Giant Japanese fire-breathing robot baby

Got to love the Japanese, they go absolutely bonkers over anything robotic. Have a look at one of Yanobe Kenji's creations, Giant Torayan, a robotic sculpture that sings, dances, breathes fire, and, according to Yanobe, obeys only the orders of children.



Hate to be the one that has to deal with its tantrums

Cadillac working on semi-autonomous driving system

Cadillac is currently road testing a semi autonomous system it calls "supercruise". This system is capable of full automatic steering, braking and lane centering in highway driving under certain optimal conditions, elements of this system will be available in the upcoming ATS and XTS with the optional Driver Assist Package. This package will include features like automatic braking, full-speed adaptive cruise control, brake assist, forward collision alert, automatic collision preparation, and the pioneer safety alert seat. Look for this system to be introduced mid decade.




"Auto collision preparation" Does this mean it`ll call your lawyer or kiss your ass goodbye?

Dating, investment banker style

David Merkur, being the investment banker that he is has a rather interesting way of keeping track of the women he meets on Match.com. He compiles photos, contact information and issues progress reports about the women he has dated into a spreadsheet. Potential girl friends were colour coded, broken down into "monitor closely" and "monitor casually". David has also included an out-of-10 appearance rating of each woman.

And he`s fun at parties too!

Something you should consider on 4/20

Did you know the term '420' was started by a group of students at California's San Rafael High School in the late '70s, this according to a flyer passed out at a Grateful Dead concert. "It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads (Grateful Dead followers) heard of the police call, they started using the expression '420' when referring to the herb 'Let's go 420, dude,'" reads the flyer. Although police don't use that code around 1990, High Times magazine published the term and since then 4/20 has grown into a day to celebrate pot. So if you`re out celebrating 4/20 here are some other things associated with this date: Between April 19 and April 20, three large attacks, all within six years, have happened in the U.S. and left numerous people dead. Oh, and one dictator`s birthday.

Waco (April 19, 1993)
Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995)
Columbine (April 20, 1999)
Korean Airlines flight 902 disaster (April 20, 1978)
Deep Water Horizon oil well spill (April 20-July 15, 2010)
Hitler`s birthday (April 20, 1889)

Enjoy

Outer Space

This video, simply titled "Outer Space," was created by Hague based filmmaker Sander van den Berg. He made this film using NASA's Cassini and Voyager image databases and found photographs that were taken in succession, allowing him to stitch them together into moving images. The result, as you can see, was nothing short of amazing. Footage includes Rings, ring gaps, moonlets, geysers, and spots of all sizes.

Guess what happens when you siphon gas from a police car

Meet Michael Baker. This is him swiping gas last month from a Jenkins Police Department police car. Seems he doesn`t like police too much considering you can also see him flipping the bird. Being the master mind that he is, he got his girlfriend to memorialized it on Facebook. Can you guess what happened next? After photos began circulating in Jenkins Kentucky he was quickly arrested and charged with theft. Not exactly MENSA material is he?

more

45 new Prometheus stills

Russian site kinopoisk.ru has posted a shit load of Prometheus stills. Some are more of the same stuff we`ve seen before but there`s some really compelling stuff there. Par for the course, all these images raise more questions than answering any.
You can view the images here: kinopoisk
June 8th can`t come soon enough.

Huge 60 million year old dinosaur eggs found

Explorers in Chechnya have accidentally discovered what they think is the largest batch of fossilized dinosaur eggs in a mountainous area south of the republic. The cache contains 40 or so eggs and is believed to date back some 60 million years. The explorers also believe they were laid by plant eating dinosaurs. The team of geographers stumbled up on the eggs as they were studying two uncharted waterfalls. Radio carbon dating tests will confirm the actual age of the specimens.

And now a spider eating a snake, sweet dreams

Don`t really know how big that snake is,  but I`m guessing that spider is no small fry. Surely this was an epic animal kingdom duel to the death and it makes nice nightmare fuel too.
 

Sweet dreams kiddies.

Don`t use a lawnmower on carpet and other no-no`s

Taken from the Danish TV show Dumt & Farligt this video was shot using a Vision Research Phantom Flex camera capable of shooting scenes at 2,800 frames per second, all at 1080p resolution.

Enjoy this ballet of destruction.

Guy Pearce`s fabulous 1 minute make-over

In this scene from Lockout we catch a glimpse of Guy Pearce applying his new 1 minute easy hair colour solution to Maggie Grace. Even though she doesn`t seem to willing to go through with the make-over, the results speak for themselves.

