Hasta La Gadget!

Have you met the Block Man? He’s a life-sized non-person who has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a pair of arms and a pair of legs, just like you and me. The only thing is, he’s not alive, because while he has the same body parts as you and I, he’s made up of nothing but ink and cardboard.

But just like Pinocchio, the Block Man has a big personality and a flair for adventure. He might not be able to do much given his made-of-cardboard-blocks state, he certainly does his best to make the most of life before he gets recycled.

The inventive photo series which is aptly called Blocks is by photographer Fabien Nissels.

[via Hypenotice & iGNANT via Laughing Squid]

Back in 1971, the Soviet Union sent a spacecraft to Mars. The spacecraft was called the Mars 3 Lander and it touched down on the surface of the red planet and continued transmitting for several seconds on December 2, 1971. It was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and survive long enough to transmit any data. The newer NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a photograph about five years ago that has recently come to light.

Space enthusiasts from Russia have discovered four separate features in a five-year old image taken by the NASA spacecraft that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Mars 3 mission. The objects spied in the photograph are believed to be the Mars 3 parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket, and lander itself. NASA also took a followup picture last month that shows the same features.

The Soviet Union had previously launched the Mars 2 lander, but that lander crashed. They knew that the Mars 3 spacecraft had landed on the surface of Mars, but the spacecraft stop transmitting 14.5 seconds after it touched down for unknown reasons. The Soviet Union predicted landing site to be at latitude 45-degrees south by longitude 202-degrees east in the Ptolemaeus Crater.

The image the MRO took is massive with 1.8 billion pixels of data. That means the gigantic image would need about 2500 standard computer screens to view the entire shot at full resolution. You can view the image here – without 2500 computer screens.

“Together, this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out,” said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation.”

[via JPL]

Nero has announced a remote shutter trigger for photographers that has some very interesting tricks up its non-existant sleeves. Rather than simply allowing you to remotely trigger the shutter, the Nero Trigger has the ability to automatically trigger your camera and flash under a variety of different conditions. For instance, it has a special Lightning Mode that will snap a photo when lighting conditions in the environment change.

That means if you’re trying to get an image of lightning during a storm, fireworks, or sparks, the trigger will automatically set off your camera precisely when needed. The camera also has a special Sound Mode that will trigger the camera when a change in ambient sound and the environment is heard. The trigger can also activate a time-lapse mode snapping pictures at pre-determined intervals.

Another really interesting feature of the Nero is called Laser Mode. With this mode you can aim a laser at the Nero Trigger and the beam is broken, the camera will automatically activate the flash and the shutter. The trigger also offers an HDR mode and DIY mode. The DIY mode is interesting because it allows you to create just about any sort of trigger by connecting a triggering source to the device. Check out a number of images which were captured using the Nero’s triggering in their image gallery.

The Nero Trigger and required flash cable is available now for $199(USD).

You know that expression that people say when they’re really good at something? The one that goes, “Oh, I can do [insert action here] in my sleep.”

Most people who make that claim obviously can’t back it up. But there’s an app called Sleep Art that will help you create works of art while you’re asleep – and you don’t have to be a really good artist to begin with. Heck, you don’t even have to know how to draw!

The Sleep Art app uses your iPhone’s gyroscope to monitor your movements and the microphone to listen to your breathing in order to create unique and personalized pieces of art – all while you’re sound asleep.

It was developed by Europe’s Ibis hotel chain, which held a contest where winners slept on a sensor-equipped bed and had a robot artist create special paintings of their sleeping patterns.

You can download the Sleep Art app from the iTunes App Store for free.

[via Dvice]

Back in my college days, I took microbiology and spent plenty of time in the lab culturing various bacteria. My microbiology professor hated it if we drew patterns or other than random circles or zigzags in our petri dishes. I once made the mistake of growing a nice E. coli “S” and had to start over.

Zachary Copfer, a microbiologist with a penchant for art has developed a new process of making actual pictures using bacteria and petri dishes that he calls Bacteriography.

The artist isn’t saying exactly how he makes these pictures with bacteria, but I’d wager he’s using some sort of screen printing method on top of the traditional growth medium. My personal favorite artwork that he has created is the velociraptor wearing bunny rabbit ears using E. coli.

He has also created some cool prints of Einstein and other scientists using bacteria. Now if you’re wondering if his works are dangerous, Zachary says that he’s got a process that actually kills the bacteria after the work is created, then preserves them inside of resin.

Now that he’s out of graduate school and doesn’t have access to the lab, Zachary has taken to Kickstarter seeking to raise enough money to continue his artwork.

He’s hoping to start his own exhibit in an actual art studio and wants to raise $8000 by April 24. By contributing to his project, you can get photographic copies of some of his petri dish artwork for pledges of $100(USD) and under. To own an actual petri dish artwork requires a pledge of $500, while larger Bacteriographs cost as much as $10,000.