Adam Victor Brandizzi

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do-over:

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muffpunch:

I just watched this video about ten times in a row.

This song is great.

the world needs more videos like this.

Oh I like this, a lot.

Yes. This.

i don’t reblog often, but this is sublime.

In this new series of striking images, San Francisco-based photographer Beth Moon (previously) captures some of the world’s oldest living trees against shimmering night skies in remote areas of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Titled Diamond Nights, the new photos were inspired in part by Moon’s interest in several new studies suggesting a relationship between starlight and cosmic radation on tree growth. Diamond Nights is a progression of Moon’s 15-year journey photographing ancient trees around the world. Moon shares about her process:

The majority of these photographs were created during moonless nights, shot with a wide angle lens and ISO of 3200 – 6400. The Milky Way, a ribbon of stars that stretches from horizon to horizon burns brightly in some of the images. Exposures up to 30 seconds allowed enough light to enter the lens without noticeable star movement. Each location required a lot of experimenting. and different lighting techniques. Sometimes a short burst of diffused light from a flashlight was sufficient, or bounced light from multiple flashlights was used for a softer more natural glow.

You can see many more shots in this online gallery, and read more about Moon’s work on the series on Feature Shoot.

By ghost-ish

I’m stressed about this thing is a post from meh.ro

KICKSTARTER REWARD! Check out www.rockpapercynic.com for awesome comics!

Scientists at MIT have pulled up a very tiny curtain on their newest invention: a 1.7cm square robot capable of assembling itself like a piece of origami. The Untethered Miniature Origami Robot is powered by a small neodymium magnet and four electromagnetic coils underneath the robot’s surface that create magnet fields necessary for it to operate. The small robot can walk on different surfaces, climb, carry objects twice its own weight, swim in shallow water, burrow, and it even completely dissolves in an acetone solution leaving behind just the magnet.

So what can we do with super tiny self-folding robots? Researchers hope to develop even smaller autonomous robots with additional sensors that can dissolve in water. Such tiny devices could have a variety of medical uses when introduced inside of a human body, maybe zapping cancer cells or cleaning clogged arteries. You can read more about it over at IEEE and in this research paper. (via Laughing Squid)

Remember AIBO, the futuristic pet robot from Sony that amazed us with its dog-like appearance and behavior when it came out in 1999? It was probably one of the first examples of artificial intelligence the general public got a taste of, and we were quite duly fascinated with the antics of the robotic dogs, as evidenced by the fact that the first batch of 3,000 AIBOs sold out in just 20 minutes despite its 250,000 yen (about US$2,100 according to the exchange rate back then) price tag.

But now, more than 15 years down the line, AIBO owners who have become attached to their cybernetic pets, are facing a grave situation — an aging and ailing (or breaking down, in this case) population of AIBOs.

The AIBO, which not only looked like a dog but came programmed so that each one would develop a distinct personality depending on its interactions with its owner, indeed seemed to symbolize the future at the time it was released. It’s estimated that roughly 150,000 AIBOs were sold in total, but it appears the business of developing intelligent robotic pets wasn’t quite profitable enough, as Sony decided to discontinue production of the AIBOs in 2006.

As sad a development as that was for AIBO fans, the big problem now for owners of the electronic pet is that Sony’s repair service for AIBO, the “AIBO Clinic”, was also closed in March last year. The predicament of these owners has been the topic of a recent article on Japanese news and information compilation site Karapaia.

The article focuses particularly on elderly AIBO owners who have come to rely on these robotic dogs for companionship and peace of mind. For them, seeing their AIBOs “grow old” and malfunction, sometimes needing new parts that are no longer available, is a heartbreaking experience, and with the repair service now shut down, they are having to come to terms with the “mortality” of the pets they had thought would never grow old or die.

To the owners who have spent many years with their AIBOs and treated them like a member of the family, this can be a surprisingly difficult experience.

▼ Major Japanese network TV Asahi showed a segment last year about AIBO owners struggling to accept the unexpected mortality of their mechanical pets:

But there is still a glimmer of hope. For desperate owners trying to find a cure for their ailing AIBOs, A・FUN, a company specializing in vintage machine repairs, could be their savior. The company was started by former Sony engineers, so we guess there are no better people to turn to if your precious AIBO is in need of some treatment and care.

According to the Karapaia article, when the engineers decided to take on AIBO repairs, they had to start by taking one of the robots apart and studying the incredibly complex machinery inside — no easy task, and made even more difficult by the fact that Sony was no longer making parts for AIBO.

But the engineers persevered, propelled by the love of the AIBO owners for their long-time companions, and they are now at a point where they are able to perform “transplants” of parts between AIBOs and even custom make the necessary parts in some cases.

As a matter of fact, they even held a “group funeral service“ back in January this year for 19 decommissioned AIBOs whose parts would then be used for other AIBOs needing a transplant.

