On Monday, the Klein Vision AirCar completed its first ever inter-city flight.

AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production this week, fulfilling a key development milestone in a 35-minute flight from the international airport in Nitra to the international airport in Bratislava on June 28th, 2021

This is legitimately cool, but it obviously would’ve been 100x cooler if it had taken off and landed on a freeway or something instead of an airport. Blah blah blah aviation laws or whatever I don’t care. A flying car doesn’t fulfill its true purpose until you can use it to take off during rush hour to avoid traffic or use it to escape the police.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – That flying car made its first inter-city flight

To celebrate the purchase of Boston Dynamics by Hyundai, Boston Dynamics released this video of Spot robots dancing to BTS’s IONIQ: I’m On It, which I guess is a song made for Hyundai about wanting to bang a car?

It’s weird enough that a South Korean boy band made a song about a car, but now they got a robotics company to make a music video for the K-pop song about the car. I don’t fully grasp what’s happening between BTS, Hyundai, and Boston Dynamics, but whatever it is I bet it isn’t good for society.

Keep going for the full video as well as the original BST IONIQ music video which is part music video part car commercial. Actually it’s just full car commercial.

Source: Geekologie – A group of Boston Dynamics Spot robots dancing to BTS’s ‘IONIQ’

This is mesmerizing aerial timelapse footage of sheep herding in Yokneam taken by photographer Lior Patel.

Haifa-based photographer Lior Patel has spent the last seven months immersed in the daily rhythms of sheep. Hovering above the Peace Valley region of Yokneam, he’s documented a single flock’s grazing process in a captivating timelapse that shows the animals racing across the agricultural landscape and down roadways in robust, heaving masses. Shot with a drone, the accelerated footage attests to the drove’s shape-shifting instincts, which resembles other naturally occurring patterns like a flowing current or mesmerizing starling murmurations.

If you stop paying attention they start to look like roving maggots which makes the video a little less relaxing to watch. Unless roving maggots is your thing. Hey, I’m not judging. I once ate a pancake out of a trash can so I’m not really in a position to judge anybody about anything.

Keep going for the full satisfying video.

Source: Geekologie – Mesmerizing aerial timelapse views of sheep herding in Yokneam

Apparently round hot dogs are a thing that exist as discovered by writer Maria Yagoda of Food & Wine. You’re probably just thinking it’s bologna and you’re kind of right, though the creator Rastelli’s claims there are key differences.

In a patented process, Rastelli’s chops black angus beef and premium pork, rather than fully emulsifying or liquifying the mixture like what’s done for many traditional bolognas. “We then wrap our meat mixture in a collagen casing, followed by a netting to help hold shape,” a spokesperson told me. “The product is then smoked, similar to an Old World-style hot dog, with a proprietary blend of woods, such as chicory, and later finished in the oven. Before slicing into rounds, we remove the casing.” They remove the casing so the meat becomes more permeable, allowing the flavor of the condiments to “really sink into the round dog,” and to help reduce the chances of choking.

So, yeah, that’s a lot of words to say it’s pretty much just thick bologna. Although this further complicates the eternal debate: is a hot dog a sandwich?

You can buy an 8 pack from Rastelli’s for $18. Or you can buy a normal hot dog from Costco for $1.50 and get a drink as well.

Source: Geekologie – Round hot dogs exist

A “fan” holding a sign during the Tour de France clipped rider Tony Martin, causing him and pretty much everybody behind him to crash.

With less than 30 miles left in the first stage of the 2021 Tour de France, a fan held out a sign over the edge of the road that clipped Tony Martin and caused most of the field to pile up behind him.

I included a shot of the woman holding the sign because she’s clearly more interested in being on TV than in the event itself. She’s not even looking at the riders. She might as well have been in the middle of the road swinging nunchucks around while yelling, “Look at me! Look at me!” And in case you’re wondering (which of course you are), her sign is a combination of French and German and translates to: “Go grandpa-grandma.” Although it might have been forgivable if it said something like “Scooters rule. Bikes drool.”

Keep going for the video. It’s pretty brutal and it looks like Tony Martin got run over by no less than a hundred thousand bicycles?

Source: Geekologie – A narcissist with sign caused a huge pile-up during the Tour de France

The Q, who previously made a bike with “invisible” wheels, finally realized his dream of a truly hubless bicycle by, well, building it:

What do you know about hubless bicycles? I’ve never seen anything like this before! So, behold – truly hubless bicycle that works almost flawless! All you need – fatbike, bearings, some metal and time 🙂

If I hadn’t seem him make it I’m not sure I could even picture how a hubless bicycle would work. He basically just made the gear so large it was the same size as the tire. It’s clever, but it’s also why it looks like he’s perpetually stuck in first gear. And clearly the next logical step here is to add neon lights and turn it into a Tron light cycle. And after that? Obviously riding around trying to murder other people on bikes. Duh.

