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April 29, 2006
International 2006 Mouse Trap Contest
I want to preface by saying I am a proponent of humane mouse evictions. Some of these contest entries straddle the funny and weird to the mean and insane. ENJOY!
via core77
A 3-Step Guide
Step 1: (Rodent Religion) Let them destroy themselves as they argue over who's God is better.
Step 2: (Mouse Media) Inundate them with ideal body imagery forcing them to succumb to a world of unobtainable body types. They become too ashamed of their body image, they refuse to mate and no more mice are born.
Step 3: (Birth Control) Flood the media with ads about birth control and the absolutely necessity for it. The mice have rampant sex but with condoms and birth control pills everywhere, no new mice are ever born.
Watch the animation here
Buried Alive
Lure them into a convenient box that goes from trap right to underground.
The Happy Place
Build a place where all mice can spend their hard earned money and booze up. Mouse morals and society collapse and anarchy prevails.
Let The Mouse Decide
Mice are just as susceptible to depression as we humans are. Flood their media with imagery and stories of hopelessness. Why bother going on if you're going to die anyways right?
Mouse Cannon
Perhaps inspired by the big tops, Mouse Cannon comes with cheese bait, gunpowder, and a parachute. As the mouse climbs in to fetch the cheese, the cannon fires, launching the mouse hundreds of yards away from your home. Fret not tho, the critter isn't killed. His parachute safely brings him back down.
Mouse Zapper
I think this is pretty self explanatory
Stapled To Death
Umm, yeah. This is pretty self explanatory too.
The Moral Mouse
The mouse is lured into a box complete with living room furniture. Once the way out slams shut, call Fed-ex for a pick up. The box is delivered to a mouse sanctuary where he/she can live out the rest of their natural life.
Mouse Propaganda
Brainwash them with propaganda. Have them destroy themselves or have them do your bidding.
Mouse Stargate
My favorite; send the mice to another world. Just be careful to not send too many because you run the risk of them running into some super advance alien that can teach them how to retaliate.
Posted by tranism at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
April 28, 2006
Glen Liberman
Sometimes the most creative people are the quiet ones. A man that composes music and makes toys! How awesome is that?!?!
I first met Glen over a year ago by some strange convergence of creative powers back when this blog was brand new and I was a total nOOb. Our friendship developed over time and I've come to respect someone YOUNGER THAN ME but seemingly doing so much more. HOW CAN THAT BE?!?!
I have nothing but love for him though. He just recently relaunched his site with a bunch of new tracks. He even has a CD out with custom artwork by Brendan Monroe.
The man has a TON of creative projects coming up so bookmark his site and check back often. I've had the privilege of getting the inside scoop and trust me, its VERY VERY cool stuff. If anything, there's a bunch of cool tunes there you can play while you work your day away.
Posted by tranism at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Just A Wii Identity Crisis
UPDATE:
There's a REMOTE Wii-MOTE possibility that the name is just an elaborate viral campaign by Nintendo. There are NO trademarks registered in Japan, Europe or America. On top of that, the domain name does not belong to Nintendo and the official link to the Wii is still revolution.nintendo.com. Makes you go humm.
Okay, so with all the hoopla on the net over the official name of Nintendo's next generation game console, I think it's the perfect time for me to put in my 2 cents.
So let me start with Nintendo marketing; they were successful. The whole internet, everyone from CNN to bloggers like me are talking about it. Until now, Nintendo often had to compete with Sony and Microsoft for media attention. Even within its own industry, it's an afterthought.
Here's where Nintendo triumphed. With E3 coming up in just a few weeks, you have to fight for press and at this point it fulfills one of my rules for branding; identity should be reactionary, be it positive or negative. Humans have a tendency to only remember the best and the worst of things and ironically, it's the worst of things we remember most. This rule of thumb is true across all mediums. Why are some of the most successful songs sad? Why are some of the most violent imagery the most embedded ones? The negative connotation is just stronger in humans. Call it some weird function of brain science. I don't know why, I just know it does.
