Category: Featured

Categories
Featured Game Reviews

We Review: Sly Cooper – The Sly Collection

Sly Trilogy Orginally for ps2 features Sly Cooper

The Sly Collection has been a difficult bundle to review. I’ll not elaborate on the snowstorm of events that has hijacked the time I needed to truly get to grips with this game. And time you will need as this collection packs many many hours of game play. What with not one, not two but three games in one bundle, it’s a Ménage à trois of cel-shaded goodness and if you’re into that sort of thing it’s a steal at the price…

But every man and his goat has already reviewed these games to depths of which I cannot begin to fathom, stolen every word that remains to be said and pilfered all the good jokes. So a conundrum, if there is little left to write how should I unlock The Sly Collection? Find out how after the jump.

Continue reading “We Review: Sly Cooper – The Sly Collection”
Categories
Animal Kingdom Featured Massive Cuteness

Whippets are Awesome!

If you’re a regular visitor to the blog, you may have seen photos of our toy fox terrier Mina and our zany whippet, Panya. Aside from another local, Mallix, who has one and a few other people we have encountered on the mountain and the beach, the whippet doesn’t seem to be that popular a breed in Cape Town. On a number of occasions, after Panya has jumped all over the people she meets, we’re asked if she is a Greyhound (bigger) or an Italian Greyhound (smaller).

Despite their sleek look it’s a fallacy that they need to be exercised constantly and rigorously. Whippets often spend the majority of the day sleeping, so much so that they even have a particular napping position, called the cockroach (example). Be it dozing on the couch, sporting a fancy hat, or careering off into the distance, a whippet is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. See a small collection of these lovable dogs after the jump.

Continue reading “Whippets are Awesome!”
Categories
Arty Awesomeness Featured Inspirational Designs Photoworthy

Wonderful Light Graffiti by Michael Bosanko

What may look like fantastic Photoshop manipulations are in truth made using a variety of coloured torches and digital camera set to a long exposure. Welsh photographer Michael Bosanko creates the most wonderful images of light graffiti in the urban environments of Cardiff and Newport. When creating light graffiti, Bosanko sets the exposure from a little as 10 seconds to almost an hour. He explains that his seven-year fascination of light painting came about in a chance encounter on a holiday to Greece.

“I was taking a picture of a very bright moon one evening when I noticed a swirling effect because the exposure had been left too long. I then realised the beginning of my work in light art and have continued ever since.”

Have a look at a few of his wonderful light art images after the jump.

Continue reading “Wonderful Light Graffiti by Michael Bosanko”
Categories
Arty Awesomeness Featured Video Clips

The State of Wikipedia

You may remember that almost a year ago, JESS3 made a fantastic visualization about the Internet (see it here). Just the other day they released yet another animated infographic, this time on the beloved collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia, which so happens to be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It’s a fascinating look at the inception of this online encyclopedia, the phenomenal amount of interest in it, and contributions made to it. Check it out below.

See and read more about the project at www.thestateofwikipedia.com.

[via Brain Picker on Twitter]

Categories
Arty Awesomeness Featured Inspirational Designs Video Clips

Shinichi Maruyama’s Amazing Water Sculptures

Born in Nagano Japan but working in New York City, photographer Shinchi Maruyama makes art with materials of a transient nature. Using a combination of high-speed strobe light photography and water, Maruyama creates beautiful sculptures that are here one moment and gone the next. The following video shows this spontaneous process.

Maruyama is also famous for his “Kusho”, another series of liquids in motion. For this, he flung a type of calligraphy ink into the air and photographed the abtract forms created. This video is also lacking a soundtrack so feel free to imagine “Intro” by The XX is playing in the background.

http://vimeo.com/15229373

And have a look at some of his images after the jump.

Continue reading “Shinichi Maruyama’s Amazing Water Sculptures”
Categories
Entertainment Featured Movies

Top Five Movies to Avoid in 2011

Hollywood. It’s been hit and miss over the last few years and it just seems to be releasing more and more poorly thought out or underachieving movies.

In recent years, quite a few movies come to mind that definitely triggered my own gag reflex. Amongst which were titles like Max Payne, Uwe Bol’s Bloodrayne, Far Cry, and Postal, and who can of course forget the original Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat movies.

Then there were the non-game related movies, such as, Gigli (Yes you remember the box-office flop which “starred” Ben Affleck and J-Lo.), Batman & Robin (Or more aptly titled, how Batman came out of the closet.), and then of course the Scary Movie franchise and its spinoffs (Disaster Movie, Epic Movie, etc.)

