Friday, December 14, 2012

Friday 12/14/12

This parody is timed with this weeks release The Hobbit. Ever wondered how wizards keeps their clothes clean? Tide of course:

Avatar meets Transformers meets War of the Worlds =  Pacific Rim:

Charlie Brown mashup:

Ever wondered what classical singers sing about? Here's one interpretation:

Someone I know made a bowling themed game show pilot. Unfortunately it wasn't picked up, but here's the trailer:

Friday, November 30, 2012

Friday 11/30/12

What happens when you get bad lip readers to dub the presidential debates? This:

Giving Tuesday happened this week:
http://givingtuesday.org/

And so in commemoration, I'm turning bananas in the meals for homeless people through banana bread. All proceeds go to the Union Rescue Mission. Eat up and pay up!
http://urm.org/

Friday, November 9, 2012

Friday 11/9/12

This week Duncan submitted the following fascinating video on changing education paradigms:

If you're interested in taking a free online university course from one of over 30 leading universities from around globe, check out Coursera. They offer courses in just about everything for all levels. It even includes prestigious Ivy League schools:
https://www.coursera.org/

Alternatively Khan academy offers a different style of online learning suitable for all: children through adults. This one is especially good for learning a particular thing if you don't have the time for a course.
http://www.khanacademy.org/

And lastly, a reminder that Zoo has a Lynda.com account offering video tutorials and training material for software and a whole host of subjects. Log in details are available from Neda or myself:
http://www.lynda.com

Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday 10/26/12

Halloween is upon us and so it seems are the light shows people put on the front of their houses:

Did anyone ever stop to think just how creepy Mary Poppins really is?

LG promote their new ultra-realistic monitors in this tower-of-terror style lift/elevator:

Any finally, some idiot who thought he could cannon ball into his frozen pool was proven wrong:


Friday, October 19, 2012

Friday 10/19/12

Tommy reminded us about the importance of donating blood. If there aren't enough participants, the blood bank may cancel their upcoming visit to Zoo.

This week we had photo's by Catherine of the Space Shuttle Endeavour as it made its way through the streets on Los Angeles en route to the Science Centre.












LA Times put together a short time lapse video of the monumental move of the shuttle:
http://www.latimes.com/videogallery/72904629/News/Time-lapse-video-Space-shuttle-Endeavour-s-crosstown-journey-through-L-A


Friday, October 12, 2012

Friday 10/12/12

One of L.A. hottest artists shows us the fundamentals of how he paints his light pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TeTzUzPfleU#!

Fast forward four years and now see just what he is creating:
http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/dino-light-photographers-amazing-light-paintings-of-dinosaurs-2572413.html

Also featured this week is another video for Tough Mudder, coming to LA in February (if you're tough enough):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6xsKZXi742I

http://toughmudder.com/events/california-socal-1-2013/

Tommy shared some music from Mars Volta. If you want to see how they've changed over the past 30 or so years, see Tommy for the CDs:

And of course, the fastest vehicle in the whole of LA will be crawling across the streets cause carmageddon like jams. Welcome home Endeavour:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/05/how-to-see-endeavour-la-streets-oct-13_n_1943930.html


Friday, October 5, 2012

Friday 10/5/12

Ever noticed any similarities in the animation of Disney movies?

John Lloyd takes us through an animated journey of the invisible in the funny TED video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_an_animated_tour_of_the_invisible.html

Any continuing todays animated them, Don Hertzfeldt's rejected cartoons for the Family Learning Channel:

Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday 9/21/12

Today marks the final flight of space shuttle Endeavor. It will be flying into LA at 11:30am and landing at LAX at 12:30 after a tour of the sights. Hopefully we'll get to glimpse a view of it coming in to land at the picnic.
http://framework.latimes.com/2012/09/19/endeavour-photos/#/2

Here's the shuttle in flight:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19652587

Also, the iPhone to Polaroid adapter from last week:
http://www.core77.com/blog/kickstarter/iphone_camera_polaroid_film_the_impossible_projects_instant_lab_now_available_on_kickstarter_23383.asp

And if we're lucky, we'll have a pinata like this at the picnic today:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--fObGNwOPXo/TlLgiKwkWYI/AAAAAAAAAo8/fItXCgJbveE/s1600/Copy+of+IMG_20110820_163825.jpg

Friday, September 14, 2012

Friday 9/14/12

Ever heard of the Goophone i5?
http://techmaniacs.gr/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/goophone-5.jpg

It kinda look a lot like the iPhone 5:
http://i.techrepublic.com.com/blogs/2012-iphone5-gallery6-zoom.jpeg

Only the Goophone i5 is already on sale in China:
http://android-sale.com/goophone-i5.html

To find out more about the new iPhone 5, here's a video from the keynote speech:

Since the new iPhone is all about imagery, here's how you can print real physical Poloroid photos directly from your iPhone (be sure to check out the video at the bottom):
http://www.core77.com/blog/kickstarter/iphone_camera_polaroid_film_the_impossible_projects_instant_lab_now_available_on_kickstarter_23383.asp

Oppa Gangnam style was also going to be on this week, but due to technical problems, you'll just have to come back next week instead.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday 8/24/12

NASA's latest Mars rover, Curiosity, recently made a successful landing and sent back some of it's first images:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-237

NASA also allowed members of the public to participate and put their name on board Curiosity, which I did. Just over 1 million people worldwide also took part:
http://marsparticipate.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/worldmap/

The landing itself was a complex process which can be seen in this video:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=49

Friday, August 3, 2012

Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday 7/20/12

This week I have a couple of videos that were shown at the TEDx event next door. Details can be found here:
http://tedxmanhattanbeach.com/

The TEDx summit recently took place in Doha, Qatar. Here is the opening video:

Also from TED this week is an fascinating talk on augmented reality using Aurasma:
http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_mills_image_recognition_that_triggers_augmented_reality.html

Full details on Aurasma can be found here:
http://www.aurasma.com/

And finally, the making of the opening video:

Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday 7/13/12

After several weeks of laptop repairs, show n tell is back!

