Linsey Pollak is brilliant. Some of the best beatboxing coupled with creative musical instrument overlays I’ve ever seen. Turn it up, enjoy Pollak’s musical creativity.

[via wimp.com]

PressPausePlay from House of Radon on Vimeo.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

This is an amazing film, really worth making the time (an hour and 21 minutes) to watch. It’s well thought out, well shot, well edited, and the message is nuanced, not a slam dunk for digital or against it.

[via PetaPixel]

In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men — many of them illiterate — to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It’s called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works.

[via wimp.com]

Stuart King made this video of a street artisan in Marrakech, Morocco using a bow lathe to turn chess pieces.

[via wimp.com]

Theo Jansen’s TED talk: Theo Jansen creates new creatures.

I love this man’s imagination: building mechanical sensors to sense the water’s edge, ways to store wind energy and more. Genius.

[via Sanford Shapiro]

Steve Jobs narrates a “Think Different” ad for Apple: The Crazy Ones.

The Think Different ad campaign really appealed to me as both an artist and someone with a learning disability.

Here’s some more history of the campaign: Apple Think Different Campaign. Note that this campaign was developed by Lee Clow at Chiat Day when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990′s.

[via Daring Fireball]

A great TED talk by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler on engineering emotion into a large scale puppet horse.

I just love the phrase “emotional engineering” in that it implies reverse engineering the visual part of sensing emotion and then recreating it in a puppet. No doubt Jim Henson was also a master of this.

[via Sanford Shapiro]

The link in that video is this one (don’t bother writing it down, I’m giving it to you here): http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/

Watch the Reuters video at that site which goes into more detail on the project.

Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb to disprivileged communities nationwide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.

Take a large, plastic soda or water bottle with top, fill it with water and a bit of bleach (to prevent mold over time), cut a hole in a corrugated roof and fit the bottle in with grout and you have a source of light that’s better than a skylight because the water diffuses the light and turns the bottom end of the bottle into a 60 watt light bulb.

This is pure genius.

One Plastic Beach from High Beam Media on Vimeo.

What appeals to me about this is less the finished pieces, more the collecting, sorting, playing. Note the 128 megapixel camera on a stand for documenting it. These two really have done amazing work over a long period of time.

Gary, this one’s for you. I want to see the Oregon coast equivalent of this soon.

[via The Kid Should See This]

He’s not the sole patent holder on these but he’s been involved in pretty much everything. Amazing track record of innovation and pushing the envelope on consumer electronics. Frankly, the fact that Apple holds these patents is quite amazing in itself.

[via Edward McKeown]