Link Latte 130


#130 - Week of March 30, 2010

Mind-blowing riddle of quantum mechanics - [still unsolved!]
Even weirder: The Quantum Entanglement - [wow science]
Brilliant Buses of Central America - [travel, auto]
Subatomic Exploration Begins at LHC - [Earth is still here]
Year Without a Summer - [weird history]
The Best Converted Hummer Ever - [useful - when oil runs out]
Insects Covered in Dew (Macro Photography) - [stunning]
Crafting an instantly forgettable mainstream radio hit - [great article]
Michael Wolf: The Transparent City - [urban photography]
Machines Making Machines: Robot Assembly Videos, ad - [mesmerizing]
Rollup Flexible Displays (scroll down for video) - [wow tech]
Photos of incredible draught in China - [pics, click next]
Inhalable Coffee: No Cup Required! - [what?.. I'd rather have it old way]
DNA experts reveal China's ancient open door to West - [interesting]
New Russian Art: Putin & Medvedev - [found in a walk-in clinic]
Justin Ashbee: Unfurling... Unfolding art - [portfolio]
Cool & Funny Insurance Ads - [cool ads]
Update your knowledge of latest web scams - [useful]
Hunting for Strangers (and appreciating their stories) - [cool site]
500 Worst Passwords (Cool Poster) - [geek art]
Russian Far East: Kola Peninsula - [awesome pics, scroll down]
Butterfly Swarm Attacks Man - [wow video]
Green cowboy hats... and some pretty tight steel guitar solos - [cool video]
Lions vs. a Giant Crocodile - [wow video]
Construction Crane Falls on Cars at Intersection - [wow video]
Infinite Teddy Bear Invasion - [the weirdest video]
Radical Movie-going Experience: Feel-Around! - [fun video]
Very Cool cars, Awesome Vehicles & Transit Systems - [category]
Ready to Blow: Photographs of "Living" Volcanoes - [compilation]

SEE ALL OTHER LINK LATTE ISSUES HERE

Utterly Irresistible Robot Sculptures

"QUANTUM SHOT" #620
Link - by Avi Abrams



Snuggly Little Robots and Obnoxious Huge Ones

When are robots NOT required to be efficient, super-smart, or uniquely useful? When robots are art, of course. More and more robots are being created from used and found parts all over the world for sheer viewing and cuddling pleasure of general public and lucky collectors. Here are some of them:


(robot creations by Terry Collier)

We featured chrome-delicious robot sculptures and ray-guns art before (read the whole series here). Now's the time for another groovy installment.

Toys? Not Toys?

This "Space Patrol" by UltraJunk is made from "a vintage boat motor gas tank, 60's auto seats side trim plates, Studebaker emblem and vintage microphone for the grill, old van interior lights for head lights, BBQ gas grill parts for the engine exhaust pipes, bicycle head light with a cut down 1960 Chevy tail light for the rear light, part of a ballerina toy for the bubble shield with a 50's Chrysler headlight ring for the bubble trim, Electrolux vacuum cleaner parts, antique wood burner top and clothes rack ring for the base, and other odds and ends." Gorgeous, isn't it?


(image credit: UltraJunk)

"Even Robots Get the Blues":


(image credit: Ultrajunk)

Cars turn into wicked robots... so what else is new?

(think Toyota). OK, here is the real thing: a robot (full-size!) sculpture made from crashed BMW 645CI car parts by sculptor Bruce Gray



"This robot features a movable head, pivoting (simulated) energy pulse gun with movable joystick/fire button controller, movable upper arm and a forearm that raises and has a swiveling multi-positionable hand" - more info.

Don't stand in its line of sight! -


(images credit: Bruce Gray)

Back to the army of cute little robots:

Mike Slobot is a sculptor and painter, sculpting his own brand of robots called “the slobots” for about the last 5 years. Here is the "slobot" created for the Stitch Experiment 626 project: the original figure was a 10” tall Disney Stitch character from the Lilo and Stitch movie.



(images credit: Mike Slobot)

More slobots, including this cute SloBart, can be seen at Mike's website:




Here is a cool update from Lockwasher: "Roaming" Mobile Phone Man (left) and a head of the Phil Robot (made from an old railroad lantern!) -


(image credit: Lockwasher)

How "outcast robots find new loving homes"

Brian Marshall (aka Adoptabot) makes robots out of kitchen utensil and every other piece of used cutlery - with fascinating results:




(images credit: Brian Marshall)

Caroline Le Breton also uses kitchen utensils and cookware for her cute robot creations:


(images credit: Caroline Le Breton)

Quite funny and offbeat work by Clayton Bailey:


(image credit: Clayton Bailey)

And don't forget to check updates at Bennett Robot Works!


(images credit: Bennett Robot Works)

Aaron Ristau's whimsical metal art projects include this "Frontier Cartography Robot":



(images credit: Aaron Ristau)

Buggy Robot by Martin Horspool is also a great source for whimsical and inventive little robot sculptures:


(image credit: Buggy Robot)

Just be careful around some vintage tin toy robots - they can turn into the real thing in the blink of an eye! -


("Forbidden Planet" Robbie the Robot makes an appearance in "The Invisible Boy" (1957) - info)

Robots bringing donuts? why, yes!

Incredibly whimsical, award-winning art of Eric Joyner is all about robots, giant and small collectible ones - you also may recognize some vintage toy robots in his artwork, like the ones we featured here.