Ex-Zoo member, Amanda, just made a new music video. She is officially eating for two:

At the last show n tell, we played a short video about the worlds largest camera, created by a friend of Ian Beaudoux. Ian has now been working with the creator on his next project: What's Your American Dream. Here's the trailer:
http://vimeo.com/45229667

Friday, June 8, 2012

Friday 6/8/12

A friend of Ian Beaudoux created a somewhat impressive camera. See the short film here:
http://vimeo.com/39578584

We also had a presentation from Tommy about the origins of Prometheus timed to coincide with today's release of the new Aliens movie.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Friday 5/11/12

Finally, the movie that stars all the action hero's ever- The Expendables 2:
http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=expendables2

Amazing new Spiderman trailer:
http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=amazingspiderman

Ever seen a flash mob or busker on the metro. Bet you haven't seen one like this:

Adobe CS6 products are out there.
http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog.html?promoid=JOOTH

And we have training available from Lynda.com. There's tons of new tutorials for all the apps. Ask me or Neda for log in details.
http://www.lynda.com



Friday, April 27, 2012

Back in September, a Smart car commercial was filmed outside my apartment by Pursuit Systems:
http://www.pursuitsystems.com/index.html

I finally found the commercial and here it is:

Last week I was out of the office at Coachella in the blistering heat. Subsequently I spent much of my time in the DoLab being hosed down in an attempt to cool off. Here's a short video:

And also this week, a trailer from Kenn for G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation

Friday, April 13, 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012

Friday 4/6/12

Just two things going on this week. Firstly is the 2012 remake of Total Recall. No Arnie, but looks awesome none the less:

And some of Danny Macaskill's awesome mountain biking skills across Scotland:

Friday, March 30, 2012

Friday 3/30/12

Today is Mega Millions day. Jackpot went up from $540 this morning to $640! May the odds be in your favour:
http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/nj1015.com/files/2012/03/megamillions2.jpg

Andy brought us some insane art formed by cutting books (although you can only view the images outside of the office due to Websense).
http://karanarora.posterous.com/insane-art-formed-by-carving-books-with-surgi

This week, I've narrowly avoided a car spinning out of control and a pile up on the same stretch of freeway so it's time to remind you to wear your seatbelts:
http://www.thesupercars.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/car-crash.jpg


Friday, March 23, 2012

Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday 3/9/12

Trailer for the new Avengers movie courtesy of Kenn:
http://wdmp-7.vo.llnwd.net/d1/wdsmp/TheAvengers/Trailer3/Avengers_Tlr3_480.mov

Coming to a big screen near you, some kind of epic dance battle. Erm, I'll let you decide what to make of it.

When bears wave hello:

When bears attack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ThZ8dc2B8E&ob=av3e

Friday, March 2, 2012

Friday 3/2/12

Every wondered how the Staples Center transforms from Lakers game to Kings game? Watch this time lapse video and find out:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-staples-center-video-20120223,0,1353395.story

Catherine sent us this virtual choir composed of people singing via webcam. Quite extraordinary:

And if that's not enough, here's a longer version:


Maniacal laugh/evil kid:

Friday, February 17, 2012

Friday 2/17/12

Try saying boots and cats enough times in succession and you'll have some beats!

Zombie apocalypse comes to Los Angeles:
http://runforyourlives.com/

Just try not to get eaten if you take part:

And finally, a short film- snowboarding like Tron:
http://io9.com/5885786/become-a-tron-snowboarder-with-this-full+body-led-snowsuit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aIX3ntiTV-g

Friday, February 3, 2012

Friday 2/3

The Oscars are on the way, so here's a few short trailers for a few nominees for animated short:
Dimanche/Sunday

the-fantastic-flying-books-of-mr-morris-lessmore


a-morning-stroll

wild-life

Tommy this week introduced us to Candy Chang, an urban designer:
http://candychang.com/

And two of her public engagement pieces:
http://candychang.com/i-wish-this-was/
http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday 1/27/12

If you ever remember the 3D solar synter printer we had a while back, well he're a 3D artist who creates fish:

And thanks once again to Tommy for showcasing his website and a few of his interesting articles:
http://accordprogression.wordpress.com/

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday the thirteenth 1/13/12

Forget dodgeball, quidditch is where it's at these days:

Finally, Wipeout the game might be a possibility, or is it just faked:


I saw a photo of a kinetic installation, Metropolis II in the news the other day (#5):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-16525604

And it's coming to LACMA this weekend:
http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/metropolis-ii

Check out the video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YqSkRgySAEg

Fed up of trying to change your image with diets, then look no further than Fotoshop by AdobĂ©: