Trompe l'oeil

A great mural, "Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Imitating Life," by John Pugh.

[via eyetricks.com, and illusion-art.com]

Build your own laser microphone

Here's an interesting and fun demonstration of a DIY laser microphone for use with a computer. laser pointer: $2, photo cell: $0.30. Cool DIY tech: priceless! (my apologies to MasterCard).



Laser Espionage Microphone (how-to) - video powered by Metacafe

[via LifeHacker]

Inverted pendulum robot

This is just an incredibly interesting video of a robot attempting (and succeeding) to balance an inverted pendulum.

Too cute ... Meerkat photography

[Via The Telegraph]

Update (7 Sept. 2007): A pity that the story reporting their photographic talent was a hoax, but the picture is still very cute, even if it was a film camera.

Hollow Face and Dragon Illusions

The hollow-face illusion shown in this video features the face of Richard Gregory, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol, particularly apt given his papers on the subject of perception and illusions.





Another very cool illusion is also the Mini Dragon, which is doubly cool thanks to the availability of a how-to for making your own.

[Via grand-illusions.com, eyetricks.com, and richardgregory.org]

Motionless rotors

An amazing video of an apparently motionless helicopter rotor. This is actually due to the rotor speed being synced to the frame speed (or is it more accurately frame capture rate?). The same kind of effect that used to make video of video look so bad on older TV shows.


New Anti-Gravity Helicopter

In case the helicopter looks familiar it has appeared in Metal Gear Solid and is fairly iconic as the big heavy Russian helicopter gunship.

[via Dan's Data and BoingBoing Gadgets]

Dazzle camouflage

For the first post, here's a stunning picture of HMS Furious with "Dazzle" camouflage from 1918.






Click on through to the "Architectures of Control" post for more details and an insightful comparison to casino carpets.

[via Architectures of Control]