Hay Baling Fun

It is a widespread belief that, contrary to people living in urban areas, farmers have a strong connection with ‘nature’. One seriously starts to doubt that after watching this peculiar video. Thanks Roel Wouters.

The next hacking frontier: your Brain?

In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.

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China limits use of ‘virtual’ currencies

By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI — China made public on Tuesday regulations aimed at cracking down on the use of virtual currencies amid worries that a huge underground economy was developing out of the country’s online gaming community.

The rules, issued jointly by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Culture in Beijing, could deal a blow to the country’s fast-growing online gaming industry.

Beijing said the regulations would curtail trading in virtual currencies, prevent online gambling and restrict virtual currency from being exchanged for cash or used to buy real goods.

Among other things, Chinese officials have worried that online currencies could ultimately serve as an alternative to China’s official currency, the renminbi, and have an impact on the country’s financial system.

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Office Grass

These grass squares are designed to give a natural touch to the office or home by placing them freely or according to feng-shui. Inspired by Frank loyed Wright’s Fallingwater and the attempt to combine architecture and nature, the entire project is made from recycled materials and tries to merge the home with the outdoors. The packages have an air opening to gain longer shelf live for the product.

The minimalistic design and logo is intended to give a flowing, “breathing” feel to it, as well as elegance and life-style. A piece of earth, that grows indoors with minimal care. The project was made at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel, 2009.

Via Packages of the World.

Anthropomorphic 3d webcam

This new 3D webcam with two cameras spaced approximately as far apart as human eyes is our anthropomorphic object of the week. Can you feel it, watching you?

The little brother sends two offset images to a computer. Software processes the images according to how they’ll be viewed: the camera comes with five sets of blue-red 3-D glasses for use with ordinary monitors, but the software can also output images in the format used by new 3-D displays. The device is compatible with Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, and YouTube. The anthropomorphic design provides you with the slightly uncanny feeling of being observed constantly.

Phone of the future

Comic relief for the weekend. The Sumsing Turbo 3000 has it all. Commercial spoof of a cellphone with many functions by Groen Brothers.

Related: Excuse me, Is Your Tooth Ringing?, My latest cellphone.

Apple Salad

Tasty realization of the classic Apple rainbow logo, made entirely out of fresh fruit.

The clever creation was made by Richard Thomas from sliced kiwis, bananas, oranges, strawberries, green and red grapes and blueberries. Ironically, not a single apple found its way into the picture.

Source Flickr. Via Technabob. See also Better than the real thing.

Pondering the Future

Peculiar image of the week. Langley researcher Elton W. Miller stands poised in the Propeller Research Tunnel, as if pondering the future of aviation in this image from mid-1927. Image credit: Nasa.

Mice cloned from freezer – Mammoths next?

Is the second coming of the woolly mammoth near? Researchers at Japan’s Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), who have successfully cloned mice from carcasses that spent years in a deep freezer.

The research team led by genetic scientist Teruhiko Wakayama successfully demonstrated a promising new cloning technique by replicating frozen laboratory mice whose cells were severely damaged after 16 years in permafrost-like conditions (-20 degrees Celsius). The technique might one day be used to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species, according to the researchers.

Via PinkTentacle.

Mario meets Magritte

Super Mario and Rene Magritte mashed up for Dadaist delight. Available as a T-shirt. See also The surrealist were telling the truth.

Catch and eat fishing by phone

For mobile gamers in western Japan, a hearty seafood dinner awaits just a few key clicks away, thanks to a unique new cellphone fishing game that rewards successful players with home deliveries of fresh, real-world fish. The game — called “Ippon Zuri” (which means “pole-and-line fishing”) — was created by FIT, a Fukuoka-based system development company who teamed up with a local seafood shop.

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It is Nature… but not as we know it

No, this isn’t the newest picture of some star system or nebula taken by Hubble telescope in deep space. This is a map of the internet. It might not be of much use since it is already quite old. It was taken on 15 January 2006 and the internet has grown and changed dramatically since that date -I guess it wants to live and grow and be happy just like you?

Get wasted in Second Life

Second Hype’s fashion industry is large and catty enough to have supermodel divas and social scandals, so it’s probably inevitable that these should be available, too: animation sets for supermodels who want to behave scandalously in public. On her fashionista blog Gogolita.com, the eminently scrumptious Gorgeous Yongho has released a set of eight poses, each of them ideal for appearing in next week’s gossip column: knock-kneed and passed out, struggling to get off the ground in stiletto heels, and, of course, paying tribute at the ceramic altar. With luck, a sequel will include animations for spilling champagne on the mayor of New York and throwing cell phones at the maid.

See also: Victoria 4.0, Second life is not Sustainable, First Second Life Millionaire, Big Brother enters Virtual World, Second Life Prostitute. Via New World Notes.

Ladybug cleans the Toilet

A bug that does the cleaning? This 1-meter (39-inch) tall, 1.35-meter (53-inch) long prototype robot ‘ named “Lady Bird” ‘ is designed to clean public restrooms at highway rest areas. It is equipped with water tanks, brushes and other tools needed for heavy-duty scrubbing. Obstacle detection sensors allow the robot to safely perform its duties without running into people.

In addition to cleaning, Lady Bird can engage in simple conversation with restroom users, thanks to microphones in its “antennae,” speech recognition capabilities and a voice synthesizer. The robot has access to the latest information about traffic conditions on nearby roads, which it can relay to anyone comfortable enough to ask.

The developers, who are building Lady Bird for West Nippon Expressway Company Limited (NEXCO), aim to complete the machine by March 2009, and they hope to one day see it cleaning toilets at hotels and other institutions. Lady Bird robots are expected to sell for about 3.5 million yen ($30,000) each.

Source: Yomiuri, via: PinkTentacle.

Human Tetris

A tribute to the virtual world boomeranging back to the physical world by Mega64. Or do you rather prefer the corny japanese gameshow version? Via Engadget,

Smoke the World

Peculiar image of the week: Smoke the World, Oil on Canvas (50×70) created by Mieke Gerritzen.

Can crushing Frog

Joyful recycling from Japan, comes this powerful frog that can crush cans! You can buy it from this Japanese store. A less whimsical can crusher can be found at Amazon for $20. Via Metaefficient.

Modernistic Vaginas

The influence of modernism and its trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape the world, along with its clear universal style of squares and straight lines, can hardly be underestimated. Think modern furniture, airports, Ipods and city plans. Nonetheless, I wonder if the modernistic painter Piet Mondriaan could have imagined designer vaginas.

What used to be a somewhat mysterical territory of the female body is being formalized into the clear and accessible designer vagina. These post-sexual vaginas, also referred to as playboy vaginas because they are modeled after the photoshopped vagina’s featured in playboy magazine, are the ideal of many young girls. Although a slightly diminished sexual sensitivity is a known complication of the surgery, girls seem to prefer the visual power of a clear cut vagina above their own sexual arousal. It’s plastic fantastic and boyfriends love it! Various clinics for cosmetic surgery offer the so called vagina rejuvenation technique providing women with a hypernatural vagina.

Related: Simulacra for Dummies, Mona Lisa goes LA, Better than the Real Thing.