Our Extraterrestrial DNA

in Life, Physics, Video - Science | August 17th, 2011

The search for extrater­res­tri­al life brings us right back to where we start­ed, plan­et Earth, at least for a moment. NASA researchers have dis­cov­ered evi­dence that some build­ing blocks of DNA, the mol­e­cule that holds the genet­ic instruc­tions for life, were like­ly cre­at­ed in space and then brought to Earth by mete­orites, leav­ing behind a “kit of ready-made parts” that con­tributed to the ori­gin of life. All of this gets spelled out by Dr. Michael Calla­han in this video released last week by NASA’s God­dard Space Flight Cen­ter.

If you still find your­self doubt­ing our extrater­res­tri­al ori­gins, then chew on this more basic fact under­scored by physi­cist Lawrence Krauss. We are all star­dust. Put sim­ply, every lit­tle atom in our bod­ies comes from a super­no­va, an explod­ing star…

Fol­low us on Face­book and Twit­ter, and we’ll deliv­er great cul­ture right to your vir­tu­al doorstep, day in, day out.

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A Day in California

in Life | August 9th, 2011

Opin­ions are famous­ly mixed on South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. It has nev­er been Woody Allen’s kind of place. In Annie Hall, he quipped “I mean, who would want to live in a place where the only cul­tur­al advan­tage is that you can turn right on a red light.” But this is com­ing from a guy who prefers fog and over­cast skies to sun­ny days at the beach, some­one who does­n’t quite con­nect with what has drawn 25 mil­lion peo­ple to the region. Ryan Kil­lack­ey’s short film, “A Day in Cal­i­for­nia,” will speak to those res­i­dents, or any­one who dreams of the South­ern Cal­i­for­nia life. He worked on the project for a year and a half, and it com­bines 10,000 images into a seam­less whole. Learn more about the project or watch the film here.

via @alyssa_milano

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Mariachi Band Serenades Beluga Whale at Mystic Aquarium

in Life, Music | August 5th, 2011

Last month, the Mari­achi band, “Los Trovadores de Amer­i­ca,” played at a wed­ding held at the Mys­tic Aquar­i­um in Ston­ing­ton, Con­necti­cut. Before wrap­ping up, the guys were good enough to ser­e­nade one of the bel­u­ga whales. And, you know, the sea crea­ture seemed to appre­ci­ate it. Enjoy the week­end … H/T @sheerly

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The Persecution of Daniel Lee

in Life, Technology | July 29th, 2011

A sto­ry appear­ing in July’s Stan­ford Mag­a­zine begins with the cap­tion: “An Inter­net smear cam­paign near­ly destroyed the South Kore­an star, but he fought back with the only weapon he had: the truth.” And, from there, you’re launched into one of the more flab­ber­gast­ing sto­ries you’ve read in some time. Give The Per­se­cu­tion of Daniel Lee a read, and you’ll see that we’re not being the least bit hyper­bol­ic.

The inter­net can be a won­der­ful place. We all know that. But, as with any oth­er place humans inhab­it, it has a dark side, and that’s what we encounter here…

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Life in Moments/Moments in Life

in Art, Film, Life | July 28th, 2011

Back in 2009, the folks at Radi­o­Lab tack­led anoth­er big ques­tion: “What hap­pens at the moment when we slip from life…to the oth­er side? Is it a moment? If it is, when exact­ly does it hap­pen? And what hap­pens after­ward?”

The show (lis­ten here) inspired film­mak­er Will Hoff­man to shoot a video the med­i­tates on the lit­tle moments that give life (and death) their mean­ing. Some moments stand in iso­la­tion. Oth­ers moments are con­nect­ed, cre­at­ing a link between birth and death, cause and effect, begin­nings and ends. In this audio clip, Hoff­man talks with Radi­o­Lab co-host Robert Krul­wich about the vision inform­ing the video sim­ply called Moments. And, if it delights, don’t miss two oth­er Hoffman/RadioLab pro­duc­tions, one sim­ply called Words, the oth­er Sym­me­try.

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Free Rap in the Streets of NYC

in Life, Music | July 23rd, 2011

Back in Novem­ber 2008, just days after the his­toric elec­tion of Barack Oba­ma, Chris “Shock­wave” Sul­li­van took to the streets of New York City and invit­ed unsus­pect­ing pedes­tri­ans to rap with him. The video went online in 2009, but it’s only going viral today. Fun­ny how the web works. H/T Kot­tke

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Hey New York, What Song Are You Lis­ten­ing To?

What New York­ers Heard on the Radio the Night John Lennon was Shot

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Blind Guitarist Lives Out Dream at U2 Show

in Life, Music | July 6th, 2011

What can I say? I’m a suck­er for these feel-good moments. This past week­end, Adam Bev­ell, who lost his sight more than two decades ago, attend­ed his 20th U2 con­cert in Nashville. Through­out the show, he held up a sign that read “Blind Gui­tar Play­er: Bring Me Up!” And even­tu­al­ly Bono took him up on the offer, invit­ing him on stage to strum along to “All I Want is You” and then let­ting him leave with a lit­tle par­ty favor — Bono’s green gui­tar. A class act.

You can catch Adam talk­ing about his expe­ri­ence and play­ing some more gui­tar here. And if you like moments like these, then don’t miss this feelin’-groovy moment from Paul Simon’s recent show in Toron­to.

via @Metafilter

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A Firework’s Point of View

in Life, Video - Science | July 4th, 2011

The Texas-based artist and video­g­ra­ph­er Jere­mi­ah War­ren mount­ed a wide angle lens cam­era on some fire­works to give us the fire­works’ angle on their own brief, bright tra­jec­to­ry. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, the very cool two-minute video — equal parts Strangelove, Pyn­chon, and ver­ti­go — went viral over the week­end.

For more infor­ma­tion about War­ren’s cam­era set-up, check out his Flickr page.

Hap­py Fourth!

via Tara McGin­ley

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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