Video
bioephemera | June 12, 2009
Sometimes art doesn't need to be complicated. Shawn Knol's simple videos of oil in water capture fascinating patterns reminiscent of dividing cells, budding spores or lava lamps, depending on your mood. His newest, Psycho Bubble (above), was just released a few days ago.
"A lot of people are asking how I did this. It's pretty simple. I just put the camera on its lowest jpeg setting, placed the camera into continuous mode, and locked the shutter down with my wired remote. The oil is being dumped into a tall cylindrical glass, with about a cup of water in it. The whole thing is lit from…
bioephemera | June 10, 2009One of the challenges we faced with our new blogosphere initiative, Silence is the Enemy, was how to mobilize people to do something about the plight of rape victims. It's not that people don't have empathy for rape victims; it's that the experience of living in a war-torn nation where rape and murder are routine facts of life is so foreign and horrifying to us, we tend to tune it out. Part of the way to deal with this is to give people a clear mission - something simple they can do; in our case, donating to Doctors without Borders (as I am for the month of June), or writing to Congress, or…
grrlscientist | June 10, 2009tags: agribusiness, agriculture, dairy farm, cows, industrial dairy farm, milk, dairy products, streaming video
This is interesting video sums up my view of America perfectly .. After visiting a Denny's Restaurant, President Obama was visibly shaken and disillusioned; and plans to abandon complex policies on emissions, clean coal and refocus on achievable goals like applying deodorant daily, and learning what to say when you burp [2:46]
Of course, I want to point out that Denny's looks upper middle class when compared to the McDonald's in my 'hood. Just sayin'.
The Onion News Network is an…
grrlscientist | June 8, 2009tags: dancing bird, Wire-tailed manakin, Pipra filicauda, behavior, ornithology, birds, nature, streaming video
This streaming video records the dance of a male Wire-tailed manakin, Pipra filicauda, a lovely passerine species endemic to the lower areas near rivers in the rainforests of northeastern Peru, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and western Brazil [1:30]
grrlscientist | June 7, 2009tags: disease, god, religion, creationism, humor, funny, satire, Edward Current, streaming video
In a live webcast, Edward Current explains how God created a perfect world and had nothing to do with creating disease. But letting just anyone write in and comment probably wasn't the best idea [3:51]
grrlscientist | June 6, 2009tags: Belmont Stakes, horse racing, race horses, Summer Bird, Mine That Bird, sports, streaming video
From left, Summer Bird, ridden by Kent Desormeaux,
Mine That Bird, ridden by Calvin Borel, and
Dunkirk ridden by John R. Velazquez, race toward the finish line
in the 2009 Belmont Stakes.
Image: Kathy Willens.
Kent Desormeaux, the other Cajun jockey in the Belmont Stakes, rode the other son of Birdstone, Summer Bird, to victory in today's Belmont Stakes. (Birdstone was the upset winner of the 2004 Belmont Stakes). Summer Bird is a half brother to today's favorite, Kentucky Derby winner,…
grrlscientist | June 6, 2009tags: child stars, Disney, geneticists, satire, humor, funny, social commentary, streaming video
In this amazing news report, Disney claims its latest batch of child stars is so lifelike, you'll barely be able to tell they have no souls [2:40]
sjurvetson | June 5, 2009Looking Outward
With a big enough airframe, the camera can be inside looking out, or bouncing off a 45° mirror, or both. For my Level 3 Certification, I buily a 7.5" diameter GLR Sledgehammer and fiberglassed it for strength:
I simulate the flights before launch, and compare the actual performance recorded by two on-board flight computers:
For her second flight, I switched to a red propellant (Aerotech M1550 motor) and added a video bay (making the rocket taller). I could fit a Sony PC-1 DV tape recorder which has the benefit of recording tape up through a destructive event, were there…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2009tags: TEDTalks, ornithology, dodo bird, Adam Savage, streaming video
Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. It's an entertaining adventure through the mind of a creative obsessive. [15:39]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas…
sjurvetson | June 3, 2009Part 1 - Looking Down with a Strap-on Videocamera
I fiberglassed half of a plastic Easter Egg as the nose cone for an Oregon Scientific action cam, so it can be a strap-on on various rockets:
One of my goals has been to capture another rocket launching up after me as a chaser:
And sometimes you see the crowd from a mile up... or on the return:
I'll embed one of the video examples. It allows for frame grabs of blastoff, and the ignition of the outer booster by on-board computer:
and the subsequent launch of three chaser rockets... and a glorious arc over:
The video can also record…
