Goldbergesque

A collection of Rube Goldberg machines, perpetual motion machines, and other strange and wonderful contraptions for your enjoyment.

There is a small gallery of Rube Goldberg's cartoons at his official site. You can also check out his Wikipedia entry. This is all news to me...I never knew he was a cartoonist, I thought he was famous for actually constructing these elaborate machines. But that task is left to others.




If you haven't yet seen "The Cog", the 2003 Honda Accord ad featuring an incredibly complex Rube Goldberg machine assembled entirely out of Accord parts, you must take the opportunity to do so now. Costing millions to produce, and requiring over 600 takes, the spot uses no cgi -- the entire setup is real, and had to be rebuilt every time something went wrong. More details on the ad can be found on Snopes.com. It's absolutely unbelievable.




ClikClak is a short film in French (an English version is also available) in which a pair of robots teach a human boy to speak in a language of sound effects, which they produce by rigging up elaborate Goldberg machines. Ultimately the boy, required to interact with the robots on their terms, is unable to contain his intrinsic humanness and things end badly, proving that there is no extended rapport possible between man and machine in the end -- well, that's the lesson I got out of it anyway, though the film is much lighter-hearted than I. Very nicely animated, go see it.




The Blue Ball Machine is a really cool animated gif of a machine through which innumerable blue balls are shuffled and sorted -- even better, it tiles seamlessly, creating one giant, infinite, perpetual motion machine. Mesmerizing to watch.




The Modern Compendium of Miniature Automata is "a practical treatise on the relation of impulsive forces on microscopic machines being a supplementary volume to Applebee's Cyclopedia of Applied Mechanics." What it is really is a beautifully designed flash site showing off delicate, ethereal animations of ornate, insectile machines. Even better, you can generate random automata, or swap parts to create your own beast.




These next two are reposts, but so appropriate. Animusic is a set of animated music videos created with a set of elaborate computer-generated music machines. While the site is geared toward selling dvds, there are several video clips available to view. It's pretty incredible.




There's also La Pâte à Son, where you can build your own music machine out of pipes, attachments, and a lot of colorful beans.
That makes the third time posting this one. If only it didn't seem to demand to be included in so many categories...




UPDATE: Alert reader xezzy has pointed out the existence of Incredible Machines, a stunning series of clips of Goldberg machines in action. I'm not sure what or why they are -- maybe a series of Japanese commercials? Ingenious machines, though, wonderfully constructed. Neat!

Samorost 2, Chapter 2

The CD version of Samorost 2, containing both chapters and the soundtrack, is finally here, available at the Samorost Cafepress shop. As soon as I learned this fact I immediately bought it, along with a cute Gnome mini-button. Everyone should go out and buy the game right now -- support Amanita Design so we can have a Samorost 3!



The soundtrack was a nice surprise compared to the original -- it has twelve tracks and is a full forty minutes long. And the music, of course, is great.

I finally got to sit down today and play Chapter 2, which was wonderful but naturally far too short. And I was finally able to complete the second half of the walkthrough I started. You can view the whole thing at my original post: Samorost 2 Complete Walkthrough.

Circles of Life

In Flow you are a small, sinuous sea creature, and you must dive deep into the waters in search of things to eat so you may grow and evolve. Simple concept, with simply gorgeous execution. I was immediately entranced.
Via defective yeti.




Society is a series of interactive environments each presenting its own set of objectives, where you must explore, learn, and adapt in order to progress. In each of the four stages, you are respectively an alien organism participating in the life cycle of hunting, growth, and reproduction; a translucent, headless creature navigating through a dark labyrinth; a swirling ball of lights navigating a musical soundscape; and a smooth pink ball arranging items on a grid in order to make a path between two points, a mechanical engineering game similar to Blueprint.

