Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future'

May 17, folks. That's the date when the grumpy doctor you wish you were and the snazzy camera you wish you owned will join forces on American network television. The final episode in this season's run of House has been shot exclusively using Canon's 5D Mark II, and the show's director Greg Yaitanes has been taking questions about the experience on Twitter. PetaPixel have helpfully collated the Q&A session into a coherent pseudo-interview, which you'll be able to find at the source below. The major takeaway is that the crew liked the experience and didn't have to do an overwhelming amount of work to adapt to the different shooting method. Guess after SNL and its own movie, the 5D Mark II just had to go and do a guest appearance on its favorite TV show.

Engadget. Apr 13, 2010.

KFC Launches All-Meat Sandwich, No Fooling

The KFC Double Down, a sandwich that the fast-food chain felt compelled to assure consumers was actually real and not an April Fools' Day prank, will land with a greasy thud in KFC locations across the U.S. on April 12, an advertisement on KFC’s website said Saturday.

The Double Down features bacon and Monterey Jack cheese surrounded not by a bun but by two fried chicken fillets.

KFC describes the sandwich as “so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!” Consumer affairs website Consumerist called it “mysteriously tempting (and potentially lethal).”

The Double Down was initially tested in Omaha, Neb. and Providence, R.I. last July before KFC decided to take it nationwide, CTNow.com reported.

According to KFC.com, which has a countdown to the launch of the Double Down, the sandwich is available with Original Recipe chicken or original chicken. The grilled option provides fewer calories and less fat than the Original (which has 540 calories and 32 grams of fat), but also a whopping 1430 grams of sodium -- more than half of the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s recommended daily allowance.

Myfoxla.com.

This man has all the latest tech ... from the 80s.

Digg.

Real-life painting

It looks like a painting, right? It’s not. Makeup Girl is actually a photograph of a model in bodypaint. Peter Kun Frary, a professor of music at the University of Hawaii, spotted this model in a stage display at a shopping mall:

Recently I walked by the Ala Moana Mac cosmetic store and noticed a crowd of Japanese tourists gawking and snapping pics. Amazingly, a model in full body paint was posing against a set. She was a darn good simulation of a late 19th century oil painting. At first I thought she was naked--wearing only makeup--but she sported a few scrapes of cloth in the right places. Also, she hardly ever blinked...

These are the two "paintings".

Performer's Galleria.

Solving 4 Rubik's cubes in 70 seconds

Mini-Moscow on Sale for Just $3 Million

It took 300 people to construct a 400 square foot model of the USSR's capital city back in 1977. Today you can buy that super-detailed, scaled-down version of Moscow for a mere $3 million.

Stunning, isn't it? Apparently every single of the itty-bitty windows in the model can be lit up and there are effects to simulate day and night time. I guess that it's not surprising that the electricity costs alone are making mini-Moscow enough of an expense to get pushed onto the auction block.

Engadget.

Man Builds Detailed Model Cars From Discarded Aluminum Cans

Meet Sandy Sanderson from New Zealand. Needing something to keep himself occupied after breaking his wrist in a motorcycle accident, he started building amazing model cars from discarded aluminum cans. His incredibly intricate work below.

Sandy's something of a renaissance man; draftsman, guitar player, teacher, motorcyclist, instrument maker and model builder. When he was in a motorcycle accident which shattered his wrist and put him out of action for a while, he needed something to do. While finishing a canned beverage he thought of model airplanes he'd seen made from cans and thought why not make cars out of the same material? And thus was born the CanCar. The "Coriba Climax" below is his first effort and while impressive in its own right you see the cars keep getting more and more technically detailed with each successive build. Very cool hobby Mr. Sanderson, and talk about a unique (though somewhat spendy) Christmas present opportunity.

Jalopnik.

Something to wake you up in a cold winter morning

I'm sure these two bacon advertisements can warm you up.

"Hand-trimmed and hardwood smoked mean it’s always a scrumptious morning."

Oscar Mayer bacon is carefully selected, hand-trimmed and naturally hardwood smoked for hours to bring you that one-of-a-kind flavor well worth waking up for.

