125 Science Videos: Our Greatest Hits

in Science, Video - Science | July 13th, 2011

We reached deep into our archives and pulled out a list of our great­est hits — our favorite sci­ence videos from the past five years. 125 videos in total, and the list will grow from here. Right now, it cov­ers every­thing from Astron­o­my and Space Trav­el, to Physics and Biol­o­gy, and then Psy­chol­o­gy and Neu­ro­science. Our rec­om­men­da­tion? Just jump right in here. But if you want a lit­tle pre­view, then let’s start you off with ten slam-dunk videos from the col­lec­tion:

(Note: In the future, you can access this col­lec­tion by click­ing the “Great Sci­ence Videos” link under “Essen­tials.” Top of the cen­ter col­umn.)

  • Earth­rise in HD – Video — In Novem­ber 2007, Japan’s Kaguya space­craft orbit­ed the moon and cap­tured the first HD footage of an “earth­rise” and “earth­set.”
  • Tour­ing the Earth from Space (in HD) – Video — Give NASA 7 min­utes, and they’ll show you the Earth’s most impres­sive land­scapes — as seen from space.
  • “First Orbit”: Cel­e­brat­ing 50th Anniver­sary of Yuri Gagaran’s Space Flight - Video — 99-minute doc­u­men­tary recre­ates the Sovi­et cos­mo­naut’s his­toric launch into space on April 12, 1961.
  • Arthur C. Clarke Presents the Col­ors of Infin­i­ty – Video – The futur­ist brings us inside Mandelbrot’s world of frac­tal geom­e­try.
  • Physics from Hell: How Dante’s Infer­no Inspired Galileo’s Physics – Video – Fas­ci­nat­ing pre­sen­ta­tion by Mark Peter­son, physics pro­fes­sor at Mount Holyoke Col­lege.
  • Lawrence Krauss: Every Atom in Your Body Comes From a Star- Video – The­o­ret­i­cal physi­cist talks about his work at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum in Davos.
  • What It Feels Like To Have a Stroke - Video — Har­vard neu­roanatomist Jill Bolte Tay­lor recounts her expe­ri­ence hav­ing a stroke. One of the most pop­u­lar TED Talks of all time.
  • Nature by Num­bers - Video — Well-known geo­met­ri­cal and math­e­mat­i­cal for­mu­las (The Fibonac­ci Series and Spi­ral, The Gold­en and Angle Ratios, The Delauney Tri­an­gu­la­tion and Voronoi Tes­sel­la­tions) present them­selves in nature.
  • Tsuna­mi Rip­ples Across Globe: Ani­mat­ed Video — Video — The Nation­al Ocean­ic and Atmos­pher­ic Admin­is­tra­tion shows Japan­ese tsuna­mi rip­pling across the Pacif­ic.
  • Daniel Pink: The Sur­pris­ing Truth About What Moti­vates Us - Video — Research reveals what real­ly, tru­ly moti­vates us. And it’s all shown with ani­ma­tion.

Find the full list of Sci­ence Videos here…

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Curated Song Collections to Match the Rhythms of Your Day

in Music | July 13th, 2011

We love the design and over­all lay­out of The Illu­mi­nat­ed Playlists by Brook­lyn-based design­er Adam Parks, but the real delight of the web­site is its sound, not its look. Parks has grouped 21 music col­lec­tions into four cat­e­gories, from slow to very fast  (or rather, Ada­gio to Presto), so you can choose a playlist depend­ing on the pace of your cur­rent activ­i­ty or mood.

As a DJ, Parks has made con­sis­tent­ly sol­id choic­es, culling from both the clas­sics (Bob Dylan, Neal Young, Rolling Stones, Cur­tis May­field) and more recent artists (TV on the Radio, The Decem­berists, Arcade Fire, etc.). These aren’t the lists you would use to impress the cool kids with your eclec­ti­cism, iron­ic tastes, or love of the obscure, but if you’re just look­ing for great sound­tracks for the shift­ing rhythms of the day, they’re a per­fect fit. Dive in here.

We’d love to see sim­i­lar col­lec­tions for jazz and clas­si­cal — we might just need to make a few of our own.

via Metafil­ter

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Coming Soon: Kafka’s Metamorphosis, The New Movie

in Animation, Film | July 12th, 2011

We want to be excit­ed about the lat­est film ver­sion of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novel­la The Meta­mor­pho­sis (get free etext here), espe­cial­ly because it’s an indie pro­duc­tion, and we just can’t see the exis­ten­tial dra­ma of Gre­gor Sam­sa’s jour­ney from human to insect sur­viv­ing a major stu­dio adap­ta­tion. Fur­ther­more, we love Nick Searcy in the F/X dra­ma, Jus­ti­fied, and we’re hap­py to see him on the big screen.

We can accept the mar­ket­ing twist of turn­ing Sam­sa into a 17-year-old boy, but after see­ing the con­cept art in the film­mak­ers’ trail­er, we’re won­der­ing if the pro­posed fea­ture’s biggest star might be the spe­cial effects. Give it a watch and let us know what you think.

