Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos (Including Boomerang in Zero Gravity)

in Physics, Science, Video - Science | September 8th, 2008

Wired Sci­ence gives you their favorites here. Below, we’ve post­ed a sam­ple: It’s called “Boomerang in Zero Grav­i­ty” and shows that, even in out­er space, a boomerang will always return to the per­son who threw it.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

The iPhone: Your Foreign Travel Companion

in Apple | September 7th, 2008

How can the iPhone become your handy trav­el com­pan­ion? The NYTimes explains. Also, as a bonus, trav­el­ers should see our ear­li­er piece. Turn Your iPod into a Trav­el Guide: 20 Trav­el Pod­casts.

PS One of our read­ers raised a good point that deserves some high­light­ing (Thanks Sebastien):

“Turn­ing your iphone into a for­eign trav­el com­pan­ion could cost you a lit­tle for­tune because most of these iphone appli­ca­tions need and Inter­net con­nec­tion to work. Unless you have wifi in your hotel room, you would have to roam on 3G or Edge which would prob­a­bly make it the most expen­sive trip ever…”

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Download Michael Moore’s New Film For Free

in Current Affairs, Film, Politics, Video - Politics/Society | September 5th, 2008

Michael Moore is get­ting wise to the virtues of free/open cul­ture. Start­ing Sep­tem­ber 23, you can down­load his new film — Slack­er Upris­ing — via the web for free. The unfor­tu­nate rub is that this down­load will only be avail­able to US and Cana­di­an res­i­dents, and it will remain free via the web for three weeks. You can get more info and sign up to down­load the film here. Below, you can also pre­view the film, which (sur­prise, sur­prise) ties into the Amer­i­can elec­tion.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

When Comedy Keeps American Politics Honest

in Comedy, Politics | September 4th, 2008

A rather sad com­men­tary on the integri­ty, depth and sin­cer­i­ty of the Amer­i­can pol­i­tics. But, it’s fun­ny and it’s Fri­day, so here it goes. Take it away John Stew­art (and thanks for the tip Lar­ry):

PS Check out this WSJ arti­cle, The Biol­o­gy of Ide­ol­o­gy, which sug­gests that our polit­i­cal choic­es may be shaped by genet­ics.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Jon Stewart’s “Dai­ly Show” Now Online: 1999 — Present

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Darius Goes West: Film For Good

in Film | September 4th, 2008

Though not a mass media film, Dar­ius Goes West won 28 film fes­ti­val awards dur­ing 2007. The movie tracks Dar­ius Weems, who has Duchenne Mus­cu­lar Dys­tro­phy, as he trav­els across the US to get his wheel­chair worked over by MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” And now it has been released on DVD. The film­mak­ers are look­ing to sell one mil­lion DVDs and raise $17 mil­lion for Duchenne mus­cu­lar dys­tro­phy, all in order to find a treat­ment or cure. You can learn more about the film and buy a DVD here. Also watch a video clip about the movie and the fund rais­ing dri­ve below. The cause is good. Have a look. Thanks Collin for the heads up on this…

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

Color Photos From 1909

in Art | September 3rd, 2008

“Col­or film was non-exis­tent in 1909 Rus­sia, yet in that year a pho­tog­ra­ph­er named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii embarked on a pho­to­graph­ic sur­vey of his home­land and cap­tured hun­dreds of pho­tos in full, vivid col­or. His pho­to­graph­ic plates were black and white, but he had devel­oped an inge­nious pho­to­graph­ic tech­nique which allowed him to use them to pro­duce accu­rate col­or images.”

To view the pho­tos click here, and learn how he accom­plished this, click here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Learn the Art of Pho­tog­ra­phy: The Nikon Way
Sub­scribe to Our Feed

America Needs More Palin … Michael Palin, That Is

in Comedy, Video - Arts & Culture | September 3rd, 2008

Below, some vin­tage Mon­ty Python footage… (And see our relat­ed piece: 150 Mon­ty Python Sketch­es.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

500 KM Asteroid Hits Earth

in Science, Video - Science | September 3rd, 2008

The Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel has pro­duced a rather impres­sive (though cer­tain­ly bleak) sim­u­la­tion of what would hap­pen:

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

The Comic Book Introduces Google’s New Web Browser

in Google | September 2nd, 2008

Here’s a heads up from Altaf, one of our read­ers…

The tech world is buzzing today about Google Chrome, the new web brows­er com­ing out of Moun­tain View. If you’re won­der­ing what it’s all about, you can read a com­ic book (pro­duced by Google) that intro­duces the new ini­tia­tive. (Win­dows users can down­load the brows­er here; Mac users, includ­ing yours tru­ly, seem to be out of luck for now.) The experts, who have looked under the hood, are enthu­si­as­tic so far. Walt Moss­berg, the tech review­er for the Wall Street Jour­nal, ren­ders his ver­dict: “Chrome is a smart, inno­v­a­tive brows­er that, in many com­mon sce­nar­ios, will make using the Web faster, eas­i­er and less frus­trat­ing. But this first version—which is just a beta, or test, release—is rough around the edges and lacks some com­mon brows­er fea­tures Google plans to add lat­er. These omis­sions include a way to man­age book­marks, a com­mand for email­ing links and pages direct­ly from the brows­er, and even a progress bar to show how much of a Web page has loaded.” You can read the full review here. Now, let the brows­er wars begin again.

Sub­scribe to Our Feed

The 50 Greatest Arts Videos on YouTube

in Art, Literature, Music, Video - Arts & Culture, YouTube | September 1st, 2008

One of our British read­ers turned us on to this post by the Guardian, not­ing that they took a page from our gen­er­al play­book. The post fea­tures 50 of the best YouTube clips from across the arts, some of which we’ve fea­tured here in the past. Among the videos, you’ll find vin­tage per­for­mances by John Coltrane and Bil­lie Hol­i­day, read­ings by Jack Ker­ouac, an inter­view with Eugène Ionesco, clips of Nir­vana rehears­ing in a garage, Vladimir Nabokov talk­ing about Loli­ta, Jack­son Pol­lock drip­ping paint out­side his home, and Mar­lon Bran­do doing a screen test for Rebel With­out a Cause. We have post­ed the Bran­do clip below. There are some def­i­nite gems here. Now dive in. And don’t for­get to work through our YouTube playlist and our piece 70 Signs of Intel­li­gent Life at YouTube, where you’ll find enrich­ing video col­lec­tions.

Thanks Stephen for the tip. And read­ers, keep the good rec­om­men­da­tions com­ing!

Sub­scribe to Our Feed