Simulated Explosions

If I knew more about coding I would love to get access to this technology.

Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster

I think scientific visualizations are among the most beautiful designs out there; they literally are works of art.

A Supercell Forming in Wyoming

How We Found the Giant Squid

Advertisements Are Generic Canned Stock Footage

I haven't owned a television set for twenty years and here's why. Something about advertisements upsets me at a core level. This video is a parody of the generic crap commercials you tend to see, but the irony here is that it's made by a company who licenses the generic crap stock footage you see in those commercials.

What Does Sound Look Like?

Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet

For some time now I've wanted to see Edward Snowden speak to see what he had to say about his actions and why he released the documents. I have to say that I was impressed with the discussion. He is a very articulate champion of a free and open internet.

The Most Amazing Rock Climbing Training Video Ever... No Really...Ever...

If he's not completely defying the laws of gravity, he is at least laughing at them...

Jan Hojer Training from Jan Hojer on Vimeo.

La Dura Complete: The Hardest Rock Climb In The World

Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra, the world's two top climbers attempt what is currently the world's hardest route (5.15c).

The Life and Death of Mountains

The Weight of Mountains from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Hunger

I saw this animation today on Dangerous Minds. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. It's got a very unsettling plot line and the soundtrack is equally so, but what really interested me is the style of the animation. Created in 1974, it's an interesting example of early computer animation. It looks like very crude hand-drawn line drawings, but then the way the lines move is where the computer generation comes into play. All of the lines seem to explode and then reassemble into a different object or scene.

Hunger from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo.

My Sketchbook- Purse Series

I was looking through my old sketchbooks today and came across this really intimate little series of pen and ink drawings that I that I did sometime around the mid 2000's. Some are more straightforward imaginings of coin purses, and others get downright bizarre. I thought they were interesting enough to scan and post here.

Sketchbook: Purse Series #1

Sketchbook: Purse Series #2

Sketchbook: Purse Series #3

Sketchbook: Purse Series #4

Sketchbook: Purse Series #5

Sketchbook: Purse Series #6

Sketchbook: Purse Series #7

Sketchbook: Purse Series #8

Sketchbook: Purse Series #9

Sketchbook: Purse Series #10

Loving Vincent: A Feature-Length Painted Animation

 From Kickstarter:

What is truly groundbreaking about "Loving Vincent" is that every frame of the film is an oil painting on canvas, using the very same technique in which Vincent himself painted. And what makes it a great story to experience is the intriguing, tragic, and inspiring story of Vincent Van Gogh himself.

River of Clouds Inside the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Timelapse from Paul Lettieri on Vimeo.

From This is Colossal:

Last week on November 29th the Grand Canyon experienced a rare temperature inversion where cool air began to rise from the bottom of the canyon and met warm air above creating low level clouds. Apparently this type of thing happens once or twice a year, but almost never with clear skies which provided an unprecedented once-in-a-decade view of the canyon filled to the rim with fog. Several photographers were on hand including Ben Mayberry who captured some amazing panoramic shots, and Paul Lettieri managed to shoot a timelapse of the event.

MATRON OF MORBIDITY

MATRON OF MORBIDITY from Narratively on Vimeo.

Elinor Wrobel, eighty, isn’t your typical collector. At home, rooms are filled with art, costumes and objects, but in the heart of Sydney, Australia, Elinor spends her days preserving hundreds of human body parts collected from the Sydney Hospital Morgue. The Morbid Anatomy museum, housed in Sydney Hospital, is lined with glass jars showing the disease and suffering of bygone generations.

A former nurse, art collector and curator, Elinor recovered the collection from a musty attic crawling with cockroaches and fought tooth and nail for the specimens to be restored and exhibited to the public. Several times, hospital administrators have sought to transfer the specimens elsewhere, or convert the museum into office spaces, but so far Wrobel has prevailed. She believes the hundreds of unique anatomical specimens from people dating back to the 1890s are not only an important resource for medical students, but also a “beautiful” reminder of our own mortality.

Apple - Chris Sharma

Rock climbing is not a well known sport and it receives little media attention outside its own inner circle. But among climbing fans, it does have its professionals... and then it has its superstars. Chris Sharma is easily the most well known rock climber in the world and he deserves it. There are only a few people who have sent the hardest routes that he has climbed.
Apple - Chris Sharma from Corey Rich on Vimeo.

'The Writer' Automaton

This is the work of an engineering genius. The automaton was made by a clock maker 240 years ago. It is built from over 6000 moving parts and its hand actually dips a quill pen into ink and then moves over and writes a complete sentence onto a piece of paper. It could be thought of as a mechanical predecessor to the modern programmable computer.

Rebecca Vitsmun: I'm Actually An Atheist

Do you remember that devastating tornado this past Spring in Moore, Oklahoma and the VERY awkward CNN interview where Wolf Blitzer asked the woman who had survived the tornado but lost her house, "You've got to thank the lord, don't you?" And she replied, "I'm actually an atheist"... Well this video is a very moving interview with her months after the tornado and the Wolf Blitzer interview that went viral and changed her life.

What I didn't realize at the time of the original CNN interview is that up until that point she was in the closet as an atheist to her family, her extended family and many of her friends. So her decision to say, "I'm actually an atheist" on national television meant that now all of those people knew about her lack of belief in god, divine intervention, the afterlife, etc... And in a place as conservative and religious as Oklahoma (my entire extended family lives in Oklahoma, so I know), that is a truly brave thing to do given the potential fallout of relationships with friends and family.

Honda Illusions, An Impossible Made Possible

My hate for advertising is the reason I haven't owned a television for twenty years...Which makes those rare commercials that are great worth sharing.

New Technology in Bicycling

I've recently come across two unexpected and possibly revolutionary inventions for bicycles as the mode of transportation becomes a more and more viable way to commute around cities that are becoming increasingly dense.

The first is an "electric bicycle wheel", which fits on most bikes and turns any regular bicycle into a motorized rechargeable electric bicycle.


And the second invention is an "invisible" bicycle helmet. How it actually works came as a complete surprise to me, so I won't spoil it by describing. Just watch, it's amazing.

The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.