Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Move over cotton candy, here's "dirt floss"





MacLaren McCann gave away buckets of dirt floss to promote GMC. Via.

Link roundup

1. Walter Russell Mead:
The looming struggle over water is not difficult to foresee. As China and South Asian countries use more and more water in urban development and agriculture, available resources will be intensely protected. China controls the vast Tibetan plateau, where most of South Asia’s rivers originate. Not only does China appropriate upstream resources, but pollution flows downstream, making what water downstream nations have available increasingly unsuitable for consumption or agriculture.
2. New Resident Evil ARG site and the site it takes you to.



3. Graphic design in the movie Moon.



4. Offline Gmail. (The only Chrome app other than Angry Birds that I've installed. Are there others worth installing?)



5. The latest nick and dent sale at TFAW (lots of comics and toys).



6. Tenacious Toys has Kidrobot Azteca Series 2 Dunny blind boxes on sale.

EcoKat (the woman is EcoKat)











Meet the EcoEnforcers:
Meet EcoKat, crusader of conservation and fanatic of fluorescents. She has embarked upon Kansas State University with one mission: Reduce, reuse and recycle.



EcoKat, played by a K-State student who auditioned for the role, is outfitted in a costume made of 90 percent repurposed materials. The department of apparel, textiles and interior design helped with the final look, making it an entirely sustainable project partnering many campus groups.



The EcoKat video idea was born from a serious call to action that morphed into a more humorous, tough-love take on environmentalism.



EcoKat is not affiliated with K-State athletics, but Willie the Wildcat was added as one-half of the EcoEnforcers to make the local campaign uniquely K-State.



Willie the Wildcat

You may recognize Willie as the faithful warrior on the sidelines of every K-State sporting event, but he's taking his talents even further. Joining EcoKat as an EcoEnforcer, Willie is working hard to keep his favorite place on earth beautiful and sustainable. When not perfecting his raise-the-roof techniques and sculpting his arm muscles, Willie enjoys recycling, hunting Jayhawk and watching Planet Earth.

Link roundup

1. A Gizmodo writer went on two dates with a guy she met on OK Cupid and then wrote a post about how he was a loser for being a world class Magic The Gathering player and not mentioning it in his profile (or maybe she had a different motivation for going on the dates). He participated in an interesting q&a at Reddit. Also funny: Top Signs You’re on a Date With a Gizmodo Writer, including "refers to post-dinner plans as 'occurring after the jump'."



2. Hotel elevator with separate buttons for staff and guests.



3. How to report scraper sites to Google. Via.



4. Lime green couch wallpaper. Via.

Link roundup

1. Cocktail umbrella design contest.



2. Skull face paint. (Part of a super hero-themed bodypaint gallery that's probably NSFW.)



3. Animated gif of a mosquito getting blown out of the air by a laser. Via.



4. FYI, I randomly chose these three of my Tumblr followers to receive Threadless credits. They should have received the credits.

New and improved Disney x Star Wars figures





















Some of these are just creepy, but Stitch as Grievous is pretty irresistible. Via.



*Buy Disneyland Star Wars toys at eBay.

Illustration roundup





Illustrations by Kyle Norris and Robert Brandenburg for Gallery 1988's upcoming Garbage Pail Kid-themed show.









The New Mother and Nursery by Liz Mamont. Via.







Poster by Phineas Jones on sale here.







El Secreto wine label by Side Effects. Via.









Rocketo and pals by Frank Espinosa.



*Buy Garbage Pail Kids cards at eBay.

Cosplay photos by Kevin Knight








A few of Kevin Knight's excellent cosplay photos. He has a print of Darth Vader walking his "dog" on sale at Etsy.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blade Runner Convention Reel 1982







"One of the Blade Runner Convention Reels featuring interviews with Ridley Scott, Syd Mead and Douglas Trumbull about making Blade Runner universe. This 16 mm featurette, made by M. K. Productions in 1982, is specifically designed to circulate through the country's various horror, fantasy and science fiction conventions." Via.



*Buy Blade Runner posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. True Hoop: "Poor handwriting on a birth certificate changed Shane Battier's family name from 'Battle' to 'Battier' and they just went with it."



2. I didn't see the movie, so I don't know if I'd agree, but both reviews I read of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (produced and co-written by Guillermo del Toro) criticized the monster design.



3. From the introduction to a podcast: "Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk co-founded BioWare, the RPG-oriented group that now consists of five locations within Electronic Arts. They started out as doctors (actual practicing medical doctors, mind you), and BioWare was once a developer of games as well as medical software."



4. The upcoming Aliens game for the DS sounds terrific.

Thor is a loser







Austin Madison bet Scott Clark and Angus MacLane that the Thor movie would be better than the Captain America movie. He lost the bet and drew the above drawings for the winners.

Citizen Skywatch propaganda posters













These are the Citizen Skywatch propaganda posters I mentioned the other day from the XCOM ARG. You can download a high-res pdf of the first poster here.



*Buy propaganda posters at eBay.

Wingsuits, glowing scarecrows, and more



Wingsuit flight - - make sure you wait until he grabs the balloons so you can appreciate his incredible speed. (The song is "Sail" by AWOLNATION). Via.



And speaking of parachutes:















Skydiving with fireworks at the Electric Daisy Carnival.



And speaking of glowing things:









Irradiated scarecrows by Luz Interruptus. See also: glowing body bags. Via these sites.

New Hawken gameplay video





Cool mech on mech action in the latest Hawken gameplay video.



*Previously: Hawken wallpaper.



*Buy Mechwarrior toys at eBay.

How to draw Roger Hargreaves's Mr. Men characters





Roger Hargreaves's son Adam shows how to draw Mr Men characters. Via.

Move over army men, here's plastic breakdancers from kidrobot











All City Breakers Mini Series:
Straight out of the South Bronx, Kidrobot’s first series of All City Breakers celebrates the best dance style born from 70’s hip-hop culture. Individually foil-wrapped and blind, each b-boy and b-girl’s punctuated move is captured perfectly in plastic – a stylized freeze. Injection-molded and inspired by the retro but classic green army men and their solid plastic bases, these breakers flaunt moves from Power to Flex in four neon colors: pink, green orange and blue. Each 2-inch art piece is paired with boombox to deliver the beat. No matter what your style, you’re gonna want to choreograph a collection of your own. Scheduled to release September 15 for $1.95/each (£1.70 UK; 7.90€ Europe).

Megaman action figure







"SDCC 2011 Exclusive D-Arts Megaman X Metallic Version Action Figure" available for preorder at the BBTS.

Advertisement for a space age motel





Advertisement for a Disneyland-adjacent motel.



*Buy Disneyland posters at eBay.

Anyone know who this character is?





















Charmingly-bizarre figure that'll apparently be $95 in December.