We can never have enough of cool and cute animal videos. Here is a delicious addition to satisfy your need for that!

We’re not sure who those naysayers are, but if somehow there remains anyone on the planet who denies the absolute awesomeness of animals, this video will set them straight.

Created by YouTuber Humansare2011, — known for the Humans Are Awesome viral videos — this video highlights the beautiful and splendid creatures of the animal kingdom. From parading elephants to runaway camels, water-skiing dogs to walruses that do sit-ups, these animals have got it going on.
It’s a miracle animals haven’t overtaken the human population and started to run the planet for themselves. Clearly, they are just way too nice to us, the lowly species.

Image courtesy of YouTube, Humansare2011

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/we-can-never-have-enough-of-cool-and-cute-animal-videos-here-is-a-delicious-addition-to-satisfy-your-need-for-that/

A Beautiful Lowrider Plywood Bike That Can Be Easily Assembled By Hand

Netherlands-based sculptor and designer, Jurgen Kuipers has designed a new type of bicycle—one that you can create and construct on your own.

The name of the bicycle is “Sawyer”, and it is a bicycle with a lowrider geometry. It has a plywood frame.

The bike can be completely assembled by hand, and each component of the bike can be swapped with a mechanical component, if desired.

The intriguing and thoughtful design of Sawyer has won it an award at the 2013 International Bicycle Design Competition.

   

via Creative Greed

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/a-beautiful-lowrider-plywood-bike-that-can-be-easily-assembled-by-hand/

World’s First Armani Café

Italian fashion brand Giorgio Armani will be opening a pop-up restaurant, according to British VOGUE.

The first of its kind, the ‘Armani/Caffé’ will have an interior fitted out with Armani/Casa furniture, and it will serve Armani-branded food and drink.

With a space of 180-square-meters, the pop-up café would be able to house 70 guests—and would be located next to the brand’s boutique at Cannes.

Visitors can also purchase Armani/Dolci tea, chocolates and sparkling mineral water from the Armani/Caffé.

*Edit: According to other sources though, this isn’t the world’s first Giorgio Armani Café.

via VOGUE.co.uk

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/worlds-first-armani-cafe/

Anti-Drug Ads Are Consumed By Live Mealworms Over Time

To show the harmful effects of cocaine on a drug addict, Brazilian advertising agency Talent created ‘living’ poster ads that are consumed by live mealworms over time.

Printed on dough, the ads initially show the faces of drug addicts.

However, as time passes, the mealworms slowly eat away at the posters, causing holes to form on the printed faces—highlighting the harmful effects of the drug.

The ads were placed in Gallery of Rock in Sao Paolo, Brazil—an area notorious for the buying and consumption of cocaine.

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/anti-drug-ads-are-consumed-by-live-mealworms-over-time/

Gorilla Wants To Be A Panda, So That It’s Cute Enough To Be Saved

According to ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, wildlife organizations have jumped on the bandwagon in recent years to ‘save the pandas’—forgetting that there are other endangered animals in the world.

As such, Ogilvy Chicago created an ad for APES (A Project of the Conservation Trust) to highlight the ‘favoritism’ some animals receive, and the importance of conserving all wildlife—not just ‘cute’ animals that everyone adores.

In the cute but sad 60-second spot, a gorilla paints himself white, only to look more like the much-loved panda—striking a chord in its viewer.

“A panda is the ‘poster child’ for wildlife conservation—and when it comes to preservation and protection, it really is ‘survival of the cutest’, not the fittest,” APES founder, Lee Theisen-Watt said in a statement.

“We wanted to shine light on the ‘forgotten’ primates, centering our story around a gorilla who sadly knows his chances of protection are greater if he appears more like a panda.”

via Reuters

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/gorilla-wants-to-be-a-panda-so-that-its-cute-enough-to-be-saved/

Here’s an orchestra playing with smartphones instead of actual instruments

Fans booed when Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, but in 2013 in the Czech Republic no one seemed to bat an eye when the Czech National Symphony Orchestra one-upped Dylan by also going mobile.

As part of a stunt to promote a new “all-digital” bank in Europe called Hello Bank!, BNP Paribas and ad agency B-Roll wired up 60 musicians with smartphones and tablets for a rousing rendition of “Carmen.” According to a behind-the-scenes video, the effort required 227 different interfaces that were hooked up to Wi-Fi.

The point: You and your mobile device can make beautiful music together. Or something.

Via Creativity Online

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/heres-an-orchestra-playing-with-smartphones-instead-of-actual-instruments/

Google Glass allows you to take pictures, but makes you look like a wierdo doing it

With its efficient picture-taking capabilities, Google Glass could revolutionize photography — but not necessarily for the better, as one video shows.

