Alexandre Efimov

Beautiful work by illustrator/designer Alexandre Efimov

Ice Hotel

This year's ice hotel was finished in the village of Jukkasjärvi, using 30,000 tons of snow and 4,000 tons of ice.

Michel Gondry + Dick Annegarn

Time-lapse has always been a favorite for Michel Gondry. But in this short film, based on "Sun of the Evening," Gondry twists time-lapse in an interesting way; everything is sped up around the actors. The level of patience from the characters astonishes me.

Dick Annegarn "Soleil du soir" (par Michel Gondry)
by totoutard

Other uses for Google Spreadsheets

Interesting collaboration video amongst 4 Google employees, creating a mosaic through the cells of GoogleDocs.

Paper Bottles

Check out Brandimage's new packaging project, Paper Bottle via TheDieline

Kontain

Contain your photos, videos, and audio with Kontain

Eric Chan Design

Here's a pretty cool way to present your portfolio–use the motion sensors in your MacBook to navigate the site! Eric Chan Design Co Ltd.

Bouncing Water

A GE video of the new hydrophobic surfaces they've been testing.

Obama's first interview

So, this is a couple of days old, but I really wanted to post it. Check out Obama's first interview as president elect from 60 minutes.

LED Holiday Lights

4.5 million LEDs were used to decorate the Nabana no Sato park in Japan.

Dominoes!

I love these cases of brilliant engineering. Collaboration at its best.
4.3 million dominoes.

The Third Space

What do you do with the million zip ties that you have in your junk drawer at home? Well, the students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich Germany decided to build a room out of them!

+good

Interesting interactivity for +good, encouraging users to navigate their way around a giant map.

XO Laptop Hits Amazon!

Today's the day! The One Laptop Per Child project is offering a great window of opportunity to donate one of the XO laptops to a child in the world, as well as receive an XO laptop. Due to confusion with managing the shipping addresses last time, they've decided to do it through Amazon.

Draw Your Own Music

Check out this MIDI synthesizer, which pulls data from any drawing or image you put below it. Here's how this haunting contraption works.

The Yes Men!

The latest from the Yes Men reveals that the "Iraq war is over!"


Good News! from Blake Whitman on Vimeo.

The Unfinished Swan

Here's a really interesting concept for a video game. The Unfinished Swan sets the player in an all white environment, challenging them to use the tools of black splattering to define the walls of a maze. It's a bit difficult to explain, but check out this sweet video.


The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

Toshiba : Timesculpture

So, Toshiba has cranked up the bullet-time knob (the unique filming style first present in the Matrix) with their new ad, which is pretty freaky I might say.


Here's the making of it.

3FS

Sweeeeeet interior graphics of 3FS, a digital development company in Slovenia.

MGM on YouTube

MGM will soon be posting full length clips on YouTube, beginning with entire episodes of the classic "American Gladiators." Will Google host the new Hulu?!

IKEA

I always enjoy when a site incorporates interactive video. The new IKEA site plays/rewinds video clips of people doing bizarre things, based on the song you choose, singing into the microphone, or using your keyboard as a drum set.

A Town Below Sea Level

In Seuthopolis, Bulgaria, an ancient city was discovered in 1984, and then soon covered up after the destruction of a dam. Well, they're now going to turn it into a tourist spot, allowing people to come and go from the small town by boat.

Gesture Based Screen Navigation

So, gesture-based controlling (ridding your computer of a keyboard and mouse) has been experimented with for the past 10 years or so. But, the folks at Mgestyk Technologies are bringing it out of the labs, and making it accessible to the public. Here's a video showing the system's multiple capabilities. And, don't be put off by the 1st minute of it–it's more than just video games.

Reeeeeal Photoshop

A Flickr set by "wandaaaa" of a real-life rendition of the new Photoshop interface.

Upside Down Dogs

so weird...


UpsideDownDogs.com

Election Day Emotions

So, the NY Times had this great, online interactive component yesterday, asking the general public what they were feeling. It took the emotional words and illuminated them through a live feed. Check out its status (it seems to have ended at 1AM).

The Magic Wall

So, we all pretty much love the multi-touch capabilities of the magic wall that CNN used to display its map throughout the entire election process. But, who's the guy behind the technology? Well, that would be the amazing Jeff Han. In 2006, at a TED conference, he unveiled a lot of these multi-touch capabilties on an interface he was working on. I embedded that video in an earlier post I made. CNN explains Jeff's amazing contribution.

Or, here's a Gizmodo article with more video links as well.

Frustration Free Packaging

Amazon is now releasing Frustration Free Packaging– boxes specifically designed for the shipping environment, rather than the retail. Not only does this make it easier to unwrap, but it also cuts down on wasted material (seeing as though Amazon works directly with the manufacturer to pull the products right off of the assembly line).

Nanotube Speakers

Uh, so some scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing figured out to create a new kind of speaker, using fluctuating temperatures rather than vibrations! Why is this important? Well, the speakers can become flexible, without ever distorting the sound! 

New Scientist 'splains how it's done.

Emotionally Vague

Emotionally Vague is a great study conducted by Orlagh O'Brien. The survey asked a group of volunteers to attach a color to a particular emotion, and then plot where they feel it in the body. The results are pretty interesting.

This is Sand

A fan of sand art? Then this site is sure to wet/dry your appetite. ThisIsSand.com is an interactive sandbox, turning the pixels on your screen into interactive sand grains. You too could make something this amazing (found in the image gallery by Oliver).

thanks to Matt for the tip on this site.

We Just Live Here

We Just Live Here gives the ability to vote to legal residents of the United States who are not yet U.S. citizens.  Are you already a legal citizen?  You can skip the registration process and see who the legal residents will be voting for.