Archive for the ‘General Coolness’ Category
Original Star Wars Trilogy with Lego.
I missed Star Wars Day, which was yesterday ("May the force" be with you). But I’m making it up with this little movie. It’s the original Star Wars Trilogy told in 2 minutes with animated Lego
and narrated by a child. What could be better? The little nuggests of humor go by very fast, so watch it twice (or 3 times). My favorite… "What up, son". I wish I knew who made this, but I haven’t been able to locate that info. Enjoy!
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Can you hear this sound? Probably not if you’re over 20.
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Carl Fredericksen for hearing loss
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I came across this interesting phenomenon the other day. It is a sound that only people under 20 can hear. The sound is a sine wave at 18,000 Hz. Dog whistles produce sounds at about 16,000-22,000 Hz.
Scroll down to the bottom to play the tone.
I downloaded the sound and played it very loud on my Mac and I can just barely make out a slight whine (I’m quite old, according to my son). My kids on the other hand heard it quite loudly and it hurt the oldest’s ears. (He’s 17, so he’s got a few more years to hear it).
Supposedly, some teens use this as a ring tone on their cell phones because they can use it in class and their teachers can’t heat it. Not sure why they wouldn’t just use "vibrate".
It has also been broadcast in areas that authorities don’t want teens to congregate because the sound is quite annoying to them, but adults can’t hear it.
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Damaged hairs in the inner ear.
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As you age, you lose more and more of the fine hairs in your inner ear. Higher frequencies are the first casualty. As you experience true hearing loss, usually you can only hear very low frequencies. Exposure to loud sounds can hasten this process. Obviously, music played loud on an iPod or loud video games that are quite commoon with "kids these days" are taking thier toll on their generation’s hearing.
As I understand it, there are also some changes in the way frequencies are transmitted to the brain which occur naturally. It is this phenomenon that accounts for the way this tone works.
I also came across some interesting Audio Illusions (which include this phenomenon). Check them out here.
Play the sound here:
“Pixels” video.
A great video for us older folk who remember some of the classic video games.
"Pixels" by Patric Dean .
pCubee interactive 3-D cube display. I want this.
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pCubee 3-D display
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3-D is very hot right now. Lots of movies are coming out in 3-D. There are TV’s coming that are 3-D. There’s a ton of 3-D stuff online. I even found a 3-D tattoo! (although not a very good one).
But this 3-D device is very cool. It was created by a group at the University of British Columbia and it’s called pCubee. It’s a 3-D interactive display that doesn’t use any kind of 3-D glasses. It has 5 LCD panels arranged into a cube (there is no display on the bottom) and it uses "head-coupled perspective rendering" and the principle of motion parallax to render a 3-D environment inside the cube that you can interact with by moving the cube or "poking" things in the cube with a stylus.
The way I understand it, it uses the position of your head to alter the image as you move the cube so that you perceive 3-D from the way the image changes as your view of it moves.
Unfortunately, it is only a prototype at this point, but hopefully we’ll see some cool game system in the future. In the meantime, check out the video below.
OK Go “This Too Shall Pass” video is amazing!
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Mousetrap (game)
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After my last post of the video my buddy and I made, I thought I’d follow it with another video I just discovered that I really liked. This is OK Go’s
This video brought back memories of my childhood and the game Mousetrap
. In retrospect, I have no idea how you were supposed to play the actual game. We would just build the mousetrap and activate it.
It also brought back memories of the old MTV and some of the great music videos they used to play back when they had something to do with music.
Be sure to watch the video below in high def if your computer can handle it. You wouldn’t want to miss any details. Why are the band members wearing coveralls with paint spatters on them? Watch to the end to find out. Scroll down after the video for more (spoilers).
This video is even more amazing when you consider that there are a few points where the "machine" is synced with the music (the drinking glasses, window shades, etc.). And, did you notice, it’s one single camera shot (that’s some cameraman!).
A few details I noticed (spoilers)…
The pile of smashed TV’s, presumable from practice runs.
A previous paint-splattered background paper on a wall with 4 band member outlines.
A few moments when you can catch the guys running to their next position (just after the typewriter between the wooden background, just before the file cabinet falls).
A cameo appearance of their famous "treadmill" video.
Oh. Yes. And it’s not a bad song either.
Just before posting this I discovered a "making of" video series! Here they are…
An old video made by me and a friend
Below is a movie my friend, Rich, and I made a long time ago. A very long time ago.
I apologize for the quality of this movie. The original film is lost forever. This was made by videotaping it with an ancient black-and-white video camera from a projection screen. The video is also very old and I just found it and transferred it to a Quicktime movie today.
Happy 50th Birthday Bubble Wrap
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Bubble Wrap Turns 50!
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Bubble Wrap, the iconic packaging material, turns 50 today, January 25, 2010. It also happens to be the 10th Annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.
Sealed Air, makers of Bubble Wrap brand will be running their factory line entirely in gold today, rather than clear, to commemorate the event.
Originally invented in a garage in Hawthorne, NJ as a textured wallpaper. When that didn’t work out, they tried to market it as a greenhouse insulator. Eventually, they hit on the idea of using it to cushion fragile items and an icon was born.