Simply fabulous.

This is no way to treat your mother`s motorcycle

On his mom`s bike even! Police on Vancouver Island say they have tracked down an unlicensed and uninsured motorcyclist who posted a YouTube video of a high-speed run on a Yamaha reaching speeds of up to 299 km/h along a busy section of the Trans-Canada Highway. The rider in the video is believed to be a 25-year-old male with 25 previous infractions. The registered owner of the bike is believed to be his mother, but the bike is not insured LOL. Police say the bike has been seized but charges have not yet been laid. They are waiting to speak with the alleged rider, but he is not co-operating with police and did not show up for a meeting on Wednesday.



Mummy is not impressed.

Drunk woman drives ex-boyfriend`s car into bowling alley

Gentlemen, this is the reason you DON`T change your relationship status to single on Facebook while still being IN the relationship.

via BBC

David Cronenberg`s Cosmopolis teaser

Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager's day devolves into a odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.

Is Google`s next venture space mining?

Google founders Larry Page, Eric Schmidt along with James Cameron and Ross Perot, Jr. are backing a brand new space exploration company called Planetary Resources. On Tuesday April 24th  they will "unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity's prosperity."

From the press release: "Planetary Resources will overlay two critical sectors, space exploration and natural resources to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources'."

Kinda sounds like asteroid mining don`t you think? The project will be unveiled at Seattle's Museum of Flight by X Prize founder Peter Diamandis along with former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki and planetary scientist (and former NASA astronaut) Tom Jones.

Or maybe Google just wants to collect martian wifi data.

Masafumi Nagasaki: the naked Japanese hermit

Ah retirement, loads of free time to catch up on hobbies, stay in touch with family or just relax and reflect on a lifetime of work and commitment. Meet 76 yr old Masafumi Nagasaki, he doesn`t care much for mainstream society so he decided to go full hermit in the early 90`s on the little Japanese Island of Sotobanari. This kidney shaped island is just 1 km wide and is located in Japan`s tropical Okinawa prefecture and is actually closer to Taiwan than Tokyo. Did I mention the currents are so dangerous that local fishermen give it a wide berth? Or the powerful typhoons and biting insects? None of this seems to matter to good old Masafumi who walks around naked and lives off of $120 sent by his family along with water and rices cakes that he has to get from a nearby island once a week.

To quote Masafumi: "I don`t do what society tells me, but I do follow the rules of the natural world. You can`t beat nature so you have to obey it completely. That`s what I learned when I came here, and that`s probably why I get by so well."

Love you man, stay crazy.

Meet Pebble, the ultimate nerd watch

The Pebble is an e-ink wristwatch that has been designed to sync wirelessly via bluetooth with either an iPhone or Android handset. The wristwatch can run apps and allows the user to control music playback on a phone, use the phone as a workout tool and to receive text messages or caller information from a phone. Additional apps can be browsed via a phone screen and then directly installed on the watch. The battery of the watch lasts about seven days on a full charge. The Pebble started out as kickstarter project and was able to collect $4.5 million in less than a week to fund the project. Not bad!

Expect the Pebble to run around $150 when it becomes available this September.

Dark Shadows official trailer

What sorcery is this! Could this be the surprise movie hit of the summer? The comedy Dark shadows based on a soap opera (ran 1966-71) with the same name begins In 1752 when the Collins family sails from Liverpool England to North America. The son, Barnabas, grows up to be a wealthy playboy in Collinsport Maine and is the master of Collinwood Manor. He breaks the heart of a witch, Angelique Bouchard, who turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. In 1972, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin and returns to find his once-magnificent mansion in ruin. The manor is currently occupied by Barnabas' dysfunctional descendants, all of whom are hiding dark and horrifying secrets. Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton stars Johnny Depp as a 200 yr old vampire, Michelle Pfeiffer as his cousin and Eva Green as the vengeful witch.

Dark Shadows opens May 11th.

Errors of the Human body teaser trailer

From the official web site: "Canadian scientist Dr Geoff Burton takes up a position at a new institute in wintry Dresden, Germany. His contribution to their most important project – a human regeneration gene – has the potential to make something miraculous out of a personal tragedy that has haunted him for years.
Errors of the Human Body is a psychological thriller about one man’s quest for redemption from his own disturbing past, set within the mysterious world of genetic engineering." More




No word on a release date yet.

