Category: Curiosities

First Person Umbrella

Sick and tired of the great unwashed. Tired of slow walkers. Or worse, public smokers… well. Use this umbrella, and your imagination, to blow them away.

Umbrella for Urban Combat

From the blurb on Flickr.

“Around Harvard you can tell the MBAs in the rain because they’re the ones with the giant umbrellas. Those are are nice about it raise their umbrella and generally play well with others on the sidewalk. The jerks are the ones who barge through the city hitting the umbrellas of others at will.

It’s because of them that I’ve invented the Urban Combat Umbrella which lets you exact virtual revenge by putting them in your sights and making shooting noises until you heart’s content.”

Homer Simpson painted by Rembrant

Obviously this would have been much harder to animate.

And, as a bonus, Marge Simpson in the style of Johannes Vermeer.

And as a bonus bonus. Groundskeeper Willie Van Gogh style.

And Darth Vader Monet style…

Pony front: How to give your pony tail some context…

This hair style is amazing…

Art for Esquire magazine

Via Flickr.

Clear cut biology: Amazing transparent animal specimens

These are cool. A Japanese designer/scientist is turning science into art with these transparent animal skeletons. They are amazing.

Here’s a little synopsis of his project. The site is in Japanese, but the magic of google translate should fix that for you.

“Originally, the method of making transparent specimens – enzymatically turning the protein transparent, dyeing the bones magenta and dyeing the cartilages blue – was established for scientific purposes to study the skeletal system. Taking this a step further to refine the form and coloration of the specimens requires time and experience.

I create transparent specimens as pieces of work that help people feel closer to the wonders of life.

People may look at my specimens as an academic material, a piece of art, or even an entrance to philosophy. There is no limitation to how you interpret their meaning. I hope you will find my work as a “lens” to project a new image, a new world that you’ve never seen before.”

Here’s some of his work.

Hitman fail…

If you’re a hitman. The rules are simple. Don’t fall in love with your target. And if you do, don’t try to cover it up with a photo mock up featuring tomato sauce and the old machete in the arm pit trick. And, failing that, definitely don’t get caught canoodling with your would be victim, especially don’t let the person who paid you catch you…

This, sadly, is not a hypothetical set of happenings.

Only in Brazil…

Zombies attack Queensland…

The Queensland Government is launching a new disaster management web portal, to do so, they’ve run a trial on the basis of a zombie invasion. Inadvertently causing a bunch of chainsaw wielding vigilantes to run around hacking up teenagers in hoodies with their vacant stares and dribbling propensity for gibberish. Well. That’s not true.

Getting the deputy commissioner of police to talk about a zombie attack is pretty brilliant.

In case you are interested in psychologically preparing your children for the upcoming zombie apocalypse – here’s a book for kids.

Get it on Amazon.

Perhaps you also want to ward zombies off from your door. This door stopper might help.

If you want some zompocalypse survival tips you can find some previous posts on the subject here.

An infographic featuring popular infographic types

Just in case you’re planning to put together a viral hit.

MOST POPULAR INFOGRAPHICS

From Flickr.

Stop motion Ninja

Contains violence. Ninja violence. Featuring toy ninjas.

Ninja from Olivier Trudeau on Vimeo.

Smurfs in real life…

Not quite so cute now. Are they. When you think about it, Smurfs are more likely to be anthropomorphised rodents than little hominoids.

The artist, Nate Hallinan explains his approach

“The Smurf is actually the result of a symbiotic relationship between two organisms. We believe that Smurfs put their ’embryos’ in the button of a developing mushroom. From a distance, Smurfs seem like they are wearing a hat and pants but as you can see this is a fallacy. The fungus provides camouflage and protective epidermal layers for the creature, while the creature provides nutrients and mobility for the spreading of spores.”

Infographic: Nerds v Geeks

This debate has raged on through the history of St. Eutychus. I maintain that the terms are not synonyms, but highly specific nomenclature to describe two distinctly different subspecies.

From BitRebels.

Bacon Gothic: A Bacon Font

Delicious. And perfect for your next meaty missive.

Love it, designed by Henry Hargreaves, via Dripbook

Remove staples with roar power

I have a little bit of an affinity with the T-Rex, we share the honour of having slightly disproportionate length in our arms. But I probably wouldn’t pay $70 for a T-Rex Skull staple remover.

You might pay that much. Who knows. Apparently there are people out there who’ll pay $1350 for an ornamental elephant paperweight.

You could buy an army of T-Rex staple removers for that price, and face it – they’re slightly more functional than a paperweight.

The times, they are a-chaining…

You can buy this clock, which is a pretty cool fixture if you want to make a hipster friendly cafe, or just be awesome.

Have your mind blown by shades of grey…

Check this out. It’s pretty clear the bottom box is lighter. Right.

Now cover the joint in the middle of the shape with your finger. Do it. On the screen. Amazing.

Via tywkiwdbi

Sticky fun: Draw a Stick Man

This is the most fun I’ve had on the Internet since, well, since the last time I found a cool link. You draw a stick man. He comes to life. He fights a dragon. Good times. ‘Twould be cool to draw Trogdor and have a dragon fighting a dragon… Here’s my viking style stick man with an elongated chin.

You get prompted to give your stick figure a sword, so don’t feel like you need to include one in the beginning.