▼ The first generation AIBO that came out in 1999:

▼ And here’s a promotional video showing a later generation AIBO from 2003 in action:

Considering the amount of time and love these owners have given to their AIBOs, it’s not surprising that the engineers at A・FUN are being kept extremely busy with inquiries and repair requests. Hopefully, their work will allow many owners to spend a much longer time with their beloved pets than would be otherwise possible.

Karapaia’s article raises the issue of  whether it is reasonable to treat robots with artificial intelligence in the same way as regular toys. Should a company be allowed to cut off repair service for a machine that responds to you and grows with you? As technology progresses, this is the kind of question that we are sure to be facing more and more frequently. We can’t help wonder, how much longer will it be until we see kids playing with humanoid robots, and when that happens, will we be discarding these robots when they stop working or their parts become unavailable?

Source: Karapaia (Japanese)
Top Image: SONY Sep. 29, 2005 Press Release
Inset images: SONY Sep. 29, 2005 Press Release, SONY May 11, 1999 Press Release

Origin: We thought robots didn’t die! The demise of the AIBO robot dogs and the fight to keep them alive
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Video: Animals Who Think They’re Puppies

More zombies.

Video: Stuffed Toy Tiger Intimidates German Shepherd

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Pirates fan gifts souvenir to young Giants fan

Video

In a 21st century take on the traditional Zen sand garden, artist Bruce Shapiro invented the Sisyphus Machine, an elaborate kinetic drawing machine that uses magnets to drag rolling steel marbles through a thin layer of sand to create complicated mandala-like patterns. Shapiro, who was once a practicing physician, has spent the better part of 25 years experimenting with computerized motion control and many of his Sisyphus Machines have been installed in locations around the world including a large device in Switzerland back in 2003 and at Questacon in Canberra, Australia in 2013. It appears the artist is currently working on a tabletop consumer version and if you’re interested you can sign up for his mailing list here. (via Core77, Fast Company)

Guy Laramée‘s (previously) new series Onde Elles Moran (Where They Live) captures the mystique of the native birds of the Brazilian region Serra do Corvo Branco (Range of the White Raven) through both portrait and carved landscape. The series contains nine sculptures sourced from secondhand bookstores within the country—tomes of the Classicos Jackson which is a series of literature classics published in the ‘50s in Brazil. The rich linen covers inspired the palettes of many of the portraits, the original colors working their way into Laramée’s artistic remodeling.

Although Laramée had originally planned to photograph the vast canyons of the region during his 4-month visit, the diversity, songs, and liveliness of the native birds kept persuading him to eclipse the beautiful scenes with their portraits. The series is dedicated to these birds and their habitat, each book containing a portrait of one on the cover against a faded background and an environmental carving into the pages of the book on the opposite side. The size ratio of the bird to corresponding landscape highlights the creatures’ importance, acknowledging their role as the true owners and rulers of the region.

“Being in the company of these lively beings were one thing, painting them was another story,” explained Laramée while discussing his process. “They became like ghosts on a theater backdrop, posing in front of wallpaper, looking at a vanishing scenery.”

Laramée hopes that this series exudes the stark differences between Man and bird, recognizing that we do not live within the same world. Man’s world has been transformed into an object from which we now feel alienated he explains—we live within our heads and books, not the canyons or earth. “Maybe where they live is where we should live,” says Laramée. “In the solitude of virgin landscapes, we might rediscover our intimate relationships to the world.”

Laramée is represented by JHB Gallery in New York City.

(photo via whose_ear)

Aaron Clarey isn’t really a Mad Max fan.

This is pretty clear already given that his viral rant about Fury Road doesn’t betray much knowledge of the franchise at all—he doesn’t seem aware that “the director of Fury Road” he reviles is, in fact, George Miller, the director of the entire Mad Max franchise. He calls one of the most iconic Australian cultural exports of all time a “piece of American culture.” He boldly states “No one barks orders to Max!” when, in fact, all three previous Mad Max films feature Max taking orders from someone (Roger Ward’s Captain Fifi in Mad Max, Michael Preston’s Papagallo in The Road Warrior, Tina Turner’s Auntie Entity in Beyond Thunderdome).

But the single biggest sign Clarey doesn’t know the first damn thing about what George Miller or Mad Max is his triumphalist line: “When the shit hits the fan, it will be men like Mad Max who will be in charge.”

Mad Max isn’t in charge of anything throughout the Mad Max film franchise. Max is emphatically not the archetype of the badass hero who gets the girl, gets the crown, and rules as a patriarch over society as is his due. He’s a fucked-up loner who isn’t fit to live among civilized people; who begins each film alone, wounded, broken, and who ends each film in the same state or worse.
[…]
All the Mad Max films have had tragic endings, and if you don’t grasp that this is the tragedy at the heart of Mad Max (and the gritty Westerns and samurai films Mad Max emulates) then you don’t get Mad Max. If you think Max has an awesome life and we’re supposed to wish we were him, you really don’t get Mad Max.