Links, I thinks

Ze Frank re-watches and annotates his 2006 daily videoblog.
Interesting look at his process and evolving tastes.
The videoblog is pretty charming, too.

Chookooloonks has a really clear guide:
understanding your DSLR camera’s manual settings.

This might come in handy some time:
An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces.

OKCupid: Best questions to ask on a first date

Q: Do my date and I have long-term potential?
A: According to OKC, couples with long-term potential are most likely to give matching answers to the following questions:
1. Do you like horror movies?
2. Have you ever travelled around another country alone?
3. Wouldn’t it be fun to chuck it all and live on a sailboat?

According to OKC’s data set, matching answers on these questions were even more predictive of a successful match than questions about sex, god and smoking.

It’s a fun read: here.

Infinite Camel

Thanks to Peneycad for the tip.

Sun melts rock, OH MAH GAWD

So this is a big mirrored parabola thingie that collects 3 square metres of sunshine and focusses it to a pinpoint. Which is hot enough to burn literally anything on earth.
My brain seriously exploded and is now dripping down my neck. It’s pretty hot but this is hotter:

Thanks to Jessie for this mind-melting clip.

What’s it like to be blind?

UPDATE: The link to the webforum was broken; I fixed it. Here.

Here is a very long, very in-depth web forum, where tons of users ask honest questions of a 26 year old man who’s been blind from birth.

He answers all sorts of stuff, ranging from how much he cares about women’s looks to whether he pees sitting or standing, to info about his computer (he doesn’t use a monitor!) to what his computer screen-reader sounds like. Turns out he can listen to his computer-voice at an absolutely dizzying speed (here’s an mp3).

The thread is 15+ pages long and takes forever to go through, but it’s super-interesting, and worth at least a skim. Read it here.

Animals shaking dry

This is just one more reason to love science nerds.

Via MeFi.

3D mega super HD IMAX explosion

Tonight I saw the Hubble 3D IMAX film (narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, thank you very much).  We arrived about 5 minutes late to the movie, and I was bummed about that, because my favourite thing about 3D movies is always putting on the glasses early and taking pictures of how freaking awesome we look. But despite this setback, the film was pretty great, I thought, if totally predictable. It’s space, it’s 3D IMAX, they’re going to try to blow your brain right open with 3D IMAX ULTRA SOUND SUPER HIGH DEF pictures of space, ya know? And, they do. Unfortunately, along the way, they create all these ridiculous false suspense moments: “From the beginning of the journey, the crew ran into some trouble with a stuck bolt. Will it come off, or will this jeopardize the entire mission?” SPOILER ALERT: it comes right off after a few tries. <insert collective sigh of relief here>.

I have a really hard time “getting” space, though. I mean, I’m not a total idiot, but I just can’t keep track of the billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each one. Also, some of the images were seriously mindblowing. Like: “you’re looking at a galaxy that is 10 billion light years away.” How can you start to contemplate that? All the vastness and infinite possibility and worlds out there stuff makes me feel insignificant. There’s all this stuff whirring above our heads 80 bagajillion light years away and I’m all worried about which shoes to wear with my dress (Answer: the ones I didn’t wear. Sorry about that, blistered feet).

But I should have saved my 3D glasses at the end and smuggled them out, instead of neatly stacking them into the tray, as I did.

And that sentence shall serve as a segue into my next hhhhhaaaamaaazink tidbit.

I should have saved those glasses because, get ready for this, CBC is airing a 3D TELEVISION SHOW entitled… please wait for it… Queen Elizabeth in 3D. I looked for a link to an official page, but a Google search that lasted my entire attention span of 15 seconds only pulled up page after page of people asking “wait, really?”

Apparently, Canadians can get their free amber-blue 3D glasses at Canada Post, snuggle up on the couch with some popcorn, and watch highlights of the Queen’s recent trip to Halifax. We were all kicking ourselves to have missed it the first time, that’s for sure.

According to the Gazette, Queen Elizabeth in 3-D airs Monday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. on CBC Television, and at 10 p.m. Sept. 20 and 25 on CBC News Network. I know I will be watching: are you kidding me? This is amazing. It’s a Television Event. And when life hands us Television Events, we accept the free 3D glasses and we put them on early, taking pictures of how freaking awesome we look.

For example, I give you Exhibit A.

An octopus’ garden in the shade.

It’s raining out, and my adorable Québecoise 6 year-old neighbour (all kids are cuter in French) wanted to make ‘une cabane’ outside, with umbrellas. She had a few umbrellas out on the deck, blowing this way and that, and she was getting wet, and she was trying to huddle under them. it was cute but a bit sad, because she was missing a key element: science!

See, with just a little bit of science, and, um, a lake, these dudes created their own magical underwater fort. (this is where the excessive punctuation would surely fit in, if I wasn’t trying to hold myself back). sure, they get at least as wet as my petite neighbour, but their fort is way cooler. And plus: breathing air underwater! wowee!

I got all anxious about them using up all the air under there, and it turns out that that is really a possibility. On the (fairly in-depth) FAQ of their website, they explain how when the air gets thin, they need to empty the old air, and add new air. ALSO, some other possible disaster I never considered: because they’re so deep underwater (33 feet here), if they took a deep breath of air before swimming up to the surface, they could EXPLODE THEIR LUNGS (density of air changing bla bla bla check their site for a better explanation). These guys are professionals, so they don’t go around exploding their lungs, don’t worry.

Anyways, amazing. And if you have a pool, invite me over, kay, because it looks like they’re trying to build them for your own personal use! And you don’t have to worry about hypoxia, cause there’ll be fresh air always filtered in, or exploding lungs, because, how deep is your pool?

Bubbles on the Beach

Not the pet chimp, not the trailer park boy. Something better.

Thanks to Peneycad for the tip.

Momentous!

This evening, you guys!

Six minutes and seven seconds after 5pm, the time will be:

05:06:07 08/09/10.

This happens once a century. Enjoy it!

Do something really numeric. Maybe play Outkast’s Hey Ya or some other song that starts with ONE TWO THREE FOUR and then you’ll have done a whole set of digits.

Or! Tell some number jokes! Like:

Q: What does the zero say to the the eight?
A: Nice belt!

Q: Why was six afraid of seven?
A: Because seven eight nine!

Or:

Three statisticians go hunting. When they see a rabbit, the first one shoots, missing it on the left. The second one shoots and misses it on the right. The third one shouts: “We’ve hit it!”