Why am I mentioning the 50th anniversary of Bubble Wrap in my toy blog? You know why. Bubble Wrap stands with the Cardboard Box as one of those products that is not used as intended, but instead often used as a toy. You know you love popping it. Bubble Wrap has more than two million fans on Facebook.
But what do you do when you are stressed out and would love to pop some Bubble Wrap, but you have none handy? No problem. Just visit the Virtual Bubblewrap page to pop as much as you like (Be sure to try "Manic Mode" to pop at hyper speed).
Want to pop even when you’re not at your computer? Check out the Electronic Bubble Wrap Keychain. You can pop your virtual bubble wrap anytime.
Happy Birthday Bubble Wrap!
World’s Most Useless Machine
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World’s Most Useless Machine
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I came across this today and thought it was very cool. It is the World’s Most Useless Machine. The guy (I think it’s a guy) who created it built it from scratch. It does only one thing… turns itself off. Check out the video below and if you’d like to have your own, complete instructions are available at www.instructables.com.
If this machine ever gets commercially produced, we will carry it!
Incidentally, I absolutely love the Instructables site. Unfortunately, they recently went to a "pay" system so that you must become a Pro Member in order to see all images, view all steps on one page, or save a pdf of the instructions. Fortunately, the Pro Membership is fairly inexpensive. They also have very intrusive ads on their site. You know the ones…they enlarge over top of what you are reading until you find the "close" button. Hate that.
Anyway, check out the video below of the World’s Most Useless Machine Ever.
Three new Toy Hall of Fame inductees and the return of a great commercial
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A ball.
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On November 5, 2009, the National Toy Hall of Fame inducted three new toys.
The first one is the Ball. The ball, I assume, includes all balls. Dodge balls, baseballs, bouncy balls, etc. The ball is been around almost as long as Man. A ball is often a child’s first toy, yet they might still play baseball as an adult (or at least watch it).
Next is the Big Wheel
was $62.99. Yikes!
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The Big Wheel
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And last is the Nintendo Game Boy. The Game Boy portable video game came out in 1989 and was an immediate hit. The Game Boy certainly revolutionized video gaming and allowed kids to play on car trips, summer camp, and in school (which thrilled teachers).
The Ball and Big Wheel I have no argument with, but the Game Boy I’m not so sure about. Especially when you look at the list of previous inductees, which includes Crayola Crayons, Hula Hoop, Jump Rope, Teddy Bear, Lego, and, even the Cardboard Box. An argument could certainly be made for it, but it just doesn’t seem like a natural to me.
Thinking about the Ball, got me thinking and remembering a great commercial for Sony Bravia TV. The commercial features many bouncy balls (generic SuperBalls) bouncing down the streets of San Francisco and is set to music by José González called Heartbeats
President Obama In Action (Figure)
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President Obama as depicted by
the creator of Ren and Stimpy. |
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This Halloween, I’m sure there will be lots of Obamas coming to our door for Trick-or-Treat. There will be good Obama masks and, I’m sure, very bad ones. I even saw a "Zombama
But Obama action figures? Yes. There are a bunch of action figures out there of both President Obama and the first lady. Some are more flattering than others. One example is the Barack Obama Political Toy designed by John K., creator of Ren and Stimpy
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Sasha and Malia? I’d say so.
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For a brief period there were even Sasha and Malia plush dolls from Beanie Baby maker Ty. That is until the First Lady understandably objected and Ty pulled them from their line (officially they were retired). Ty insisted that they did not depict the President’s daughters, but I don’t believe anyone bought that. The TY Girlz Sweet SASHA and Marvelous MALIA Obama Dolls
The White House’s official objection to the Ty dolls was that they were using a depiction of private citizens for profit. Certainly true.
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Michelle Obama with eight
points of articulation and three different dresses. |
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The president, on the other hand, can’t really do much about depictions of him because he choose to be a public figure. That doesn’t make them acceptable, however. I will not show some I’ve seen on my blog because they are not in good taste. Either that or they are just very poorly crafted.
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Obama not doing much
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But, the very best Obama action figure I’ve seen comes from Gamu Toys. Their website is in Japanese and the best I can get from the poor translation I was able to get is that he comes with three sets of hands, two different heads, a microphone, two ties, a watch, an American flag (with stand), and a wooden stool. His clothes are fully removable as well. I was not able to determine either the size of the action figure or the price. I also haven’t been able to find anywhere that you can actually purchase it. He’s also shown with other accessories that aren’t listed on their website, so I don’t believe he comes with guns or a light sabre. The Obama action figure is actually quite well made and certainly flatters the President. That having been said, it appears a bit like they simply used a generic body that they already manufacture and added the features and accessories (warning, doll nudity on their generic body page). If Obama’s action figure is based on this one, and if I’m understanding their website, it is 1/6 scale, so Obama would be about a foot tall.
If I find any ordering information, I will update this post. In the meantime, scroll down for some pictures of President Obama in action.
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"If you strike me down, I will become more powerfull than you could ever imagine."
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Dave’s Cool K’nex
I was having a difficult day on Friday. My son decided to make this for me out of K’nex
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
-Willy Wonka