"To make great bacon, we take the slow road."

Oscar Mayer bacon is carefully selected, hand-trimmed and naturally hardwood smoked for hours. Because there are no shortcuts to that one-of-a-kind flavor.

Berlin Block Tetris

How'd They Do That? Berlin Block Tetris

Sergej Hein is a moving image, animation and fine arts student currently studying at the University of East London. His "Berlin Block Tetris" is a fantastic addition to a growing body of homages to the classic video game: there's human Tetris, Tetris on a skateboard at night, Tetris against a building, and now what might be called Soviet-era architecture Tetris. It took Hein two weeks to make this clip -- but just a few minutes to tell us about it:


What gave you the idea to make this video?
The idea is based on a kind of parody about the former socialist building style combined with pop culture. They used to build whole cities where each house was designed identically to create cheap housing for workers. These blocks were so similar that in Soviet times, you could easily wake up at a friends place in another city and still feel like you are in your own flat (there is even a Russian film about it!). Even the furniture was the same. I grew up in such a suburb of Riga, which was part of the Soviet Union at that time. When I moved to East Berlin I was again living in such a "ghetto" as the cool kids used to call them. Walking through that part of Berlin, seeing all these square blocks one day gave me the idea that they actually look like Tetris stones. I thought, "Hmm, why don't you make an animation of that?"

How did you make it? 
Basically the animation consists of two parts: the sky time-lapse and the house with the background. I took a photo of the "block" building on the opposite side of the street out of my bedroom window. Then I had to rebuild the scenery in After Effects. To do that, I used Photoshop to cut out the shapes of the Tetris Stones and rebuild it with the 3D function of After Effects. So basically only the building and the Tetrisstones are 3D; all other elements are 2D images taken out of the source photo. The sky time-lapse is made with my DSLR. I took a photo every five seconds over the duration of three hours and compressed it to 1:21 min.

Why do you think people are fascinated with Tetris?
Tetris is a synonym for pop culture like no other computer game, but it was also invented by the genius Russian engineer Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union in 1984. I think it reminds all of us of the beginning of digitalization; computers became faster and started to become a part of our daily lives. I remember getting a Gameboy with Tetris in 1991 and fighting with my brother about who can play first. Seriously, I was highly addicted! Sometimes our parents had to take away the Gameboy, which always ended in tears. My family was living in East Germany at this time which had just joined West Germany. It was the time of change, everybody was excited, keen to find a place in the new system. The German Unity is now almost 20 years ago. Many things have changed but I think that Tetris will always remind people from all over the world of the early '90s.

Tell us a cool fact about this video that no one would know by looking at it.
A friend was living in a flat located in the fourth Tetris Stone. He got shaken up a bit! But luckily his line did not disappear.

Creator's Corner Blog. Oct 8, 2009.

Subway Ad Makes It Look Like the Tunnel Is About to Collapse

Pretty scary "2012" advertisment currently up in Rio de Janeiro. First off, when the Evil Doers next blow up and flood an underground tunnel somewhere in the world, my bet is, that 'somewhere' will be 'here.'

Man Spends US$50,000 to Recreate a First-Class Pan Am Cabin in His Garage

Anthony Toth is so obsessed with perfectly recreating a vintage Pan Am first-class cabin in his garage that he once traveled to Thailand for—wait for it—original Pan Am branded headphones. And his obsession goes much deeper than that.

Anthony began his obsession with Pan Am as a child, when he and his parents frequently flew to Europe to visit family. Pan Am's service seems decadent and almost silly today, when Southwest and JetBlue achieve success with a budget mentality, but to Anthony, Pan Am was the epitome of class and style.

Pan Am was once synonymous with international jet-setting, with upper-deck dining rooms and flight attendants decked out in crisp blue uniforms, high heels and white gloves. First-class travelers were served out of silver-plated martini pitchers. A parade of linen-covered food carts made its way down the aisle at dinnertime.

