Archive for the ‘geeks’ Category
Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu meticulously recreated the art of MC Escher on a quest to see “whether it would be possible to produce a plausible rendering of any of his pictures in LEGO bricks.” Their first attempt, Balcony took three months of “intermittent” work. The pair continued working together over the years to Lego-ize Belvedere, Ascending and Descending, Waterfall and Relativity. You can go behind the scenes of Relativity here.
(Click to expand) James Wright and Josh Eckert’s “Geek Zodiac” matches up genre-film trends with the birth years when each was most popular. They get points for making a cool infographic, but no matter what it says, I’m a Goonie. [UPDATE: @geekzodiac just notified us of the new and improved version 3 infographic now shown above. This zodiac contains original art from Josh rather than the previous edition's copyrighted imagery. They've also taken steps to address the underrepresentation of women and removed the notes indicating examples of each sign in popular geek culture.] [via Flavorwire]
You know that feeling you get when you walk into someone’s house and see they’ve still got magnetic poetry on their fridge? It’s a composite of gentle pity mixed with fear they’re going to infect you with a virus sent from their aol account. I guess Chapman University (as part of the LA Times Festival of Books) thought the magnetic poetry idea could use an infusion of humanity. They invited festival-goers (a large number of whom were children, which is cool) to take a photo of themselves with their word of choice. The rest of us can log onto this website and create nonsensical (or, alternately, deeply philosophical) phrases using their pictures. It’s kind of an interesting study to see which words were chosen the most frequently, as well as which words were chosen at all. If you select “mustache,” from the drop-down menu, you’ll find two spellings of mustache and the word “taco”. If you choose “twinkle,” you’ll find a smiling young boy inadvertently covering up the “le” with his hand leaving just “twink” behind. Most of the submissions appear to be jumbles of words that would fail you out of grammar school, but perhaps cohesion isn’t the point. I’m looking forward to someone who has more time on his/her hands doing something very cool with all of this data. Here’s my best 5-minute effort:
These stylish posters were designed by Los Angeles-based graphic designer Fernando Reza, AKA “Fro.” I’m not sure about you but I’m happy to support any artist who borrows his or her moniker from a popular hair style. In fact, if I ever decide to become an artist, I would call myself Chonmage. Pick up the set of four posters for $80.00 here (limited to 100 prints each).
This is one of the smartest novelty products I’ve ever seen. Says Think Geek, the creator & exclusive distributor of the new Organ Transplant Lunch Cooler:
Geeks take note! The PENTAX Optio RS1500 digital camera has partnered with DC Comics to offer super hero faceplates. There are seven skins in total with five heroes: Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Superman and two villains: Catwoman and the Joker. Pentax is also increasing the options for customization with their own Personal Skin Designer software. For instance, maybe you like a different kind of comics and you want to make a skin with R. Crumb or Peter Bagge? The camera boasts 14 megapixels, which you can really put to use when trying to, for instance, zoom in on Natalie Portman or whichever stars and superheroes will be in attendance at this year’s SDCC. See you there!
I can’t say that I’m a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, but this LEGO dress Fergie wore during their performance at the Kid’s Choice Awards last weekend is pretty damn cool. (The shoulder pad is an especially nice touch.) Any guesses about how much LEGO paid her to wear it? (via Incredible Things) Jason Freeny just posted these photos from the Fame Master booth at the 2011 Hong Kong Toy Fair. The reveal provides an exciting update to the previously posted work-in-progress shots of Jason’s forthcoming Gummi Bear Anatomy 3D puzzles. I’m super stoked about these, and they should be arriving soon. In the meantime, you can download a brand new set of Gummi icons (Mac only, sorry) by Freeny in the Free Stuff section of his website.
Emergency preparedness is a familiar concept here in earthquake country, but a zombie apocalypse can happen anywhere. Thanks to Mike Lacher‘s new Google streetview mashup, you can test your evacuation route in realtime. Just to switch things up, I thought I’d see what kind of zombie action was lurking over at Wasteland on Haight Street. My suspicions proved correct, and I lasted a mere 30 seconds. Try it for yourself here. - Jeremy [via BoingBoing]
We’re big fans of anatomy in pop culture here at The Jailbreak, so this “Phantom Sleeping Bag” from Japan caught our attention. Although Google translation doesn’t tell us why they thought it was a good idea to enhance the packaging with drool and a nose bubble, it does shed light on this gem of optimism:
Play your part in the inevitable for ~ $75 USD. - Jeremy |
