Milliadet’s automaton was acquired by the Franklin institute in Philidelphia in 1928, although at the time of purchase, niether the creator nor the object’s history was known. It was only after months of reconditioning that the automaton started to work and immediately wrote, “written by the automaton of Henri Milliadet” and solving the mystery.

Automatons have been popular for centuries with examples of simple devices dating to 100BC. During the middle ages, automatons became more life like, started aquiring human qualities and were used extensively by alchemists, magicians and psychics to illustrate their power. Such was their likeness to human physiology, automatons became associated with the dark arts, many believing they inherited the souls of their creators. Indeed, the painstaking development of these machines, many with over 300 moving parts, were so labour intensive, designers like Milliardet would often become reclusive, spending all their time perfecting their humanoids. Those close to Milliardet suggested that his creations were controlling him, not the other way round.

In the eighteenth century, Pierre Jaquet-Doz created three automatons, The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, which are still considered scientific marvels today. The Draughtsman is capable of producing four distinct illustrations, while the Writer can write as many as forty letters. The Musician’s fingers actually play the organ and the figure ends her performance with a bow.

(Video in French but you should get the idea.)

Incredibly all these devices use clockwork to operate; some took over an hour to wind. Intricate systems of cogs and springs provide power to eyes, fingers and heads to create what would have been an astonishing spectacle for Georgian audiences.

By the turn of the last century, automatons were so lifelike, ubiquitous and intelligent, humans were campaigning for the formality of their rights. (Artwork by Kadence Commons, spokesperson for construct rights.)

Pics via worldsstrangest
Info via Wikipedia
Video via Franklin Institute Science Museum

Not exactly a stranger to adventure, Rosie had once sailed with her family to Australia and back and even sailed solo across the Atlantic. But her run was something else. With only her legs for power, Rosie pulled a small cart behind her, which doubled as a shelter, and contained basic supplies. Her sole supporter, a man named Geoff Hall, would arrange for fresh supplies to meet her at various points along her route. Meanwhile, her son James updated a website about her progress. But when running she was absolutely on her own.

Rosie planned her around the world run to take in the “coldest, hardest, most fascinating way”, which would also keep her on the maximum possible landmass, for maximum running. After a gentle warm-up through Holland, Germany and Poland, she was then faced with 7,000 miles of Russia. In Siberia, she reported that a pack of wolves ran with her for a week. Ironically, a tick bite caused her a lot more problems: she fell ill from that at Lake Baikal and wandered into the path of a bus, which then fortunately took her to hospital. She reached Magadan in far-eastern Russia on 13 September 2005.

Running through the Alaskan winter also proved a challenge: with temperatures as low as -50°C (-60°F), and caught in blizzards, the tireless 60-year-old had to be rescued by the Alaskan National Guard and treated for frostbite. But she got through that too, plus entire breadth of North America (via the Chicago marathon), reaching New York city on 2 October 2007.

In Iceland in 2008, she (predictably) slipped on the ice, breaking some ribs and cracking her hip. She was over 100 miles from the nearest house, but luckily only had to walk two miles (with her injuries) before she got help. Needless to say, she still managed to make it across to Scotland, and ran from there back to Tenby, arriving back home on crutches, with stress fractures in her legs, on 25 August 2008. She had run 19,000 miles.

Running can take you to places that do not exist if you travel in any other way. Maybe even more than walking, because you can get so exhausted, almost fail so very often, and are vulnerable and shaky. Sometimes when you are weakest, you can feel things the most strongly. This is when those you meet in the midst of their own difficult lives and situations are not fearful of you. You tread gently through someone else’s land, part of the life going on all around you. Part of the people, places, sunrises, storms, terrors and joys; seeing, feeling, laughing, crying, in happiness or despair. – Rosie Swale-Pope

Read Rosie’s account of her amazing trip in her book, Just a Little Run Around the World

Look out for Amazing Stuff’s own series of 360 photos coming soon…

Pics via TFW

This is not a film set. This is a real cave situated 300 metres below the Chihuahuan desert in Naica, Mexico. And it is truly filled with giant crystals, such as should only really be found on alien planets.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains the world’s largest crystals — some over 10 metres in length. It was a lengthy process to form the crystals, but the cave had time. For 500,000 years it was filled with water which was heated to a stable temperature of over 50°C by a magma chamber beneath. This encouraged the water to become saturated with minerals, one of which — gypsum (selenite) — formed the collosal, translucent crystals.

The Cave of Crystals was only discovered in the year 2000 by miners who were excavating a new tunnel for a lead mine. Just another day at work for the miners, but not so for the few lucky geologists who have been able to visit the cave since its discovery: they must wear refrigerated vests to withstand the heat and get in and out quick before the 99% humidity causes too much water to condense in their lungs.

Sadly for those amazed by things like the Naica giant crystals, the cave doesn’t make any money for the mine owners so at some point they will remove their pumps and allow the cave to flood again. Still, it is said that we know less about the first kilometre of the Earth’s crust than we do about outer space, so there should be more amazing discoveries just around the corner… We’ll be sure to keep you informed.

(Click for larger image)

Check out the Naica Project for lots more amazing pics of the caves (and get your 3D glasses out for some)
Thanks to Will Southern for the suggestion!

Yayoi Kusama, arguably one of the world’s best, and certainly most enduring artists, created the Obliteration Room as part of her Look now, See Forever exhibition, currently showing in the Tate Modern, London. The 83-year-old Japanese-born expressionist, famed for her ability to reinvent her own unique style, was present throughout the rise of pop art, surrealism and the hippie counter culture, which saw the development of her trademark vibrant polka dots.

