Computerspielemuseum – Berlin’s Computer Game Museum

If you thought the Video Card Museum of Kharkov was a geek paradise, than the Video Game Museum in Berlin is really gonna blow your mind. It features vintage hardware, interactive installations, and over 300 video games, including the first ever arcade game, Computer Space, released in 1971, which by the way was a total commercial failure.

The Video Game Museum was first opened for a brief period at the end of the 1990s, but was eventually closed down in 2000. The new museum opened in January 2011 and is located in an east Berlin building formerly occupied by Cafe Warsaw. The exhibits in this geeky museum aim to document all the aspects of video games, including graphics, hardware, music, storylines, etc, since 1951 to current day. Apart from tracking the evolution of video games, the museum also explores the effects gaming has had on modern society, from positive ones like social networking to negative, like addiction and video-game-inspired violence.

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Designer Creates Modern Persian Rugs Using Google Earth

Using images from Google Earth, German designer David Hanauer was able to give a contemporary twist to the ancient craft of Persian carpet making.

Hanauer first began working on his “Worldwide Carpets” project in 2008, after finding himself fascinated with Las Vegas’ uniform, top-down suburban planning. After he got the idea of using aerials images of the city as prints for a modern Persian carpet, he needed to find the best aerial views, and what better alternative than the free-to-use Google Earth? And since our eyes are used to a horizontal view, rather than seeing things from above, at first most people assume it’s just an abstract pattern, instead of a Las Vegas building block.

Persian rugs are arranged around a central point and are always symmetrical, so after David Hanauer finds the right sections from the 3D satellite maps, all he has to do is mirror the images in four directions, which automatically gives the carpets a Persian look. But instead of being hand-knotted, like the original carpets, these contemporary interior design accessories are printed on polyester using colorfast dyes.

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The Landfillart Project – Turning Hubcaps into Works of Art

The Landfillart Project is an artistic endeavor that tries to get people thinking about the amount of trash they generate, by repurposing hubcaps as unique artworks.

The idea was thought up by Ken Marquis, from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who has spent the last three years convincing other artists from all the US states and 52 foreign countries to give old hubcaps the artistic treatment. Ken got the idea to use hubcaps while attending an auto show near Allentown, where a collection of 41 rusted wheel covers inspired and got him thinking they could be repurposed. He bought the entire cache for $82, and just a few weeks later acquired 1,000 more, from a collector in Quakertown.

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10 Coolest Finds of the Week #7

Strapped for Cash Priest Inaugurates Inflatable Church (Metro)

Origami Crane Made from 2,000,000 Origami Cranes (Colossal)

Druid King Arthur Loses Legal Battle for Stonehenge (MSN)

Dad Wakes Up Son with Super Soaker, Hums Doom Theme (Dvice)

6 Magicians Who Died Performing the Bullet Catch (Mental Floss)

12 Incredible Snapshots of Animals Silhouetted Against the Sun (Environmental Graffiti)

Beautiful Photos Takes with Handmade Legotron Mk1 Camera (Gizmodo)

Man Films Himself Counting to 100,000 (Youtube)

10 Famous People Who Look Like Pets (Oddee)

Sky Zone 3D Trampoline Dodgeball (Laughing Squid)

 

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Tokyo’s Baby Café – Where the Cool Japanese Kids Hang-Out

Tokyo – probably the only city in the world where toddlers have their own hang-out spot, where no childless adults are allowed.

Japan may have one of the lowest birth rates in the world, but that apparently only means the few babies that are born here are given everything – even their own exlclusive café. Located in the Omotesando neighborhood of Tokyo, the Nendo-designed Baby Café is the perfect place for children under seven to chill out, and play in a safe environment, while their parents socialize over a cup of coffee. No more having to listen to mommy telling them to “sit up straight”, “don’t play with your food”, “don’t run through the restaurant”, at the Baby Café kids can do as they like. But there are monitors all over the place so parents can keep their eyes on children while giving them the illusion they’re free to do as they please.

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Stan Herd Uses Crop Fields as Canvases for His Art

For more than 30 years, Kansas-based artist Stan Herd has created large scale artworks he calls Earthworks, using crop fields as canvases.

Stan Herd was born into a family of farmers and grew up in a very small town in southwest Kansas. Although he was the artist in the family and in school, Stan also had an intimate relationship with the earth, and his earliest artworks depicted fields of wheat and alfalfa crossed by seemingly endless country roads, and agricultural activities in rural America. He realized he enjoyed doing large scale artworks when he started doing murals, and got the brilliant idea of using the earth as his canvas one time when he was flying over a crop field, in an airplane.

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World’s First Pig Fat Museum Opens in Ukraine

Pig fat is considered a tasty treat in central and eastern European countries like Belarus, Russia or the Czech Republic, and the Ukraine has even opened a museum dedicated to it.

Known as salo in the Ukraine, this traditional food is often translated as ‘lard’ or ‘bacon’ in English, but there are some subtle differences between the three. Unlike lard, salo isn’t rendered, and unlike bacon, it contains little or no meat. Just like Coca Cola in America, the wurst in Germany, Ramen in Japan or oatmeal in England, salo is a big part of Ukrainian culture, so it’s only natural they honor it with its own museum. Located on Svobodi Avenue, in Lviv, the Salo Museum features all kinds of exhibits dedicated to the greasy delicacy.

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Summer Night Horror – Japan’s Creepy Yokai Monster Train

The Yokai Train is a somewhat scary summer attraction in Kyoto, Japan. One of the electrical trains is boarded by creepy monsters that try to scare children out of their wits.

