Tuesday, June 23, 2020

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Stopmotion Skiing at Home - Philipp Klein Herrero




When avid skier Philipp Klein Herrero had to cancel a ski trip in the mountains, he decided to set up his GoPro and bring the mountains to him. The result: Freeride Skiing at Home. Filmed from above, this stop-motion short is a delightful escape from being stuck inside. He explains:
Just before the current health situation locked us in, I was about to go Freeriding with my family. It was supposed to be the big adventure of the year, the one I had been eagerly awaiting for a year. Therefore, the lockdown had me thinking about skiing the whole time, so I started to think how I could ski without leaving my living room…
I made this video to cheer up a little and spread positivity during these times.
top of the mountain
freeride skiing

Thursday, June 11, 2020

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Apple OpenDoc Technology Intro







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow

The dogcow, named Clarus, is a bitmapped image designed by Apple for the demonstration of page layout in Mac OS. The sound she makes is "Moof!".[1] Clarus became the archetype of surrealistic humor in the corporate culture of the original Macintosh group, particularly as the mascot of Apple’s Developer Technical Support as officially documented in Technote #31.[1][2]

Did they have a heated conversation and holler "Dog!" "Cow!" "Dog!" "Cow!" back and forth? We may never know. But one thing is clear, Mr. Zimmerman finally gave in and said, "It's both, OK? It's called a 'dogcow.' Now will you get out of my office?"
— History of the Dogcow, Part 1[3]
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Geologic Time - A Visualization and Essay

Geologists have divided the whole of geologic history into units of varying length.  Together, they compose the geologic time scale of Earth history.  The major units of the time scale were delineated during the nineteenth century, principally by scientists in Western Europe and Great Britain.  Because radiometric dating was unavailable at that time, the entire time scale was created using methods of relative dating.  It was only in the twentieth century that radiometric methods permitted numerical dates to be added.

Here is an interactive diagram of the scale of geologic time.  Click on the right columns to zoom in, the left column to zoom out.  Data from the Geological Society of America



Structure of the Time Scale

The geologic time scale subdivides the 4.6 billion year history of Earth into many different units and provides a meaningful time frame within which the events of the geologic past are arranged.   Eons represent the greatest expanses of time.  The eon that began about 542 millions years ago is the Phanerozoic, a term derived from Greek words meaning "visible life."  It is an appropriate description because the rocks and deposits  of the Phanerozoic eon contain abundant fossils that document major evolutionary trends.

Another glance at the time scale reveals that eons are divided into eras.  The Phanerozoic eon consists of the Paleozoic era (paleo = ancient, zoe = life), the Mesozoic era (meso = middle), and the Cenozoic era (ceno = recent).  As the names imply, these eras are bounded by profound worldwide changes in life forms.

Each era of the Phanerozoic eon is further divided into time units known as periods.  The Paleozoic has seven, and teh Mesozoic and Cenozoic each have three.  Each of these periods is charactered by a somewhat less profound change in life-forms as compared with the eras.

Each of the periods is divided into still smaller units called epochs.  Seven epoch have been names for the periods of the Cenozoic.  The epochs of other periods usually are simply termed early, middle, and late.

Precambrian Time

Notice that the detail of the geologic time scale does not begin until about 542 million years ago, the date for the beginning of the Cambrian period.  The nearly 4 billion years prior to the Cambrian are divided into two eons, the Archean (archaios = ancient) and the Proterzoic (proteros = before, zoe = life).  It is also common for this vast expanse of time to simply be referred to as the Precambrian.  Although it represents about 88% of Earth history, the Precambrian is not divided into nearly as many smaller time units as the Phanerozoic.

Why is the huge expanse of Precambrian time not divided into eras, periods, and epochs?  The reason is that Precambrian history is not known in great enough detail.  The quantity of information that geologists have deciphered about Earth's past is somewhat analogous to the detail of human history.  The further back we go, the less that is known.  Certainly more data and information exist about the past 10 years than for the first decade of the twentieth century; the events of the nineteenth century have been documented much better than the events of the first century AD; and so on.  So it is with Earth history.   The more recent past has the freshest, least disturbed, and most observable record.  The further back in time. a geologist goes, the more fragmented the record and clues become.  There are other reasons to explain our lack of a detailed time scale for this vast segment of Earth history.

1. The first abundant fossil evidence does not appear in the geologist record until the beginning of the Cambrian period.  Prior to the Cambrian, simple lifeforms such as algae, bacteria, and worms predominated. All of these organisms lack hard parts, an important condition favoring preservation.  For this reason, there is only a meager Precambrian fossil record.  Many exposes of Precambrian rocks have been studied in some detail, but correlation is often difficult when fossils are lacking.

2. Because Precambrian rocks are very old, most have been subjected to a great many changes.  Much of the Precambrian rock record is composed of highly distorted metamorphic rocks.  This makes the interpretation of past environments difficult because many of the clues present in the original sedimentary rocks have been destroyed.

Radiometric dating has provided a partial solution to the troublesome task of dating and correlating Precambrian rocks.  But untangling the complex Precambrian record still remains a daunting task.