Nintendo's paragraph long explanation and animatics is another issue. Okay, we get it, wii means we. It's about community, it's about the masses. Unfortunately, one of the other rules of branding is never needing to offer an in-depth explanation. It either should come intuitively or with time. That paragraph long explanation is better suited for media as a press release. For the general public, a simple short tagline would have been much better. To this day, I still love Motorola's old branding tagline, "Motorola, The Heart of Smart." Nintendo PR says they just want people to know where they're coming from. I get it, I think most people get it. It's just most people don't see the connection yet. Hopefully, after E3 we will all get it and say Wiiiiiiiii!
I really don't think the name is all that bad. Oh sure, the word itself has an association with pee in the English speaking world but news flash people, English isn't the only language out there. So why not keep the code name? Well, because did you know the letter "r" in Revolution is EXTREMELY difficult for most non English speaking Asians to pronounce? Hell, I've heard the letter "r" in many European languages and it doesn't sound like how it is in English. Wii is much easier to pronounce universally across all languages. So I think we can all be a little more open minded and objective here. Give the name some time.
Now, what I do have a PROBLEM with is the design of the logo. Everything from the font to the kerning to the color scheme screams APPLE APPLE APPLE! It's nothing new to latch on to the market segment leader and milk them for their mojo, but if Nintendo came up with what I thought was the best logo between the Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox, I expected more creativity here. Place any parent company logo next to the Nintendo one and it doesn't make sense. Place the Apple logo there and all of sudden, it looks like some future Apple product to grace the covers of www.apple.com
Here's where Nintendo does something I call leeching. When you leech off another brand, you're trying to ride it's wave. Sure, you achieve the same cool, sexy, and sleek that Apple has but now you're subject to copycat criticisms and for a console destined to be revolutionary, the logo design doesn't quite live up to it. It's a mistake, a HUGE one. There are TONS of other sans-serif fonts out there. Why choose one so similar (if not the same) as Apple? I understand current Nintendo press media are in favor of the white and grey monochromatic color scheme and that they want everything to be cohesive, but does the logo have to be the same EXACT shades Apple uses?
So to conclude, the name itself is fine. It's dumb now, but it will be good later. The name is there to get attention (and it does that), the console needs to sell and if it does, the name will become the lexicon Nintendo so wants it to be. The logo design is in need of a creativity injection. This is video gaming, not hardware appliance. That delicate balance between the two is very important for consoles to be accepted in home entertainment centers so I understand why Nintendo did it. I just don't think they were successful. The meaning of a word can change over time, but the actual icon of one rarely can. Once it sucks, it sucks forever.
This won't stop me from buying a Revolution Wii. I'm there for the games and the opportunity to play something new, in new ways. Hell, my real name is "Long". Do you know HOW MUCH I HATED my name when I was a kid???
"long duck dong"
"long ding-a-ling"
"long john silver"
"is your last name short?"
I love my name now and appreciate its beauty. In English it means length but in my native language, it means DRAGON. I hate to think of all the people that missed out on the chance to play with get to know me based solely on my name. Don't do that to Nintendo. Give it a chance mmkay?
Posted by tranism at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
April 27, 2006
Rocker 200
As if hardcore gamers weren't lazy enough as is, but now they can take that to the next level. Why not rock back in forth while you're fraggin' your buddies?
The Rocker 200 mimics a slick formula 1 racing design that promises to be ergonomic and perfect for gaming. It actually looks pretty good and at only $80, I feel like heading out to the nearest Best Buy and purchasing a bunch of them for my living room. How awesome would that be?!?!
Posted by tranism at 1:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
I'm an H2Pian
A group of concerned Danish companies turned on their thinking caps to collectively come up with a new city, one to be envied by current oil hungry ones. They came up with H2PIA; a revolutionary concept that's actually going to be built in Denmark.
H2PIA is a city based on the values of freedom, clean renewable energy, creativity, and fun where citizens are self-sufficiently producing their own power and sell excesses to nearby cities.
Construction begins in 2007 and although it may (could) sound like some scary Utopia, drastic times call for drastic measures and these times my friends, are very drastic.
