Jurassic Park had just six minutes of computer-generated dinosaurs in it, compared to modern blockbusters which can have thousands of shots requiring complex visual effects. It’s no surprise that animators are eager to embrace any shortcut they can—which is why realistic-looking CG mud could be a game changer.
It’s 2016 and I’m addicted to a text-based game whose fuel is foul play. Hackmud’s only setting is a terminal; its only gameplay, writing scripts. It’s a cyberpunk multi-user domain (MUD) in the ‘80s style, an MMORPG, in which you are role-playing a hacker. Hackmud’s simple pretense, as the game unravels, feels…
Mix a little dirt and mud, shape it with your hands, and out pops a beautiful shiny mud ball that’s actually the Japanese art of Hikaru Dorodango. It takes so much more work than that, of course, but it really looks like a person is just (skillfully) playing with mud. And then you see the finished product and see the…
For the last four years, the Dredge Research Collaborative has been looking at dredging and erosion control as a form of often unacknowledged landscape architecture. Part of their work is a series of festivals they're calling DredgeFest that celebrate and examine the role that dredging plays in landscaping. Their next…
The place: a runway completely flooded with the thickest mud in Bodaybo, Irkutsk region, Russia (where else). The plane: an Antonov An-24. The situation: the An-24 starts take off but it seems it can't gain much speed because of the drag caused by the mud. It looks like it's going to fail big time.
It's like watching Shamu and being in the splash zone only worse because it's dirty, filthy mud that gets splattered all across your body. But come on, giant tank plus mud puddle? You already know it's coming. Mud for you! Mud for you! Mud for everyone! [The Awesomer]
Baseball, America's past past time, is a pretty quirky game with quirkier players and quirkiest traditions. Chew tobacco! Sunflower seeds! Rally caps! Seventh Inning Stretch! And even a "special mud" that gets rubbed onto every single baseball in the major and minor leagues. Huh?
Pigs are one of many animals that wallow in the mud, using the roll in filthy water to keep cool in the absence of sweat glands. And that particular arrangement might be just how ancient pigs liked it.
A homeless man's shopping cart for the beach? A laundry machine for the ocean? Maybe an all-in-one barbecue kit? Nope, it's actually a centuries old machine that requires extreme skill.
Tom Gerdhardt's computer is disgusting. I found it by following the squishing noises at NYU's ITP spring show. The entire UI and display is basically a giant pile of wet dirt. That's right. Mud.
This zany lamp created by Marieke Staps outdoes most lamps in more ways than one: the electricity is powered through the organisms contained in the mud. The mud is enclosed in cells that contain copper and zinc, which conducts the electricity in the LED. Besides doing wonders for your energy bill, Staps claims that…
Don't believe what your mom has been saying all your life—there is always a place for mud in the house, especially in the bedroom (kinky). The Mud Clock is a eco-friendly clock that requires no batteries, just a little dirt and water. Stick the clock powering components in the dirt and voila—the Mud Clock is…
