Cool Stuff Friday: Octobot!

Harvard University Octobot.

Researchers at Harvard University have designed a soft 3D-printed robot that can move on its own, powered by a chemical reaction, instead of electricity or batteries.

Shaped like a cartoon octopus, the Octobot contains no electronics or other hard parts, relying instead on a silicone body that houses a fluid-filled circuit.

Previously, soft-bodied robots had needed to rely on rigid components for power. But the Octobot uses hydrogen peroxide as fuel.

The liquid flows around a network of pre-printed hollows in the robot’s body, and creates a reaction as it passes over platinum embedded inside. This produces gas that inflates and moves the arms, to propel the robot through water.

You can read and watch more here. Do I need to say I want one? I want one.

No-To-Scale Studio.

Malaysian design office No-To-Scale Studio has issued a satirical proposal to President Trump, suggesting a radical means of representing the US-Mexico border: a 1,954 mile-long dining table.

Citing “logistical, financial and nationality” limitations, the studio’s design claims to be cost-effective in taking a domestic item and scaling it to massive proportions.

While the proposed slab of “continuous polished marble” may prove costly, diners will bring their own chairs in order to participate.

You can see and read more here.

Neri Oxman, Lazarus Mask.

Neri Oxman and the MIT Mediated Matter group have unveiled their latest collection of 3D-printed death masks, designed to contain the wearer’s last breath.

The Lazarus masks, described by Oxman as “air urns”, are modelled on the facial features of the deceased individual.

Each 3D-printed structure encompasses colourful swirling patterns that have been informed by the physical flow of air emitted from their last breath.

“Traditionally made of a single material, such as wax or plaster, the death mask originated as a means of capturing a person’s visage, keeping the deceased alive through memory,” said the team.

You can read and see more here.

Buy Yourself A Republican, Only $5,000 A Year.

Source: NRCC.org.

The Intercept has come upon some interesting info. You can buy yourself access to people and information you should not be able to purchase. Ooopsie. Well, perhaps you and I wouldn’t be able to purchase a republican or few, but those who have nefarious interests certainly can.

Congressional Republicans are baldly enticing donors with the promise of meetings with senior legislative staff, effectively placing access to congressional employees up for sale to professional influence peddlers and other well-heeled interests.

Documents obtained by The Intercept and the Center for Media and Democracy show that the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee are both telling donors that in exchange for campaign contributions, they will receive invitations to special events to meet with congressional staff including chiefs of staff, leadership staffers, and committee staffers.

While selling donors access to senators and representatives and their campaign staff is nothing new, the open effort to sell access to their legislative staff — the taxpayer-funded government employees who work behind the scenes to write legislation, handle investigations, and organize committee hearings — appears to be in violation of ethics rules that prohibit campaigns from using House and Senate resources in any way.

Congressional ethics rules flatly forbid Capitol Hill employees from engaging in fundraising activities as part of their official duties. Any explicit fundraising work must be done strictly as a volunteer, and there must be a clear firewall separating government work from campaign work.

It’s arguably the last fig leaf left when it comes to giving the appearance that campaign contributions are not directly linked to official acts.

“You can’t use resources that are paid for by the taxpayer to service campaign donors. That’s blatantly illegal,” said Caroline Fredrickson, the former chief of staff to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

The Intercept has the full story.

Trump & Nugent: A Match Made in Hell.

So today is the 242nd anniversary of The Shot Heard Round The World is it! Well well well looky looky here boogie…

Posted by Ted Nugent on Wednesday, April 19, 2017

“So today is the 242nd anniversary of The Shot Heard Round The World is it! Well well well looky looky here boogie chillin, I got your Shot Heard Round The World right here in big ol greazyass Washington DC where your 1 & only MotorCity Madman WhackMaster StrapAssasin1 dined with President Donald J Trump at the WhiteHouse to Make America Great Again! Got that? Glowing all American over the top WE THE PEOPLE gory details coming ASAP!! BRACE!”

Unholy shit, I wish I didn’t have to type all that stupid out.

Nugent, who once said that “Donald Trump is as close to Ted Nugent as you’re going to get in politics,” shares with the president a long history of violent and bigoted language.

At one concert, Nugent told Barack Obama to “suck on my machine gun,” before making similar threats against Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. He eventually earned himself a visit from the Secret Service after repeatedly threatening Obama, whom he called a “subhuman mongrel,” and saying that if Obama were to win re-election in 2012, Nugent “will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” Nugent also called for both Obama and Clinton to be “hung” and posted a video on his Facebook page of Clinton being shot.

The National Rifle Association board member has similarly fantasized about shooting migrants crossing the border, wished that the South had won the Civil War, and posted several anti-Semitic memes warning that gun control is a Jewish plot and mocking Holocaust victims.

Naturally, he scored a meeting with President Trump.

Yeeeuuucck. Funny how ol’ Ted isn’t dead or in jail. Also meeting with the Tiny Tyrant yesterday were Kid Rock and Sarah Palin, termed as three entertainers he wished to thank for standing by him. Via RWW.

Raw Story also has this, with mockery included.

4/20 Five Top Designs.

Dezeen is not neglecting 4/20, they have an article up with their 5 top picks in the burgeoning weed business. Just a few here, click on over to see them all, and read about them!

Snoop Dogg’s Leaf Collection.

US rapper Snoop Dogg launched his Leafs line of edible cannabis products with packaging designed by Pentagram to skirt around US laws on controlled substances. The collection encompasses a variety of products containing cannabis, including chocolate bars, drops and gummy sweets, as well as boxes of flowers from various strains of the plant.

