Open Culture » Random

14 Years of US Weather in 33 Minutes, Set to Beethoven

Dan Colman — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:39:01 +0000

There’s condensation in the air. You can feel it.

This video packs 14 years of United States weather (1997 – 2011) into 33 minutes, presenting a total of 120,900 individual frames, each spaced one hour apart. And they’re all set to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat Major. If you want to get right to the drama, we recommend jumping to the climactic 27th minute. H/T Devour.

Chilean Earthquake Waves Shown in Animation

NASA Captures Giant Solar Storm

14 Years of US Weather in 33 Minutes, Set to Beethoven is a post from: Open Culture

Werner Herzog Has a Beef With Chickens

Dan Colman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:20:17 +0000

It’s part of the beauty of Werner Herzog. His films engross us, and the director provides the entertainment on the side. You have seen him take a bullet during an interview in LA. You’ve heard him read “Go the F**k to Sleep” in New York City. And, of course, you’ve watched him eat his shoe (literally!) after loosing a bet to fellow filmmaker Errol Morris. Well, today we give you the latest, greatest Herzog moment — his 40 second discourse on why he has a beef with chickens. h/t Coudal.com

Werner Herzog Has a Beef With Chickens is a post from: Open Culture

Everything You Wanted to Know About Coffee in Three Minutes

Dan Colman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:20:47 +0000

Coffee — it’s the fuel of the modern world and certainly this site. And, if you believe this video (apparently not made by Starbucks or the American coffee lobby), it’s the greatest, safest addiction around. Take it all with a grain of salt … while you drink your morning cup of joe.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About Coffee in Three Minutes is a post from: Open Culture

Ancient Greek Punishments: The Retro Video Game

Dan Colman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:30:20 +0000

When you have a sense of humor and some free time, this is what you can come up with: Let’s Play Ancient Greek Punishment!

This amusing little creation lets users play vintage-style video games based on Ancient Greek mythology. You’re asked to toggle the “G” and “H” keys as rapidly as you can … until you realize something: the games, like the punishments meted out in Greek mythology, have no end. They go on for eternity.

The Theoi Greek Mythology internet encyclopedia will tell you more about the suffering of Sisyphus, Prometheus and others.

Ready for more retro-cultural video games? Here you go:

The Great Gatsby and Waiting for Godot: The Video Game Editions

The Long Lost Video Game of Paris Review Editor George Plimpton?

via Metafilter

Ancient Greek Punishments: The Retro Video Game is a post from: Open Culture

The Large Hadron Collider Rap, Yo

Dan Colman — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:58:26 +0000

Last week, the reports about Higgs Boson, otherwise called the God particle, put CERN and the Large Hadron Collider back into the news, leading some to ask: What exactly are Higgs and the Collider all about? We’re glad you asked. And what better way to answer that question than with a fly, little rap by Kate McAlpine (aka Alpinekat) and Will Barras. You can find the full lyrics below the jump, and the parts about Higgs Boson right below…

The Higgs Boson – that’s the one that everybody talks about.
And it’s the one sure thing that this machine will sort out
If the Higgs exists, they ought to see it right away
And if it doesn’t, then the scientists will finally say
“There is no Higgs! We need new physics to account for why
Things have mass. Something in our Standard Model went awry.”

But the Higgs – I still haven’t said just what it does
They suppose that particles have mass because
There is this Higgs field that extends through all space
And some particles slow down while other particles race
Straight through like the photon – it has no mass
But something heavy like the top quark, it’s draggin’ its ***
And the Higgs is a boson that carries a force
And makes particles take orders from the field that is its source.
They’ll detect it…

Twenty-seven kilometers of tunnel under ground
Designed with mind to send protons around
A circle that crosses through Switzerland and France
Sixty nations contribute to scientific advance
Two beams of protons swing round, through the ring they ride
‘Til in the hearts of the detectors, they’re made to collide
And all that energy packed in such a tiny bit of room
Becomes mass, particles created from the vacuum
And then…

LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.

We see asteroids and planets, stars galore
We know a black hole resides at each galaxy’s core
But even all that matter cannot explain
What holds all these stars together – something else remains
This dark matter interacts only through gravity
And how do you catch a particle there’s no way to see
Take it back to the conservation of energy
And the particles appear, clear as can be

You see particles flying, in jets they spray
But you notice there ain’t nothin’, goin’ the other way
You say, “My law has just been violated – it don’t make sense!
There’s gotta be another particle to make this balance.”
And it might be dark matter, and for first
Time we catch a glimpse of what must fill most of the known ‘Verse.
Because…

LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.

