0ink! » Guaranteed to contain absolutely zero ink!

Being able to make a paper crane was the best I could do when it came to origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

Kamiya Satoshi takes origami to the highest level. Just have a look at the amazing creatures he creates out of a single piece of paper…

Here’s another 3D animation from Futurikon (Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo).

I’m sure the creators found some inspiration from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for this clip.

The distinctive turbine engine rumble and the cheeky attitude towards the flies, is very reminiscent of Anarkin’s podracing exploits on the Tatooine.

Podracing - bug style!

I came across this 3D animation from a French series created by Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo at Futurikon.

Vibrant live-action backgrounds with offbeat storylines involving quirky characters, makes each film a joy to watch.

The short film in this post is about a snail with a dream…

Do snails dream of electric cars?

Have you ever seen the film Pulp Fiction? Found it hard to follow the plot? Still clueless as to what the movie was about? Maybe this short clip might help clear things up…

Pulp Fiction in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies. Angry Alien Productions.

…or maybe not.

Here’s a short animation by Dony Permedi. Simple plot, but touching message: “Follow your dreams, even if it kills you”, or “Things to do before I die”…

…or “Must remember to wear parachute when base jumping”.

This is an inspirational clip I found recently. It reminds me of those little “how to live” handbooks that was quite popular a few years back. Pretty cool, even though it is an ad for sunscreen.

It seems that the original film containing the first moments Mankind stepped on the Moon has gone missing from NASA’s Goddard Space Centre in Maryland. Also among tapes feared missing are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon landings.

I used to believe the U.S. sent the first Man to the moon on July 16, 1969. But it wasn’t until recently that I first began to have my doubts. So what caused me to question one of Man’s greatest technological endeavours?

The fact that it is the year 2006 and the Space Shuttle is still having hiccups getting off the ground! Yet, men walked, jumped, took snap shots, and played golf there 37 years ago! That’s a long time to improve on the proven technology they had.

NASA is still having problems with O-ring designs and bits of falling foam damaging the shuttle during lift-off. If current space technology is so failure prone, why not just go back to that awesome technology of yesteryear?

John F. Kennedy made a speech to Congress on May 25, 1961 expressing his concern about the Soviet’s technological advances. He challenged the nation to put a man on the moon within the decade. They pulled it off in 8 years…

…37 years later with vastly improved computing power, superior avionics, improvements in materials technology, huge advances in science and a shitload of funding, the space shuttle is spending more time on the launch pad than in space.

So, it was upon reading this news of the original moon landing films gone missing that I had to chuckle. I mean, how hard could it be to fake a moon landing?

Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a great sci-fi film. It was shot in 1968. Change a few props, add some dirt and rocks. “Hey, presto!”, one authentic moonscape. People will believe anything. You don’t have to think back far to remember the last time we were all duped.

And now all the film recordings of that historical moment has gotten itself lost. We will never know their authenticity now! I guess we’ll just have to take their word on the matter…bahahaha!

Update 30/08/2009: Following the recent 40th anniversary of the “moon landings”, this week the Dutch government have discovered the “moon rock” a U.S. envoy gifted in 1969, is actually a piece of ordinary petrified wood. [Read more…]

Articles:

• One giant blunder for mankind: how NASA lost moon pictures
• Project Apollo
• Moon landing
• Apollo Moon landing hoax accusations
• Tale of the TV Tapes: Apollo 11 Mission Archive Mystery Unspools
• NASA can’t find original tape of moon landing
• Moon landing a Smart move
• Europe’s lunar mission gets a scare

I came across these hilarious letters by Groucho Marx to Warner Brothers written in 1946.

Apparently Warner Bros got wind of the fact that the Marx Bros were going to do a send-up of ‘Casablanca’ (filmed nearly five years earlier in 1942). The film was to be called ‘A Night in Casablanca’, featuring ‘Humphrey Bogus’.

This didn’t sit right with the legal department at Warner Bros, so they threatened to sue.

In his defence, Groucho replied:

[Show]

Dear Warner Brothers,

Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name Casablanca.

