As far as I know, this is the first fishtank in which plankton are given a computer interface. You might be wondering just what the heck plankton could possibly want with a computer, but besides surfing the web, it turns out that these little daphnia are accomplished artists, dancers, and musicians. With the proper digital tools, anyway.
The actual fishtank is underneath a microscope. An array of LEDs responds to the movement of the daphnia (effectively, the daphnia controls the LEDs), turning off when the animal gets close to one of the sides of the tank. The position of the daphnia is projected live into a full size fishtank, and then surrounded by a cloud of digital plankton. And although it doesn’t seem to be included in the video, there’s also sound which the daphnia controls depending on the direction in which it swims.
Just imagine what it must be like for this lucky little daphnia… One minute, it’s living in pond scum, and the next, it’s controlling a computer. If it had a brain, it would probably be pretty excited. Oh well.
The Radisson SAS Hotel in Berlin is (for some reason) home to the largest cylindrical fishtank in the world. The AquaDom is 25 meters high (that’s over 80 feet), contains 1 million liters (260,000 gallons) of salt water, and is home to 2,500 fish (56 species in all). There’s also a glass elevator that goes up the middle if you want to swim with the fishies without getting wet. Two full time divers are tasked with keeping the residents healthy and happy, which might sound like a fun job, but I bet they have to keep the glass clean as well. In addition to being the largest cylindrical fishtank, the AquaDom is also the largest acrylic glass cylinder in the world, with a diameter of 11 meters. The whole thing cost nearly 13 million euros back in 2003, but you can book a fishtank-view room in the hotel for considerably less than that (about 260 euros on a weekend). More pics after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry, I just can’t resist a terrible pun. This $270,000 bathroom inside a giant fishtank can be found in a restaurant in (where else) Japan. The facilities are female-only, I guess because the tank is home to a male turtle who is, according to the owner, a total perv.
A few years back, Jeff Lew was the lead animator on The Matrix Reloaded (he also worked on Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, the best scene of which involves a CGI ninja cow). What’s he been doing since then? His very own, feature length animated film. And when I say “his very own,” I mean that Jeff has done everything from the script to the final renders all by himself. It’s taken him 4 years working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, and here’s the trailer. It’s called Killer Bean Forever, and it’s about killer beans:
No specific release date yet, but it’s reportedly almost done. I can’t wait.
If we keep fish as pets, why can’t fish keep birds as pets? While you’re pondering that, try and figure out who looks more confused in the picture: the fish, or the birds.
If you haven’t seen this yet, well… It’s damn funny (for everyone except the poor chick in the seal outfit, anyway). Next time I go to the zoo, I know what I’m wearing.
Thrusday’s not quite Friday. So, wasting time away until five o’clock strikes is harder to justify. Still, we say “To hell with productivity!”, these videos are hot.
If you haven’t run across them yet, these two vids are very well done and show what might happen if people acted in real life as they do on the internet. Just like the internet, both of the videos have some substantially NSFW content.
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