Yayoi Kusama’s Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees at the Singapore Biennale 2006 on Orchard Road, Singapore

Having exhibited alongside the likes of Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and George Segal, Kusama is rightly considered part of art royalty with her exhibitions selling out worlwide. With Obliteration Room, Kusama created a large domestic enviroment which served as a blank canvas for her little volunteers. Take a look at the video to see what happened.

Kusama’s exhibition runs until 5th June, 2012 at the Tate Modern
Pics via Colossal
Info via Wikipedia

Welcome to the world we created: a world of cable networks, shipping lanes, melting ice and artificial light. The planet has now changed so much as a result of our activities that some scientists propose we have entered a new human-centric geological epoch: the anthropocene.

The anthropocene arguably began with the industrial revolution, which not only lit the fuse on atmospheric and climate change but also gave us the mechanisation necessary for industrial agriculture and massive deforestation, with the associated losses in biodiversity. However, the ‘great acceleration’ only began after 1950, when a huge number of associated changes in the global human habitat could be observed, as this graphic shows (click for a bigger version):

These amazing representations of our modern, man-made world are part of a new educational web portal: Welcome to the Anthropocene. The website also uses Google Maps satellite to showcase a number of amazing places around the world which highlight the bleeding edge of our progress into this new realm.

The landscape of Almería, Spain is transformed by plastic greenhouses which (unexpectedly) act like a giant mirror, lowering the temperature of the region relative to the rest of Spain

Desert crops are grown by tapping finite underground water supplies. The watering hoses rotate around a central pivot to create circular fields.

Seen from space, the vast concrete sprawl of the Greater Tokyo Area dominates Japan’s main island, Honshu. With over 35 million people, it is the largest and most populous metropolis in the world.

If you like this kind of amazing stuff, take a look at The World: Now and Then, Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s amazing aerial photos of Earth, and his 2011 film, Home.

Video by Globaia for the Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference
Thanks to Tom Day for the suggestion!

So proceeds Danish TV show Dumt & Farligt, whose makers pride themselves on confronting danger and causing colossal amounts of mess with their experimentation. This amazing video, while wholly useless for scientific purposes, is enormously entertaining, and poses some semi-serious questions: Is there market potential for the rocket powered clothes line? Why do yoghurt pots and rotary blades not get on? And, why is super-slow-motion destruction so fascinating?

If you like this, you will love our articles Alain Sailer: Impact photography, Amazing animated GIFs and Amazing slow motion bike jumps

Pics via doobybrain.com
Vid via Zululicious @ Dumt & Farligt

The stunt is another step for the juggernaut that is the post-Tupac marketing machine. Since his death, there have been eight Tupac albums, two more than he released in his lifetime, all entering in the US Charts top 10. That is not to mention a bronze statue, a cartoon series and claymation animation series. The insatiable demand for Tupac is fuelled by conspiracy theories surrounding his death, with many fans refusing to believe his demise, some suggesting he’s shacked up with the Notorious BIG in New Zealand

We may never find out what really happened on that night in Las Vegas in 1996, the night of Shakur’s ‘disappearance’, and that will do fine for the moneymakers behind virtual Tupac: reported to cost £250,000 to create, the CGI simulacrum is set to join Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg on a world tour. Harnessing latent Tupac fans, conspiracy theorists and techno-junkies, the return on investment looks guaranteed.

“Dre has a massive vision for this,” said Digital Domain’s El Ulbrich, who led the CGI project. “This is not found footage. This is not archival footage. This is an illusion … [and it] is just the beginning.”

The question is, how far can this go? With advances in robotic technology and computers that can think for themselves, surely it isn’t long before we can have breakfast with Elvis, lunch with Mother Theresa and Dinner with James Dean.

Pics and Vids via The Guardian

If, on a sunny day in the park, you’ve ever noticed someone hovering in mid-air between two trees, the chances are they probably weren’t hovering but were actually balancing on a slackline, having sneakily tied it between the trees prior to your arrival.

For those unfamiliar with slacklining, think of it as a modern-day, freestyle version of tightrope walking (as wingsuit flying is to the human cannonball). Part of the You Tube generation of sportsmen, slackliners are not confined to the circus tent of their forebears, so these slackers can put up their line in whatever amazing places their ad revenue and sponsorship (part-time pizza delivery job) allows them to.

The sport of slacklining was born in 1979 when rock climbers Adam Grosowsky and Jeff Ellington began to string up cables and chains around their university campus in Washington state, USA, drawing crowds of spectators at lunchtime. They soon settled on 1-inch flat climbing webbing as their line of choice, and began developing tricks to perform on the line — now sometimes known as ‘tricklining’.

Slacklining began to spread throughout the West Coast rock climbing community, and naturally it wasn’t long before the slackliners started to test their nerve by stringing up lines in daredevil locations. Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite National Park was one of the earliest and most amazing highline sites. It was first traversed in 1985, but it was another eight years before a second slackliner made it across!

Slackline at Lost Arrow Spire

Today, Andy Lewis is one of the biggest stars of the sport, recently hitting the big time with a slackline dance performance alongside Madonna at the Superbowl. More amazingly, here he is in 2010 traversing a World Record-breaking highline in Moab, Utah: 103.5 metres across, and more than that off the ground!

Helpfully Andy was wearing a tether on that crossing, which helped him not to die on his first three attempts. However, as this DVD trailer about ‘Sketchy’ Andy shows, he also does freesolo crossings and backflips on the highline — though thankfully (it appears) not at the same time…

Get the DVD featuring Andy Lewis, ‘Reel Rock 2011′, here: http://www.senderfilms.com/dvds-downloads.php#rrt2
Pic via Slackline.com
Thanks Ali Stanger-Leathes for the suggestion!