Think about it, my address could be;
electro^plankton
1980 Solar Avenue, Cell 4B
H2PIA, Denmark
via Josh Spear
Posted by tranism at 1:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
You Too Can Be a Planeteer
Who remembers that cartoon in the 90's called Captain Planet and the Planeteers? I certainly do and for some reason it brings back fond memories. Who would have thought something contrived as "edutainment" would be remembered by so many of my generation.
The show did a lot to educate us on pollution but it didn't do enough. We need something that looks at our current environmental situation from a historical context and then offer a step-by-step plan in coming to a solve.
I've been reading this book online called "Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble". The book examines our current state, what we should have learned from history, what the consequences have and will be, and how we can work to remedy, to save our beloved home.
It really is an eye opener and a very easy read. I meant to post this on Earth Day but I was out painting little earths on eggs. You can buy the book but the coolness is the entire thing is online for FREE, broken down by PDF chapters. So now you have no excuse not to read it. IT'S FREE PEOPLE!
Posted by tranism at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
A Sonic Alphabet
An installation that converts people's speech into a visual pattern using a phonetic writing system for representing sounds in English.
The shapes of the sounds intend to convey a hidden meaning, giving rise to a kinesthetic response, for example some words can feel sharp or smooth depending on how they were enunciated.
Check you the videos here
Posted by tranism at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
UFOs Land Here
Acting like a giant bulls eye target for our said-be friendly extaterrestrials, a couple of creatives in the Netherlands imagined a UFO landing pad on the airport roundabouts of the city of Houten.
One pad exists on both the eastern and western roundabouts. The eastern roundabout has a light green digital coating with a giant red "U" in the center in hopes of coaxing our visitors down.
The western roundabout has a tower that uses colors to signal to the UFOs when it's clear for them to land.
Hummm, I think the hash in the Netherlands has finally gotten out of hand.
Posted by tranism at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
A Little Bonsai for You and Me
I know the great bonsai artists would turn in their grave if they saw this but I can't help it, I love it. Maybe not a true bonsai in the strictest sense but worthy enough to have a seat on my desk at work.
The bonsai tree in a can makes a great gift, personal or otherwise because its a mere $12. You'll receive an aluminum can with black sand soil and bonsai black pine seeds. Just plant them, add water, give it some sunlight and viola!.
Black pine bonsai is one of the easiest and hardiest to grow so don't be fearful, give it a try.
Posted by tranism at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 23, 2006
Polly The Polar Bear
I liked this image so much I had to post it.
Posted by diverseawareness at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
April 15, 2006
Japanese Instruction Booklets
Read this manual if you have questions or just plain surprised.
The Japanese are either crazy or just prone to doing stupid things if one is to believe all the warnings inside Japanese instruction booklets.
For instance, a reader over at the Ars Technica forum posted pictures of his imported Nintendo DS instruction booklet. Of course he couldn't read it so he came up with some nifty translations of his own based on the comical diagrams.
more diagram translations after the jump
Do not play your DS while driving.
Do not microwave your DS for 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
Do not drop your DS on a baby.
Do not encourage your mom to scratch the DS with the stylus.
If you think you're dying, put down your DS and go see a doctor.
Do not put your DS by a heater or stick it in an angry snowman.
Do not play your DS secretly under the covers.
Do not wear headphones while using the DS or someone might smack you from behind.
Do not try to eat your stylus.
Do not try to beam signals to people with pacemakers using the wifi connection.
Posted by tranism at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
April 14, 2006
Anti-Depressant Perfume
Designer Ora-ito showcases a new product available exclusively at Colette Paris. The Smiley perfume comes in a beautiful spray pump bottle but it's what it claims that has some people concerned. The perfume promises to bring in the happiness factor and guarantee's a smile while revitalizing your energy level.
Hummm, sounds like an anti-depressant to me.
Posted by tranism at 2:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
adicolor Short
One of the strangest shorts I have seen in awhile, brought to you by adicolor (Adidas brand where you color your own shoe).
See that pink bear on her leg? HE MOVES! Just watch.
Posted by tranism at 2:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
Candle Built-In
Damn, I wish I would have thought of this. The idea is so simple - a candle with a built-in matchbox. No need to go around asking all your neighbors if they have a light.