The nearly two-minute video follows a Google Glass photographer taking pictures that would be routine when using DSLR or point-and-shoot cameras. When using the high-tech specs, however, things get awkward and a little creepy. Check it out, above.

Screenshot image courtesy of YouTube, gogrovo

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/google-glass-allows-you-to-take-pictures-but-makes-you-look-like-a-wierdo-doing-it/

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo-realistic Portraits

Just as RAW photo files contain all the information you need to put together a photograph, DNA contains all the information needed for a human being. Information artist and PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg has a fascinating portrait project that explores this idea.

Dewey-Hagborg finds and photographs DNA samples out in public, collecting everything from hair to chewed gum and cigarettes. She then sequences the DNA, extracting information about certain traits related to outward appearance (e.g. gender, eye-color, ancestry).

What she ends up with is a comma separated text file that’s roughly 25 megabytes in size. This file is essentially the distinguishing elements between that stranger’s DNA and common DNA shared by humanity.

Dewey-Hagborg then feeds this information into a computer program that uses the details to create a 3D model of that person’s face. Finally, the 3D model is sent to a 3D printer at New York University and turned into a physical sculpture.

The portrait at the top of this post was created using a cigarette found under an overpass in Brooklyn, New York:

The DNA revealed that the person was a female of European descent with brown eyes.

Here’s a collection of found DNA samples next to the portrait sculptures they were turned into.

Dewey-Hagborg even did this same process using her own DNA. Here’s what she came up with:

Heather Dewey-Hagborg posing with her self-portrait DNA sculpture. Photo by Dan Phiffer

In the project’s artist statement, Dewey-Hagborg says that by “working with traces strangers unwittingly leave behind,” she’s calling “attention to the impulse toward genetic determinism and the potential for a culture of genetic surveillance.”

Stranger Visions by Heather Dewey-Hagborg (via kottke.org)

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/artist-uses-found-dna-data-to-generate-photo-realistic-portraits/

Eerie carcass resembling a ‘sea monster’ has been identified

A mysterious carcass washed ashore in New Zealand last week, fueling speculation about sea monsters and dinosaurs. The rotting animal was discovered by a group on four-wheel vehicles speeding along the beach in Bay of Plenty.

According to a story in New Zealand’s Sun Live newspaper, “beachgoers were stumped when they came across what they thought was a prehistoric creature on the shore … stretching about 9 meters (30 feet) in length with large teeth and rudimentary flippers.”

Video of the fearsome-looking animal was soon posted to YouTube, asking the public for help in figuring out what it was.

A marine biologist soon identified the remains as a killer whale, in part because of its distinctive flipper. The mystery was solved, but it’s not the first time an animal’s carcass has been mistaken for a monster. In fact, New Zealand is one of the most common places in the world — along with Newfoundland, Canada and Florida — for such “sea monsters” to appear.

The Science of Sea Monsters

Over the past centuries mysterious masses of marine flesh have occasionally washed ashore on beaches around the world. Dubbed “blobsters” (or simply “blobs”) these large carcasses are so badly decomposed there’s not enough material to make a definitive identification. To many people, the huge creatures — looking unlike any known animal — may seem like strong evidence for sea monsters or even existing dinosaurs.

In 1896, giant waves tossed a massive fleshy corpse on a beach at St. Augustine, Fla. The rubbery, 6-foot-high blob was examined by a local naturalist, who decided it was likely from a giant octopus far larger than any known type. Many other such blobs have been found, including the horror-film inspired “Chilean blob” (found in July 2003), a few “Bermuda blobs,” and another in Newfoundland in 2001.

Controversy and mystery surrounded the creatures for decades. In 2004, a team of biologists led by Sidney Pierce examined all available blobster materials using electron microscopes, and applied biochemical, molecular and DNA analysis. The conclusion: The strange specimens were actually various species of great whales.

Though the identities of these mysterious monster carcasses are now known, marine mystery lovers need not fret. The oceans have not been fully explored, and it’s certain that the sea has not revealed all its secrets.

Source: news.discovery.com

Image: YouTube Screen capture

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/eerie-carcass-resembling-a-sea-monster-has-been-identified/

Eidos, Two Headsets That Grant Enhanced Sight and Hearing

Students Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara at the Royal College of Art in London have created Eidos, a system of sensory augmentation equipment that allows users to enhance their senses of sight and sound.