Antimatter is sort of like matter’s evil twin
Because except for charge and handedness of spin
They’re the same for a particle and its anti-self
But you can’t store an antiparticle on any shelf
Cuz when it meets its normal twin, they both annihilate
Matter turns to energy and then it dissipates

When matter is created from energy
Which is exactly what they’ll do in the LHC
You get matter and antimatter in equal parts
And they try to take that back to when the universe starts
The Big Bang – back when the matter all exploded
But the amount of antimatter was somehow eroded
Because when we look around we see that matter abounds
But antimatter’s nowhere to be found.
That’s why…

LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.

The Higgs Boson – that’s the one that everybody talks about.
And it’s the one sure thing that this machine will sort out
If the Higgs exists, they ought to see it right away
And if it doesn’t, then the scientists will finally say
“There is no Higgs! We need new physics to account for why
Things have mass. Something in our Standard Model went awry.”

But the Higgs – I still haven’t said just what it does
They suppose that particles have mass because
There is this Higgs field that extends through all space
And some particles slow down while other particles race
Straight through like the photon – it has no mass
But something heavy like the top quark, it’s draggin’ its ***
And the Higgs is a boson that carries a force
And makes particles take orders from the field that is its source.
They’ll detect it….

LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.

Now some of you may think that gravity is strong
Cuz when you fall off your bicycle it don’t take long
Until you hit the earth, and you say, “Dang, that hurt!”
But if you think that force is powerful, you’re wrong.
You see, gravity – it’s weaker than Weak
And the reason why is something many scientists seek
They think about dimensions – we just live in three
But maybe there are some others that are too small to see
It’s into these dimensions that gravity extends
Which makes it seem weaker, here on our end.
And these dimensions are “rolled up” – curled so tight
That they don’t affect you in your day to day life
But if you were as tiny as a graviton
You could enter these dimensions and go wandering on
And they’d find you…

When LHCb sees where the antimatter’s gone
ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions
CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind
They’re looking for whatever new particles they can find.
The LHC accelerates the protons and the lead
And the things that it discovers will rock you in the head!

The Large Hadron Collider Rap, Yo is a post from: Open Culture

Iron Mike Tyson Sings “The Girl From Ipanema”

Dan Colman — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:23:28 +0000

Once beauty, now farce. h/t @opedr

Iron Mike Tyson Sings “The Girl From Ipanema” is a post from: Open Culture

The Thanksgiving Math Lecture: Real Meets Virtual

Dan Colman — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:00:50 +0000

Matthew Weathers teaches computer science and mathematics courses at Biola University in southern California, and, while wrapping up a lecture last week, the talk turned to Thanksgiving and, well, you can watch the rest.

On a more serious note, don’t miss our collection of 400 Free Online Courses.

The Thanksgiving Math Lecture: Real Meets Virtual is a post from: Open Culture

A Stunning, Chance Encounter With Nature

Dan Colman — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:50:47 +0000

Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith were canoeing somewhere in Ireland when they had a chance encounter with one of nature’s greatest and most fleeting phenomena — a murmuration of starlings. The spectacle is a magical case of mathematical chaos in action. And, it’s all driven by the quest for survival. The Telegraph has more….

via Dot Earth

A Stunning, Chance Encounter With Nature is a post from: Open Culture

How Much Does The Entire, Big Internet Weigh?

Dan Colman — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:29:48 +0000

5 million terabytes of information. That’s what you get when you bundle up all of the emails, videos, photos, web sites and sundry materials available on the web. Now here’s the big question: how much does all of that information weigh? No spoilers here. We’ll let the folks at VSauce give you the answer.

PS The 5 million terabytes figure was given by Eric Schmidt in 2005. So the figure is a bit dated, but it doesn’t take away from the gist of the exercise…

How Much Does The Entire, Big Internet Weigh? is a post from: Open Culture

Names of Paris Métro Stops Acted Out: Photos by Janol Apin

Dan Colman — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:18:08 +0000

A little fun for anyone who has spent time on the Paris Métro, which carries millions of passengers through 301 often artfully-named stops each day. Shot during the 1990s by Janol Apin, this collection of photos takes the names of real stations and acts them out in imaginative ways. Enjoy the rest here. H/T @MatthiasRascher

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Names of Paris Métro Stops Acted Out: Photos by Janol Apin is a post from: Open Culture