Last year, organizers at the Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia, made an enormous image of the Mona Lisa using thousands of cups of coffee lightened with milk (to varying quantities) in order to create different shades:
The different colours were created by adding no, little or lots of milk to each cup of black coffee.
It measures an impressive 20 feet high and 13 feet wide and took a team of eight people three hours to complete.
Link via Digg | Photo: EpicFTW | Previously on Neatorama: Mona Lisa in Coffee (as a Paint)
Giant squid have appeared in massive numbers off the coast of California in the past few days devouring swimmers leading to bountiful catches by fishermen:
"Most of the fish we catch are better to eat, but they don't give you much of a fight."
He said the squid were "trying to crawl around and blow ink all over everybody."
Mr Woodbury said that 400 of the creatures had been caught since Friday night.
The animals weigh between 20 and 40 pounds, but a few fishermen have reeled in 60-pound squid.
The Humboldt squid is also called the jumbo squid or jumbo flying squid and squirts ink to protect itself.
They can grow up to 100 pounds in weight and six feet long and follow food sources.
Monica Anderson made this robot, which she calls the Icosatetraped. It walks on twenty-four legs made of soft tubing that extend under pneumatic pressure. The robot moves about one meter per minute. The video shows a brief demonstration of the robot in motion, and then provides a photo slideshow of the design and construction process.
The 2009 Ricky Gervais movie The Invention of Lying imagined a world in which everyone always told the truth and lying (for good or ill) had never existed. Jon Wolf of College Humor has created a series of graphics illustrating an Internet in which everyone always told the truth, including the hot girl on Facebook who you've never seen before, but wants to be your friend.
http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1800153 via Gizmodo
Artist Stephen Pfeil depicted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the styles and poses of the artists for whom they were named. And then he added some more artists from history into the mix. He writes:
But seriously, while going through Art History class I had a hard time NOT thinking of the Ninja Turtles. They may or may not have been doodled into the margins next to Brunelleschi’s perspective business.
This video is circulating the Internet today. It shows an unnamed artist making a portrait of Conan O'Brien out of cheetos. Allegedly, he (she?) used about 2,000 cheetos from 50 bags for the work, but the provenance on that information is iffy.
UPDATE: In the comments, mikerbaker provides a link that informs us that this was created by artist Jason Baalman, and that it measures 5 by 4 feet. Thanks, Mike!
Henrietta Lacks, an impoverished tobacco farmer in Virginia, contracted cervical cancer in 1951. Her doctor gave a sample of her tumor to a medical researcher, who then used it to grow a cell culture. What's amazing is that in almost sixty years, those cells are still alive, making them the longest-living human cells grown in a laboratory. Journalist Rebecca Skloot has written a book about Lacks and her cells, and submitted to an interview with Smithsonian:
Henrietta’s cells were the first immortal human cells ever grown in culture. They were essential to developing the polio vaccine. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to cells in zero gravity. Many scientific landmarks since then have used her cells, including cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization.
Skloot writes about how scientists are using these unusual cells to study human immunity. But her book is also about how the scientific world collided with a largely illiterate family and how the human body has become a commodity.
This clever music video of the song "Bad Apple" peformed by Nomico consists of stop-motion animation. Each frame is printed, as you can see from the image file numbers ticking away.
This infographic by Michael Paukner shows which nations have how many satellites in orbit around the earth. Information is sorted by functionality. You can view a larger image at the link.
Waze has a list of the most dangerous or complex roads in the world, including the above Lysebotn Road in Norway:
This is probably the most fun road you can travel on four wheels, and then maybe on your two legs checking out the various hiking trails leading from the area. In fact, this might be considered the most breathtaking place in Europe. It all starts with the narrow road up the steep walls of the Lysefjord, Norway. It has 27 switchbacks and a 1.1 km long tunnel at the bottom, with 3 switchbacks inside. The last 30 km of Lysebotn road is a true roller-coaster! It’s narrow but has a perfect surface, winding left and right all the time. If you happen to ride a motorcycle in Norway, then this is the road you simply cannot afford to miss!
Beyond simply dangerous roads, the post also includes pictures of and information about very complicated interchanges.
In this Japanese-language razor commercial, a man shaves his face after he's jumped out of an airplane. It's one part of a whole ad campaign in which men shave under extreme conditions, such as while engaging in pro wrestling or riding a mechanical bull. More videos at the link.
Well, it's actually structured more like a cover letter, but this document served as a resume when da Vinci was 30 and trying to get a job with the Duke of Milan. Here's the first part:
Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.
1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions
Materials scientist Afsaneh Rabiei has developed a substance that is very lightweight, but stronger than a block of steel. And when placed under extreme pressure, it can absorb shock without shattering:
Rough traffic accident calculations show that by inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph.[...]
The results are most striking when the material is tested in a lab. The test itself is exciting: a high-powered machine smashes a piece of steel foam straight down into the base plate of the machine, and then does the same thing with a piece of bulk steel.
When she examines the base plates under both samples, there’s a clear indentation left under the bulk steel sample, while the plate under the foam shows no indentation. The test shows how the foam absorbed the energy and protected the plate, while the steel simply transferred it to the base plate with no protection.
Among potential applications are orthopedic implants and body armor. In the links, you can find a video about the invention.
Pop artist Sam Carter's Birth of Zbornak is inspired by Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus as well as the TV show The Golden Girls. The recently passed Bea Arthur is featured at the center in her role as Dorothy Zbornak. The painting is quite detailed, and if you're foolhardy enough to look at an enlarged image, you can even observe the varicose veins on her legs.
The American TV musical show Glee was just released in Japan. This video is a commercial for it, featuring the Hawaiian-born sumo wrestler Akebono Taro singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'."