Keep going for the video of the bike in action as well as the full build.

Source: Geekologie – This guy made a hubless bicycle

Using AI, Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ has been restored to its original size after it was cut down in 1715 to fit at Amsterdam’s city hall.

In 1715, three-quarters of a century after it was painted, the canvas was trimmed – 60cm (2ft) cut from the left side of the painting, 22cm (9ins) from the top, 12cm from the bottom and 7cm from the right – so that the masterpiece might fit between two doors at Amsterdam’s city hall.

But using high-resolution photography of what is left of the original, computer learning of Rembrandt’s techniques and a contemporary copy of the full painting by Gerrit Lundens hanging in London’s National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was able to reproduce the work in all its glory.

First of all, what kind of morons are cutting art to fit their stupid godamn frame? Second of all, can this technology be used to restore me into all of my family photos because for some reason my mom cropped me out while muttering something about “being a huge disappointment.” I mean, what’s that all about? Probably like an accident, right? And also her phone must be broken which is why she isn’t answering any of my calls? Can AI do something about that as well?

Source: Geekologie – Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ restored to original size using AI

This is a video simulating the burn-up of a Solar Array Drive Mechanism during atmospheric reentry using a plasma wind tunnel.

This Solar Array Drive Mechanism (SADM) has the essential task of keeping a satellite’s solar wings trained on the Sun, maintaining mission operations. But its bulky nature presents a problem in terms of space debris guidelines. When a spacecraft reenters on an uncontrolled basis, the spacecraft operator has to prove that the on-ground casualty risk posed by its satellite is lower than 1 in 10 000.

So last year SADM manufacturer Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) started an investigation supported by ESA, Hyperschall Technologie Göttingen GmbH (HTG) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to demonstrate the ‘demisability’ of one of its satellite products.

They began by modelling such a reentry using ESA’s dedicated SCARAB (Spacecraft Atmospheric Reentry and Aerothermal Break-up) software and comparable resources, tweaking the SADM by switching one screw to lower-melting-point alumimium to promote an earlier, higher-altitude breakup.

Then their software model was compared to observed reality, by melting an actual SADM model inside DLR’s LK3 plasma wind tunnel in Cologne. Arc-heated gas in the test chamber reaching speeds of several kilometres per second, reproducing reentry conditions.
Following assessment of the results, HTG went on to build a model of the SADM using ESA’s DRAMA (Debris Risk Assessment and Mitigation Analysis) software tool, which will be available to other DRAMA users in the future.

As part of a larger effort called Managing the end of life of satellites, ESA is developing technologies and techniques to ensure future low-orbiting satellites are designed according to the concept of ‘D4D’ – Design for Demise.

There are a lot of words up there, but the gist is they melted a satellite part using a plasma wind tunnel and things melting look cool. Now they just need to stick other things in that plasma wind tunnel starting with a block of cheese and ending with a car.

Source: Geekologie – Simulating burn-up on reentry using a plasma wind tunnel

Clinton “Pwnisher” Jones challenged 2,400 CG artists to render a base animation and this is a montage of the top 100.

Over the last month, I challenged 3D artists with the Alternate Realities CG challange. I provided an animation for everyone to work from, and the results were stunning. 2,400 artists delivered, the top 100 were chosen for this montage, and 5 of them walked away with insane prizes from Rokoko, Wacom, Quixel, PNY and Aftershokz (I personally reached out to my favorite companies in order to give away the tools I use every day.)

TOP 5 WINNERS
1st – Stephen Grimm 1:32
2nd – Klay Abele 0:22
3rd – Julienne Aldric 8:37
4th – Stefan Frank 2:12
5th – Pierson Edwards 6:22

This is 10 minutes of the same animation over and over and I still watched the entire thing. Each render looks like a video game that I would happily play. I could watch this thing forever and I have no idea how a winner was picked because all of them are amazing. Every time it skipped to a new one I declared it to be the best one yet.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – 2,400 CG artists were challenged to render a base animation and these are the top 100

This is rare 16mm footage from the original Star Wars prop department showing Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Anthony Daniels (C-3P0) testing out the droid costumes.

