"This is Water"

David Foster Wallace on deciding how to see the people around you.

The Last Photo

Ivan Cash asks people near Auburn, Alabama, to tell about the last photo on their phone:

Last Photo - Alabama from Ivan Cash on Vimeo.

Exploding glass

Destin (an engineer from Huntsville, AL, and the host of Youtube channel "SmarterEveryDay", with 1M+ subscribers) explains a phenomenon known as "Prince Rupert's drop".     There's some really good high-speed video of what happens:

Everything is a Remix

Kirby Ferguson offers an alternative view on creativity:

Now you see it...

From the project's page:

"We propose a method for removing marked dynamic objects from videos captured with a free-moving camera, so long as the objects occlude parts of the scene with a static background."

In other words, they can delete people or other moving objects from videos, even if the objects momentarily block other (even moving) objects in the background.   Have video evidence of your existence?  Too bad: you have been erased.  Demo:

For certain values of real...

Here's something that may bother you for a while afterward.   First, watch the video below.   It purports to be a video of a UFO sighting over California.    Decide whether you think the UFO is real or an obvious fake.  Once you are sure of your opinion, click here to learn the surprising truth about the video.

[Heads-up for those with kids around:  there is 90% of a profanity in the person's reaction at the end of the video.]

Mechanical computers

I was aware that, before electronic computers, they used to use mechanical computers to automate hard math problems, such as fire control for warships. Seeing this set of videos, however, really made me appreciate how unbelievably clever some of these mechanisms were.  

Swartz: "How we stopped SOPA"

Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) — one of the names behind the movement to stop the SOPA legislation last year — remembers that campaign:

Ain't no doubt about what it is...

The search for Abraham Lincoln continues...

Hexaflexagon!

More interesting than an octagon and more intimidating that a five-sided fistagon:  the HeXaFLeXaGon!   Surrender your mysteries to me, O many-sided device...

An Untenanted Bicycle Rolls Into View...

I've been watching readings of Edward Gorey stories on Youtube today.   They are sometimes a bit dark and absurd, but that's half the fun right there.   Here's a reading of "The Epiplectic Bicycle":

Do-it-yourself Culture

Shea Hembrey at TED on how he invented 100 different artists and their works:

HD Transit of Venus Video

NASA's spaced-based observations of the recent transit of Venus are (I think) worth 3 minutes or so of your time, just on aesthetic grounds alone:

Fail

David Damberger discusses failure, and why admitting it is integral to any eventual progress.   He details some (seemingly) impressive work he had done for non-profit organizations in Africa, and then shows why it was exactly the wrong thing to be doing.

Mary Karr interview

I've posted a poem by Mary Karr before, but here's a longer interview with her.   I've yet to read some of her longer works, but I think they'll make the list after watching this.

As a bonus, here's a link to one of her poems.

Don't Look Back In Anger

Great performance, and I've never seen a crowd so into a song.   Noel from Oasis, at a concert in Argentina:

Shufflin'...

 Well-played, marching band.

Pumas in the crevices...

Who is pointing the cameras?

To quote Douglas Wilson, "I can see on camera which side is shooting rockets, and which side is driving the tanks. But which side is pointing the cameras?"  

Ruben Salvadori calls attention to how photographers "massage" reality.


Photojournalism Behind the Scenes [ITA-ENG subs] from Ruben Salvadori on Vimeo.

ht: petapixel.com

Demetri Martin: "if i"

So, Demetri Martin is what most people would call a stand-up comedian.   You would think that during one of his shows, you'd hear stand-up comedy.   This show, however, is something else entirely.   Along the way through palindromes and unicycles, we get some serious introspection and the beginnings of a meditation on law and grace (though I don't know if Mr. Martin would see it in those terms).   I don't know exactly how to describe it, but in the words of Pedro Sanchez from Napoleon Dynamite, "I'd like to see more of that."  

Here's a link to a Youtube playlist of the whole show.   Be advised, like most "stand-up comedy", this show contains some profanity and "thematic elements".