I've just realized that I seem to like posting about swings. So why break the cycle! The UpSwing, a simple portable swing that comes with the ropes and hooks you need to setup a playground anywhere you want. As long as you have a sturdy object above you, you can hang the UpSwing on it. I would love to go to a park in the summer and relax on this thing underneath a tree!
The Nature Research Center in Raleigh, North Carolina is home to the extremelly impressive Patterned by Nature installation. The piece is 10 feet wide and 90 feet in length, it's also made up of 3,600 transparent glass "pixels" that change their opacity to simulate events in nature. There are twenty programs the ribbon cycles through, ranging from clouds, raindrops, birds flying, and more. The piece even plays an eight channel soundtrack to go along with the content being shown.
I see and work with books everyday, but never really think about the creation process. This video titled, Birth of a Book, directed by Glen Milner, shows the development of traditional book-making from start to finish at book binding company, Smith-Settle Printers in Leeds, England.
To view more of Glen Milner's work click here.
Here's a video from our first DIY program! Last March we created popsicle stick bombs in the Teen area and this month we'll be meeting again on April 14tth to create duct tape wallets. Keep an eye out every month for the next program in our new series of DIY programs.
UPDATE: If you missed this program you can still download and print the instructions!
People have been talking about Google's latest concept, Project Glass. The glasses basically have the same functions as a smart phone, like look up information, use social networks, etc. One of the biggest discussions is, would anyone actually wear these goofy looking things? If it ever gets off the ground I'd be interested to see how they work in the real world. Check out the video demonstration below.
With 95% of his vision gone, the man in this video, Steve, is beyond being considered legally blind, and he's driving a car. Google's self driving car, first announced in 2010, is a technological wonder. The car has already clocked 200,000 miles by using a series of cameras and a scanning laser to determine it's route. All you have to do is tell the car your destination it and will plot a route for you, taking into consideration speed limits and traffic patterns. Watch as Steve takes a trip out for some Taco Bell.
This is possibly the strangest kit I've seen . . . and I must have it. This $5 make-it-yourself kit gives you the opportunity to create your own burger, fries, and soda candies, using some plastic molds and packaged batter. Rumor has it, these are actually flavored to taste like the real thing. Yum?
If you're interested in purchasing a kit click here.
If you've ever watched cartoons in your life you must have seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon from one time or another. Why is this even something to question? Everyone knows who Bugs Bunny is! In these videos Chuck Jones, the man that brought most of your favorite Looney Toons characters to life, shows you how to draw them yourself. So go get a big stack of paper and some sharpened pencils and get to it!
Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Pepe le Pew
and Wile E. Coyote
A new trailer for the Avengers has been realized and it's looking better than ever. The film is set to release on May 4th.
In order to prepare for the release I've written up a checklist of movies and books you should see, and read, before the release.
Movies:
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Hulk (2003) The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Comic books:
Another series I highly recommend involving these characters, and a few other Marvel characters, is the Civil War series. This list should get you ready, and hyped, for May 4th.
This animation took Francisco Prieto 3 years to complete! Using a 3D modeling program called 3D Studio Max and V-Ray. Prieto builds a replica of a Lego Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. What's really impressive is that, Prieto had to manually model every single Lego piece you see in the video, as well as animate the placement of the pieces.
Lego Millennium Falcon Stop Motion Assembly 3d from Francisco Prieto on Vimeo.
If you liked the video and have an interest in 3D modeling and would like to try your hand at it, there are a number of free programs you can download.
If you would like to get video instruction on how to model, you can use this site Lynda under the "3D" tab. Another website that I highly recommend is Blender Cookie, the site is geared more towards users of Blender, but you can still take the skills you have learned from the site and apply it to other programs.
