the Pinky. I also began folding various other models in miniature form. As the pieces were gettting smaller or more complex. I needed to rely on tweezers more often. The smallest work I’ve created to date was Born from the Cell which was folded from a 3×3mm piece of trace paper. However when it gets that small it becomes very difficult to take a photo of; especially with a simple point and shoot camera. Normally I fold something at a size that can be photographed for a particular concept while still being impressively small.

Although we can’t say how this will change over time, at the moment the older generations are for one reason or another (tech savvy, interest, etc.) not using social networking sites to a large extent. This probably reflects general internet usage, but we suspect the difference is enhanced when it comes to the social media sphere where site usage tends to be more frequent and time-consuming than usual.

It is also noteworthy that social media isn’t dominated by the youngest, often most tech-savvy generations, but rather by what has to be referred to as middle-aged people (although at the younger end of that spectrum).

Picasso’s sculpture of the bicycle saddle and a handlebar was the first example of a work made from everyday things, using junk or scrap. Like other of Picasso's firsts this work opened up new possibilities for artists. In this instance - sculptors, who for centuries had employed traditional materials such as stone or wood now instead, many of them began to incorporate junk materials into their work (known as assemblages) or fashion new objects from them. The works are a great example of the inventive genius of Picasso and the ultimate inspiration for RoboSteel.

The 60 tonne catamaran (or is that trimaran?) has cost 18 million euro ($24.4 million USD) to create at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in northern Germany and will be launched waterside next month with sea trials due between June and September. To achieve to full photovoltaic capture there are solar covered flaps that are extended at the stern and amidships.

SunPower has provided approximately 38,000 of their next generation all black photovoltaic cells, an efficiency of at least 22%, which they believe to be the highest efficiency solar cells commercially available. Maybe it's buried somewhere on the PlanetSolar site, but I missed what storage medium the boat will use once it has harnessed the sun's energy.

This week Eurocopter unveiled its most recent effort to reduce helicopter noise with the radical-looking Blue Edge rotor blade. The new blade has been tested on one of the company’s EC155 helicopters and was shown to reduce noise 3 to 4 decibels, according to the company.

In addition to the Blue Edge rotor blade, the company also introduced something called Blue Pulse technology. Also designed to reduce helicopter noise, the Blue Pulse system uses three flap modules in the trailing edge of each rotor blade. Piezoelectric motors move actuate the flaps 15 to 40 times per second in reduce the “slap noise” often heard when a helicopter is descending.

Both of these technologies are able to reduce noise by minimizing the blade-vortex interaction of the main rotor on a helicopter. Blade-vortex interaction is the source of the pulsating sound most of us are familiar with when helicopters fly overhead. The noise is created when a rotor blade hits the wake vortex left behind from the blade in front of it.

We've previously featured the first video in John Boswell's Symphony of Science autotuned music project. This video, the fifth and latest in the series, features Michael Shermer, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Carolyn Porco, and PZ Meyers. via Geekologie | Official Website

Now he is being rewarded with the Dickin Medal - the animal equivalent of a Victoria Cross - the highest accolade for a military animal.[...]

Treo is the 63rd animal to receive the Dickin Medal - introduced in 1943 to honor the work of animals in war - and the 27th dog to receive the honor.

Since its introduction it has also been presented to 32 World War II messenger pigeons, three horses and one cat.

the project is titled ‘peau d’ane’ after a fairy tale by charles perrault detailing three dresses made from the sky, moonbeams and sunlight. while each of these things is immaterial, lamontagne found ways to materialize them in her dresses. temperature, UV, solar radiation, wind speed & velocity, humidity and rain fall data is collected and sent to the dresses wirelessly, where micro-controllers relay info to internal circuitry. the sun dress has 128 LEDs which can light up depending on sun data, while the moon dress has 14 colour-modulating flowers to represent each phase of the moon cycle and the sky dress is imbued with 14 vibrating air pockets.

From a very young age, I've been enthralled by miniatures and was delighted at how wonderfully addicting it is to make them. It's truly remarkable when the delectable textures of food can be reflected on such a tiny scale.

I strive to make each miniature of the highest quality possible with the most realistic details. My inspiration largely comes from scouring cook books and local pastry shops for ideas. Desserts and gourmet food are my favorite to create but I'm open to any challenge to take on!

The Arecibo Message, one of the most famous messages transmitted as part of SETI, loosely translated, says: "Hi! We're intelligent! We're made of meat! Here's where we live!"

WINNIPEG — A pair of teachers engaging in risque business set off a media riot after a video of a simulated lap dance from a school event went viral.

The video, taken last Wednesday during a well-attended pep rally for Grade 9 through 12 students at Churchill High School, shows students giggling, gasping and screaming as a female teacher receives a strip club-style lap dance from a male teacher.

By Thursday afternoon, students were spreading a minute-long video of the dance among each other on Facebook. On Monday afternoon, clips from the video were aired on CBC television.

Tuesday night, one parent of a Churchill High student groaned after learning that the video had gone national. “They so, so crossed the line,” said the parent, whose daughter showed her the video last week.