If you grew up in the 80s, you might remember Bronson Pinchot as Balki Bartokomous in Perfect Strangers or Serge in Bev
A 20-year time lapse of stars orbiting a massive black hole
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has been watching the supermassive black hole in the
A quick visual story about welfare myths and food aid in America
From CityLab visual storyteller Ariel Aberg-Riger, How the Other Half Eats, a look at the myths surrounding welfare and
Cows, trees, corn, and golf - how America uses its land
Here’s How America Uses Its Land is a nice presentation by Bloomberg on land use in the US. The land and resources use
How one man rigged McDonald’s Monopoly and stole millions
For years, Jerry Jacobson was in charge of the security of the game pieces for McDonald’s Monopoly, one of the most suc
Here comes the sunscreen
The three toughest things about being a parent are the sleep deprivation, knowing when to let kids push their boundar
Cross-section time lapse of a kidney bean growing into a plant
It’s fun to watch this kidney bean grow into a plant over the course of 25 days to the strains of The Blue Danube walt
Moon 101, a quick explainer video from National Geographic about the Moon
I have been going a little Moon crazy lately. There was the whole Apollo 11 thing, I finished listening to the excelle
Virtually reality
From Vladimir Tomin, a fun augmented reality video where he uses a set of image editing tools to manipulate the scenery
What made Darth Vader such a visually iconic character
Darth Vader was only on screen in the original Star Wars movie for 8 minutes and for a little under 34 minutes in the
Welcome to Marwen
Mark Hogancamp was beaten by five men outside a bar and left for dead. He spent nine days in a coma, lost his memory, a
The artist who paints music
Melissa McCracken has synesthesia and experiences seeing the music she listens to as shifting colors. In an old arti
How Black Panther created an empathetic antagonist for the hero
What makes a good movie villain? In this video, Lessons from the Screenplay discusses what I thought was the best and
Fire in Cardboard City
What happens when a city made entirely of cardboard catches fire? Nothing good, as Phil Brough’s 3D animated short fil
Maps of the spread of the Agricultural & Industrial Revolutions
This is a map showing the spread of the cultivation of crops across Europe.
The legend is a bit hard to read, but the
City street orientations from around the world
Urban data scientist Geoff Boeing graphed the orientation of the streets in 50 cities from around the world. Here are 1
The Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg
I watched RBG last night, the documentary film about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. What a remarkable perso
My media diet for early Summer 2018, special roadtrip edition
I’ve been keeping track of every media thing I “consume”,1 so here are quick reviews of some things I’ve read, seen, he
Sci-fi spaceship designs inspired by everyday objects
Eric Geusz takes everyday objects like can openers, tongs, and potato peelers and turns them into spaceships that wo
What a musical conductor actually does on stage
I love hearing people talk about how they work. In this quick video, conductor James Gaffigan explains what it is he d
The web’s transition from nomadism to feudalism
This comparison by designer Alexander Singh of the development of the web from home pages to massive content farms like
A new book from David Grann about a polar journey gone wrong: The White Darkness
Author and New Yorker writer David Grann is out with a new book in the fall: The White Darkness. The book tells the sto
Film and Furniture, a site about the decor in movies
On Film and Furniture, you’ll find info about the production and set designers of films & TV shows and features abo
What if you detonated a nuclear bomb in the Marianas Trench?
In response to a dumb viral video with almost 20 million views that suggests detonating a powerful nuclear device at t
An orchestral take on Ibiza club hits
Gosh, I don’t know what micro-fraction of regular readers are going to be interested in this, but I sure was! In 2015,
Using weeds, pests, and invasive species to make sustainable sushi
At Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, CT, chef owner Bun Lai makes sustainable sushi using invasive species and other typicall
How to see kung fu films
In this video, MoMA film curator La Frances Hui gives us a very quick and informative overview of what to look for whe
This AI makes high-quality slow motion videos from regular 30 fps video
NVIDIA trained a deep learning framework to take videos filmed at 30 fps and turn them into slow motion videos at the
The weird and wonderful American roadtrip with John Margolies
For more than 30 years beginning in the 1960s, photographer John Margolies criss-crossed the USA documenting the ro
What does sleep do?
Sleep may be the most important everyday phenomenon that we understand the least well. It’s like the oceans; it’s ever
How to ask a favor
Some very useful advice from Valet magazine (which I confess I don’t read — thanks Yuri Victor!) on how to ask for a fa
The history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
I am a sucker for high-tech analog art: magnetic tape, early wireless, punch cards, film and vinyl, the telephone, tel
Live TV coverage of the Apollo 11 landing and Moon walk
In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and said:
I believe that this nation should commit itsel
The last working fore-edge painter in the world
This is a short video profile of Martin Frost, who might be the last remaining professional fore-edge painter in the w
We should be building cities for people, not cars
Devon Zuegel says that our cities and the people who live in them would be much better off if we designed them around p
Winners of the 2018 Audubon Photography Awards
The National Audubon Society has announced the winners of their ninth annual photography contest. The winning photos
Watch Eloma Simpson Barnes channel Martin Luther King Jr. in a thrilling oration
On Twitter this morning, Craig Mod asked:
What’s the best conference talk/public speech you’ve seen? Topic can be anyt
Peter Jackson is remastering old WWI film footage
Working with the 14-18 NOW project, Peter Jackson is making a film about the experience of the soldiers fighting in Wor
Gmorning, Gnight!, a book of affirmations from Lin-Manuel Miranda
On Twitter, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda often begins and ends his days by posting affirmations for his fans &a
I just saw Jaws for the first time. AMA.
Everyone has that one obviously great and popular movie that they haven’t seen yet for no good reason. Mine is Jaws. Or
Remembering the girls of the Leesburg Stockade
In Georgia in 1963, 15 African-American girls aged 12 to 15 were arrested for trying to buy movie tickets at the white
The constructive-destructive axis
In his biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson reports on some comments Jobs made over dinner to News Co
An entomologist rates ant emojis
An entomologist rates the ant emoji from a number of services including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Twitter. You c
When you do a DNA test and find out your dad is not your father
Sarah Zhang writes about a support group on Facebook for people who have discovered surprising parentage through DNA te
Anthony Bourdain on travel, luxury, the Despot’s Club, and more
Back in February, Maria Bustillos was set to interview Anthony Bourdain and she figured she’d get about 15 minutes of h
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