Archive for November, 2011This video from UK-based Open University uses clever animation to describe six of the most famous thought experiments: Zeno’s Achilles & The Tortoise, Barjavel’s Grandfather Paradox, Searle’s Chinese Room, Hilbert’s Grand Hotel, Einstein’s Twin Paradox, and Schrödinger’s Cat. My personal favorites have always been the Chinese Room and the Grandfather Paradox, but I can’t help but think that Schrodinger’s Cat reminds me of the Bonsai Kitten we posted about last week. Multiple states of being. [via Laughing Squid]
Like many, I harbor a great deal of nostalgia for Cup Noodles, which is likely why I was so enthralled when I found this robot Cup Noodle timer designed for the 40th Anniversary Cup Noodle Expo and opening of the Cup Noodle Museum in September. Now if I can only get a hold of one…and let Jason Freeny have some fun with it. 
[via Laughing Squid] These bicycle wheel animations are better than spoke cards and beads combined. Katy Beveridge fashioned these cutouts as an experiment in proto animation in contemporary design and to film the animations in real time. Check out the video to see how well it turned out. As proof to what a great idea this was, people have already made comments, asking whether she’s planning on producing them with durable materials to sell them online. Would you want these? I would. These could do for riding bikes around the city what Sprewells (a.k.a “Spreewheels”)Â did for cars, only a lot more unique and interesting. [via BuzzFeed]
This stuffed kitten in a jar sold by Think Geek is based on the satirical Bonsai Kitten website from the early 2000s. The original website gave instructions on how to grow your kitten in a jar to shape it (like one might shape a bonsai tree through tying and trimming). Now all we need are stuffed versions of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and the Flying Spaghetti Monster and we’ll have a series. Any ideas of other internet memes that could be toys? [via Think Geek] “Address Is Approximate” is a short stop-motion animation film by UK production company The Theory about a toy’s adventure on the open road as facilitated through Google Street View.  At the same time sad and joyfully free, it’s beautifully shot and edited.  In watching it, it’s hard to avoid the same yearning for the wind in one’s hair. [via Laughing Squid]
The artist Shepard Fairey (famous, among other things, for his iconic Obama Hope print) posted this design on his website Friday, along with a statement in which he voiced his hope that Barack Obama is still “our man on the inside.”  Occupy Wall Street supporters have since responded (somewhat negatively) to his statement and Fairey posted the entire dialogue on his site.  It’s well worth the read and illustrates some of the delicate issues living in the grey area between political expression and individual creative license.
A student from Gdansk University of Technology made this laser projector out of parts he scavenged from old DVD burners, Blu-Ray players, etc.  It even fits in a metal carrying case for portability.  The student, who goes by the handle C4r0, detailed the plans and construction of his multi-year project online.  Watch the video below to see what it can do.  Very cool stuff.
[via Hackaday]
Thanks to Laughing Squid for pointing out these pillow fight weapons by Bryan Ku. Â Great for sleepovers (especially after watching Big Trouble in Little China) or for solving more jovial domestic disputes, I imagine these are just generally fun to arm yourself with. Â I would suggest that the grenade > shuriken and might be more usable if it instantly inflated after you pull a pin and count to 10. Â For my preference though, I choose the “double sided viking axe.”
San Francisco artist, Marco Cochrane created this 40-foot sculpture of a woman, titled “Bliss Dance”, for which he recently developed an iPhone app to “paint” the effigy in light.  A precarious display of beauty, motion, balance, and power, the sculpture is an inspiring scratch on the surface of the possibilities of combining of art and mobile apps (and perhaps, in the near future, mobile apps and toys). The iPhone app allows the user to control the perspective and hue of the piece with internal and external multicolor lights. Cochrane explains in the interview with Wired Magazine below that the right combination of light on that scale is “crazy” and that he intends the experience to “overwhelm the human brain” and throw the viewer into a state of “serious contentment and joy.”
Jailbreak Toys collaborator, Jason Freeny, has been posting step-by-step updates on his Facebook page on this project for the last several weeks. Today, it looks like he’s finished. It looks great and reminds us of how excited we are to release the product we’re working on with him.
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