Awesome Awesome

In celebration of Alien Day this week, Mondo and Middle of Beyond have teamed up to create some great Alien wear. Our favorite? This full-face knit acrylic ski mask with a facehugger wrapped around it. We’re so wearing this on the slopes next winter.

A scientifically accurate 1:20M scale model of the Moon with a light ring that simulates sunlight. You can make the light ring revolve manually or choose from one of two automatic modes: a 30s cycle or a real-time cycle that starts with the current lunar phase.

Check out this footage of the DMG MORI Lasertec 65 3D, an amazing marvel of modern engineering which is capable of first building up rough metal forms using laser deposition welding, then switching heads to precisely mill and drill them into finished parts.

Volvo Trucks demonstrates the insane amount of power one of its FH16 trucks can exert, as a single truck pulls 40 loaded containers weighing over 1.6 million lbs. We’re not sure it really helped, but they put World’s Strongest Man Magnus Samuelsson behind the wheel.

Redditor LoafSlice’s title “Tiny Godzilla nomming on things underwater“ baited us into clicking on this, but we were pleasantly surprised to find footage that actually lived up to its promise, as these amazing reptiles strut their stuff by the Galapagos Islands.

Jumpy the border collie does his best Bob Ross impression, and actually paints a rudimentary landscape scene. His trainer Omar Von Muller taught the incredibly smart dog how to follow a pointer while holding the brush in his mouth. He can also write his own name.

This award-winning short from Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Animation Institute envisions a day in which nature reclaims the Earth from civilization. It’s a vision we’ve seen in films like I Am Legend, but here we see the process rather than just the end result.

Sketchfab contributor d0rkmushr00m used MagicaVoxel to make this awesome 3D voxel model of the original 128k Apple Macintosh. The exploded drawing shows the full innards and outards (is that a word?) of the classic Mac. Read how it was created here. (Thanks Brent!)

Applied Science takes a look at an intriguing bit of tech that uses piezoelectric waves to move objects. This allows for low-profile, hubless, magnet-free motors and theoretically could create motors which aren’t round. The motor shown in the demo is from PCBMotors.

We’ve seen all manner of Rube Goldberg machines over the years, but never one as precise as this one from Seiko, that uses some 1200 watch parts and watchmaking tools in its design. It required a little human assist along the way, but it’s still pretty awesome.

An international team of researchers have developed Face2Face, an amazing technology which allows an subject’s face to be captured with a standard webcam, then remap their facial expressions onto another subject in a video in real time, with very convincing results.

It’s amazing all the cool things you can do with a simple X/Y motorized rig. Here, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Ted Kinsman shows how to create images using different sized droplets of colored liquid, like coffee, ink, or red wine, which then soak into the paper.

BRIXO is a new breed of LEGO-compatible building blocks which can create circuits within in your projects. The system will offer conductive chrome blocks, sensors, lighting and motors. The Bluetooth module will let you control your builds from your smartphone.

Designer Stelios Mousarris‘ second Inception-inspired table is much bigger than the first one, measuring 98″x 30″x 28″. Its continuous wood and steel sheet undulates to create a large crest and a tapered leg that support the glass surface.

Body paint artist Kay Pike has dressed herself in a number of incredible “outfits” made almost entirely from makeup. Her latest creation – the Boy Wonder himself. You can watch the design come together in her time-lapse video.

This truly amazing musical instrument was created by Swedish musician Martin Molin (aka Wintergatan). It uses an incredibly complicated mechanism to produce notes and rhythms using human input and the sound of 2,000 falling metal marbles. (Thanks Paul!)