Building Urban Motion by Abstract:groove

is a design studio, based in Milan, defined as a hybrid between a creative collective and a motion design studio, which mainly works on the research of new visual languages in communication and advertising.

Abstract:groove recently created this awe-inspiring temporary outdoor video projection installation on the side of  of the Hotel St. George, in Viale Tunisia, Milan. According to the creators the work is subtitled as, an "oneiric activity of a surface" and is “an audiovisual experiment of perceptive transformation in architecture, through abstract narration, which will show the building as a screen and protagonist simultaneously. Imagine the façade of a building could have a brain and a conscience; consequently it could sleep and dream. Imagine that these surreal forms of life have a characteristic to let loose, during the REM sleep period, a visible transposition of their dreams.”

Pardon me, but I wonder, do many people experience actual sound and or music in their dreams ? ... I mean can we imagine we actually hear music or sound , whilst dreaming ?....the music in this video is probably entitled "wake up call", no ?

Oyster: Harvests Wave Energy; The new Pearl in the drink!

People often say that "life, shoppers and meteorites come in waves" and so to in a week or so waves themselves have  also come in waves ? Well there was the Google Wave trying to out twit the twitters with a labyrinth collaborative email interface of waves upon waves of waves.
Got a certain spring to it, huh?
Currently the world over is experiencing, waves of news about countries preparing to make green house gas targets and declarations at the Copenhagen summit! More importantly though much progress has been underway to birth the largest working hydro-electric wave energy device.

Aquamarine Power Ltd. has launched its wave energy harvesting technology called Oyster, in conjunction with Queens University Belfast  and the Scottish government.

The device harnesses the abundant natural energy found in near-shore waves and converts it into sustainable zero-emission electricity.  It works by a simple mechanical hinged flap connected to the seabed at around 10m depth. Each passing wave moves the flap, driving hydraulic pistons to deliver high pressure water via a pipeline to an onshore electrical turbine.

Oyster now feeds electric energy into the National Grid, powering homes in Orkney and beyond. A farm of 20 Oysters would provide enough energy to power 9,000 three bedroom family homes.

Hey that's neat. My father always said that "life was like a block and tackle with levers", but hey, Oyster only uses one lever in the drink !

Source

The Pop-up Book of Phobias

The phobias illustrated in this gorgeously designed book, by donvanone are:

Dentophobie dental phobia, (with the rotating drill head)
Aviophobie fear of flying
Ophidiophobia fear of snakes
Claustrophobia fear of being trapped in confined spaces
Mysophobia contagion phobia
Glossophobie stage fright
Arachnophobia fear of spiders
Coulrophobie fear of clowns
Necrophobie The fear of everything that has to do with death

Read donvanone's review of Pop-Up books here. But if you would like to read it in your own language, then use Google's translation page.

from Russia with Field

Field is an experimental short media art work by Selfburning with sound design by Alexey Devyanin. The piece explores many variant meanings of the Russian word, field. The animator used a typical country field familiar to Russians on which to edit in his notion of a "mystical form transformation".

To my perception this work resonates with mystical messages similarly explored in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you watch this tantalizing work in full screen you will see  a wash of particles sweeping from the left. Then when the camera zooms on to the broken shards you may notice, as I, that the particles appear to leave a smearing wash of distorted words across the almost reflective broken shards.

So, what, if anything, might it mean ?

Perhaps on a metaphorical level its the lightening speed of information and data that wash across our brains from the internets relentlessly transforming and or forming our comprehension of reality, every online minute of the day ?

Bioengineering Spider silk

Spider silk is an interesting bio-material because it has a very high elasticity and toughness. Professor Albert Abbott is attempting to engineer materials made or based upon spider silk type gene structure by studying and remaking it with the bacterial microbes.

