The Lost Thing: I can't wait to see the whole thing.

Shaun Tan is an artist and author who recently made an animated short of his book 'The Lost Thing'. There is a wonderful interview with him online where he talks a bit about his process. He doesn't have children or know many, he says, and so pretty makes what he himself finds interesting. He goes on to discuss the politics of the day while he was writing 'The Lost Thing' and makes a point about bureaucracy and everything in its place. I need to post the trailer for the movie: it's beautiful, but the author is something, and I would recommend his site and the lovely flash site for the film, as well. I was struck by his wisdom: it's funny how we have a space for a certain intelligence in children's literature. It seems that something subtle, but dangerous, in his ideas is safer (though perhaps even more influential) in the context of a child's book.

The Award Winning Hell Creek Mural

See the Big One!
There's a very good article up at Lines and Colors, an art blog I follow, about Paleoart; Paleoart being the depiction of dinosaurs and the like. Link to the big image and check out the detail. Of course, this kind of thing is immensely challenging for the research alone: the foliage is gorgeous, but no doubt, accurate. If you were born before CGI these types of images were what hooked you on dinosaurs. I love the expressions of the reptiles, that's what makes it seem so live.

Spiral Wall: Processing with Arduino and Servo

SPIRAL_WALL: PROCESSING ARDUINO SERVO on Vimeo Pretty cool concept here. The fabric is being manipulated by motor controlled by the laptop. Its easy to see the application in theater, or some large venue on an entirely different scale.Gotta love Arduino; you can make anything with their parts, judging from what I find online. I’m drooling over an accelerator-midi thing myself.

Snakebot! Bio-Robotics from Carnegie Mellon

Boing Boing posted this video today and I'm in love with the science. Animal locomotion is a peculiar study from both mechanical and evolutionary perspectives. The snakebot can not only climb but swim, which is an entirely different kind of motion if you've ever seen a snake in the water. It blew my mind to read that some bats can swim as well, using their wings as oars. Other aquatic bio-robotics include the jellyfish bots.