If you were looking for a way to scare a spoiled brat into submission, look no further that the monster train of Kyoto, an eerie attraction where yokai (Japanese monsters) become real. For kids at least, because any grown-up can tell they’re actually actors wearing white kimonos and scary masks. The custom was introduced by the Keifuku Electric Railroad company, in 2007, and was so popular that it became an eagerly awaited yearly tradition.

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The Creepy Taxidermy Creatures of Andrew Lancaster

Andrew Lancaster is a New Zealand taxidermist who has taken the art of stuffing animals to new heights by creating impossible hybrids like three-headed chickens of winged possums.

Lancaster has been creating his creepy creatures for about two years, but he began practicing taxidermy after he moved to New Zealand, from England, 14 years ago. After seeing heaps of dead animals on the side of the road , he thought to himself “what a waste”, and decided they were good material for his art. Now whenever he drives past roadkill, he backs up and puts in his his trunk. At home, he either puts them in the freezer, “right under the ice cream and vegetables” or on top of the hot water cylinder, to dry.

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Coolest Finds of the Week #6

Craziest Japanese Music Video (Youtube)

Scandybars: Candy Bars Cut in Half, Scanned (Scandybars)

10 Most Beautiful Urban Parks on Earth (Environmental Graffiti)

Eiffel Flower – Sunflower Soars to 23 Feet into the Air (Daily Mail)

Formula 1 Fan Gets Mercedes Bionic Hand (SWNS)

40,000 Watt Car Audio System Makes Girl’s Hair Go Crazy (Youtube)

German BOy Told to Clean Up Calls Cops over “Forced Labor” (MSN)

Real Fairy Captured in Mexico (AOL)

World’s Fastest Guitarist Pumps Out 600 Beats per Minute (Dvice)

Driving Motorized Beer Cooler Gets Australian Man DUI Charges (NBC)

 

Japanese Artist Creates Structures from 30,000 Post-Its

Japanese artist Yo Shimada, of tat-o architects, has created a series of fragile structures using thousands of brightly-colored post-its.

This isn’t the first time someone has used the good old post-it as an art medium, but it may well be the first time it serves as a building material. Aided by students from the Kyoto University of Art and Design, Yo Shimada painstakingly glued around 30,000 colored post-its to create building components which were later assembled to create a wall-like structure currently exhibited at the Gallery Artzone, in Kyoto.

Visitors were given the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the post-it structure by writing their thoughts on post-its and sticking them to the facing gallery walls.

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The Awe-Inspiring Paper Sculptures of Allen and Patty Eckman

Allen and Patty Eckman create detailed cast paper sculptures inspired by Native American culture, using a special technique they themselves invented.

Allen Eckman took an interest in art and design after returning from Vietnam, where he served as a Sargent. He attended the Art Center College of Design, where he met Patty, who obviously shared his passion for the arts. They married, had kids and managed an advertising company in the Los Angeles area for about 12 years, after which they decided they had had enough of their stressful careers and agreed it was time for a fresh start in something they were truly passionate about, art.

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Beautiful Panographies by Mareen Fischinger

Panographies are wide-angle pictures composed of several individual photos manually stitched together. They give the impression one would get when looking around and putting the images together in his head.

Mareen Fischinger, a talented photographer from Dusseldorf, Germany, has come up with a technique that allows you to capture an entire scene, by assembling dozens of photos of that scene. Here’s how she does it: first she picks something interesting to photograph, than searches for the perfect spot to shoot from and doesn’t move from that position until the process is complete. Next she manually sets the white balance, focus, f-stop and shutter speed of the camera so that all the photos are identically exposed. Then she points and shoots, making sure she moves the camera lens to cover all positions. The more her shots overlap the easier it is to assemble her panography.


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World’s Biggest Big Mac Is Faker than You Think

A lot of people have been saying McDonald’s makes fake burgers, but the world’s biggest Big Mac is so fake it’s not even edible.

I know one guy who would love to sink his teeth into this fast-food monument, but sadly it’s just for decoration. The world’s biggest Big Mac was unveiled back in 2008, at the burger’s birthplace – a McDonald’s restaurant in Huntington, Pennsylvania, to celebrate its 40th anniversary. It stands 14-feet-tall and is just one of the McDonald’s exhibits hosted by the restaurant\museum.

Created over 40 years ago, the Big Mac is the world’s most popular sandwich. It was created by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald’s franchise owner from Uniontown, and following its immediate success, it was added to McDonald’s menus nationwide. Billions of Big Macs are sold all over the world every year, with 550 million sold in the US alone. Weighing nearly half a pound, with 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, the Big Mac isn’t exactly a nutritionist favorite, but almost all of them eating one every once in a while is not a big problem, as long as it doesn’t become an everyday habit.

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Artist Uses Recurring Words to Create Detailed Portraits

Vietnamese-born photographer and artist Huy Lam uses tiny 4 point type recurring words and phrases to create beautiful portraits of modern and historical icons.

The Toronto-based artist has always been fascinated with the concept of perception, and the way we form opinions based on what we perceive as real.  At a glance, his works look like they’ve been painted or drawn with pencil or charcoal, but as you approach them further, you realize they’re made with an entirely different medium – differently colored words.  Through his art, Huy Lam tries to convey the concept of perception, but he also hopes that these images created with words “will provoke thought, discussion and even laughter.” But the hours he spends actually placing thousands of 4 point type words in just the right spots to create detailed portraits is no laughing matter.

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