Okfuture.net

Alex Kobbs has created this wonderful LEGO creation of Halo 2’s Zanzibar map completely to scale (or as close as you can get with LEGO’s).

“After nearly two years of building and thousands of dollars sunk into my project, it’s finished. This is my latest video which details how I made my famous Lego model of Zanzibar from it’s very first stage, to the now near completed form.

I wanted to make this video so that everyone will get the facts straight. I originally sent the picture and video files that you’ll see in this video to Bungie Studios where they incorporated them into the Halo 3 Legendary edition bonus disk.”

LINK [via joystiq]

Here is another unmistakably 70’s show that was in rerun form by the time I was watching television. This one goes back so far that the only memories that were clearly familiar were the opening theme and the Spider-Man skits. When you are little, seeing a man who wears bright red tights and only talks with word bubbles over his head will leave a lasting impression.

And of course the Spider-Man Super Stories: “Spidey Meets The Yeti”

Go Morgan Freeman!

Related: Japanese Spider-Man (worth watching!)

Sometimes daytime television in the late 70’s and early 80’s could drive a kid outside in an instant. Two shows I distinctly remember watching during the day were 3-2-1 contact and Alice. For those who have never heard the Alice theme song before, I urge you to click play with caution.

Oh how I love showing my age when I post!

The Cardboard Tube Fighting Leagues of Seattle and San Francisco are looking for a few good men and women to join their growing legion of tube wielding warriors.
The rules of the game are simple…
1. Don’t break your tube. If your tube breaks, you lose the battle and are out.
2. Do not stab with tube.
3. Do not bash people in the face. It hurts and it’s not nice!
There is no entry fee and costumes are encouraged. Both the Seattle and San Francisco leagues post upcoming dates on their website. LINK

Justin Quinnell has created a fantastic and slightly disturbing series of pinhole photography taken from inside the mouth. The entire series has been published in the book titled mouthpiece and can also be purchased in print or poster form via the gallery. If you are interested in learning pinhole photography, he has great resources and how-to’s on his website. LINK
[via notcot]

The Kyokusen LED watch looks like it comes straight out of a sci-fi movie. The best thing is about owning this Kyokusen watch would be trying to figure out how to read it without going insane. Luckily for us, it includes instructions to help us decipher the alien technology. The watch is available at Tokyoflash, a store full of awesome futuristic watches.

Using cutting edge digital tube technology the display is noticeably brighter than typical LED watches and is viewable from a much wider angle. Kyokusen means curved line in Japanese and the name describes the shape of the main display. Each segment of the L shaped curve indicates one hour, and the circular array of lights displays the minutes. When the button is pressed there is a brief animation of lights before the time is displayed. LINK [via technabob]

Sometimes my trickle of internet traffic will come by means of very interesting search engine hits. Usually I give them a little laugh and just move on, but this last one I just must share. An incoming hit from the recent Yahoo search: “scented chinchilla dust for sale.”

Someone in Texas wants scented chinchilla dust and although I’m not positive, I’m fairly sure the market is wide open for all of you aspiring entrepreneurs out there.

The original 8-Bit tie was apparently just a cruel April fools joke that had a large number of people very bummed out. It looks like ThinkGeek has turned the 8-Bit tie into a reality by making the real deal available for purchase.

Silk-like Microfiber construction, clip on (for easy dressing and t-shirt wear if needed), and custom designed by us for you. You’ll be the envy of the office or, at least, you’ll get tons of attention. You’ll be just like Mario when he wore a tie to meetings when negotiating his contact with Nintendo. Sure the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 are out there with all their super technology, but sometimes it’s nice to remember the beginnings of the video game revolution. Viva la 8-Bit! LINK
[via joystiq]

A new article written by Cory Doctorow talks about how copyright protection methods created to protect artists will actually make things worse for everyone.

“But takedown notices are just the start. While they can help silence critics and suppress timely information, they’re not actually very effective at stopping widespread copyright infringement. Viacom sent over 100,000 takedown notices to YouTube last February, but seconds after it was all removed, new users uploaded it again.

