Onelargeprawn
It’s a thankless job being a sentry at the Aperture Science facility. One such turret wants a better life and uses its strangely melodic voice to express its dreams. Have a listen as it sings in the style of Beyoncé in If I Were A Core.
The music video was created by Portal fan and graphics designer Harry Callaghan. His other musical experiments include a witty introduction to Aperture and a song by everyone’s favorite personality core, Wheatley. See those two music videos after the jump.
The interactive Scale of the Universe shows us how minuscule and gargantuan elements in our universe can be. We know that atoms, the basic unit of matter, are small but just how small are we talking about?
Scientist and teacher Jonathan Bergmann answers that question in this quick animated chemistry lesson using blueberries, grapefruits, and football stadiums as metaphors.
You can find many more educational videos at TED-Ed.
[via @blahsum]
In this wonderful montage, YouTuber user RockyPlanetesimal captured footage from a slew of 2D side-scrolling platform games from past and present. Accompanied by “A Wild and Distant Shore” by Michael Nyman, Go Right pays homage to that old video gaming trope, when all else fails, go right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiePaAHK3jE
[via Ufunk]
Using a Phantom Flex camera, film school senior, Zach King brings a catapult to a tea party and shoots the destruction at anywhere between 3,200 to 6,900 frames per second. Watch as delicate tea china, glasses, and eggs are broken in super slow motion.
[via Geekologie]
If you’re enthralled by the works of Randy Halverson and Terje Sørgjerd, I think you might take a liking to the latest creation of landscape photographer Ole C. Salomonsen.
Auroras are caused by solar activity, and it is expected that a solar max (the period of greatest solar activity) for our current solar cycle will happen between this year and the next. Noticing an increase in such activity, Salomonsen from Tromsø, Norway pointed his cameras to the aurora-filled skies in the northern parts of this homeland. 150,000 exposures later and he had created a most ethereal time-lapse video, Celestial Lights.
Celestial Lights is Salomonsen’s second video project. His first, In The Land Of The Northern Lights, can be seen after the jump.
I went (tandem) paragliding once. It was off Lion’s Head in Cape Town and was one of the most serene experiences ever. French paragliding pilot Jean-Baptiste Chandelier knows that feeling and experiences many more I bet as he takes to the skies in and around urban areas in Peru, Chile, and France.
Have a look at his Chandelier’s lofty adventures in Urban Side.
[via Holy Kaw!]
Feeling so happy you could die? Singer-songwriter and Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used to Know” is a rather depressing yet catchy tune.
The song has been fodder for other artists and the number of remixes and covers have been on the rise. The most popular cover (by YouTube views) has been orchestrated by Canadian indie band, Walk off the Earth, where the five band members simultaneously play the song using a single guitar. With her cover, Ingrid Michaelson provided the vocals and played all her own instruments, and in his version, Junior Blender adds a touch of reggae to the mix. Have a listen to these covers after the jump.
While Sir David Attenborough and the Beeb have a wealth of sophisticated equipment to film phenomena like the icy finger of death, other people can film flora and fauna with far less expensive kit.
In his compilation video, Norwegian cameraman Tor Even Mathisen use his Canon 7D and MP-E 65mm macro lens to shoot up-close views of insects. Watch bees, flies, moths, and spiders as they fornicate, masticate, pollinate, and go about their everyday lives.
[via Gizmodo]
The advancements in technology has resulted in more sophisticated and automated ways of printing books. There are large computerized devices that now handle much of the processes of putting a book together, but this little short film from The Telegraph explores how book is created using traditional printing methods.
Filmmaker Glen Milner took his cameras to Smith-Settle Printers in Leeds, England, where he captured the copies of Suzanne St Albans’ “Mango and Mimosa” book being carefully created by a set of skilled pressmen. Have a look at Birth of a Book below.
[via @brainpicker]
Known popularly as the Festival of Colours, Holi is a religious festival celebrated by Hindus. Disregarding any respiratory problems that may occur, people observe the holiday by throwing coloured powder at each other.
Devin Graham was at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah to see how the western hemisphere celebrates the occasion. He captured a sea of vibrant colours and much merrymaking. Have a look at his video, Festival of Colors below.
Cooltech]