Jamie Wolfond.

Canadian designer Jamie Wolfond designed this simple glass pipe for smoking accessory brand Tetra. Crafted from borosilicate glass that doesn’t conduct heat, the pipe features a short stem pointing downwards, a long stem from which the smoke is inhaled, and a shallow chamber to hold the user’s substance of choice.

Printabowl.

Seattle startup Printabowl intended these water pipes for smoking pot to be put on display rather than be hidden “in a shoebox under your bed”. Each 3D-printed bong features a designs that references organic forms, such as angular crystals and rippling liquid.

See more, and read all about them at Dezeen!

“An armada, very powerful,”

It seems the Keystone Regime has finally gotten its Keystone ‘armada’ headed in the oh-so-wrong direction. I just know someone had mentioned the word ‘armada’, and had to explain to the Tiny Tyrant what that meant, because Mr. Yella Fella’s vocabulary is on the bigly sad side.

BEIJING — It was supposed to be steaming toward North Korea more than a week ago, an “armada” signaling American resolve. Then it wasn’t.

Now, it seems the USS Carl Vinson may finally be heading north.

“Our deployment has been extended 30 days to provide a persistent presence in the waters off the Korean Peninsula,” Rear Adm. Jim Kilby, commander of Carrier Strike Group One, said in a message posted on the Carl Vinson’s Facebook page and addressed to “families and loved ones” of the personnel on board.

The Carl Vinson, accompanied by a carrier air wing, two guided-missile destroyers and a cruiser, was reported to have been ordered to sail north after leaving Singapore on April 8. But a week later, the Navy published photos showing it was actually sailing in the opposite direction through the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, more than 3,000 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula — and more than 500 miles southeast of Singapore.

It appears the confusion over its whereabouts stemmed from a U.S. Pacific Command announcement that “could have been worded a little more clearly,” in the words of a defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

[…]

Days later, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that the Carl Vinson was “on her way up there.” In an interview that aired April 12, President Trump said the United States was sending ships. “An armada, very powerful,” he said.

They were not exactly wrong, Navy officials now say. It’s just that the change of course toward the Korean Peninsula had not happened yet.

“Not exactly wrong”, a corollary to “alternative facts”. I had been relieved over the fuck up, thinking “oh, never been so grateful for incompetence!” Unfortunately, it seem the Tiny Tyrant is hellbent on poking where he should not, playing the “my missile is bigger than yours” game, with nukes. Trump is so unstable when it comes to weapon use that he makes Kim Jong Un look like the most stable of individuals. Trump desperately wants to play war, and he doesn’t care if his toys are nuclear in nature. He needs to be removed from office, stat, before we are all crispy crittered, or becoming nuclear winter mutants before death. As came up on the previous post about nuclear war, this is the only true story (h/t to Chigau) about nukes flying. There won’t be hero survivors, nuclear war will not result in a nifty “hey, we can do it over and get it right this time!”. There will just be death.

The Washington Post has the full story.

In the meantime, South Korean news is busy mocking Trump’s stupidity and ignorance. Vijay Prashad has a good column up about the terroristic history of the U.S. on North Korea.

4/20: Art and Weed, Weed, Weed.

It’s 4/20, if you have it, smoke it, and get your art on. There’s a lot to explore in the world of art and weed. We start with an exhibit at the Chesterfield Gallery in New York, with their show, Lit!

David Colton, ‘Untitled 2.’ Images courtesy of the Chesterfield Gallery.

You can see and read more here.

Sergio Garcia.

Dallas-based artist Sergio Garcia’s anatomical sculptures also point out the absurdity of weed being illegal.

Illustration by Lia Kantrowitz.

Where the hell does “Roll It, Lick It, Smoke It” actually come from?

Nico Mazza.

These Pussy Pipes Remind Us “We Have Been Smoking Out Of Dicks”.

Also see:

Zooted Illustrations Depict Everyday People Smoking Weed at Home.

Miniature Weed Worlds Blend Tiny Toys and Stoner Humor.

Traditional Chinese Paintings of Cannabis Aim to Change Perceptions About the Medicinal Plant.

Weed-Friendly Art Classes Invite People to ‘Puff, Pass & Paint’.

“PeopleIRollOn” Gives Celebrities the Best Weed Beards on Instagram.

Happy 4/20 everyone!

Fucking Magnets, Right? Right!

Magnetic Putty Magic (Extended Cut) | Shanks FX | PBS Digital Studios from Joey Shanks on Vimeo.

I have got to get some of this stuff. What a cool toy. And if that’s not enough, let’s visit some more wonderfully psychedelic ferrofluid art:

I recommend watching that full screen.

The combination of microscopes and magnetic ferrofluid produces results that indistinguishable from magic—and stunning CGI—in this new short from chemist-turned macro photographer Linden Gledhill and Concept Zero founder Nikola Ilic. The only added ingredient Ferrofluid Magnified needs is a big bowl of something psychoactive, and you’re off to never neverland.

Gledhill is known for his stunning, pearlescent images of objects that are unexpectedly beautiful under a microscope, such as DNA and butterfly wings. He mixed ferrofluids, which are full of nanoscopic magnets, with solvents, gels, paints, flowers, and LED lighting for added trippiness. Prints on canvas from the film, which will fund the duo’s next collaboration, are available here.

You can see and read more about magnetic putty here, and about the ferrofluid art here.