Each stage seems to be more abstract than the last, but it is the earliest two that I find the most interesting. You are subtly encouraged to set aside your values in order to approach existence from an alien point of view: as a pink blob of organs in a fleshy, womb-like environment, your two tasks are to catch and eat very cute furry creatures ("ruminants") in order to grow to adulthood, so that you may then enter the breeding grounds to get it on with four different partners and successfully reproduce; and in the next stage, in order to get past obstacles you must drive yet more cute, squeaky ruminants toward menacing black forms that swallow them in what appears to be a very unpleasant death. You are told to do this without pity or mercy, despite the wrenchingness of their cries.

In addition to the intriguing alienness of the whole thing, it's also a beautifully rendered environment, and a lot of fun. The site is French, with English translations for everything (except a couple of the commands in the music stage, which they must have forgotten to translate or something...but don't worry, you'll figure it out.)





Elu and its sequel, Elu Undersea, are two very nice life sim games by a favorite designer of mine, Autofish. They basically simulate an ecosystem in which various sorts of creatures spawn, grow, and interact. You can play as an omnipotent creature, eating and spreading seeds as you choose, or you can turn it off and just let the simulation play out. Cly5m's bold colors and smooth pixel art make this game an attractive treat, fun to play around with or just watch for a while.

These last three games are to download, btw, not play online...but they're small and minimal and no hassle at all, so you may as well.





Seeds from Iteration Games is the game that inspired Elu, and the idea is very similar. Seeds is much busier and more rapid, and a little harder to control, though you can manipulate the environment more directly, creating or destroying any creature. Another fun life sim.




Dexx Entertainment's Pixiquarium 2 is a neat alternative to all those simulated auqariums. In very(!) tiny pixels, you get a miniature aquarium which you can fill with any of thirty different species of flora and fauna, each with its own behavior profile that drives its interactions with the other species. Very, very tiny species.

Digital art for your desktop

Finally, she posts something useful. Here are some of my favorite sources for 3d digital desktop backgrounds -- enjoy.

Digital Blasphemy was one of the first desktop background sites I came across, and it's still one of my favorites. Most of his excellent work is subscription only, but there is a rotating free gallery where I've found some great stuff over the years, and there's also a large user gallery showcasing the work of other talented artists.





Ferenc J. Haraszti was one of the geniuses I turned up in Digital Blasphemy's user gallery. I love his detailed scenes of landscapes and urban European locations, like old shops, charming street scenes, and statuesque cathedrals. His work has a rich, rough texture, almost like a painting or pastel, that is a refreshing change from the slick, seamless, inorganic look that characterizes most digital art.





Visual Paradox has several large galleries, divided into themes such as real-world, creatures, sci-fi and fantasy, and objects. To be honest, a lot of them are duds, but scattered throughout are a few outstanding gems that are really worthwhile.





Plasma Design is another subscription-based site, but there are a fair number of lovely free images mixed in with the member-only ones. Very nice, smooth land- and waterscapes, divided into sunrise, day, sunset, and night galleries.





Back when I first came across it, Shifted Reality was a nice collection of some quite good landscapes. Checking back now, I see the artist's talent has really developed, and the newer works are simply stunning. The scenes have become broader and more detailed, with a lot of nicely textured aerial shots of alien worlds along with some closer views. A lot of the images remind me of conceptual renderings of Myst ages.

For the curious...

I was approached by a stranger in a tea shop last weekend, and told that I looked exactly like the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine:





This is a new one, because usually if I am told I look like anyone it's Dana Scully, like the guy in the gaming store said last month. That's okay with me, too.





So, in case you've been wondering what I look like, now you know.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention, my mother has also always said I have Queen Elizabeth hands:





Although maybe if I just stopped carrying an ermine around everywhere, people would stop saying these things to me.

Catch of the day

It came from under the sea...





A team of American-led divers has discovered a new crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers said Tuesday.

Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta, was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it.

The divers found the animal in waters 7,540 feet (2,300 meters) deep at a site 900 miles (1,440 kilometers) south of Easter Island last year, according to Michel Segonzac of the French Institute for Sea Exploration.

This is an incredible creature. It hardly looks real...doesn't it look like some kind of alien fauna created in a special effects shop?

Amazing that we're still discovering things like this.

Via 3 Quarks Daily.