And that the people there didn't clap until the end.
I like that you can see the giant circular bag in the background.
Does he just tie it to the roof, you think?
Wonder how you might explain that if a cop pulled you over.
Spike Jonze comments on capturing the otherwise more intimate moment:
The other day, I was lucky enough to be at an event to bring the arts back into schools and got to see an amazing collaboration between Yo-Yo Ma and a young dancer in LA, Lil Buck. Someone who knows Yo-Yo Ma had seen Lil Buck on YouTube and put them together. The dancing is Lil Buck’s own creation and unlike anything I’ve seen. Hope you enjoy.
[Every song mentioned in this post deserves to be played extremely loudly.]
My DJ friend who goes by Volatile just released this demo that I had to tell ya'll about. Dude takes "Party in the USA", which represents everything mindless and evil in America, and chops his way into highlighting everything that is awesome and right about it (i.e. 808s and actual, you know, like real music). Just a pinch of French electro, and I've been playing it all morning despite the hangover. Check it out, then check out Volatile and our friend DJ Young Kirby, who together are Bowelhaus - Oct. 6th @The Enormous Room in Cambridge. You'll know us there because we'll be the urban youth bringing the ruckus.
The finished version of this, and I'm assuming other tracks as well, will be on Bowelhaus' much anticipated first release, We Came to Wreck Everything [EP]. Coming soon to a brain near you. [check back for updates]
Bonus: right after I heard that I also caught this remix of the same song by Redfoxx (below). Less of a remix and more of a sllllloowwwwwed down old mix, lightly cut. Like it infinitely better than the original and not just because it's like three times as long. Also this Ke$ha remix by the same peeps. Oh, and this Washed Out one too.
Pogo is an Australian DJ who has been getting a lot of internet respect for his technique of building textured trip-hop out of minute samples from classic and contemporary movies. But his equally adept film-editing skills and his inclination toward the whimsical are what turn otherwise casual Youtube channel stumblers into true fans all over the world. Above is the most commonly noted among his videos, "Alice" (composed entirely of Alice in Wonderlandbits and pieces). Its dreamy, thumping beat has ensnared over 4 million viewers on Youtube.
Australian S. Peter Davis (also called CollegeBinary) makes good use of youtube by providing light-hearted primers on several philosophers- above, Kant's stubbornness highlights himself as an especially douchey one. Reminds me a bit of Brad Neely (of Wizard People, Dear Reader fame).
This is the most recent update [Fall 2009] of the Shift Happens video, of exploding internet fame. The original Did You Know? started as a powerpoint presentation to faculty in August, 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado as a way to acquaint teachers and staff to new media and its use among younger generations. Developed with the assistance of The Economist, the latest version showcases the most recent data on shifting media landscapes. I've taken the liberty of posting links [where possible] to every cited source below. Enjoy being on the forefront of the world's information-technology changes. Because, for better or for worse, this is how we're using tech at the moment.
My good friend Madeline of Madeline May Write pointed out this awesome video of Buddhist monks creating a beautiful mandala from colorful sand. A mandala is a geometric design that in its microcosm represents the whole universe. They are typically created as a form of meditation and are totally, utterly rad.
A funny thing about both mandalas and the universe, that is so perfectly demonstrated in this meditative practice, is impermanence - the work of art, the human person, the environment which we share- all of it is not meant to last, and won't.
Which makes me wonder: does the fact that it is on film bear any relevance to the monks? Does the mandala "remain" and still exist, as far as the youtube viewer is concerned? I can't answer this with any certainty; I'm not Buddhist and have a mere enthusiast's weak grasp on the idea. I imagine that it would bother the monks, yet they consented to being filmed in this noble pursuit of blessing all the world.
Perhaps they hadn't thought about that. Or, perhaps more likely, they figure youtube as impermanent as the sand painting.
More specifically, this particular dinosaur-like peculiarity of a rodent is a Baluchistan Pygmy Jerboa (Salpingotulus michaelis). They're indigenous to an area of about 5000 sq/mi in northwest Pakistan, though they might also exist in Afghanistan. Beyond what has been gleaned in the field, not much is really known about them according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the most widely-accepted scientific authority of its type. They're sure it's vulnerable to some threat, but, humorously, there's not enough data to say what it is with certainty. What facts there are paint the picture in my mind of a jumpy-hamsterlike society that is just darling.
It is a nocturnal, loosely colonial [aww], gregarious [d'awwww...], herbivorous [eating little leaves, aww...] species occuring in rolling sand dunes or barren flat gravel and sandy plains in hot deserts.
[Molur et. al, 2005, a zoologists' report: "Status of South Asian Non-volant Small Mammals", p 192]
In fact, here's the full write up of the little guy from page 192... [Click to Enlarge]
The thing is, even though they're classified only as "vulnerable" rather than "endangered" or even "critically endangered", they're still not pets. They'll need to be monitored closely in their habitat, which means that everyone's curiosity about mail ordering one is, at this point, misspent. Perhaps we'll be successful at keeping them around, and one day you can have one hopping all over your keyboard, making what I imagine are little gibbery-scriggly noises.
I wonder if this is a researcher who filmed this nugget of internet goodness. Perhaps that explains the decision to weigh the little bugger. Or maybe it's just that it's so lightAs somebody in the comments section of That Cute Site: "He almost weighs an eighth!" Just about. :)
Though psychologist, author, and lecturer Philip Zimbardo is best well known for his work on the topic of evil, he has also spent a lot of time researching time. This clever, well animated short helps demonstrate his argument that we don't pay nearly enough attention to perceptions of time - our own, those of the people around us, those of cultures around the world. Video by the RSA.
Or check Zimbardo delivering an even briefer version of this talk on TED. You know, if you just can't sit through 10 minutes of awesome animation (you future-oriented people out there).
The initial 30 seconds of the Apollo 11 launch in such high definition it takes 8 minutes and 43 seconds to show. Produced by Spacecraft Films, a company specializing in HD production of exactly what it sounds like. Good to enjoy with sound (to learn about the chemical reactions and physical forces at work) or muted (overlayed perhaps with Milieu's Colortone or Boards of Canada why not).
Via Petapixel, a phantastic digital photo blog (with a ton of HD vids).
And they got it from BoingBoing, the mother of us all.
The idea is to use solar power for electrolysis - breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen - which then could be recombined when needed in a fuel cell, efficiently saving "almost all the solar energy," according to Nocera. "We emulated photosynthesis for large-scale storage of solar energy." [source] This means that with continued research and development, there could be wide spread access to solar cells that are both cheap and affordable.
This discovery and Nocera's prototypes are the product of 2009's US Department of Energy's Recovery Act, which provides funding for ARPA-E, the green, civilian version of its much scarier, bizarro-world counterpart, DARPA. Nocera presented his findings at ARPA-E's inaugural two day summit earlier this week.
The omni-directional treadmill called CyberCarpet created by Cyberwalk would revolutionize the way virtual reality is used for therapy, training, architecture and, eventually, gaming.
...works by densely packing small balls under a walking surface and letting the friction of the user’s shoes do the moving.
The device has already been used to take a few lucky individuals on a virtual walk-through of ancient Pompeii.