Of course, some would say to just leave a lighter by the candle but you know what? That's not an elegant solution. That's just a practical one. Besides I see awesome uses for a candle like this in a bathroom because I HATE walking into a cloud of stanky stank. Do everyone a favor and light a match PLEASE!
Only $18 from the Moma store
Posted by tranism at 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 10, 2006
Scion FUSE Sneak Peek
UPDATE!
Ehhh, design sucks. It's just a souped up Scion concept. A couple interesting things but for the most part, boring and too import race car looking.
Is this the new Scion FUSE slated to debut at the NY Auto Show? Folk over at ScionLife say it is.
Looks like Toyota is using Scion as a launch pad for unique technologies only found in their Toyota concepts. Just check out those LED lights! Even the logo looks like it might animate. The vehicle itself is said to be some sort of coupe crossover.
Hummm, plankton has mumbled about possibly getting a new car soon. Right now he's eyeing Acura but I think this might be to his liking as well.
Stay tuned
full image after the jump
Posted by tranism at 3:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
We Are The Apple, You Will Be Assimilated
Yup, New York City is about to get a brand new shiny Apple store opened 24-7. You heard right. That's an Apple store open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - excluding holidays I'm sure.
The new store is located right on 5th and 59th, and if I'm not mistaken (haven't lived in NYC since 2000), that's right where FAO Schwartz is facing Central Park.
The tarp that covered the building was finally lifted to reveal a black cube which left people scratching their heads since all of Apple's current stores are silver and white. Is this a new direction for Apple or have they simply been assimilated by the Borg? Actually I think the color is to reflect a series of new Apple flagship stores open for 24-7 service.
The store will become New York City's flagship store and although it may look small from this picture, if I've read this correctly, the giant cube is just the entry way. The actual store is a labyrinth maze underneath.
I can't wait to see it. Man Steve Jobs sure does love cubes. Wassup with dat?
Posted by tranism at 3:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 2, 2006
To A Trap A Mouse
One of my FAVORITE bloggers Chris Glass posted a great way to trap Mickey without hurting him. It involves a used toiler paper roll, a cracker and some peanut butter. The idea is so simple and rest assured will not harm Mickey.
When I was a kid, I saw a mouse trapped on one of those super sticky pads. With half its face and eye glued in and both legs immobile, I started to cry. I started to cry because with the one free eye, it looked as if it was staring at me, telepathically telling me to help it. When my mother came to collect it, I screamed and begged her to let it go. Out of the kindness of her heart, she tried to release it but the glue was just too strong. There was nothing we could do.
So next time you have a Mickey of your own causing havoc, just think twice about using one of those hideous glue or snap traps. There are other ways and I'm sure your Karma rating will go up if you try them out. :)
Posted by tranism at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
10 mph
What takes exactly a hundred days to travel from Seattle, WA to Boston, MASS? A Segway, YUP!
10mph is a documentary about two aspiring filmmakers that quit their day jobs at Google in order to turn a friend's ludicrous idea into a movie. Starting with an impulsive purchase of the two-wheeled vehicle, the two friends set upon a journey allowing them to truly see the heartland of America at a pace fast enough to get by, slow enough to really soak it all in - 10 miles per hour. That's the maximum speed of a Segway.
The road trip obviously forever changed their lives enabling them to experience this vast country in a way no car, plane nor train ever could. You are more tangible passing by on a strange vehicle. People stop, wonder, and stare. It's in invitation for human contact. It's amazing what strangers will do to help you make it. I think one of the best scenes was when the two went thru Amish country.
It won a crapload of awards at the Vail Film Festival. If you live in Portland, you can check out the film at the upcoming Longbaugh Film Festival from April 6-9.
Posted by tranism at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Telephone Boxing
A pretty cool concept. Telephone boxing allows someone to make a phone call like any other phone booth, but has a twist to it. In order to operate it, you gotta keep moving. Punch the large numbers as hard as you can to dial, then stand in the center and jump or jog in place to keep the conversation going, otherwise you'll lose your connection.
If this was about 20 years ago, it would have been awesome. Possibly a great way to encourage exercise. Unfortunately with the advent of mobile wireless technology, this idea came too late.
Posted by tranism at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)