Now if you’re like me, and you like watching movies in your free time, then you obviously want to watch the best possible quality movies that are out there, and sometimes you are so hyped up by the preview trailers, that these over-hyped movies don’t always deliver in the expected way. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the potential flops of 2011 after the jump.

Continue reading “Top Five Movies to Avoid in 2011”
Categories
Awesomeness Featured Science & Technology Video Clips

Meet Watson, the AI Jeopardy Genius!

Word around the server room is that a super computer has beaten two supremely champions in a test match of Jeopardy. It was in preparation for the human vs. computer contest that is due to be recorded in the coming days. Initially I wasn’t surprised the machine won, it’s a supercomputer; it can search through its massive banks of data and produce the correct answer before its human opponent can say “Um…” But it turns to be somewhat more complex and grand undertaking than I could have ever imagined.

Watson is the name of this all-conquering overlord artificial intelligence system created by IBM. It is named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson who in 1948 said, “I think there’s a world market for about 5 computers.” I bet his mind would have exploded if he were to see the extent to which computers are ingrained in our lives today. In 2007 IBM Research began creating Watson as part of DeepQA, a research project that aims to understand and answer questions that are posed in spoken sentences that we use every day, natural language as it’s called. This little clip from IBM explains how Watson came into being.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1c7s7-3fXI&NR

And here is the warm-up match where Watson competed against contestants Ken Jennings who has earned over USD 3 million on the game show, and Brad Rutter who is biggest all-time money winner on Jeopardy.

If Watson had emotions (we are informed he does not), I’d just imagine a huge shit-eating grin would be plastered all over its LCD screen. The human vs. computer Jeopardy episode will be aired in mid February. If you’re a betting person, who would you put your money on?

[via Geekologie | Tvtrophes]

Categories
Arty Awesomeness Featured

Mecha-Zoo: Animal Transformers by Brice

I met freelance illustrator Brice Reignier at a party recently and we had a fabulous chat about TV and comics over several beers, well it was more him talking and me avidly listening and noting things down in Astrid Tasks (very nerdy of me I know).

It was also then when I found out that Brice had a blog/portfolio entitled Drawn Out and it didn’t take me long at all to find something I thoroughly loved – in his series of illustrations entitled Mecha-Zoo, Brice re-imagines several African wild animals in beautiful mechanized forms. He explained it in far more eloquent terms, sadly I was a too “refreshed” by then and forgot, sorry. I will let his images speak for me – have a look at his animal transformers after the jump.

Continue reading “Mecha-Zoo: Animal Transformers by Brice”
Categories
Featured Game Reviews

We Review: Epic Mickey

Mickey Mouse is Walt Disney’s most recognizable and profitable cartoon character. Having starred in countless cartoon strips in the past, the once beloved Mickey Mouse isn’t making as grand an impact on this generation of young people and it is feared he may be turning into nothing more than a corporate mascot for the company that created him over 80 years ago. Change was sorely needed and that task of re-imagining Mickey Mouse was handed over to Warren Spector and the good people at Junction Point Studios.

In Spector’s new vision that is Epic Mickey, the usually cheery mouse steps out of his comfort zone and is forced to embark on a dark and dreary adventure that one will not soon forget. Ever curious, Mickey stumbles onto the creation of sorcerer Yen Sid (“Disney” spelled backwards) – a model world that is a mirror of Disneyland that serves as a home for all of Disney’s discarded cartoons and forgotten fairground attractions. Mickey fumbles around with the sorcerer’s magical brush and mistakenly unleashes a sinister Shadow Blot. The situation is made more dire when Mickey tries to erase the creature but ends up spilling thinner all over the the world. Delirious with panic, Mickey legs it from the scene while the blot invades the world. Months later with the event forgotten, Mickey’s nap is interrupted by the Shadow Blot who pulls him into the world.

Find out what happens after the cut.

Continue reading “We Review: Epic Mickey”
Categories
Arty Awesomeness Featured Movies TV

Day Jobs: Fantastically Fictional Business Cards

I used to have business cards until the austerity measures hit. But if I ever were to get them again, I’d certainly like designer Fernando Reza to design mine. In a similar vein to Mikko Vartio’s mock websites, Reza creates fantastic business cards for employees of fictional businesses from popular movies, TV series, and video games. There are business cards for the discerning guy selling Quentin Tarantino’s preferred brand of cigarettes, a memory retrieval expert from Massive Dynamic, and even one for a Dharma Initiative account exec, although I’d be worried about his job security.

See Reza’s “Day Jobs” series of business cards after the jump.

Continue reading “Day Jobs: Fantastically Fictional Business Cards”