Eames + Valastro. Tagxedo - Word Cloud with Styles.
New Robot Crawls Like an Earthworm. Dubbed the "Meshworm," a new bio-inspired robot stretches and contracts to crawl across the ground like an earthworm. But unlike its living, breathing counterpart, this artificial creature is durable enough to survive being bludgeoned by a hammer. "You can throw it, and it won't collapse. Most mechanical parts are rigid and fragile at small scale, but the parts in Meshworms are all fibrous and flexible," said mechanical engineering researcher Sangbae Kim in a statement from MIT. "The muscles are soft, and the body is soft … we're starting to show some body-morphing capability. " Earthworms have two muscle groups in their bodies that work together to help it move on the ground. Circular muscle fibers that wrap around the worm's tubular body move it forward and muscle fibers that run along the worm's length move it right and left. The researchers tried to imitate this structure for their robot. Though small, the Meshworm is durable.
FlowingData | Data Visualization, Infographics, and Statistics. Critique. Lean With It: People Photographed Leaning at Impossible Angles with Trees. Chicago photographer Paul Octavious has just released a number of new photos as part of his Lean With It series, where he captures people bending (I suspect falling) in parallel with precariously angled trees. It’s almost more amazing that he’s able to find these trees in the first place, let alone timing such great shots. See much more on his website.
Flavorwire. As you already know, The Avengers is pretty much already the people’s choice movie of the year, and has inspired all manner of pop culture tributes in recent months, from the relatively high brow to the delightfully low brow. Well, here’s just one more for you to add to the list, and it comes with a bonus — in addition to being a charming idea, these cute Avengers-themed cocktails, created by the genius mind (and great illustrator) behind The More I Arty, actually look pretty delicious.
And hey, a sampling of your favorite before you go see the film in 3-d might just improve the experience. [via Pop Chart Lab]
Conferences. Typography. Experience Project - Personal Stories about any Life Experience. World's Most Influential Designers: Can You Guess Them All? Brecht Vandenbroucke. Home | flaviodeslandes design. Back to the Futurist: Anab Jain. EmailShare 39EmailShare The fourth post of the Back to the Futurist series is dedicated to Anab Jain. Previous in Series: Liam Young Who is Anab Jain? Anab is a designer, entrepreneur, TED Fellow and the founder of Superflux, a multidisciplinary design company based in London, UK and Ahmedabad, India. Anab’s passion is creating opportunities and building tools that can lead us towards new and desirable futures. She was educated in India, Vienna and London, and has over seven years experience in interaction and service design, research, filmmaking and speculative design.
Follow Anab on Twitter: @anabjain Interview Which futurists past and present inspire you and why? Growing up India, and specializing in film at a design school started by Ray and Charles Eames, I have been hugely influenced by a number of notable image-makers and storytellers who worked to create radical visions of the future. Still from Solaris Solaris Poster Brueghel’s painting ‘Hunters in the Snow’ as seen in Solaris Neither. HCD Connect. 12 astounding bus tickets from the 1930s | A vintage flavor. Datavisualization.ch. Designing for the Internet of Things.