Just recently a friend of mine complained that overuse of computer-generated visual effects have ruined movies. Here’s an interesting response to that: Link: https://youtu.be/bL6hp8BKB24 In brief, the problem isn’t the effects, it’s the writing. Meanwhile, today’s digital effects are often … Continue reading
A terrorist group that controls a (now reduced) amount of territory in parts of Iraq and Syria proclaims itself a “caliphate” and an “Islamic state,” designations widely rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of practicing Muslims. Western media … Continue reading
Neighboring countries have taken in a few million refugees from the Syrian civil war. Another several hundred thousand have fled into Europe. Canada proposes to take in 25,000, and President Obama is planning to allow 10,000 more into the United … Continue reading
Simone Giertz is a remarkable young woman. She lives on a boat and invents things, such as an alarm clock that slaps you to wake you up. Skip ahead to 3 minutes and 20 seconds if you just want to … Continue reading
Jackie Broyles and Dunlap (in real life Tennessee comics Travis and Jonathan) do live commentary on the most recent presidential candidate debates, with the results edited down a bit over ten minutes for the Republicans and under eight for the … Continue reading
Here’s someone whose hobby is building various things with stone-age technology, in this case a hut with a ceramic tile roof and underfloor heating. He doesn’t live this way; he’s just interested in how it might be done. His raw … Continue reading
Here are the latest New Rules from Bill Maher’s HBO show. As usual with Maher this is not for the easily offended. (In fact, even I get offended by some of his stuff.) But much of it is funny, and … Continue reading
In 1950 physicist Enrico Fermi was having lunch with his colleagues at Los Alamos when he suddenly asked something like “Where are they?” or “Where is everybody?” (recollections differed). Everyone laughed, because while the question came out of the blue, … Continue reading
This is disappointing news: Based on a number of experimental studies, brain-training exercises and games don’t seem to improve general brain health or ward off dementia. It is true that practicing specific tasks, such as learning and recalling names or … Continue reading
This three-minute silent animation shows how the International Space Station was assembled over a period of many years in near-Earth orbit: Link: https://youtu.be/vgfWH3g9kpY There’s not a lot of information given on how the various modules are used, but that’s covered … Continue reading