Behold: the Baxley Moto – a conceptual electric bike by Hollywood movie artist and vehicle designer Shane Baxley.
A monocoque carbon-fibre body with low-mounted handlebars, hub-centre steering and hub-less wheels make for a fairly cinematic design, in fairness.
A gritty BAFTA-winning short by UK-based animator John Hodgson based on his own experience of student life in 1980s England. To wit:
Three friends embark on a new adventure in a strange town, but when a manipulative new member joins their gang, their loyalty is torn apart with terrifying consequences.
Joe Collins tweetz:
A familiar shape discovered by my eight year old walking along a lane.
The Unspecified Thing That Looks Like Ireland to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie
Behold: the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato – a stunning collaboration between Aston Martin and legendary Italian coach builder Zagato.
Based on the DB4 GT with a lightweight alloy frame, the coupe had a 314bhp, 3.7 litre inline six engine capable of 0-100km/h in 6.1 seconds and a top speed of 248km/h. Only 19 were ever made and this vehicle has never been restored – passing in original condition through the hands of just four owners.
Desirable? You could say that.
Yours for €10 million.
Stunning ultra slow motion (3,200 fps) footage of unusual insects taking flight recorded and narrated by Professor Adrian Smith of NC State University who used a blacklight to attract exotic species like the plume moth, eastern firefly and the rosy maple moth, which he describes as a ‘flying Muppet’.
Unkind.
Behold: Messier 51, aka ‘The Whirlpool’ – a grand design spiral galaxy 60,000 light-years across – with its arms digitally unwound (bottom) in a transformation of a magnificent Hubble Space Telescope portrait from 2005 (top). To wit:
In fact, M51 is one of the original spiral nebulae, its winding arms described by a mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose separation grows in a geometric way with increasing distance from the center. Applying logarithms to shift the pixel coordinates in the Hubble image relative to the center of M51 maps the galaxy’s spiral arms into diagonal straight lines. The transformed image dramatically shows the arms themselves are traced by star formation, lined with pinkish star-forming regions and young blue star clusters. Companion galaxy NGC 5195 (top) seems to alter the track of the arm in front of it though, and itself remains relatively unaffected by this unwinding of M51. Also known as the spira mirabilis, logarthimic spirals can be found in nature on all scales. For example, logarithmic spirals can also describe hurricanes, the tracks of subatomic particles in a bubble chamber and, of course, cauliflower.
(Image: Data – Hubble Heritage Project, Unwinding – Paul Howell)
Vinny O’Brien tweetz:
Knockeen Dolmen, Co Waterford, It is classed as one of the finest portal tombs monuments in Ireland. Dates c.3500 BC 15 mins drive form Waterford city.
A short by Stephen McNally in which Dutch author and popular historian Rutger Bregman argues that in order to continue towards a better world, we need big ideas and a more robust vision of the future. To wit:
Revolutionary ideas, that were once dismissed as a utopian fantasy, became reality through people believing there was a better way – but what if our progress is hindered by our own dim view of human nature?’
A short mesmerising clip from “Celui Qui Tombe” (He who falls) – an extraordinary dance spectacle created by choreographer Yoann Bourgeois and performed on a spinning platform that allows the dancers to appear to run on the spot and lean at seemingly impossible angles. To wit:
Lowered into a horizontal position, this structure begins to revolve, slowly at first, then faster. Subjected to increasing centrifugal force, the dancers cluster together, their bodies inclining inwards at ever more acute angles. Individuals depart the group and make exploratory sorties, circling the platform as if battling against a great wind.
That was you last night so it was.
MORE: He Who Falls (Celui qui tombe) review – hyper-skilled and remote (Guardian)