Terminology and the Geologic Time Scale

There are some terms that are associated with the geologic time sale but are not "officially" recognized as being part of it.  The best known, and most common, example is "Precambrian" -- the informal name for the eons that came before the current Phanerozoic eon.  Although the term Precambrian has no formal status on teh geologic time scale, it has been traditionally used as though it does.

Hadean is another informal term that is found on some versions of the geologic time scale and is used by many geologists.  It refers to the earliest interval (eon) of Earth history -- before the oldest-known rocks.  When the term was coined in 1972, the age of Earth's oldest rocks was about 3.8 billion years.  Today that number stands at slightly greater than 4 billion, and, of course, is subject to revision.  The name Hadean derives from Hades, Greek for underworld -- a reference to the "hellish" conditions that prevailed on Earth early in its history.

Effective communication in the geosciences requires that the geologic time scale consist of standardized divisions and dates.  So, who determines which names and dates on the geologic time scale are "official"?  The organization that is largely responsible for maintaining and updating this important document is the Interanl Comittee on Straigraphy (ICS), a committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences.  Advances in teh geosciences require tha tthe scale be periodically updated to included changes in unit names and boundary age estimates.

For exmaple, the geologic time scale shown in 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Hand-Welded TIE Fighter and X-Wing Candlesticks

XWing TieFighter Candlesticks

Alex Dodson of Burned by Design has again added to his incredible Star Wars inspired collection with amazing TIE Fighter and X-Wing candlesticks. Like his other work, Dodson hand cuts and welds each piece himself. The battle-ready candlesticks are perfectly content to stay at home with warming tealight candles to shine the way.
Whether you are in to bombing Death Star Trenches or blasting Rebel Fighters, this pair of candlesticks is for you!! Based on the iconic Tie Fighter and X Wing starships from the Star Wars saga, each candlestick is individually handcrafted to order incorporating precision laser cut profiles in mild steel.
TieFighter Candlesticks
X Wing Fighter Candlestick
XWing TieFighter Candlesticks Outside

Monday, June 8, 2020

When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving - Reginald Dwayne Betts

When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving
by Reginald Dwayne Betts

in the backseat of my car are my own sons,
still not yet Tamir’s age, already having heard
me warn them against playing with toy pistols,
though my rhetoric is always about what I don’t
like, not what I fear, because sometimes
I think of  Tamir Rice & shed tears, the weeping
all another insignificance, all another way to avoid
saying what should be said: the Second Amendment
is a ruthless one, the pomp & constitutional circumstance
that says my arms should be heavy with the weight
of a pistol when forced to confront death like
this: a child, a hidden toy gun, an officer that fires
before his heart beats twice. My two young sons play
in the backseat while the video of  Tamir dying
plays in my head, & for everything I do know, the thing
I don’t say is that this should not be the brick and mortar
of poetry, the moment when a black father drives
his black sons to school & the thing in the air is the death
of a black boy that the father cannot mention,
because to mention the death is to invite discussion
of  taboo: if you touch my sons the crimson
that touches the concrete must belong, at some point,
to you, the police officer who justifies the echo
of the fired pistol; taboo: the thing that says that justice
is a killer’s body mangled and disrupted by bullets
because his mind would not accept the narrative
of  your child’s dignity, of  his right to life, of  his humanity,
and the crystalline brilliance you saw when your boys first breathed;
the narrative must invite more than the children bleeding
on crisp fall days; & this is why I hate it all, the people around me,
the black people who march, the white people who cheer,
the other brown people, Latinos & Asians & all the colors of   humanity
that we erase in this American dance around death, as we
are not permitted to articulate the reasons we might yearn
to see a man die; there is so much that has to disappear
for my mind not to abandon sanity: Tamir for instance, everything
about him, even as his face, really and truly reminds me
of my own, in the last photo I took before heading off
to a cell, disappears, and all I have stomach for is blood,
and there is a part of me that wishes that it would go away,
the memories, & that I could abandon all talk of making it right
& justice. But my mind is no sieve & sanity is no elixir & I am bound
to be haunted by the strength that lets Tamir’s father,
mother, kinfolk resist the temptation to turn everything
they see into a grave & make home the series of cells
that so many of my brothers already call their tomb.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

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Vienna is Like... by Fernando Livschitz

Vienna is like... from Black Sheep Films on Vimeo.


Statues and buildings float, Slinkys connect articulated buses, and carnival rides get supersized in Vienna, Austria with help from Argentine director Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films. Animation and live-action blend fantastical sights with reality in Vienna is like…
Watch the Upper Belvedere levitate in layers, dancers magically don colorful dance clothes mid-jump at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), St. Stephen’s Cathedral becomes a swing carousel, and more. Livschitz specializes in transposing “fantasy elements into meticulously captured contemporary backdrops.”

cathedral swing carousel

vienna slinky bus

vienna floating building

Saturday, June 6, 2020

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Can You Grow a Glacier?