It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great-grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it Casablanca.

I just don’t understand your attitude. Even if you plan on releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.

You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about “Warner Brothers”? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor’s eye, and even before there had been other brothers—the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (This was originally “Brothers, Can You Spare a Dime?” but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”)

Now Jack, how about you? Do you maintain that yours is an original name? Well it’s not. It was used long before you were born. Offhand, I can think of two Jacks—Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and Jack the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his day.

As for you, Harry, you probably sign your checks sure in the belief that you are the first Harry of all time and that all other Harrys are impostors. I can think of two Harrys that preceded you. There was Lighthouse Harry of Revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum who lived on the corner of 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Unfortunately, Appelbaum wasn’t too well-known. The last I heard of him, he was selling neckties at Weber and Heilbroner.

Now about the Burbank studio. I believe this is what you brothers call your place. Old man Burbank is gone. Perhaps you remember him. He was a great man in a garden. His wife often said Luther had ten green thumbs. What a witty woman she must have been! Burbank was the wizard who crossed all those fruits and vegetables until he had the poor plants in such confused and jittery condition that they could never decide whether to enter the dining room on the meat platter or the dessert dish.

This is pure conjecture, of course, but who knows—perhaps Burbank’s survivors aren’t too happy with the fact that a plant that grinds out pictures on a quota settled in their town, appropriated Burbank’s name and uses it as a front for their films. It is even possible that the Burbank family is prouder of the potato produced by the old man than they are of the fact that your studio emerged “Casablanca” or even “Gold Diggers of 1931.”

This all seems to add up to a pretty bitter tirade, but I assure you it’s not meant to. I love Warners. Some of my best friends are Warner Brothers. It is even possible that I am doing you an injustice and that you, yourselves, know nothing about this dog-in-the-Wanger attitude. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover that the heads of your legal department are unaware of this absurd dispute, for I am acquainted with many of them and they are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits and a love of their fellow man that out-Saroyans Saroyan.

I have a hunch that his attempt to prevent us from using the title is the brainchild of some ferret-faced shyster, serving a brief apprenticeship in your legal department. I know the type well—hot out of law school, hungry for success, and too ambitious to follow the natural laws of promotion. This bar sinister probably needled your attorneys, most of whom are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits, etc., into attempting to enjoin us. Well, he won’t get away with it! We’ll fight him to the highest court! No pasty-faced legal adventurer is going to cause bad blood between the Warners and the Marxes. We are all brothers under the skin, and we’ll remain friends till the last reel of “A Night in Casablanca” goes tumbling over the spool.

Sincerely,

Groucho Marx

Following this letter, Warner Bros demanded to know at least the story line of the film, so they could ascertain whether an infringement of copyright had taken place. Groucho promptly responded with:

[Show]

Dear Warners:
There isn’t much I can tell you about the story. In it I play a Doctor of Divinity who ministers to the natives and, as a sideline, hawks can openers and pea jackets to the savages along the gold Coast of Africa.

When I first meet Chico, he is working in a saloon, selling sponges to barflies who are unable to carry their liquor. Harpo is an Arabian caddie who lives in a small Grecian urn on the outskirts of the city.

[…]

Needless to say, this ridiculous storyline prompted Warner Bros to ask for clarification, to which Groucho obliged:

[Show]

Dear Brothers:

Since I last wrote you, I regret to say there have been some changes in the plot of our new picture, “A Night in Casablanca.” In the new version I play Bordello, the sweetheart of Humphrey Bogart. Harpo and Chico are itinerant rug peddlers who are weary of laying rugs and enter a monastery just for a lark. This is a good joke on them, as there hasn’t been a lark in the place for fifteen years

[…]

After this last letter, Warner Bros saw the futility of it all and dropped the case against the Marx Bros.

‘A Night in Casablanca’ was released in 1946.

Here’s a fun, although a bit weird, 3D animation about farmers eating dogs, cats and mice…

Source: mesh

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”

– Bruce Lee

Source: Bruce Lee Quotes