Even these takedown notices were sloppily constructed: they included videos of friends eating at barbecue restaurants and videos of independent bands performing their own work. As Motion Picture Association of America chief Dan Glickman says: “When you go trawling with a net, you catch a few dolphins.”

Viacom and others want hosting companies and online service providers to preemptively evaluate all the material that their users put online, holding it to ensure that it doesn’t infringe copyright before they release it.

This notion is impractical in the extreme, for at least two reasons. First, an exhaustive list of copyrighted works would be unimaginably huge, as every single creative work is copyrighted from the instant that it is created and “fixed in a tangible medium”.”

LINK

Designer Priestman Goode has created an interesting concept for a cardboard phone that can be used as an emergency land line.

“Post A Phone is made from recyclable cardboard or plastic and pops out of a A5 envelope, just 4mm deep. If your wireless phone breaks down, you can have Post A Phone sent to you, knowing that it will fit through your letterbox, ensuring you don’t need to stay in and wait for a courier. You take it out of its envelope, plug it into the socket in the wall and you’re ready to make and receive calls.”

LINK 

An interesting photo gallery that gives an inside look at one or more supposed Chinese toy plants. I cannot find the photographers name or website for this since the site did not list a source.

“More than 70% of the world’s toys are made in China, most of them in Guangdong province. Now let’s see it inside, these photos has been taken on one of Chinese toy making plant.”

LINK [dugg]

In 2004, a Blackwater flight killed all six on board when the pilot took a low level joy ride through some canyons in Afghanistan. A story on CNN printed dialog from the cockpit voice recorder:

“”I swear to God, they wouldn’t pay me if they knew how much fun this was,” the doomed plane’s cockpit voice recorder captured the pilot saying shortly before the November 27, 2004, crash.”

“”You’re an X-wing fighter Star Wars man,” an NTSB report quoted the plane’s co-pilot, Loren Hammer, saying during the flight — a reference to the dizzying battle in the 1977 film.”

“”You’re [expletive] right. This is fun,” the pilot, Noel English, responded.

About eight minutes later, the plane slammed into the wall of the canyon, which was flanked by ridgelines that rose nearly a mile above surrounding terrain.”

LINK via [wired]

Recently I posted about Jessica Zenner, a local blogger who was fired by Nintendo for her online writings. It appears that Jessica has just been picked up by a gaming blog called Ripten.

“Jessica, who was terminated by Nintendo of America due to her personal blog, inexcusablebehavior.spaces.live.com, will be writing about whatever the heck she wants here at Ripten, and while we understand that some of you may not like what she has to say, we have a hunch you will read it anyway.”

LINK

By the way, if anyone needs a blogger for a site that targets women, I look just like this guy…

Here are a couple of pictures of a neat home made Batman Comic coffee table. The hard part for me would be tearing up the comic book itself (*cringe*).

“First, I went to a used furniture store and found an old coffee table and bought it for ten dollars.”
“Then, I painted it black (the obvious choice) after sanding it down.”

Next she just stuck the cut out comic pages on the table and covered them with a clear coat varnish. Very simple, easy and cool!

(Thanks Marisa!)

Here is a wonderful dab of 90’s sketch comedy genius that was put together by the folks at Mr. Show. This is the perfect mix of SNL and Monthy Python, with a nice brush of cynicism thrown in for good measure. It is also, according the bright wits at Hit And Run, a perceptive summation of life in America post-9/11. Let’s blow up the moon!

German researchers have developed an artificial cornea that is scheduled to begin testing next year. From fraunhofer.de:

“Our artificial corneas are based on a commercially available polymer which absorbs no water and allows no cells to grow on it,” says IAP project manager Dr. Joachim Storsberg. “Once our partner Dr. Schmidt Intraokularlinsen GmbH has suitably shaped the polymers, we selectively coat the implants: We lay masks on them and apply a special protein to the edge of the cornea, which the cells of the natural cornea can latch onto. In this way, the cornea implant can firmly connect with the natural part of the cornea, while the center remains free of cells and therefore clear.” What is special about this protein is that it can survive the later thermal sterilization of the artificial cornea without being damaged, as it does not have the three-dimensional structure typical of large proteins. Such a structure would be destroyed during the sterilization process, leading to changes in the material’s properties. The optical front part of the implant is coated with a hydrophilic polymer, so that it is constantly moistened with tear fluid.”

