Monday 31 October 2011

Happy Halloween Kiddies!!!



Friday 28 October 2011

Stuffed dolls from your strange kid's mind!

This Company Makes Custom Stuffed Toys From Kids’ Drawings






http://childsownstudio.blogspot.com/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/burnred/theres-a-company-that-makes-custom-stuffed-to-281t

Robot Venus Fly Trap




It’s alarming enough when robots ingest plant detritus like twigs and grass clippings. It’s another thing entirely when they can start chowing down on members of the animal kingdom. A pair of prototype robots are designed to catch bugs, a major step on the path toward robots that can hunt, catch and digest their own meals.
The tiny robots are modeled after the lobes of Venus flytraps, which snap shut as soon as sensitive hairs inside detect an alighting insect. One prototype, developed at Seoul National University, is made of shape-memory materials that switch between two states when subjected to a current. The other, made at the University of Maine, uses artificial muscles made of a gold nanomaterial.
The Seoul robot has a pair of carbon fiber leaves connected by a shape-memory metal spring, as explained by New Scientist. The spring works like your average mousetrap — the weight of an insect (or something else) causes the spring to contract, which pulls the leaves together. The robot’s quarry is trapped inside.
The Maine robot, which is reported in the online version of the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, uses an ionic polymeric metal composite, which bends in an electric field. Engineer Mohsen Shahinpoor said the manner in which a Venus flytrap’s lobes contract looks remarkably similar to the way his IPMC contracts in the presence of a voltage.
He built a prototype using a polymer membrane coated with gold electrodes, a design he had previously developed in other experiments, according to PhysOrg. This material is used to make two leaves, with the IPMC electrodes serving as the flytrap’s sensor hairs. The two leaves are connected by a copper electrode, as seen in the image at the top of the page. When an insect alights on the polymer membrane, the IPMC “bristles” send a signal, which trigger the lobes to snap toward each other.
Of course, it’s still a pretty big leap to robots that can make use of whatever they’ve trapped inside their lobes. An insectivorious robot would probably have to transport the dead prey to some type of mechanical-chemical gut for digestion and caloric production, which would be quite a feat. But then again, we’ve seen it before with the EATR bot, so it’s certainly possible. Let’s hope no one endeavors to make an Audrey II-sized flytrap robot.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Spider house

Leave it to John Cozzoli at Zombo's Closet of Horror to find originality in horror. This house is not far from his own and was featured on his blog. Great find! I also recommend his blog for any serious horror fans out there. - EvS

Friday 7 October 2011

International horror films

Lately we've ( in the Western Hemisphere)  been seeing more horror releases from "overseas" mostly Europe and Japan. In what used to be an American dominated film genre there are some mentions that should be put out there from what had been previously unexpected sources. The U.S. is still the power house of horror films and the waning golden standard, however Japan is a damned close second if not the up and coming champion. Europe has been putting out some quality horror films lately as well and a worthy contender but not on the same scale... yet.

Some might argue though about Italian films (in the 1980's) such as " Demons " from Lamberto Bava (1988) or Cannibal Holocaust (1980) by Ruggero Deodato that did have an impact this article is more in the vein of the last decade. As many know horror films in popular genre seem to be cyclic in mass release. So onward and outward. Were going to mention a few that have had some good popularity lately in the U.S. market which is surprising as anything not from Hollyweird usually faces an insurmountable hill trying to reach American audiences.

Norway- deserves 2 good mentions - Dead Snow (from IMBD)
"A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies." I didn't care about the subtitles as this movie had everything that makes zombie horror great stuff and has a really great fight scene finale!

Another called "Troll Hunter" though not really a proper "horror" film was another excellent film.

France- had a really popular release lately entitled "Le Horde" is another great zombie film










Luxembourg - Feardotcom , not my fav but not a bad rental was from this land of tax free smokes, cars and gas.
Spain- REC and REC2 (American remake being called Quarantine) - Spain of late has been grinding some of the good stuff out lately. Also Pan's Labyrinth- which in my opinion should be in the horror and not fantasy catagory. Watch it and you'll probably agree.


Im sure there are alot of other films out there many of the buffs would say, "but what about this and that" well write your own damned blog then, lol. Japan was not mentioned either as that country has already been putting out some really scary stuff for quite awhile now but in case your unfamiliar with films from the Land of the Rising Son may I recommend the following:
Ju-on (re-filmed by the same guy for American audiences and known as The Grudge), jeez did that movie give me the willies. And Ringu that was freakin creepy as well. Tokyo Gore Police, Ichi the Killer and many, many more. The Japanese can give anyone a run for their money and do it well.

If your one of our many international readers and feel we've left anything out that needs to be reviewed feel free to let us know and we'll get on it.
Thanks for tuning in and stay scared. -Evil von Scarry