Archive for July 11th, 2009

You Can Recreate Star Wars!

Claim your place in history now. Star Wars Uncut is giving you the opportunity to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope.

The website has split the entire movie up into 473 parts that are each 15 seconds long. All you have to do is click on a scene to claim it, make your 15 second clip and upload it. Once all 473 scenes have been filmed it will be put together to form the movie…with YOU in it.

If you’re interested, check it out here.

Survey Finds French Tourists Worst In The World

A survey of over 4,000 hotel owners around the world has determined that French tourists are considered as the worst tourists in the world. The survey, which was conducted by TNS Infratest saw the French coming in last place, but why?

“It’s mainly the fact that they speak little or no English when they’re abroad, and they don’t speak much of the local language,” Expedia Marketing Director Timothee de Roux told radio station France Info.

“The French don’t go abroad very much. We’re lucky enough to have a country which is magnificent in terms of its landscape and culture,” he said, adding that 90 per cent of French people did their traveling at home.

“So when they’re on holiday they can be a bit stressed, they’re not used to things, and this can lead them to be demanding in a way which could be seen as a certain arrogance.”

French tourists are also accused of generally spending less than other nationalities when abroad.

[Link]

Amazing Origami City Will Go Up In Flames

Wataru Ito, 25, a talented origami artist, spent four years creating this stunning model city made completely out of paper, however he now plans to burn it down!

He began this origami project when he became bored during his exams, using only a knife and glue. The piece is now being displayed at an exhibition on the island of Umihotaru, near Tokyo, Japan. However, Wataru will set his work on fire once the show is finished. The reason for this being that he says that he quickly loses interest in his projects when he completes them.

Is this really the best thing that could be done with this fabulous piece of art? Donate it, or even sell it and give the money to charity would surely make better use of the model…But I suppose it’s Wataru’s decision at the end of the day.

A Spectrum Of U.S. Consumer Spending

The image illustrates consumer spending as of April 2009.

It’s interesting to see that only 7 out of the 12.4 percent of income spent on food is for food at home. Is this a sign of lavish lifestyles or is it the root cause of the obesity problems we have in the US. Read into it what you will.

[Via Visual Economics]

Einstein Robot Teaches Itself To Smile

Researchers at the University of California have created a robot that can teach itself facial expressions. When we were infants we taught ourselves to smile and frown and be aware of our facial expressions. Well, this very clever gadget works in the same way.

The Einstein robot had previously required individually programmed facial movements, however with the use of facial recognition software, through a trial-and-error technique it can now teach itself to change it’s face until it achieves a real expression or emotion.

Today, Einstein is able to express emotions like joy, sadness, anger and surprise. Check out the video!

Eureka!