Gershon Kingsley - Popcorn

Space and time lapse movies, 1977 and 2013

What "The Powers of Ten" were for space, this recent video by Philipp Dettmer is for time: a helpful visualization of how nothing is absolute and everything can only be grasped (if at all) in relation to something else. Isn't that the appropriate level of resolution for the upcoming end-of-year review?

For completeness and because of dead links, here's the original "Powers of Ten" (TM) from 1977:

Metaverse - tranquil immersion using Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is the most advanced virtual-reality headset available. It offers stereoscopic (3D) viewing while tracking your head movements, thus facilitating immersion into the presented virtual realities. For that effect, people overcome their physical realities and "dive into" apparent or virtual ones.

There are plenty of videos where people (and their vestibular systems) are shocked by the realism of the presented content - most often a roller coaster ride.

However, there are less action-packed videos, impressively demonstrating the fusion of physical and virtual reality. For example by this guy, presenting and commenting his immersion into a 1984 Tetris block production office.

He also modeled his bedroom and demonstrates the switch between virtual and physical reality.

What's more, a company called eye mirror, produces devices that let you capture your videos in 360 degrees - using standard cameras. For presentation, you can either use their viewer (well worth checking out on their website) or present them on the Oculus Rift afterwards (via engadget and Felix).

The Metaverse is getting closer!

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Addendum 8.12.2013: Here's the link to the eye mirror kickstarter page.

Documentary: What is Cognitive Science?

Great and entertaining 80-minute documentary by students of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück, neatly summarizing the historical and conceptual foundations of Cognitive Science.

Featuring Achim Stephan (Philosophy of Mind and Cognition), Peter König (Neurobiopsychology), Peter Bosch (Linguistics), Oliver Vornberger (Computer Science), Sven Walter (Philosophy), Kai-Uwe Kühnberger (Artificial Intelligence), Thomas Gruber (Psychology), Joachim Hertzberg (Knowledge-based Systems), Gordon Pipa (Neuroinformatics), Nikola Kompa (Philosophy of Language), Gunther Heidemann (Computer Vision), Claus Rollinger (Artificial Intelligence)

Creature Comforts - Brazilian Lion/Puma

(Channel 4, 1989, by Nick Park; via ChrisK)

Baden Powell - Canto De Ossanha

Los Cerveceros de Quilmes (via Vince)

Check out this great documentary "Los Cerveceros de Quilmes - die Bierbrauer aus Quilmes" directed by Andreas Geipel (Spanish with German subtitles). In 31 minutes it beautifully captures the passion for football - and particularly the "fanatic football folklore" as celebrated by the fans of Quilmes in Argentina.

The sound of one hand clapping (Norman Palm - Easy)

Normal Palm's "Easy" gets to the heart of long-distance - and particularly intercontinental - relationships.

Some of his next live shows:
01-03-2012: Berlin, Germany, Schokoladen
21-05-2012: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nova Festival
24-05-2012: Sāo Paolo, Brazil, Nova Festival
29-06-2012: Berlin, Germany, Magnet Club

Unline: Organize your inbox and simplify the internet

A little collection of tips or tools to master email and internet by organizing your inbox and simplifying your general internet usage:

• Leo Babauta on Simplify the Internet and his empty gmail hack


• Evernote Clearly, a chrome plugin to clean up your online reading


• Tech Therapy - Episode 102: Academics Struggle With Managing E-Mail (audio)