Singing Solar Panels, Fashionable Web Browsers and 3D Pet Nails: Links of Note Today

I know, I KNOW, I’ve been sadly neglectful of AlmostZara lately. I could blame it on my shiny new portfolio site, or my shiny new job as Modern Life Editor for Fusion (very excited, more to come soon) but to be honest I’ve been lazy, and I’m sorry. I need to let this site grow and flourish and with no updates it’s just feeling sad and bereft. So, without further waffling, here’s some of the loveliest webby things I’ve seen around the internet today. Enjoy!

Singing Solar Flowers in Seattle

These giant Jack and the beanstalk-esque flowers are eerily beautiful and amazingly functional as well. Artist Dan Corson built these in Seattle as part of the cities green program and they absorb energy during the day which allows them to glow and SING at night. Yes, SING. LED sensors in the flowers are triggered by movement and as people move by the stems, a haunting sound spills forth; a sonic soundscape that’s new everytime. Magical.

Web browsers as Catwalk models

In today’s internet funtimes, I have been enjoying this piss take fashion model retrospective created by Viktorija Pashuta. Here web browsers get dressed up in designer-esque outfits.

Opera definitely has lucked out as the most space age of the crew, and there’s a big cosplay feel with the primary colors. Though I heart Chrome, she does look like she’d marry Ronald McDonald in that palette.

The Bible wouldn’t lie.. surely? The jury *could* be out on that, but contradiction wise, well it’s 1000 Hail Mary’s to none. Programmer Daniel G Taylor visually mapped out 463 of the biggest contradictions from the bible in beautiful interactive goodness. The red depicts questions about people and concepts and they range from mundane to epic, life altering conundrums. Play with it here.

3D Nail Art lets you turn 2D pet prints into 3D talons

When you love your pets far too much, you need to wear them on your nails, but not in a Cruella Deville way. Simply submit photos of Fido/Granny to Japanese service Maayu Co Ltd. and they’ll create a resin model for you to flash on your fingers. The service combines 3D printing with hand finishing for the ‘perfect’ replica, and costs around $80 (ouch) for a single nail.

Well, nothing says I care than a 3D face on your hand, right?

The bizarre and beautiful underwater sculpture park of Jason deCaries Taylor

It takes a certain type of personality to spend your love working in sculptures, even moreso when your creation flourish way underwater where visibility is poor and visitors are few. In 2006 artist Jason deCaries Taylor built an underwater park in Grenada featuring an amazing array of designs and his reckoning was to see how the environment (water) affected their ageing (a lot). Sure, that may have been very obvious, but the result is striking and beautiful and got his work designated a”Wonder of the World” by the National Geographic.

Let me know if you like the “Weird web” roundup feature and I may do more.

P.S.

Listen to the solar panels sing!