How clever!
In its larval stages, the Asian swallowtail—also known as the Chinese or Japanese yellow swallowtail—mimics the appearance of bird droppings to prevent predators from gobbling it up.
Whatever it takes to survive, I suppose..via National Geographic
This is a nicely-directed short clip about the evolution in how we communicate – from the quill-pen letters all the way to the status-updates in Facebook. What are your opinions – do you think the quality of our communication options has improved and become more convenient, or has it become an apathy of insincerity and meaninglessness?
Check this out! Jonny Lee, a PhD candidate in Carnegie-Mellon turned a standard flat-screen television into an immersive 3D environment not unlike those you see in the 3D cinemas or those dorky ‘immersive-reality’ goggles, all by cleverly hacking readily available Wii parts and custom software. This seems to be a proof-of-concept, showing that it is indeed not too difficult to create an immersive environment at home. The advantage of this over the traditional visor-like implementation is of course, not having to encumber the user (and the product package) to have to wear a screen on the head. This could mean it’s much lighter, easier, comfortable and certainly cheaper – all that needs to change is pretty much just the software (the hardware is almost insignificant in terms of part costs).
You can already think of the gaming possibilities (I’d drool at a first-person-shooter game with something like this…). This would definitely be a breakthrough – in breaking the fourth wall. Imagine a Playstation 4 with impeccable graphics and this motion-sensing, immersive, spatial reality.
Of course there are some limitations as well – with this configuration the virtual reality can only work for 1 person. It is also somewhat different from the traditional VR-goggle implementation in terms of experience, I think. With the goggles, you can turn your head around and the virtual world follows through. With this hack, if you turn your head, the TV still remains at where it is (though the screen changes) – so chances are you’d be staring at your TV rack or speakers, and this would jolt you out of your virtual world. In other words, the former can accommodate rotation, while the latter is more apt for translation-in-space motions (with your eyes still constantly oriented towards the screen).
For more information, head here.
This is a picture of a young Japanese woman getting her hair cut. The title of this post is about forecasting the economy.
So where’s the beef? Interestingly, researchers at Kao (the Japanese personal care products giant) claim that there is a correlation between the length of hair on Japanese women and the economy. According to the Reuters article:
Economic forecasters beware: Japanese women are cutting their hair again.
Women tend to wear their hair long when Japan’s economy is doing well and short when there is a slump, the Nikkei business daily reported, citing a survey conducted by Japanese cosmetics company Kao Corp.
As for Japan’s future economic performance, the Nikkei pointed to expectations for a trend towards shorter hairstyles.
Looks like the average Japanese woman also know a thing or two about holding a short position on the market aye?
Clever and Simple – which woman doesn’t want to wipe a few years off her age?
This original post by Derek Silver was from several years ago – but I stumbled upon it recently and thought, “Great Reminder!”:
To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
Explanation:
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000To make a business, you need to multiply the two.
I think as designers we are naturally protective of our ideas – and probably tend to overestimate an idea’s value. Of course, ideas are valuable and sometimes they can be the difference between success and failure. However, to think that “idea is everything” is certainly very myopic. Eventually, what other see is the final embodiment, which are synthesized from a whole long process after the idea’s been generated – to develop it, to refine it, to test it, to rework it, to market it, to publicize it, to distribute it, etc.
Also, I think it is very important for designers to be able to ‘release’ the ideas – to discuss them, share them, get it out of the system somehow – unless you are working towards patents and such. This means ‘getting over the idea’ – in some ways, to no longer be convinced that the idea is the ultimate, unbeatable best-in-the-world thought that man can ever muster. The process of ‘releasing’ the ideas is also simultaneously releasing yourself from the idea, so that you are not overly tied down by that single idea, or become paralyzed as you bask in the glory of the idea. This way, it leaves much more mental space that (almost always) lead to even better concepts and developments, which might lead you to wonder ‘why did I shackle myself to that idea for so long?’
Design is indeed the business of creating ‘multipliers’.
These cushions are made from recycled cloth care labels – those little tags with instructions like ‘Do Not Iron’ and such. It’s pretty interesting when they are all lined up though – when I first looked at it, I thought it was actually a section of the newspaper’s Classified sections.
What one man can do with those pesky little .wav files…long live the creatives!
(The entire musical score is written based on the sounds found on Windows XP and 98.)
Sometime back, the director/comedian Stephen Chow made a movie called Shaolin Soccer – in which crazily exaggerated football skills were derived from Shaolin Kungfu. Well, it turns out that it may not really be that far from reality – judging from what this clip shows. Amazingly acrobatic moves in capoeira paired with street football – these people are insane!
Say you have 3 guys and you give them 4 days to reenact one of the epic battles of mankind – the Omaha landing – what do you think they could come up with? How real can they portray the massive scene with hundreds of soldiers, exploding shells and all? Well if you have an astronomical budget you would be able to churn out something somewhat real – but what if you’re on a practically shoestring budget?
Ultimately and fortunately, there’s no limits for human creativity. Here’s how a few guys did it – it’s not a lame production for sure: it was a part of BBC’s Bloody Omaha documentary series. Extremely impressive – watch on to the end to discover their process and the very impressive end results:
After massive interest on the Internet with this very clever and effective ‘making-of’, the BBC is going to rerun the actual show. This is probably the only ‘behind-the-scenes’ that can rally and compel a great desire to watch the actual show itself.