" You know from our stand point, we really cant silk spiders to get this material like you can silk worms and so what were doing is engineering simple cellular systems like yeast or bacteria to actually produce the proteins for us in great big bioreactors, and then we harvest that material and then we use that to try to spin new materials from it"

The Geneticists and Biochemists researching the possibilities are planning to make a whole range of new kinds of materials that would be important for say arterial graphs in tissue reconstruction, as well as a number of other industrial products and applications.

Notwithstanding, I imagine the textile industry would also be interested in being able to produce novel materials.

Geo-engineering dunes into architecture

Humans since ancient times, tilled the soil or carved a residence into the hillside or in other words engineered our landscape to suit our needs like carving through mountains to build transport networks or redirecting rivers and interrupting them to capture water behind walls of concrete.

"Due to human over-exploitation, over-hunting and widespread biodiversity loss, the infamous (Sahara) desert — which stretches from Northern Africa to the Red Sea and the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean — has suffered a serious blow to its fragile ecological balance.  The 3,500,000 square mile region now lacks the majority of the wildlife and botanicals that it once had, and as a result, its sands have been encroaching on southern Africa at an estimated 30 miles each year.  This has set off red flags because through this desertification process, essential temperate eco-regions are slowly but surely being taken over." via

Enter Swedish Architecture student Magnus Larsson, who wants to turn some of the most deserted and harsh landscapes on the planet into habitable structures, namely the Sahara.

His ambitious idea is erecting a 6,000km-long bacteria solidified sandstone wall from one side of the Sahara desert to the other.  A team at UC Davis has been looking at the microorganism bacillus pasteurii to solidify the ground in earthquake-prone areas. As Larsson puts it, "All I did was to deliberately misapply their technology ... and to pump up the scale, and turn it into a 6,000-km-long wall that's made of sand and protects against sand."

Thus affecting a huge Geo-engineering effort of "architectural anti-dessertification devices" in order to help save the continent that birthed our species, Africa.

Bohemian Rhapsody by The Muppets

An hilarious animation of the Muppets performing  Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Sustainable Electric boating

Retired Queensland academic and marine industry researcher Gary Fooks says;

"Outboard engines are doing far more environmental damage than the oil spill from the container ship Pacific Adventurer... (and) ..weekend boaties using old technology two-stroke engines on their outboards dumped more than 3000 tonnes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the form of fuel and oil each year into South-East Queensland waterways.." Source

Thus it stands to reason that small boat or yacht owners ought look at swapping out their gasoline outboard motors for carbon free electric power units, specifically in the light of the video here of the  Re-E-Power Electric Outboard. The companies website carries all the information a boatie would need to purchase and install one of their kits.

Although the units may seem somewhat expensive,  the short term benefits of the electric drive provides instant torque and cheaper fuel especially if one utilizes a solar or wind powered generator. Whereas the benefits in the long term are no smelly or fire hazard chemicals to deal with or carry plus helping make the marine ecology are healthier place.

Whilst researching this post, I found this amusing electric powered recreational barbecue party boat.

The Ultimate Rube Goldberg Machine

This video, has been edited together with clips from CERN, Hubble/ESA, NOVA Origins, Catastrophe, Walking with Monsters, Walking with Dinosaurs and  Walking with Beasts. The video begins 380,000 years after the "big bang"

Accompanied by music track: "Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun" by Teen Angst on M83.

Rising Tides Submersing Kiribati

Casey Beck and Austin Blair, from Tufts University, show in this video the devastating affects that climate change, and the worlds rising sea level is submerging their island country, the Pacific republic of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas).

"Over the past 40 years the villagers have seen the sea rise, storm surges become more frequent and spring tides more forceful."

This small, central pacific nation, made up of 33 coral atolls, is one of the lowest lying nations in the world and is especially vulnerable to high tides and the rising sea level.

"The average i-Kiribati [Kiribati inhabitant] certainly thinks it's getting hotter," says Emil Shutz, a former government minister who now runs tours for the country's few recreational visitors. "Ten years ago they could fish all day in a tinnie, but not any more - it is just too hot."