LINK [via jwz]

This is a really neat recycled fork card holder found over at Mixtgoods. Kind of resembles an angry Cthulhu doesn’t it? Good call on that one by miniaturebrainwave. LINK [also via RGS]

Back in 2004-05, photographer Pok Chi Lau created a great photo series titled China of Colors. Pictured here are “3 Dogs” and “KFC” from the series.

In my professional work I have focused on the contemporary cultural and social transformations brought about by human migration. Through photography, writing and video, I seek to illuminate the impact of global migration upon the private lives and social environments of the Chinese people, both in the Chinese homeland and in their adopted environs. To understand the Chinese Diaspora is to acknowledge the significance of human patterns of global migration as they shape individual experiences and emerging cultures.

Lau is an associate professor in the Design Department of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas.

LINK [via nerdshit]

More interesting stories from china here (china paints mountainside green) and here.

These Legacy X Nintendo shoes are covered with the famous Mario Star and have a cool image of Yoshi on the bottom. They are limited at only 400 pairs and go for $120. LINK [via kotaku]

I pity the fool who doesn’t like stained glass! This is a really neat portrait of Mr. T in stained glass (probably just photoshopped).

Crappy neighbors take the fun out of what would normally be a great place to live. Thanks to Rottenneighbor.com, you can now do a quick search for bad, mean, loud and crazy neighbors before you move. Or, if you just want to make a complaint about your bad neighbor, you can also contribute to the map.

We are the first real estate search engine of its kind that helps you find bad neighbors before you move so you don’t regret the purchase of your new house, home, condo or apartment.

Our goal is to be an exceptionally smart assistant when you are looking to move into a new neighborhood. We hope that you will be able to find your dream home in your dream neighborhood by using our data and information provided by other users such as yourself. We then hope you will return the favor to other home buyers by adding to our database.

The site also has a blog with tips to help you deal with bad neighbors. I’m really considering adding a map dot about the jackass who continually lets his/her dog crap directly on the main sidewalk outside my house every single day.

I would like to apologize to any readers who have sent in emails within the past couple months and not gotten any response. I have just discovered that our contact form had not been working properly. I know it is frustrating to send a website a message and not hear back so I always reply to emails if I can. The problem should be fixed now.

Scott

When I found this Seibert Poison Fly Paper over the weekend, I knew it must have been dangerous (the label clearly states it has arsenic in it). But I had no idea that these 8 sheets of old fly paper still had enough poison in them to do some serious harm to a person. Once I got home I found a very interesting article in the guardian about lethal poisons for sale in the web marketplace.

“Toxic chemicals such as strychnine, arsenic and cyanide are freely available for sale on the internet, leading toxicologists have warned. Many sellers do not know they are handling potentially lethal substances, but the scientists worry that buyers could cause harm with the chemicals, either accidentally or deliberately.”

“To demonstrate how easy it is to buy poisons, the Guardian obtained antique flypaper infused with between 200 and 400 milligrams of arsenic from the web marketplace eBay.”

“The Guardian bought a packet of eight sheets of antique “Seibert poison flypaper” costing $9.99 from a seller in Iowa. The package says it contains “the equivalent of 2-4% metallic arsenic”, which could be extracted from the paper by soaking it in water. This corresponds to roughly 200-400 milligrams of arsenic, well above the dose for “significant toxicity” of 100 milligrams. According to Nicholas Edwards, manager of the information service at Guys and St Thomas’ hospital poisons unit in London, it is doubtful that this would be enough to kill an adult, but chronic poisoning with arsenic leads to a range of symptoms including skin lesions and neurological effects such as numbness and pins and needles. In one case in 1911, Frederick Seddon was convicted of poisoning his tenant using arsenic-laced flypaper.”

Everything you ever needed to build your own crocheted garden gnome army. Or you could always give the garden gnome kit as a gift to someone who likes to create… things. LINK

A contracted employee of Nintendo was fired last week for questionable content on her personal blog. Jessica Zenner, who blogs under the pen name Jessica Carr, was fired after Nintendo discovered her posting negative comments about co-workers and superiors on her website inexcusablebehavior. From The Stranger:

“Zenner’s page—inexcusablebehavior.spaces.live.com, which she refers to as her “daily mental vomit”—is essentially an online diary. She rambles about lunches with friends, smoking, old movies, and boob jobs. Zenner’s former job as a technical recruiter at Nintendo—although she’s technically a contract employee through Parker Services—was not directly referenced on her site. She also mentions several of her coworkers, although not by name, which is what Zenner thinks got her fired.

One post on Zenner’s blog—titled “The Daily Weed”—begins with her disputing her friends’ perception that she is a pothead. She digresses into a wry tirade against one of her bosses: “One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily,” Zenner writes. “My gut tells me that this woman hasn’t been [f’d] in years.”"

LINK [via joystiq]

Michelle Wibowo designs some cakes that look almost too real to eat. She has won multiple awards for her creations, including an award for the “Baby Cake” pictured here. Michelle’s cakes can be completely custom made to your specifications and are available for weddings, birthdays, and exhibits. LINK to her website. Below is a video of the amazing and somewhat creepy Baby Cake in the making. It’s such a cool looking cake, but how could you take a knife to it and not be just a little spooked out?

I will betray my Gen-X roots by saying that I remember being a teenager when this video first debuted on MTV. I remember being floored by the raw intensity of the song. But the video, and the accompanying song lyrics, left me crying with laughter. It is still one of the funniest damn videos I have ever seen.

Note: You may find this slightly disturbing if you are a sensitive soul that has been subject to an asshole liar in the past couple of years. Then again, watching this may be cathartic. Enjoy!

These Flame Lamps were designed by Gitta Gschwendtner to help bring attention to energy saving bulbs. They were created for Ten, an exhibition about sustainable design held at 100% Design in London last week.

“It is really obvious that we all ought to use energy-saving bulbs. Nonetheless, retailers and the general public are reluctant to make the simple switch. I believe that people are unaware of how compatible new compact fluorescents are. In fact, they are attractive in their own right.”

A total of ten lamps were created. You can see more here. via [mocoloco]

This is an interesting story about the rapidly growing social problems being linked to Japan’s current maid girl fetish. Japanese shops in Akihabara have been attracting male Otaku (geeks) with fantasy girls for some time now. In an attempt to draw customers, cafes will usually have girls stand on the sidewalk in maid outfits passing out flyers and coupons. Recently a growing number of the cafes have begun to spread and researchers claim that Japanese men are developing severe social problems since the shops allow them to avoid contact with mainstream society.

“Many young people are wrapped up in their own fantasy worlds,” says Kashiwabara, whose university broadcasts lectures to almost 90,000 students from its base in Chiba, east of Tokyo. “The fact that maid shops are spreading means that people are becoming socially inept all over Japan.”
“Candy Fruit, as the store is named, sells designer eyeglasses. Naruse is part of a mushrooming fantasy world in the city’s Akihabara district, where make-believe maids are spilling out from their original novelty cafes to lure mostly male customers to reflexology centers and souvenir stalls.”

`Love Love Hot Cake’
Outside the capital, a backlash is taking shape. Last month officials in western Wakayama prefecture blocked a maid cafe that planned to serve 580-yen ($5) pancakes with saucy names from opening in a local government building.
“We thought some people might get offended,” says Masaya Tajiri, a spokesman at Wakayama’s cultural affairs department. “We have lots of families visiting, so things like `Love Love Hot Cake’ may be inappropriate.”

Full Story [via gamebrink]

Related: A blog recently posted about a Japanese Maid Taxi that has sprung up in Japan! There is even word of a Maid Café that has opened in San Jose’s Japantown.

Baron Margo is an extraordinary artist who is best known for his one of a kind metal car creations. Personally, I have taken a liking to his super shiny rocketship lamps and cars, but I assure you they are just the tip of his great collection. Margo’s creations include cars, motorcycles, rocketship lamps, robots (creepy), sculptures and spacecraft. Kudos to the “Vintage Baron” page featuring a picture of him surfing on a junkyard heap! LINK

Perhaps if the man in this video actually looked threatening I would have a better understanding of the tagline here. The man looks like any normal person you would see on the street, which leaves color as the only possible reason the woman in the video is freaking out.

Kill in style. LINK

A giant wide-angled gigapixel camera that can take pictures of a 10-kilometre-square area. LINK

Pingmag has posted a gallery of fairly interesting bookmarks. LINK

Polar bears diving for fish. From NS:

“The Inuit people of the Arctic have always known about it. But no outsiders have witnessed it for 200 years: a polar bear fishing. Not by scooping the fish out of the water like a brown bear - but by plunging in and swimming.” LINK

A 15,000 year tour of Manhattan. LINK via growabrain.

Birds can see Earth’s magnetic field. LINK

Nanotechnology will be used to capture power plant emissions. LINK

Did the artist who designed this Super Mario Galaxy cover art intend to hide the words UR MR GAY in the title? Notice the strangely placed white stars on the corner of the specific letters. This is the official art from the Nintendo press site. LINK

Patricia Piccinini’s super realistic and creepy sculptures are featured in Hug, an installation that covers the undefined relationship with man, nature and genetic manipulation. From the Frye Art Museum:
The artist has long focused on the representation of humans and animals, emphasizing the capacity for manipulation and enhancement through biotechnological intervention. Her artwork explores potential, often ambiguous, interactions between humans, animals, and human–animal hybrids. For Piccinini, humanity bears physical and ethical responsibility for experimentation with the natural and the artificial; her artwork challenges us to embrace, for better or worse, the unanticipated consequences of those investigations.

Piccinini’s web site has a great gallery of her works. For people in the Puget Sound area, Hug is showing at the Frye Art Museum through January 6th 2008. The Stranger has also posted a podcast interview with Piccinini you can listen to here.

This image of a N64 controller bong is proof that people will never stop finding interesting ways to use old gaming gear. LINK

An interesting story has recently emerged from Canada and the Vatican involving a group of nuns called “The Army of Mary.” The Vatican, citing a “grave situation,” has recently excommunicated all members of The Army of Mary for their beliefs that the Virgin Mary is fully divine and also reincarnated as Marie Paul Giguère, the groups founder. Giguère founded the group in 1971 after years of what she claims were Devine inner voices and visions similar to those experienced by Joan of Arc and Saint Teresa of Avila. From NP:
“In 1958, our foundress received from above, heard from above that she would be crucified by priests and bishops. It’s only the realization today of such a message,” said Father Eric Roy, Superior General of the Sons of Mary and a leading figure in the group. “We cannot go against our conscience.”
“” The Church has been very patient with them. I’ve been very patient with them,” Archbishop Prendergast said. “It’s a kind of cult. I think they are very much under the sway of the foundress. Whatever she says counts for more important than what the Pope says.””

Here’s a small suggestion to future cults groups trying to stick it out as members of the Catholic Church… Avoid using the word “Army” in your name.

Link

A mathematical discovery by Oxford scientists supports the theory that alternate universes actually exist. From breitbart:
“A motorist who has a near miss, for instance, might feel relieved at his lucky escape. But in a parallel universe, another version of the same driver will have been killed. Yet another universe will see the motorist recover after treatment in hospital. The number of alternative scenarios is endless.

It is a bizarre idea which has been dismissed as fanciful by many experts. But the new research from Oxford shows that it offers a mathematical answer to quantum conundrums that cannot be dismissed lightly - and suggests that Dr Everett, who was a Phd student at Princeton University when he came up with the theory, was on the right track.