In the 13th century, Genghis Khan embarked on a mission to take over Eurasia, swiftly conquering countries and drawing them into his empire. But, legend has it that there was one obstacle that even he couldn’t overcome: a towering wall of ice, grown by locals across a mountain pass.
Learn more about how ancient cultures created glaciers high above their villages, sources for reliable water to nuture their crops. Watch How to Grow a Glacier, a TED-Ed by M Jackson, with animation by Artrake Studio.

glacier meltwater for irrigation
Then explore how this ancient practice is still happening today with the help of some simple engineering. In 2013, Ladakhi engineer Sonam Wangchuk created The Ice Stupa Project, an artificial glacier that can serve as storage for a quarter of a million gallons of freshwater in Kashmir, India‘s high desert. The siphon and sprinkler-made ice pyramids resemble stupa Buddhist monuments used for meditation. From The New Yorker:
The [artificial ice] stupas are created in winter, using runoff or spring water that’s been piped underground and downslope. The water is released at night, when temperatures can drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit. It shoots through a sprinkler into the air and freezes. In the course of the season, elaborate conical structures take shape, with the contours of the drip castles that kids make on the beach.



ice stupa artificial glacier project
Ice stupas can reach the height of a ten-story building. They start to melt in March, and at higher elevations—some villages in Ladakh sit more than fifteen thousand feet above sea level—the process can last through July. The meltwater helps farmers get through the crucial spring planting season, when they sow vegetables, barley, and potatoes. (Rainfall in the region averages only around four inches a year.)
See how Wangchuk’s plans for a desert oasis with help from the conceptual animations in this Mashable video: 


Friday, June 5, 2020

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Glasswing Butterflies - KQED




Glasswing butterflies aren’t made of glass, but their transparent wings help them blend with their surroundings, protecting them from predators. This Deep Look episode from KQED takes the time to observe the life cycle of glasswing butterflies (Greta oto), as well as the special nanopillars responsible for their non-reflecting wings.
glasswing butterfly on note paper
While camouflage is common in nature, actual attempts at invisibility are rare. “Glasswings excel at being dull, and that helps them hide in plain sight.”
File this video under biomimicryFrom KQED.org:
By better understanding how these butterflies reduce glare, [Nipam Patel Lab doctoral candidate] Aaron Pomerantz and the other researchers hope that technologies might arise to increase the efficiency of solar panels by reducing the amount of light that bounces off the surface of the panel before it can be turned into electricity.
“Nature’s already figured out solutions to many of the problems that we have today,” he said."




More from Pomerantz’s site TheNextGenScientist.com:
So, what’s the deal Glasswings? Are you transparent to go unseen? Are you bright to show off warning colors? Perhaps a bit of both? I think it’d be interesting if the dual nature serves to avoid a certain kind of predator under reflected light. Another possibility is that they’re showing off ultraviolet colors as warnings, which would be invisible to us, but clear as day to other animals such as birds, many of which contain opsins in their eyes capable of detecting UV. Either way, they’re a beautiful group of butterflies and it’s a beautiful scientific mystery to (attempt to) solve the evolution and development of transparency."
glasswing butterfly 

Thursday, June 4, 2020

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Clangers TV Show



Clangers is a BAFTA-winning British stop-motion children’s series about “small creatures living in peace and harmony on – and inside – a small, hollow planet, far, far away.” It first-aired in 1969 and returned to television in 2015. In this 50th anniversary celebration episode, which aired in 2019, renowned space scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock plays an astronaut that visits the Clangers.

astronaut landing

Note: The clip, narrated by Sir Michael Palin, seems to include a few more ads than are usually found in a ten-minute clip for kids, but it’s still a sweet celebration of the series. Follow it with this Clangers clip of Aderin-Pocock talking about the astronaut puppet created in her likeness.





And for those not yet familiar, an introduction to the Clangers from the video description:
The Clangers are an inquisitive family of creatures who live on a Little Blue Planet in outer space. The pink, space mouse-like creatures, who communicate with high-pitched whistles, are supportive of one another as they embark on surreal adventures, meet peculiar new friends, and explore curiosities they experience in the world. The stop-motion animated series aims to teach kids such qualities as inventiveness and kindness.
Aderin-Pocock visits Clangers

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

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Building a Giant Furry Electric Dog Car





When eleven-year-old Alex designed her Giant Furry Electric Dog Car, the team at Kids Invent Stuff rose to the challenge of making it real. In this how-it’s-made video, makers Ruth Amos and Shawn Brown team up to weld, wire, staple, tape, glue, and screw together the canine-themed vehicle, complete with a huge wagging tail.
Here’s the result of their month of work. See it in action when they take it out for a spin in the video below:
electric dog car



Interested in submitting your ideas? Check out their form here. From their site:
Kids Invent Stuff is the YouTube channel where 4-11 year olds have the chance to get their invention ideas built by real engineers. We do this to give more primary school kids the chance to engage with real engineering projects.
Their efforts are in support of the United Kingdom’s “Engineering: Take a closer look” campaign to inspire the next generation of innovators, inventors and problem solvers.
dog car with a dog