Film Review: Who Will Write Our History?
My review of an exceptional documentary film that tells the story of resistance through documentation of daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Media
The kilogram is getting a makeover
The way we define a kilogram (and pounds too) is basically a high-tech refinement of a medieval technology. That’s about to change as the most influential bar in Paris is shutting down.
The Permanent, Unmistakable Mark Human Beings Have Left on Planet Earth
Have we entered a new geologic era, the Anthropocene? Or put differently: hundreds of thousands of years from now, when future geologists sift the earth for clues about our present day, what lasting evidence of our existence will they find?
What would our planets look like if you flew by?
Artist Michael Benson has made some pretty fun and stunning images of celestial bodies in our solar system rendered in a manner that supposedly mimics the way our human eyes would perceive them if we were to fly by.
A Stradivarius Recovered
A beautiful story on NPR from legal correspondent Nina Totenberg about her late father’s stolen Stradivarius violin.
PBS LearningMedia
PBS LearningMedia is a very cool website partnership between PBS and WGBH Boston. They’re taking free PBS media content and adding a great discovery and filtering layer on the web that allows educators (or anyone, for that matter) to find compelling assets to compliment or supplement academic learning.
1 World Trade Center’s amazing elevator
I was reading the New York Times and came across this video of the elevator to the observation deck at the top of 1 World Trade Center. As the carriage rises (at 2,000 feet per minute!), the interior walls display a computer-generated view of the city of New York that rises in perspective. Not only …
Houston’s Memorial Day flood
It’s been surreal watching national news coverage of Texas’s flooding from the Memorial Day weekend. My hometown of Houston was hard-hit, especially the southwest side of the 610 Loop. Using Google and Twitter searching, I was able to find some pretty incredible photos and videos of flooding taken by local residents. Here’s a small sampling …
Danny MacAskill: The Ridge
So awesome, so beautiful. Just watch. First, Danny MacAskill is a mad scientist on a bike. Second, the emotion of this video exceeds so much scripted content. To me, this is a perfect example of visual storytelling that takes your breath away. (Exhibiting unbelievable human feats helps.)
Chile Volcano Eruption in Slo-Mo
Real life is more beautiful and awe-inspiring than any special effect. This time lapse of Chile’s Calbuco volcano erupting is stunning. NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports, “Local officials say people are very, very frightened.” That’s very, very respectable. More: Video Of Volcano Erupting In Chile Is Amazing In Time-Lapse : The Two-Way : NPR