via A Piece of Mono­logue

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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A Building Salvador Dali Could Love

in Art | July 12th, 2011

You’ve seen build­ings mag­i­cal­ly trans­formed into artis­tic can­vas­es before — the Astro­nom­i­cal Clock Tow­er in Prague; the icon­ic build­ings at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty; and then this facade in Ukraine. But have you seen the audi­ence take con­trol of the archi­tec­tur­al paint­ing? That’s what hap­pened in Lyon, France dur­ing the “Fête des lumières,” held last Decem­ber. Throw an audio analy­sis algo­rithm and a micro­phone into the mix, and the audi­ence now dri­ves the sur­re­al archi­tec­tur­al show…

via Boing­Bo­ing

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Christopher Walken Reads “The Three Little Pigs”

in Comedy, Literature, Video - Arts & Culture | July 12th, 2011

You’ve heard him read Lady Gaga, you’ve seen him rem­i­nisce with his fel­low lov-ahs on Sat­ur­day Night Live, and you’ve heard him sub in for Leonard Lopate on the radio. But we’re not sure if any of Christo­pher Walken’s appear­ances can beat his dement­ed spin on “The Three Lit­tle Pigs.” Mr. Walken’s read­ing of the poten­tial­ly ter­ri­fy­ing sto­ry is unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly jol­ly (he’s going for laughs, not chills), and we freely rec­om­mend it for chil­dren. Espe­cial­ly chil­dren from Brook­lyn.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Wern­er Her­zog Reads “Go the F**k to Sleep” in NYC (NSFW)

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Raymond Chandler: There’s No Art of the Screenplay in Hollywood

in Film, Literature | July 11th, 2011

In 1932, as Amer­i­ca slipped deep­er into the Great Depres­sion, Ray­mond Chan­dler lost his job as an oil com­pa­ny exec­u­tive. Drink­ing and absen­teeism did­n’t help. So it was time to impro­vise. Soon enough, the 45 year old rein­vent­ed him­self, becom­ing America’s fore­most writer of hard-boiled detec­tive fic­tion. Dur­ing the 30s, he wrote 20 sto­ries for pulp mag­a­zines and pub­lished his first nov­el, The Big Sleep (1939). Then, it was off to Hol­ly­wood, where Chan­dler co-wrote Dou­ble Indem­ni­ty (1944) with Bil­ly Wilder and col­lab­o­rat­ed on Hitch­cock­’s Strangers on a Train (1951).

Hol­ly­wood may have but­tered Chan­dler’s bread, but he nev­er felt much affec­tion for the film indus­try, and did­n’t hes­i­tate to say so. Writ­ing for The Atlantic in Novem­ber, 1945, he lament­ed how the Hol­ly­wood sys­tem bled any­thing you’d call “art” from the screen­writ­ing process:

Hol­ly­wood is a show­man’s par­adise. But show­men make noth­ing; they exploit what some­one else has made. The pub­lish­er and the play pro­duc­er are show­men too; but they exploit what is already made. The show­men of Hol­ly­wood con­trol the mak­ing – and there­by degrade it. For the basic art of motion pic­tures is the screen­play; it is fun­da­men­tal, with­out it there is noth­ing. Every­thing derives from the screen­play, and most of that which derives is an applied skill which, how­ev­er adept, is artis­ti­cal­ly not in the same class with the cre­ation of a screen­play. But in Hol­ly­wood the screen­play in writ­ten by a salaried writer under the super­vi­sion of a pro­duc­er — that is to say, by an employ­ee with­out pow­er or deci­sion over the uses of his own craft, with­out own­er­ship of it, and, how­ev­er extrav­a­gant­ly paid, almost with­out hon­or for it.

Thanks to The Atlantic, you can read his full lament, all 4,000+ words, here. And, on a relat­ed note, we’d strong­ly encour­age you to revis­it Chan­dler’s con­ver­sa­tion with Ian Flem­ing, the cre­ator of the great spy­mas­ter char­ac­ter James Bond. This clas­sic piece of audio was record­ed in 1958, and is now list­ed in our col­lec­tion of 275 Cul­tur­al Icons: Great Artists, Writ­ers & Thinkers in Their Own Words.

via @maudnewton

 

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Doonesbury Confronts Creationism in the Classroom

in Comedy, Current Affairs, Education | July 11th, 2011

Gar­ry Trudeau has tak­en on cre­ation­ism before. He’s doing it again, this time com­ment­ing on the oxy­moron­ic “Louisiana Sci­ence Edu­ca­tion Act,” which allows the teach­ing of cre­ation­ism in the pub­lic class­room. You can view Trudeau’s car­toon in full, and in high res here.

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Watch The 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 Classic

in Film | July 8th, 2011

Back in 1915, John Buchan pub­lished his grip­ping adven­ture nov­el The Thir­ty-Nine Steps (find free ebook here). Two decades lat­er, in 1935, Alfred Hitch­cock direct­ed the first of four film adap­ta­tions based on the book, and it’s by far the best. We won’t revis­it the plot.

But we will tell you that Hitch­cock­’s clas­sic, star­ring Robert Donat and Madeleine Car­roll, ranks fourth on The British Film Insti­tute’s list of the great­est British films of the 20th cen­tu­ry. And, if you’re won­der­ing why crit­ics give Hitch­cock­’s film such high praise, sim­ply turn to Mar­i­an Keane’s essay on Cri­te­ri­on’s web­site, which ends with these words:

The director’s deep­est subjects—theater and its rela­tion to film, the aban­don­ment of human beings in vacant and fore­bod­ing land­scapes, the com­plex human quest for knowl­edge, and the nature of accidents—abound in The 39 Steps. Hitchcock’s per­cep­tion of the pre­car­i­ous­ness of human exis­tence, and his belief in film’s capac­i­ty to reveal and reflect on it, lie at the heart of his achieve­ment as a mas­ter of the art of film.

Thanks to YouTube and the Inter­net Archive, you can sit back and enjoy The 39 Steps online. It’s per­fect for the upcom­ing week­end, and it’s one of 15 Hitch­cock films avail­able on the web. See our list of Free Hitch­cock Films and our larg­er list of 1000+ Free Movies Online.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Alfred Hitch­cock Recalls Work­ing with Sal­vador Dali on Spell­bound

Truffaut’s Big Inter­view with Hitch­cock (MP3s)

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