I was at a party last night and stumbled upon a few passionate “CouchSurfing” ladies into Boston for the night from Australia. So what is Couch surfing? Watch the video above, or in my take, it’s the new hotel! It’s free, you meet new locals who can probably give you the best tour of the city skipping all the BS, you become friends, learn a ton about the local culture, perhaps get a homemade cultural meal, and in the end, become an official “CouchSurfer!” What an experience!
I’ve always couch crashed at friends around the world and love it over hotels, but meeting newbies from cities I don’t know might just be the next best thing! I’ve met some of my best friends in the most random situations and this couch surfing idea sounds great! Meet new people, get a free place to crash, and get a heads on dive into the local culture wherever your adventures take you. Sure, it may seem a bit sketchy to stay over at a strangers… but treat it like a friend of a friends! Where there is trust comes new opportunities! They also have global gatherings for CouchSurfers… checkout some Flickr pics.
Johan Lorbeer pulls off this incredible illusion in levitation… It took me a few minutes to figure out (the drinking one gave it away), but damn, this is awesome. Mystery at it’s best! Tons more pics via ahboon, and the answer to the trick towards the bottom if you want to spoil the mystery! Also, a Youtube video of him in action. (more…)
First comes the whole pixelation craze then comes Bert Simons with his paper craft portraits which appear as fractal faceted faces in a somewhat eerie way….maybe it’s just how he hangs them like deer heads. Anyhow, very cool visual…Not sure how to do this on my own, but I just might have to upload my face via some 3D program (maybe Blender as he did..it’s free) then print out a cutout mixing it up with the cool illusion of the Gardner Dragon! (that would rock if I could mix these two)
I’ll copy a few of the over here after the jump! (more…)
This is an amazing illusion that plain makes ya go woa, what, wow!
Print out this dragon, cut it out, fold it a few times, and you’ll get this freaky illusion that the dragons head becomes 3 dimensional and it’ll follow your every move sideways, up, and down… ooo, and you need to close one eye to get the illusion though I had a few people get the illusion with both of their eyes open…seriously, this is awesome! I’m making a bunch of them!
Amazing! A dude cuts off half an inch off his finger. His brother gives him this smelly powder (ExtraCellular Matrix) made of Pigs bladder to apply daily on the wound. 4 weeks later, his finger regrows fully, skin, vessels, nails, like new!
Bio engineering, natural engineering, surgery…man, what a crazy medical world!
One of this years TED conference highlights was Jill Bolte’s incredibly insightful, curious, inspirational, and whimsical talk about her stroke experience as a neuroanatomist (studying the nervous system including brain) Woa, what a crazy story! A must watch!(18 mins)
“Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”
I learned this week that 1 lump of coal equals 1 meg of data sent over the internet. Having this in mind, I sure do burn lots of lumps of energy on the net.