Pink Tentacle



Devilish side of the sea angel (video) (Jan 6)
The clione, a.k.a. sea angel, is a cute, translucent swimming sea slug that glides gracefully through icy ocean waters by flapping a pair of appendages that resemble tiny angel wings. Don’t let the innocent, angelic look fool you, though — the clione is a vicious demon come feeding time. + A verdadeira face The Clione limacina [...]


Next-generation space toilet ready in five years (Jan 5)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has teamed up with engineers from the private sector to develop a next-generation space toilet, which they hope to complete within the next five years. Clean and easy to use, the envisioned space toilet is designed to be worn like a diaper around the astronaut’s waist at all times. [...]


Pink Tentacle greatest hits - 2008 (Dec 30)
As the year draws to a close, it’s time to look back at Pink Tentacle’s most popular stories of 2008. Here are the top ten, in case you missed them the first time: 1. Scientists extract images directly from brain: New brain analysis technology allows scientists to read minds, perhaps paving the way for the development [...]


Siphonophore: Deep-sea superorganism (video) (Dec 22)
Here is some terrific video of a bioluminescent deep-sea siphonophore — an eerily fantastic creature that appears to be a single, large organism, but which is actually a colony of numerous individual jellyfish-like animals that behave and function together as a single entity. The individual units, called zooids, all share the same genetic material and [...]


i-SOBOT named ‘2008 Robot of the Year’ (Dec 19)
Takara Tomy’s Omnibot 17μ i-SOBOT, a miniature humanoid robot recognized by Guinness as the smallest mass-produced robot of its kind, has been named Japan’s 2008 Robot of the Year, it was announced on December 18. The annual Robot of the Year Award was established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in [...]


Digital mech art (Dec 18)
Here is a collection of digital illustrations of mechs, droids and borgs discovered via the Pixiv image sharing site. Follow the link below each image to view the artist’s website. POLIZEI ROBOTER [Hikaru Kanefusa] COMBAT BALL [Hikaru Kanefusa] Cyborg [Hikaru Kanefusa] e9 [MAUVE] L2C4 [MAUVE] electric girl [Denki] Armor Suit [Denki] UE [VVV] Hyaku Shiki Kai [Saburo] Cyber Ninja [元村人] Major Maintenance [元村人] Urban War [yutori] AC-style [...]


Scientists extract images directly from brain (Dec 11)
Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while [...]


Yurex: Restless leg monitor by Maywa Denki (Dec 11)
Maywa Denki, a Tokyo-based group of artists/musicians/engineers famous for inventing “nonsense machines,” has teamed up with Kamakura-based IT solutions provider Kayac to develop a device that lets users visualize, monitor and control how they shake their restless legs. The sleek black diamond-shaped contraption — called “Yurex” (yure means “shake” in Japanese) — straps to the [...]


Maximum The Hormone - Bikini Sports Ponchin (Dec 10)
This delightfully deranged promo video for Maximum The Hormone’s “Bikini Sports Ponchin” was directed by Kōki Tange (Yellow Brain).


Vintage alien landscapes by Kazuaki Saito (Dec 8)
In the early 1970s, artist Kazuaki Saito’s fantastic alien landscape illustrations graced the covers of SF Magazine, Japan’s first successful and longest running science fiction periodical. [More: SF Magazine review]


Decorated trains in Japan (Dec 2)
Of the countless trains running on Japan’s 20,000-kilometer (12,000-mile) rail network, a few are decorated with images of anime and manga characters, colorful ads, and designs by notable artists. Here is a small sample. Pikachu on Seto line, Aichi prefecture * * * * * Galaxy Express 999 train, Furusato-Ginga line, Hokkaido [Photo] Characters from Leiji Matsumoto’s “Galaxy Express [...]


Motoman industrial robot cooks okonomiyaki (Nov 27)
The multi-talented Motoman SDA10, a dexterous dual-arm industrial robot manufactured by Yaskawa Electric, is demonstrating its ability to cook okonomiyaki at the International Next-Generation Robot Fair now underway in Osaka. Designed to operate independently alongside humans in the workplace, the 135-centimeter (4.5 ft) tall, 220-kilogram (480 lb) industrial robot has 15 joints — 7 in each [...]


Video: Pulsar + (Nov 26)
+ Pulsar (1990) Milky white blockheads, lizardmen and assorted geometrical objects get their wiggle on in this quirky stop-motion animation short by Katsushi Bowda. For an extra dose, see Bowda’s surreal sequence from Winter Days, a 2003 collaborative animated film based on a renku (collaborative poem) by 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. + Winter Days / Fuyu no [...]