The Eidos headset records video, transfers the images to a computer where they’re processed, and sends them back to the viewer. The result is an effect similar to long-exposure photography, which ideally allows the viewer to more easily identify patterns of movement. The other Eidos headset enhances hearing by neutralizing background noise and allowing the listener to focus in on one particular source of sound. It uses a directional microphone to capture audio, which is processed by a computer and sent back to the listener via three speakers — one headphone for each ear and a bone conduction speaker at the mouth. The group of students predict that Eidos could have uses in sports analysis, performance art, and heathcare.

image via Dezeen

http://www.360celsius.com/uncategorized/eidos-two-headsets-that-grant-enhanced-sight-and-hearing/

The sad truth about how we use the internet

You love the Internet. You’re not alone, obviously. That guy in the cubicle next to you is on the Internet too. That girl checking her email while walking down the street loves the Internet too. Your mom who messages you on Facebook, yeah, she’s on it too. Everybody uses the Internet. But what is the Internet, a drug that everyone takes, doing to our brains?

Epipheo created this lovely little animation describing the thoughts of Nicholas Carr, author of ‘The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains’. Basically, it’s everything you already know about the Internet. It’s killing your attention span, it’s making you lazy and it’s making us use less of our brains. There’s so much information and yet we retain so little of it. Ah, the Internet. I can’t quit you. [Epipheo]

Source: Gizmodo

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/the-sad-truth-about-how-we-use-the-internet/

This curious looking creature reminds us of Donald Trump’s hair

There’s no denying Donald Trump is a big wig – but researchers have photographed a caterpillar that bears an uncanny resemblance to the property mogul’s hair.

With its brightly coloured, carefully parted ‘do’ the bizarre looking caterpillar has been compared to the U.S property mogul’s unique look.

The creature was spotted in the Amazon by friends Jeff Cremer, 34 and Phil Torres, 27, who run photography tours from Posada Amazonas, a 30 bed rainforest lodge in Peru.

Who wore it best? Donald Trump’s iconic hairstyle bears an uncanny resemblance to the flannel moth

Conservation biologist Phil and wildlife photographer Jeff were leading a small group of tourists on a recent tour when Phil spotted the insect on a leaf and was so struck by its fluffy mane he couldn’t resist taking a photo.

Jeff said ‘On these tours we take tourists and photographers into the Amazon and point out cool and unusual things for them to photograph.

This is the equivalent of the ‘Donald Trump moth’s’ cocoon, however, the larva does not spin a cocoon in the conventional sense, instead the moth separates from its furry skin and uses it as a protective covering while it pupates

‘We have been leading photo tours together for two years and have never seen anything as strange as this.’

Phil, a seasoned field biologist, said ‘I’ve seen some bizarre looking caterpillars in my time of working in the field but this was definitely the weirdest one I’ve ever seen.
‘I wasn’t sure what I was looking at at first, it was this big yellow fuzzy thing.

‘It’s actually a flannel moth caterpillar, they’re really rare, I’ve seen this type of caterpillar before but never one of this colour.
‘We put the picture of our Twitter and Facebook page and immediately people started comparing it to Donald Trump.
‘We didn’t see the resemblance when we first saw the caterpillar but looking at the photo it’s certainly similar to his hair.

After the southern flannel moth has finished pupating and left its cocoon, it looks more like a bee than Donald Trump

‘It was pretty funny, people went mad for the photo comparing it to his toupee.
‘I think if Donald saw it himself, he’d find a reason to come down and check the caterpillar out.
‘It’s not the most approachable of caterpillars either- if you touch that thing it would seriously hurt, it has these little hairs that can poke into your skin and release a venom.
‘When we show people the image some don’t even know what it is, some think it’s a mammal others a bird or some have said a plant.
‘But to us and most of the people who’ve seen it, it’s Donald Trump’s toupee – left on a leaf in the Amazon.”

Source: dailymail.co.uk

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/this-curious-looking-creature-reminds-us-of-donald-trumps-hair/

Harmless Weapons Made of Plants by Sonia Rentsch

In her Harm Less series artist Sonia Rentsch defuses the powers of modern weaponry by constructing guns, grenades and bullets completely from organic objects.

The shape and form of each piece are really convincing, yet I also enjoy the obviousness of each plant chosen to resemble various gun parts. If you’re reminded of Sarah Illenberger’s work, you’ll be happy to know Rentsch has had the opportunity to work with Illenberger in Berlin. Take a deep dive into her extensive portfolio of work over on her website. (vianot shaking the grass)

Source: thisiscolossal.com

http://www.360celsius.com/news-2/harmless-weapons-made-of-plants-by-sonia-rentsch/