North Korea spent $15 on its official web site

The Democratic People`s Republic of Korea spent $15 on its web site, yup $15 at least thats how much the generic web template cost. If you have a look at the source code, a keyword search for “envatowebdesign” will turn up a prompt comment from the site’s theme seller telling the person who bought it how to customize it. The Flash heavy English site is obviously laden with propaganda including something about "Juche Ideology" here`s an excerpt, "Establishing Juche means adopting the attitude of a master towards the revolution and construction of one's country. It means maintaining an independent and creative standpoint in finding solutions to the problems which arise in the revolution and construction. It implies solving those problems mainly by one's own efforts and in conformity with the actual conditions of one's own POLITICS country. The realization of independence in politics, selfsufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence is a principle the Government maintains consistently." Sure, whatever friend, err comrade. So now we know that North Korea not only sucks at making rockets, but they suck at making web sites too.

site: Democratic People`s Republic of Korea

7 billion year old Gamma rays prove Einstein was right

High and low energy photons arrive at NASA's Fermi spacecraft orbiting 550 km above the Earth a mere 900 ms apart after traveling through space for 7 billion years. This suggests that the fabric of space-time isn't a bubbly foam, a hypothesis favoured by quantum theorists but is closer to Einstein's description of a smooth rubbery membrane.

Space Shuttle takes final flight over Washington

Today the Space Shuttle Discovery took its final flight on top of a modified 747 over Washington on its way to the Smithsonian Nation Air and Space Museum. Crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the retired shuttle Discovery which made a sweep of the capital region, over monuments, before landing at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.


After 39 successful missions Discovery`s new home will be at the Smithsonian where it will replace the Enterprise.

Meet David the soft spoken Android from Prometheus

In this new Prometheus viral video we get to meet David. David the android played by Michael Fassbender was constructed by the Weyland corp and as the video proclaims, he can do almost anything that could possibly be asked of him including carrying out directives that his human counterparts may find.... distressing or unethical, quite telling wouldn`t you say? Despite David`s sunny disposition and calming voice I`m sure his lack of a moral compass will come in handy when we`ll see him be up to no good carrying out one of those "directives" on behalf of the Weyland corp. He reminds me of HAL from 2001 Space Odyssey, we know how that turned out.

Prometheus opens June 8th.

New Avengers clip shows Nick Fury and Loki having a man to man

In this new Avengers clip we see Nick Fury and Loki discussing the finer points of power, also mentioned is a cage that Loki assumes is built for him but in reality it was made to contain the Hulk. Yeah sure, like thats ever going to happen!

Avengers open May 4th at a theatre near you.

Canada releases glow-in-the-dark quarter

The Royal Canadian Mint is releasing a new 25 cent piece that glows in the dark. The mint's latest collectable coin features a dinosaur whose skeleton glows, the coin actually has two images on one face which could be a world's first. The other side depicts Queen Elizabeth, the Queen does not glow. These coins are made of cupronickel which is a copper alloy that contains nickel, iron and manganese and is slightly larger than a regular Canadian quarter.

Scientists to build artificial human brain

The human brain`s power is currently unrivalled, no machine can touch it. Now scientists intend to recreate one for the purposes of studying neurological diseases such as Parkinson`s and Alzheimer`s. To be housed in a facility near Dusseldorf Germany, the brain will feature thousands of three dimensional images built around a central cockpit so that scientists can virtually fly around different areas for study. The project has initial funding from the EU and is shortlisted for a 1 billion Euro grant to be decided next month. For those of you thinking you`re going to be getting a nice new chromed butler or fighting terminators, well here are some more project details: The project is estimated to take 12 years to complete and require the output of a nuclear power station for the billion, billion calculations that it will perform. What could possibly go wrong?

more

Most annoying alarm clock EVER

Who hasn`t slept in? Alarm clocks, pretty much everyone`s got one or has at least used one at one time or another. Behold RAMOS, not only does it wake you with an irritating ring, it also forces you out of bed and sends you to a "defuse panel" where you have to enter a code to actually shut the damned thing off. Must be a joy to use after one of those hard core drinking nights, shotgun sales can be seen sky rocketing.

