Archive

William Kamkwamba (wikipedia) has accomplished something seemingly impossible. At age 14 and unable to attend school, he used information from a couple library books to build a windmill out of junk to provide electricity for his family's home. He has since built several more windmills, allowing his family to farm better crops. He is now attending school after several venture capitalists pledged to fund his education after his appearance at the 2007 TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania.

Photos by Tom Rielly

see also
GOOD - African Dynamo
Wired - Teen’s DIY Energy Hacking Gives African Village New Hope

Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist who uses camouflage techniques to blend into his surroundings.

see also
TOXEL - Camouflage Art by Liu Bolin
homepage DAILY - Liu Bolin - The Invisible Man - Exhibits in Paris

hat tip Toxel.com

This is a short stop motion animation created by Tony Pichotta and Justin Grizzoffi using Post-It notes and Casio SK1 keyboard.

hat tip boing boing

Ricardo Autobahn (wikipedia) created this great video remix.

hat tip @djsteveporter

From the people that brought you Big Dog, here is Little Dog.

see also
Boston Dynamics - LittleDog - The Legged Locomotion Learning Robot
RITM - Where Are The Robots?

Scott Wade lives on a dirt road where the cars in the area get covered in dust. Being an artist, Scott takes advantage of the opportunity this provides.

hat tip Holy Taco

Here is the video for Pomplamoose's (twitter) cover of Beyonce's (wikipedia) Single Ladies. And while Kanye West (wikipedia) might think Beyonce's video for the song is "one of the greatest videos of all time," Pomplemoose's video is fantasic as well. Not only because it is a great video of a great cover; it also demonstrates what today's technology allows a couple people with a spare room, a few instruments, some recording gear, an HD camcorder and a computer can do. The video looks and sounds great.

here are a couple more Pomplamoose videos.

hat tip Pampelmoose

This is an animation by Aleksandra Korejwo using coloured salt.

see also
ACMEfilmworks - Aleksandra Korejwo
Animation Blog - Aleksandra Korejwo "Butterfly" and "Article 16"

hat tip Holy Kaw!

Sjors Vervoort is an animator from the Netherlands who created this animation as a graduation project.

hat tip boing boing

This is a great TED talk by Rory Sutherland.

Diego Stocco is an musician who likes to make music and sounds with unusual instruments. He created the Experibass so he could hear the sound of violin, viola and cello strings through the body of a double bass.

see also
WebUrbanist - Creative Musician Makes Crazy Instruments From Everyday Items
BehanceNetwork - Experibass

When U2 (wikipedia) released All That You Can't Leave Behind in 2001 it appeared that they were intent on (and capable of) remaining relevant in the 21st century. However, as the first decade of the century draws to a close we find that U2 is being left behind. Superficially they seem to be in touch with the direction the music industry is headed with a variety of special packages for their latest release and a presence in social media.

A closer look reveals that they are out of touch. In the build up to the start of their current tour they began posting video clips taken while preparing for the tour. But these clips were 30 second video clips that revealed little. Their presence on Facebook and Twitter (U2 360, Edge) is just meaningless drivel. None of their efforts really make any attempt to actually connect with their fans, to actual share with them. They are old school, still believing that sharing a video of an entire performance of a song or three from their current tour will result in fans choosing not to attend concerts.

In the midst of a global financial crisis/recession they decide to hit the road playing stadiums using expensive staging with huge personal, transportation, energy requirements. If a band wants to go an a massive ego feeding, resource wasting tour, I don't have a major problem with that. It's a little silly, but whatever. However, this is a band with a front man constantly preaching about extreme poverty. If you want to be relevant in the 21st century your words kinda have to match your actions.

Fortunately for U2, they has plenty of money and they'll be able to live out the rest of their lives in comfort if they don't come to terms with reality and disappear into obscurity. However, they need to be reading Mike Masnick (TechDirt) and Bob Lefsetz (the Lefsetz Letter) and paying attention to what Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is doing if they want to be relevant and you know, actually sell a few records and sell out a few concerts in the coming years.

On the other hand, maybe, just maybe, they are starting to see the light. Tonight their Rose Bowl concert will be broadcast live on YouTube (U2 on YouTube). Is this U2 starting to come to terms with the 21st century? Or just a momentary lapse from a bunch of dinosaurs?

here is their performance from Letterman to get you amped up for the show.

What the world would look like if the internet disappeared.

see also
Cracked.com - The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today)

Buff Diss is a Melbourne based artist who creates street art using masking tape.

see also
Buff Diss - Flickr Photostream
This Blog Rules - Street Art Made With Masking Tape

hat tip Holy Kaw!