Commenting in New Scientist magazine, Dr Andy Albrecht, a physicist at the University of California at Davis, said: “This work will go down as one of the most important developments in the history of science.”"

LINK

via Kurzweilai 

A fallen rock was blocking one of our routes in Afghanstan and EOD decided to blow it up. I set my camera up to film it and after it blew we found out a nest of wasps were under the rock. They were pissed!

In an attempt to take ridiculous to the next level, someone has created a GTA hack that replaces the main character with two giggling Japanese school girls. They spend the entire length of the Youtube video driving Metal Gear Solid vehicles and blasting never ending Pikachus with uzis. Word on the street is that this hack was created for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto. LINK

For a measly $300,000 down and a total of $1.5 million, you can own a former U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile base listed on Ebay. The former Larsen Air Force Base complex is located in Central Washington about 180 miles east of Seattle. From the Ebay listing:
Every single one of the old missile bases has been scrapped out. None of them have useable electrical or sewer systems etc. Most all of them have major water problems - either completely filled with water or giant heaps of rust. Ours is one of the rare ones, and the only useable TITAN that I know of that is DRY!
There is about 45,000 square feet of useable floor space, not including the tunnels, in the sixteen underground buildings. About half of this space has ceiling heights of about 8 - 10 feet. The rest have ceiling heights of about 20′ and 40′ and the power dome - 65′. The THREE missile silos have 155′ ceiling heights (with the rocket holding structure removed from two of them). LINK
related BBC article

This picture taken from the Ebay listing gives a perfect example of the dust bowl you will find surrounding the base. Anyone who has done the drive from Western Washington to Spokane or Pullman will find it strikingly familiar, since it’s all you see once you pass the Columbia River. You could hide a ton of those missile bases out in that wasteland!

The SKYplay series on Flickr is a very creative use of the sky, with the clouds and the sun as props, to create illusions with man-made objects or with hands. The creator of this wonderful series has traveled to various locations along the West Coast and has used famous landmarks (Golden Gate Bridge, Space Needle) as a background for some of the photos. My favorites: the use of a little wooden man affectionately referred to as “Woody” to create magical cloud plumes.

Full SKYplay set here

Via

This is a hilarious twist on the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular in the 70’s and 80’s. I absolutely loved the books when I was a kid and can totally relate with the “Don’t Bother You Die In Most Of The Endings Anyway” title used in this gallery. The author must have been hell bent on making kids suffer because I died over and over again just trying to reach a decent ending. LINK to full gallery.

An 800 year old book that was said to have been written with the assistance of the Devil is now on display in the city of Prague. The book was taken from it’s Czech home in Prague 359 years ago by Swedish troops at the end of the Thirty Year’s War. The priceless book is also thought to be the biggest medieval manuscript ever written, and its return was accomplished only after years of negotiations between the Czech and Swedish governments. Known as the Codex Gigas, the book is drawing huge crowds and has piqued interest in its strange origins.

“According to myth, a Benedictine monk promised to write the book overnight to atone for his sins. When he realized the task was impossible, he asked the devil for help. The page with the illustration of the devil is the one visitors see.”

Full story here

Mimoco has just announced the release of its Halo Mimobot Series 1 USB flash drives. From the press release:
Licensed by Microsoft and Bungie Studios, the Halo mimobot Series 1 will be available in three limited-edition colorways – Master Chief Green (edition of 5,000), Red Spartan and Blue Spartan (3,000 each).
The tradition of preloading mimobot Designer USB Flash Drives with exclusive digital content continues with the Halo mimobot Series 1. Each Halo mimobot will contain a wide variety of Halo-related media, from wallpapers, screensavers, and soundBytes to unpublished pages from the Marvel Halo comics, sections from the Halo 3 strategy guide, and excerpts from the upcoming Halo novel. Additionally, the in-game talk show “This Spartan Life” has provided Mimoco with an exclusive episode only available on the Halo mimobot Series 1.
Halo Mimobots will be available in 1GB, 2 GB and 4GB ($49.95-109.95) and are now available for pre-order. LINK