Massive eruption on the Sun

Today a massive eruption from magnetic fields on the Sun's northeastern limb sent an M 1.7 flare out into space. M class flares are medium sized and if directed toward Earth can cause brief radio blackouts along Earth`s polar regions. Minor radiation storms occasionally follow M class flares. According to spaceweather.com "this event confirms suspicions that an active region of significance is rotating onto the Earth-facing side of the sun," so there is the possibility of an Earth directed flare soon.

South Korea to get robot prison guards

South Korea plans to introduce robots into its prison system to assist human prison guards. These robots have been designed to patrol a prison autonomously and do mundane tasks such as prisoner observation, project instructions to prisoners from human operators, and recognize certain behaviours from prisoners. Human operators can use an iPad to manually control the robots if the need arises. The next step, according to designers, is a robot that conducts body searches although they admit, neither the technology nor the prison system is quite ready for a step that far into the future. These robots are equipped with alarms instead of guns and travel at 2 km/h so no Robocop action yet.

Skydiving from 71 000 ft

Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumped out of the Red Bull Stratos space capsule from an altitude of approximately 71,580 feet over New Mexico on March 15th. The 42-year-old rode the space capsule attached to a giant helium balloon above the so-called "Armstrong Line." which is the altitude that produces an atmospheric pressure so low that water boils at the temperature of the human body. After jumping out of the capsule he spent approximately three minutes and 43 seconds in free fall, reaching speeds of more than 360 miles per hour (580 km/h), before opening his parachute. In total, the jump lasted approximately eight minutes and eight seconds. The goal of the Red Bull Stratos project is to see Baumgartner attempt a record-breaking free fall from 120,000 feet this summer where he'll potentially become the first man to go supersonic in free fall.

International trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man

This one`s got the Lizard in it!

The Amazing Spider-Man opens nation wide July 3rd.

$376 000 Lamborghini Aventador carbeque

I was going to say poor guy that owned the Lamborghini but it has come to light that he was only test driving the car. No small wonder he was able to pose so calmly next to a melted Lamborghini Aventador which caught fire on highway 73 in California. During the test drive a fire originated somewhere around the driver`s side rear tire area and quickly engulfed the car, guess that`s why they pulled over.
The vehicle in question apparently belongs to a local California dealership and spontaneously combusted while out on a test drive with the calm interent venture capitalist standing on the shoulder of the highway.
Lamborghini is "trying to figure out what happened." Looks like they'll have plenty of video evidence to sort through. I`m guessing no sale on this ride.

Why you shouldn`t stand behind a screaming jet engine

A well deserved vacation, check.
Having a good time on the beach, check.
Copious amounts of beer, vodka or whatever (maybe), check.
Losing your teeth doing something stupid on vacation, priceless.

The airport on the small country of Sint Maarten is located literally meters away from the beach. Despite warning signs posted along the fence that separates Princess Juliana airport and the beach you get potential Darwin award winning behaviour like this....

Sint Maarten encompasses the southern half of the island of Saint Marten which is 190 miles east of Puerto Rico and is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Introducing Mintchip, Canada jumps into digital currency

The Royal Canadian Mint is contemplating an alternative to physical currency for its citizens that it believes needs to fit today's digital economy. So it has invited computer software developers to make payment applications using MintChip. The Royal Canadian Mint is aiming for a new brand of transactions that are smaller, faster, and virtually everywhere. MintChip would require shoppers to load currency onto a smartphone, USB stick, computer, tablet, cloud and use that to pay instead of physical currency. The idea is that you would be able to use MintChip everywhere, online, stores, or for personal transactions without giving up any of your personal data. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.

MAJOR Avengers spoilers

Courtesy of comicbookmovie.com these guys have seen the movie and have a great review over at their site. I won`t ruin the movie for you but if you really, really, REALLY can`t wait or are just one of those that have to know what happens in the Avengers movie before seeing it in theatres, well here you go....

Avengers MAJOR spoilers

Don`t say I didn`t warn you!

Avengers opens May 4th.

Super mashup: the BMX DJ

This is what happens when you mix two very cool cultures together, and its called the Turntable Rider. The BMX bike features a fader box that is attached to the handlebars, a jog wheel stick attached to the bike’s tire valve and two handbrake sound pads. These controls communicate wirelessly via Bluetooth to a computer running DJ software Traktor to modify the tracks.
The system was developed in a collaboration between professional BMX rider Kotaro Tanaka, DJ Baku and interactive artist Toshiyuki Sugai. According to the team, the aim was to create a system that “mixes well with street culture and is fun to play.” Looks very cool.