(image credit: Eric Joyner)

Can't get enough tin toy robot art prints? Try illustrations by Karl Egenberger:


(image credit: Karl Egenberger)

This is the Boilerplate Robot, the date is 1893, and yes, this photograph is a fake:




(learn more about this "elaborate hoax" here)

Misc. robot occupations... Some require more "right brain activity" than others (or is it "left brain activity", really?) - for example, conducting an orchestra:


(Honda's Asimo robot conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Paul Sancya/AP)

Robots as teachers and teaching assistants:


(image via)

Robots making/fixing other robots:


(image credit: Martin Becka)

Ray Guns are still stuff of the future. How come?

Not that we want to promote development of weapons, but it just seems so incredible that we can build Large Hadron Collider but not a single working concept of a ray gun. In the meantime, Dr. Grordbort is busy creating ray gun "replicas":


(image credit: Greg Broadmore)

Weta Digital Forum is probably the best place to hunt for wicked-looking ray guns and possibly collectible purchases.

To build a proper ray gun, you need precision view-finders and instruments. Zoom in... Enhance!


(art credit: Oliver Wetter)

Why build only small cuddly robots? Build a HUGE exoskeleton for a badass robot, ready to dominate the world (or at least Alaskan town of Wasilla, where it was spotted - more info):


(image credit: Jeff Schultz)


(original unknown)

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Shoe Polish, Japanese Style (A New Art Form?)


Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Shoe Polish, Japanese Version (A New Art Form?)

Enter the Maestro! Very relaxing, even sublime... there is magic in the air (listen to the sounds, preferably in headphones):


Link

In the comments for this video you can find some description of the magic: "He was using first cream to nourish the leather (like beeswax enriched with mink oil). Then a colored shoe polish (also based on beeswax)... then he was spraying little drops of water to give it the gloss finish.". So now you know how to do it properly, if you have some time - via

Today's pictures & links:

Banana Slug is Hungry

Cute little Cthulhu-like creature (see more banana slugs here) is eating:


(image credit: Jeff Olshan)

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1955 Ghia Gilda Coupe Concept

See more oddities displayed at 2010 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance on this page. Here is 1955 Ghia Gilda Coupe Concept:



(images via)

Bottom row: 1969 Fascination Prototype Two-Door Sedan (read more about it here) and 1936 Stout Scarab. This site also has some eye-catching galleries of collectible automobile detailing and parts photography: Part 1 and Part 2.



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Cosmic Cataclysms

We wrote about cosmic and apocalyptic collisions before. This time National Georgaphic Channel presents a few more CGI images of cosmic cataclysms, as part of their "Known Universe: Cosmic Collisions" and "Stellar Storms" episodes, the first of which is to be aired on Thursday, April 1, at 10 PM ET/PT - more info. Here is an exclusive preview for DRB:

Impactor strikes proto-Earth at a shallow angle resulting in the formation of the Moon:



Blackhole approaches our solar system:



Depiction of a major solar flare's effect on Earth:



Gravitational forces between asteroid and gravity tractor divert asteriod away from impacting Earth:



Impacor strikes north pole of Mars tearing off the surface and creating Planum Boreum or Northern Plain:


(images credit: BASE Productions/ Sauce, National Geographic)

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Mixed fresh links for today:

Top Secret Signs Inside CERN - [Large Hadron Collider]
The World's Most Ingenious Thief - [and how to catch him]
Periodic Table of Periodic Tables - [wow project]
10 Weird & Wonderful Museum - [insteresting]
AWesome Architecture Project: Sky Waterfall - [wow design]
The Craziest Medical Inventions - [pretty wild]
The Evolution of Piggy Banks - [weird design]
Great Collection of April Fool Pranks - [and gadgets]
How to Survive a Nuclear Attack - [useful?]
Very Stylish Vintage Matchbox Music Video - [cool art]
Catzilla! The King of Monsters - [wow video]
Validation: Everybody Wants to Hear This! - [sweetest short film ever]

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Stuck in the Hot Tub?

"Mickey's Hot Tub" requires some negotiating to get out... It's a part of Hell's Revenge Trail in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, Moab, Utah - a hub for a variety of off-road sports, such as rock racing, rock crawling, hill climbing, desert racing and endurance desert racing.

"Mickey's Hot Tub" and "The Escalator", Hell's Revenge, Sand Flats Recreation Area, Moab, Utah - photos by Jud Leslie:




(photos by Jud Leslie)

Brad & Roger Lovell, of Lovell Rock Racing, have some great imagery on their website (they have been named by two various sport sources "arguably the best rock crawlers ever"):


(images credit: Brad & Roger Lovell, Lovell Rock Racing)

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Luminous Inspirations, indeed

Kent Davis is a full-time artist that creates one of a kind unique illuminated sculptures - see Luminous Inspirations for more:



(image credit: Luminous Inspirations)

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This is Cold War

Somewhat spooky image of nuclear missiles watch in US during the height of Cold War in 1957 (especially with that ghastly dark hand in the corner... and a red telephone)


(image courtesy LIFE magazine, 1957)

We made it so far, without a single launch... knock on wood...

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Frozen Glass

This is simply mind-boggling glass sculpture (3D artwork by Yulia Karpenko, Belarus):


(image credit: Yulia Karpenko)

If there is a glass sculptor among readers of DRB, we'd like to hear if this could be made in real life.

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Streamlined Steam Locomotive "Josef Stalin", 1939

More precise name of this model is ISO 20-0016, these locomotives were manufactured from 1932 to 1942 - the streamlined model was capable of reaching impressive speed of 180 km/hr.



(image via)

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Walk Your Fish!

It needs fresh air... wait -



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