John Farrier's Blog Posts

VCR Toaster



Inspired by this scene from the BBC show The Young Ones, the how-to blog Instructables turned an old VCR into a functional toaster. It even prints "VHS" on the face of every piece of bread toasted. Video at the link.

Link via Geek Crafts | Image: Instructables

Not-Right Nativities


Photo: Podkayne Studios


Etsy seller Podkayne Studios sells nativity sets that remember the Christmas story just a little bit differently. Dinosaur, Star Wars, Pokémon, Indiana Jones and other themes are available.

Link via Geekologie

This Artist Uses Only a Cigarette Lighter


Photo: Olivier Kosta-Théfaine


Paris-based artist Olivier Kosta-Théfaine burns images into ceilings using only a cigarette lighter. His medium is an extension of a common form of street art in the neighborhood in which he grew up. Pictured above is an untitled piece created in Brussels in 2007. You can view more images and read an interview with the artist at the link.

Link via DudeCraft | Artist's Website | Video Interview with the Artist

The Ceramic Cameras of Steve Irvine



Steve Irvine makes ceramic pinhole cameras. He writes "I like the organic look of these cameras which contrasts with our usual notions of cameras being machine-made, high tech devices." The cameras are quite functional, as you can see from the photograph below, taken with the camera above.



Link via Make | Photos: Steve Irvine

Humans on Display at the Zoo

The zoo of Warsaw, Poland, has a pair of prehistoric humans (or actors depicting them) on display over the weekend:

Organiser Maria Mastalerz says the weeklong "performance" aims to attract interest in a play, "Caveman," showing in the Polish capital. But she says it also carries a message that humans today are not all that different from their prehistoric ancestors.

Dressed in furs and animal skins, the young woman and man smoked a fish over a fire Friday, poking it with a stick, or stared from behind bars at startled zoo visitors.


Video at the link.

Link via Stuff | Photo: AP

Pop Culture Wedding Invitation


Image: Maureen Alarid


Maureen Alarid of Off Beat Bride created this invitation for her wedding, featuring Admiral Ackbar's prudent advice about marriage. Alarid writes:

The wording [on the back] is my favorite part. It reads: '[We] request the honor of your presence as two geeks save the princess, resist the dark side and pledge their lives (extra, or otherwise) to each other.' And we snuck a Hyrulian crest in there too!


Link via Geekologie

Cereal Selection Flow Chart



The food blog Eating the Road presents this handy flow chart that you can use whilst shopping for cereal. Which cereal should you buy? The chart allows you to factor in issues such as current state of intoxication, nationality, ChurckNorrishood, and cultural pretentiousness. Larger image at the link.

Link via Radley Balko

Star Wars Facebook Updates



Yeah, but they're teddy bears that eat people, so don't feel too bad. Brian Murphy of CollegeHumor put together five Facebook update pages as though they had been written by Star Wars characters.

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1794889 via Hell in a Handbasket

ScratchBot Uses Whiskers To Maneuver in the Dark


(YouTube Link)


The Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of Bristol, UK has built a robot that senses obstacles not with cameras, but sensitive whiskers at the front end:

Researchers at the University of Bristol in England hope to deploy the poodle-size ‘bot in search-and-rescue missions where vision is impaired, like in mines or smoky rooms. Its 18 whiskers move back and forth five times per second. When a whisker bends, a sensor on its shaft signals software to orient the ’bot toward the object. Whiskers close to an object move less, while those farther away make wide, sweeping motions to establish the object’s exact edges.


http://www.popsci.com/bown/2009/product/scratchbot | Bristol Robotics Laboratory

World's Strongest Beer is 32% Alcohol

Scottish brewery BrewDog has released its newest beer, named Tactical Nuclear Penguin. At 32% alcohol content, it's the world's strongest beer:

A warning on the label states: "This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost."

However Jack Law, of Alcohol Focus Scotland, described it was a "cynical marketing ploy" and said: "We want to know why a brewer would produce a beer almost as strong as whisky."

The beer has been launched on the day alcohol was at the top of the political agenda with the unveiling of the Scottish government's Alcohol Bill including proposals for minimum pricing on drink.


Link via Geekologie | Image: BBC News

Origami Soma Cube Blocks


Photo: Qiao Chang


Qiao Chang of SmugMug is a commercial photographer who creates origami figures as a hobby. One of her works takes the form of a mathematical puzzle called a Soma cube:

A solid dissection puzzle invented by Piet Hein during a lecture on Quantum Mechanics by Werner Heisenberg. There are seven soma pieces composed of all the irregular face-joined cubes (polycubes) with *=4 cubes. The object is to assemble the pieces into a cube. There are 240 essentially distinct ways of doing so (Beeler 1972, Berlekamp et al. 1982), as first enumerated one rainy afternoon in 1961 by J. H. Conway and Mike Guy.


http://qiaochang.smugmug.com/Other/My-Origami-Collection/8551061_krjgW#563203570_dFKUD-O-LB via GearFuse | Soma Cube Explanation

Matrix Bullet-Dodging Scene Recreated with LEGO Stop-Motion Animation


(YouTube Link)


Trevor Boyd and Steve Ilett remade the slow-moving bullet-dodging scene from The Matrix. Their official website goes into detail about how they executed the project:

By "frame accurate" we mean that we took all of the video frames from that part of the movie (that's nearly 900 frames for just 44 seconds of footage) and reproduced them all in Lego.

This was time-consuming to say the least, taking us something like 440 hours to make the completed movie. At that ratio of 10 hours per second we figured we could do the whole film in about 9 years, so long we didn't need to eat or sleep. As a full-time job then, we're probably looking at 25 years or so. No thanks.

Early in the piece we decided we wanted to do everything "in camera". No wire-removal, no special effects, no crazy Photoshop tricks. We pretty much regret this now, but I guess it gives us bragging rights of some sort. We did do some colour correction and image stabilising, and at one point we edited a very small number of frames in one scene so that some minor background shake was taken out, but that's it.


Official Website via io9

15 Unique Bohemian Rhapsody Covers


(YouTube Link)


Yesterday, Neatorama featured a Muppet version of Queen's iconic song "Bohemian Rhapsody." Lindsey Weber of Urlesque has compiled fifteen unusual and creative cover version of that song, including this ukulele version by Ukulele Bartt. Others include a typographical version, an orchestral version, and one in which the musician uses only his hands.

Link | Ukulele Bartt

Acorn Puzzle Boxes


(YouTube Link)


Jonathan Wolfe makes delicate puzzle boxes out of acorns. Each one opens only when a particular area is tapped or a wire is pulled. One in the video takes the form of a Matryoshka doll with a smaller acorn puzzle box inside.

Link

Bart Simpson's Blackboard Writings


Image:Fox


Bart's Blackboard is an archive of every sentence that Bart Simpson has been forced to write on the blackboard in the opening sequence to The Simpsons. So far, there are six seasons loaded in this ongoing project.

Link via J-Walk Blog

Email This Post to a Friend
""

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window

Page 1,218 of 1,329     first | prev | next | last

Profile for John Farrier

  • Member Since 2012/08/04


Statistics

Blog Posts

  • Posts Written 19,922
  • Comments Received 52,480
  • Post Views 31,870,220
  • Unique Visitors 26,151,662
  • Likes Received 29,425

Comments

  • Threads Started 3,800
  • Replies Posted 2,313
  • Likes Received 1,738
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More