Anthony saved things like the cardboard linings on food trays and recorded his trips with multiple rolls of film and extensive tape recordings of the radio selection on board. "This consumed my world," said Tosh. As an adult, he works for United Airlines, and two years ago bought a home with an oversized garage in which he could build a faithful replica of Pan Am's first-class cabin. The project has taken him, in total, 20 years.

Construction required multiple visits out to a spot in Death Valley where airplane carcasses are dumped, but the details of his project are unnervingly precise: The replica isn't open to the public, but if you visit (Tosh hosts executive meetings sometimes, appropriately enough), you'll be offered drink service and given a perfectly-crafted souvenir boarding pass designed to match those used by the airline in the late '70s and early '80s. He's got authentic Pan Am swizzle sticks and glasses. The overhead compartments are original Pan Am construction. Hell, he's even got sealed packages of salted almonds (we have no evidence regarding the taste of 30-year-old almonds, but they're probably not for eating anyway).

The one concession he's made to the modern age? A flat-screen TV in place of the old-school projection Pan Am used. Everything else (save the stewardesses) is either original Pan Am or a custom-made replica. He's hoping to open his obsessive ode to Pan Am as a museum, but he seems perfectly content to just hang out in first class. [WSJ, images also WSJ]

Gizmodo. Oct 27, 2009.

The Biggest Lego Mario Ever Built

If you have $3700 handy, you can buy this 6-foot tall, 110-pound 40,000-brick Lego Mario, the biggest ever built. It took one week to plan, and 175 hours to build, during 16 days.

You don't have to feel like a dorky geek for buying it, because the money will go to charity. So you can feel like a good-hearted dorky geek.

The auction lasts till November 1st, and the money will go to the Ronald McDonald foundation in Netherlands, "a dutch organization that arranges proper housing for relatives of hospitalized children, in the vicinity of clinic".

Gizmodo. Oct 24, 2009.

Two-year-old with same IQ as Einstein

Oscar Wrigley, a two-year-old with the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, has become the youngest boy in Britain to be accepted into Mensa.



Assessors at the Gifted Children's Information Centre in Solihull said Oscar, with an IQ of at least 160, is one of the brightest children they have every come across.


He has been ranked in the 99.99th percentile of the population and has been ranked off the scale as the Stanford-Binet test cannot measure higher than 160.



Oscar's father Joe, 29, an IT specialist from Reading in Berkshire, said: "Oscar was recently telling my wife about the reproductive cycle of penguins.

"He is always asking questions. Every parent likes to think their child was special but we knew there was something particularly remarkable about Oscar.

"I'm fully expecting the day to come when he turns around and tells me I'm an idiot."
Mother Hannah, 26, told The Daily Mail: "He amazes everyone. We knew at 12 weeks he was extremely bright. He was unusually alert."

Mrs Wrigley, a housewife, added: "His vocabulary is amazing. He's able to construct complex sentences.

"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

Dr Peter Congdon, who assessed Oscar, said he was a "child of very superior intelligence".

"His abilities fall well within the range sometimes referred to as intellectually gifted. He demonstrated outstanding ability," he said.

John Stevenage, Mensa's Chief Executive confirmed Oscar had been accepted aged two years, five months and 11 days.

"Oscar shows great potential. Converting that potential to achievement is the challenge for his parents and we are delighted that they have chosen to join the Mensa network for support", he said.

The youngest British child to join Mensa is Elise Tan Roberts, from Edmonton, North London, at two years, four months and 14 days, with an IQ of 156.

The Telegraph. Oct 10, 2009.

The 5 Smallest Countries in the World

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/04/the-5-smallest-countries-in-the-world/

McDonald's free coffee?

As part of a national campaign promoting McDonald's restaurants, a downtown Vancouver lamppost became part of an out-of-home optical illusion, appearing to pour coffee into a giant cup on the sidewalk. At the time, McDonald's was giving away free small cups of its brew for a two-week period, in an effort to attract new breakfast customers. They developed the concept for a lamppost near 6th Avenue and Cambie Street. The post was wrapped in brown vinyl to resemble poured coffee, while an oversized carafe was attached to the end.


Directdaily. Sep. 16, 2009