It’s March 1976 at Elstree Studios, UK and the props department are demonstrating the practicalities of the droid designs to George Lucas as actors Kenny Baker (R2D2) and Anthony Daniels (C3P0) familiarise themselves with the costumes and get used to walking in them…

Man, Kenny Baker is a trooper for being in that R2-D2 suit and actually moving around in it. I don’t think they could’ve come up with a more uncomfortable design if they tried. The only way it could be less comfortable is if they also decided to fill that thing up with spiders.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Rare 16mm screen test footage of the ‘Star Wars’ droids

These guys hooked up a tandem bicycle to a Honda Civic to make a bike-powered car. The main points are it works, they’re having fun, and they really like to say, “Know what I mean?” I like the idea, I just wish they didn’t actually take it on the road because it’d be pretty annoying to be stuck behind a car traveling at, oh, zero miles per hour? It’s also amusing that the guy in the car puts their seatbelt on when the ones on the bike aren’t even wearing helmets.

Keep going for the full video. They take it for a “drive”, go through some fast-food drive thrus, and ultimately even get the approval of a police officer after being pulled over.

Source: Geekologie – These guys made a bike-powered car

Guinness World Records recently awarded Isaac Johnson the title of largest male mouth in the world, although according to my girlfriend this record belongs to me. Oh, wait, this is talking about the literal largest mouth, not just constant jabbering.

Isaac Johnson from Bloomington, Minnesota has won back the title for the largest male mouth gape. He first won the title back in 2019 but lost it shortly after. However, two years later, his mouth has grown and can now stretch over 10 centimeters wide!

It says he won the record, lost the record, and then won the record back after his mouth grew, which I think is another way of saying he spent the last two years stretching his mouth out with weird contraptions. I’m pretty sure if he lost the record again he’d end up Jokering his mouth to get it back.

Keep going for the full video showing him put random things in his mouth. It’s intriguing yet also kind of gross.

Source: Geekologie – This guy has the biggest mouth in the world

Look, I know the title of this post kind of makes sense and when you read it you’re thinking, “This is probably a Japanese guy who made a way to pull his iPhone out really quickly.” And that’s a fair assumption. But what this video actually is is pure internet majesty. This is the internet we were promised. Somebody give this guy a $200 million check and see what he makes because I bet it’ll be better than anything The Rock pumps out in the next decade. I honestly can’t even describe it because how would you describe what how a rainbow tastes?

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Japanese guy’s iPhone quick-draw system

Filmmaker Ben Ouaniche of Macro Room put together this video of himself interacting with his own slow motion footage and the end result is extremely satisfying to watch. It’s like if Christopher Nolan decided to make a series of 15 second Zack Snyder films.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Filmmaker plays with time in this trippy video

Using a Raspberry Pi 4 and some machine learning, Pat Larson created this automatic charger for his Tesla. In 2015 Tesla released a video of a snake charger prototype that would also automatically charge your car, but that one looked like it would murder or rape you when you fell asleep. This one seems a bit less functional but is able to do the job and looks like you’d be able to fight it off if it started getting murdery or rapey.

Keep going for the full video as well as a video of Tesla’s original snake charger prototype.

Source: Geekologie – This guy made an automatic charger for his Tesla

Joseph Herscher of Joseph’s Machines built this pizza maker powered entirely by a toy train.

This machine uses a toy train to make a pizza automatically. No need to lift a finger!

Keep going for the video. If you stay until the end he also built a pizza feeder which doubles as a torture device?

Source: Geekologie – This guy made a Rube Goldberg pizza maker

This is a wonderfully relaxing and satisfying video of Bucky Barnes shaping a Japanese Larch bonsai tree over the course of a year.

Bucky Barnes returns to document the designing, pruning, carving and shaping of a Japanese Larch bonsai tree.

I had no idea so much planning went into shaping a Bonsai tree. Everything I know I know from The Karate Kid and I thought they basically just cut it until it looked pretty. Which is kind of what’s happening, but with 100x more forethought than I realized. This guy put more planning into shaping that little tree than I did when remodeling my house. And by “remodeling my house” I mean swapping out the cardboard box I live in.

Source: Geekologie – Transformation of a Japanese Larch Bonsai Tree

This is a video of a guy performing trick shots with a dart attached to a rope like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. And if you’re wondering, the official name for this weapon is, um, the rope dart. After watching the video I thought about attempting to do some trick shots of my own but decided I didn’t feel like getting accidentally stabbed by a rope dart today.

Keep going for the full video. My only recommendation is next time the guy actually dress like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat and maybe replace the targets with people dressed like Sub-Zero. What’s a little murder for the sake of YouTube?

Source: Geekologie – Trick shots with a rope dart thing like out of Mortal Kombat