Snow and ice sculpture in Harbin dates back to Manchu times, but the first organized show was held in 1963, and the annual festival itself only started in 1985. Since then, the festival has grown into a massive event, bringing in over a million tourists from all over the world every winter. Harbin is well known for its beautiful ice and snow sculptures in winter and its Russian legacy and still plays an important part in Sino-Russian trade today.
Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Using snow as his playground he wears raquettes (snowshoes) and creates awesome artworks. If you jaw has not dropped yet, just think of it this way. He literally works 5-9 hours a day walking in order to create his pieces. Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days mapping out the ideas.
Scientists in the United States claim to have created the world’s first living robots using stem cells from frog embryos. The tiny hybrids, designed on a supercomputer at the University of Vermont (UVM) and then assembled by biologists at Tufts University, are “entirely new life-forms” known as xenobots. “These are novel living machines,” said Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the UVM who co-led the research. “They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artefact: a living, programmable organism.”
“Joker,” the controversial drama about the mentally ill Batman villain that sparked backlash with its realistic depictions of extreme violence, triumphed at the 92nd annual Academy Awards nominations earning 11 nods, the most of any film. Three films were close behind with 10 nominations: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s fictional ode to 1960s Hollywood; “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s mob drama starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci that clocks in at three and a half hours; and “1917,” the World War I epic that centers on two British soldiers on a dangerous trip to deliver a critical message that could save 1,600 troops. SEE VIDEO WALL
