Full video of how I built it on YouTube! https://t.co/x0Rz5wop6V pic.twitter.com/YNUqUtfW7z
— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) October 15, 2020
The amazing inventor Simone Giertz has a brand new workshop in Los Angeles. One of her first projects in the new location was to build a dog selfie booth out of LEGO bricks. When her dog, Scraps, goes into the booth, she gets a treat for stomping on a pedal. The pedal activates a camera, taking a photo of Scraps.
-via Super Punch
HMS Parrsboro, a Bangor-class minesweeper from Woarld War II, plunges over the waves in this tempest in a teacup. This is one of many amazing ship miniatures made by Japanese Twitter user Black637.
The level of detail is truly extraordinary.
-via Super Punch
That's what Messy Nessy Chic says, and I'm inclined to agree.
(Note that the Possum Lady isn't the Queen of the Internet as a whole. That title belongs to our own Miss Cellania.)
For a decade, Georgette Spelvin has enlightened and entertained people around the world through the magic of YouTube. With her psychic pet squirrel, Pearl, and Mabel the opossum, Ms. Spelvin speaks about the joys of Disney Princesses and demonstrates massage techniques. She's the hero we need right now.
DFW Wonder Woman, a cosplayer in Dallas, Texas, specializes in mashups of her favorite superhero. She produces each costume to a matchless level of quality, as you can see in this mermaid version of the Princess of Themyscira photographed by Ginger Arlene.
Imgur user dooctorpond has "a job with a boss that screams at me all day."
That sort of experience grinds down your soul.
So it's a good thing that her husband draws doodles on their bathroom mirror to provide a spark of joy in a dark existence.
That's good husbanding right there.
Tomoko Sato, a food artist in Kyoto, Japan, carves images and designs into fruits and vegetables, thereby transforming them into works of art. They're so beautiful that it would be obscene to eat them. You can follow her work on Instagram or her own website.
TYWKIWDBI brings to our attention this image of unknown provenance circulating the internet. What dark energy on the farm led to the spawning of this magnificent pumpkin? I don't know but don't even think of cutting into it as a jack-o'-lantern in order to find out. Lord Cthulhu has blessed it with his form.
Singapore Airlines has been hit hard by the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, it announced plans to launch "flights to nowhere" that just take off, circle the airport, and then land.
Now, to put its grounded planes to good use, the airline is using the jetliners as pop-up restaurants. Since Singapore Airlines has an excellent reputation for in-flight food, this may draw customers. Fast Company reports:
Customers had the option of buying tickets in different classes, with a meal in a first class suite priced at $474 compared to an $39 economy class meal. Both meals will take place on planes at Singapore’s Changi Airport, which is the company’s hub. The airline says it will enforce social distancing, using only half of the 471 seats on the plane.
Image: Singapore Airlines
Potatoes have phosphoric acid. Insert a source of zinc and the two will react to produce a small amount of electrical current.
Very small. Will a potato run the video game Doom? No, but if you use about 700 potato pieces, YouTube user Equalo discovered, you can run Doom on a graphing calculator:
This was a long, difficult project that Equalo completed while working a full-time job. As a result, the potato pieces became moldy and stinky by the end of the six-day effort.
YouTube user Matthew Highton masterfully mined stock video archives and wove them into remarkably consistent recreations of TV show introductions. I'm especially impressed that there were appropriate demonic footage reels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In this playlist, you can also find Highton's videos for The A-Team, Friends, Duck Tales, ThunderCats, and more.
-via Geek Tyrant
There are parts of your body (or at least mine) that are not routinely displayed to the public. The roof of the mouth is an example. Indy Voet, a Belgian tattoo artist, has been inking tattoos in that remote location for five years. He tells Inked magazine that it's a tricky job that requires delicate handwork and a trusting client:
For this process, Voet uses a handpoking technique rather than a machine, explaining that the machine would be too harsh on this location and too difficult to get to. "I don't really use anything other than a needle and some dexterity, combined with the trust of my client."
Thankfully, it doesn't hurt too much to get tattooed on the roof of the mouth:
"Nine out of 10 people describe these tattoos as being almost painless or at least, very easy to handle. The other 10% mostly complain about jaw muscle aches, which seems logical."
-via Nag on the Lake
Augmented reality (AR) systems overlay the world around the viewer with information displayed through a digital interface. Humans have used it for years. Although your dog won't be able to play Pokémon Go yet, researchers are developing ways that military dogs may be able to use AR headsets effectively. The US Army informs us:
In 2017, Dr. A.J. Peper started Command Sight, a small business based in Seattle, to bridge human and animal communication. Through conversations with current and former military operators he identified a need to increase the efficacy of communication between canine and handler. As a result, Command Sight built the first prototype of augmented reality glasses for military working dogs. [...]
The augmented reality goggles are specially designed to fit each dog with a visual indictor that allows the dog to be directed to a specific spot and react to the visual cue in the goggles. The handler can see everything the dog sees to provide it commands through the glasses.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: US Army
Graphic designer Justin Bryant has a delightfully morbid imagination. In a series of six posters, he suggests that popular children's board games could easily be turned into horror films. Candy Land looks sweet, but hides a dark secret. Hungry Hungry Hippos are ready for lunch. And you definitely don't want to catch--or be caught-- by the Cooties.
You can see all of these posters at Born in Space.
Sure, you already follow him on Instagram and listen to his podcast. But now you can watch live, streaming video thanks to a camera invented by Vikram Iyer, a doctoral student at the University of Washington.
It's a remarkable technical achievement. Not only is the image sensor tiny, but it's mounted on a swinging arm that matches the direction of the insect's head, thus presenting a more realistic depiction of a bug's view of the world.
To save on battery life, the camera only turns on when an accelerometer is triggered and thus remains dormant when the beetle doesn't move. As a result, the camera can capture video for up to six hours.
How is this useful? Iyer described his invention as more useful for robotics than entomology. King 5 News quotes him:
“If you need to build a robot that can fit into small spaces, you need a way to navigate around that environment,” said Iyer. “And vision is one of the major ways people solve these problems.”
At the core, he said it’s essentially a tiny computing platform ready to be modified for different uses.
-via Dave Barry | Image: Science magazine
Matt Benedetto, an inventor in Vermont, specializes in gadgets with little to no practical value. But every now and then, he makes something actually useful. These spring-loaded crutches, for example, help him get around while his broken foot heals. He'll surely bounce back soon now that he's healing.