Not only Kiribati, but also Tuvalu, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea are all presently experiencing the same continuous gradual submergence of their homelands  due to rising sea-levels.

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program he's concerned by the negative outlook for the Copenhagen talks.
Source

New Zealand poised to Launch Atea-1 Rocket

due to liftoff,  from Great Mercury Island this november 28, will be the first commercial rocket to use hybrid fuel technology and the first privately built rocket launched from the Southern Hemisphere to enter space with its Atea-1 launch vehicle. Rocket Lab will also be the first practical alternative to conventional rockets at significantly lower cost. The emissions from their unique Gas Turbine engine are non-toxic or carbon free as opposed to the traditional launch platforms.

"The Atea-1 is designed specifically for scientific sub-orbital ‘sounding’ missions. and is almost entirely constructed from lightweight carbon fibre composites. Components such as the rocket nozzle and combustion chamber are all manufactured from Rocket Lab- developed composite materials which are a fraction of the weight of traditional metal components. The rocket generates the equivalent of 3200 horsepower from a rocket engine weighing just 13kg."  Source

The video seen here, is an artistic animation of Rocket Lab's Ātea-1 launch.

Since Great Mercury Island is a privately owned island I guess its only fitting that a privately owned space rocket be launched from it !

X-Flex: Amazing Bombproof Wallpaper

"X-Flex is a new kind of wallpaper: one that’s quite possibly stronger than the wall it’s on. Invented by Berry Plastics in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this lifesaving adhesive is designed for use anyplace that’s prone to blasts and other lethal forces, like in war or natural-disaster zones, chemical plants or airports."

X-Flex is made from a “Kevlar-like material” sandwiched between an elastic polymer wrap. It’s lightweight, portable, and easy to install relative to the protection it offers: you just peel off the back, stick it to the wall, and bolt it to the ceiling and floor and you’re done, wallpaper or paint an be applied over it. Popular Science put X-Flex to the test with a wrecking ball as you’ll see in the video, you can also see X-Flex withstanding an actual bomb blast on their website.

Worth noting that, X-Flex is not actually intended to protect against ballistics, like bullets or shrapnel, just blasts and blunt impacts like bombs. Although not specified by X-Flex, the material may also have enormous potential in reinforcing un-reinforced masonry in earthquake prone areas ?

Authors note: I've just realized a completely unintentional uncanny coincidence that this post is numbered 911!

A Fun Animation: Pigeon Impossible

One amazing lunch break animation that features a Bond 707 briefacase a pigeon and a Maxwell Smart type secret agent.

Written Directed and Produced by Lucas Martell music by Christopher Reyman

via

The Intel Reader

takes pictures of text and reads it aloud. It's designed to provide access to printed text for people with dyslexia, low vision or blindness. Intel's Digital Health Group researched and designed the mobile Intel Reader, which is built on the Intel Atom processor and run on the Moblin operating system. The original concept is from Intel researcher Ben Foss, who is one of the estimated 20 percent of people in the US who have symptoms of dyslexia.

"As someone who is part of this dyslexic community, I am thrilled to be able to help level the playing field for people who, like me, do not have easy access to the printed word. Feelings of loneliness are often the experience of not being able to read easily. The Intel Reader is a tool that can help give people with dyslexia, low-vision, blindness or other reading-based disabilities access to the resources they need to participate and be successful in school, work and life."

The Intel device may seem awkwardly chunky, but its designed for withstanding being knocked about or perhaps mistakenly dropped. The video here demonstrates its ubiquitous uses, such as being able to connect via USB to a computer and its cleverly designed case even allows you to shoot photographs while it's packed away. It's not your average e-reader, since it will apparently be offered for around US$1500, which seems rather sad for less fortunate people !

Via

The Tonsils of a Leopard Seal

Watch dive photographer Paul Nicklen coming face-to-face with one of the Antarctic's most vicious predators by giving his all (camera and hands) to get a close up photo shot of a Leopard Seal's tonsils for National Geographic.