German professional table tennis player Timo Boll is set to take on KUKA Robot Group‘s KUKA KR Agilus industrial robot in a promotional table tennis match on March 11th, 2014 to celebrate the opening of the new KUKA Robotics factory in Shanghai, China. Boll is a widely recognized professional player known for his tactics, and the KUKA KR Agilus is an incredibly fast robot — though it’s unclear exactly which version Boll will be facing in the match.
via Gizmodo
The latest episode of the PBS animated interview series Blank on Blank features jazz great Stan Getz in a 1986 interview with music executive Joe Smith who was in the midst of writing his book, “Off the Record“. The interview primarily focuses on Stan’s drug and alcohol abuse throughout his career.
I think what we did was in spite of the drugs. The drugs were in the culture long before they reached the public. The jazz musician’s been in the forefront of the language that’s used now, the drugs that’s used now. The whole attitude of the ‘80’s comes from the ‘40’s. It started to manifest itself in the ‘60’s.
It took a long time, as Stan related, but he was finally able to find an understanding of addiction and sobriety in his later years.
It’s just like they say at Alcoholics Anonymous. I was either and/or going insane or I was going to die. I was one of those guys who was in constant denial. Look, I work. I do my job. I support my family, boom. I do everything I was supposed to do. If I want a drink, fuck you, I’ll drink. It’s a disease and it took me that long. It took me 45 years from the time I was 15 until I was now and I just wouldn’t believe it. I could drink. I’d get up there and play and I don’t remember. Most of my records I don’t remember making…
“Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor is recreated with surprising accuracy by a dot matrix printer in this 2013 video by MIDIDesaster. To create the video, MIDIDesaster converted an old dot matrix printer into a MIDI sound generator that can play up to 21 notes at once. MIDIDesaster has posted videos of several other songs, including the theme song from The Benny Hill Show. That particular video also includes an explanation of how the printer was converted.
via Retroist, The Awesomer
LEGO sushi by “Big Daddy” Nelson
Back in 2010 Livbit posted this delightful gallery of foods modeled out of LEGO bricks. The sushi by “Big Daddy” Nelson looks particularly delicious.
LEGO burger by Sachiko
photo via Livbit
LEGO banana by Sachiko
LEGO parfait by Sachiko
image by Gerald Casale
Bob Casale aka Bob2, a founding member of the band Devo, died unexpectedly on February 17, 2014 from heart failure. He was 61 years old. His bandmate and brother Gerald Casale made a statement about Bob’s sudden death on Facebook.
Very sad news to report today. Bob Casale of Devo. Born: July 14th, 1952 . Deceased: February 17th, 2014. As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning. He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got. He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows.
Bandmate Mark Motherbaugh also made a statement mourning Bob’s death.
“We are shocked and saddened by Bob Casale’s passing. He not only was integral in DEVO’s sound, he worked over twenty years at Mutato, collaborating with me on sixty or seventy films and television shows, not to mention countless commercials and many video games. Bob was instrumental in creating the sound of projects as varied as Rugrats and Wes Anderson’s films. He was a great friend. I will miss him greatly.
The announcement was made via Twitter as well.
Very sad news to report today. Bob "Bob 2" Casale of #Devo. Born: July 14th, 1952 . Deceased: February 17th, 2014 https://t.co/CrT0lVGJhl
— DEVO (@DEVO) February 18, 2014
Rest in Peace Bob.
Pomplamoose has released “Happy Get Lucky”, a fantastic projection mapped music video for their mashup of Pharrell’s “Happy” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance”. The video was shot in one take and all the projection effects were accomplished live with a single projector.
For the verse of our mashup, we used the chords from “Get Lucky” with the vocals from “Happy.” For our prechorus, we used the vocals from both “Happy” and “Get Lucky.” The chorus of our mashup is the chords and vocals from “Happy” and the vocals from “Lose Yourself to Dance.”
The MTT-136 is a small all-terrain tractor that consists of a single electric powered caterpillar track. The vehicle can tow all manner of cargo, from sleds to logs, in a wide variety of conditions and terrains. MTT-136 was created by Canadian inventor Yvon Martel. He’s currently looking for a manufacturer for his invention.
image via Yvon Martel
via Autoblog
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