grrlscientist | June 3, 2009tags: Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, H$U$, cloning food, terrorism, animals, pets, false advertising, streaming video
I have followed this video as it has been removed from YouTube and been suppressed several times due to legal bullying by the activist and terrorist organization, the Humane Society of the United States (H$U$). This investigative report, which appeared a couple weeks ago on WSB TV [channel 2 in Atlanta], reveals that H$U$ uses misinformation to trick the public into thinking they are donating funds to build local shelters for homeless pets, and to help rescue pets…
grrlscientist | June 2, 2009tags: feral cats, housecats, feral cat colonies, unwanted pet cats, alien species, invasive alien species, wild birds, disease transmission, conservation, streaming video
This video documents the fact that "feral cat colonies" are a disaster for wild birds. Each year free-roaming and feral cats kill hundreds of million of birds in the United States. One controversial solution to deal with the feral cat problem is trap, neuter and release. However, evidence is growing that this method is not eliminating the cat colonies or the predation of birds and other wildlife. There are other problems…
grrlscientist | June 1, 2009tags: trivia, factoids, 81 Things You Probably Didn't Know, offbeat, streaming video
This video is filled with a bunch of trivial facts .. things that are true and, when we know them, make us feel like we aren't uninformed morons. The factoids are interesting, but music that accompanies this video is really stupid [7:54]
grrlscientist | May 31, 2009tags: religion, atheism, godlessness, Keep Porno Out of Day Care Centers!, humor, funny, satire, edward current, streaming video
This video reveals Hollywood's latest assault on our culture; stripping preschoolers of their innocence and filling them with unchaste ideas. [4:15]
grrlscientist | May 30, 2009tags: Belmont Stakes, horse racing, Rachel Alexandra, streaming video
Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro), running away with the 2009 Kentucky Oaks
under the guidance of Jockey Calvin Borel.
Image: David J. Phillip [larger view].
To the disappointment of her many fans, the amazing filly, Rachel Alexandra, will not be running in the upcoming mile-and-one-half Belmont Stakes, the third jewel in the Triple Crown of American horse racing. Jess Jackson, the co-owner of the three-year-old daughter of Medaglia d'Oro, cited the filly's "need for a vacation" as the reason she was not entered in the…
drorzel | May 30, 2009I don't intend to turn this entirely over to Video Baby Blogging, but SteelyKid has been adding new tricks at an amazing rate, and I have the camera... Here, she showcases her newfound mobility, and her inherited taste in entertainment:
The odd one-leg-under crawling style seems to be a local maximum-- she can get up on all fours in the classic crawling posture, but she doesn't have the mechanics entirely worked out, and makes faster progress with her left leg folded under. In the tradition of her experimentalist father, she doesn't see an immediate need to fix what's basically working.
The…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2009tags: religion, atheism, godlessness, god is nonexistent, humor, funny, satire, edward current, streaming video
This video talks about how Our Lord goes to extraordinary lengths to create the illusion that he does nothing. Why? Because he can do anything! [4:20]
rallain | May 29, 2009My brother found this, but he is too afraid of the internet to post something in the comments on my previous post about acceleration and the iphone. It turns out that this too awesome to just be in a comment. It deserves its own note.
Anyway, I was looking for acceleration data from the iPhone and this guy put one in his model rocket.
iPhone Rocket Launch and Interview (from MobileOrchard.com) from Mobile Orchard on Vimeo.
Here is some more detail (with graphs!) about the iPhone model rocket.
drorzel | May 29, 2009SteelyKid's day care is closed today for a Jewish holiday, so she's spending the day at home with her grandmother. It was a real struggle to get my mother to come up for the day...
Something I'm sure is on the agenda is playing with her shape sorter box, which she was good enough to demonstrate on video:
Note the highly advanced technique-- if it's not quite working, pound on it. She gets that from me.
I cheated a tiny bit with the video, arranging it so the round hole was closest to her, and handing her one of the round objects. She hasn't really grasped the idea of the different shapes, yet…
grrlscientist | May 28, 2009tags: TEDTalks, virology, epidemiology, Nathan Wolfe, SARS, Influenza, streaming video
I am very lucky to be attending a New York Academy of Science (NYAS) conference about H1N1 Influenza today, so I thought I'd share this TEDTalk video about viral outbreaks, a talk presented by virus hunter Nathan Wolfe. His goal? Outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- and stopping them before they claim millions of lives. [13:05]