This is brilliant. It's long [42:40], but worth it. To tell you much of anything about it is a spoiler. It's about Tolkien, but it's not about Tolkien. It was a talk about, nominally, "writing", and how writers write, using the history of Tolkien and the Inklings as an illustrative case. Delivered at a conference about programming Python. The ( Read more... )

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If you know the famous experiment (or have seen the table-top version at your favorite science museum), you know how this is going to go. Watch the video anyways; it's beautiful and astonishing all the same -- even the staff who work there were pleasantly flabbergasted, and they may be reliably called highly expert in the goings on in vacuums. ( Read more... )

Glorious. Five and a half minutes, highly recommended. (Entirely visual, but sound important.)

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http://youtu.be/6C8OJsHfmpI

ETA: The Making Of video.

SCADIANS! THIS IS WHY YOU NEED COURT MUSICIANS!

(h/t Metafilter)

I'm a big fan of the counterintuitive results of messing with systems, and this is a very lovely example. The video at this page talks about what happened when wolves were returned to Yellowstone after 70 years ( Read more... )

(Via anon.)

AHAHAHAHAHA. These are brilliant.

This says about everything I have to say about the tonal systems of the 20th century.

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I confess I am disappointed they looped the video to give the cantus structure. It's like they didn't trust the pianist's inspiration.

Four percussionists play the frozen surface of Lake Baikal.

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What is most fascinating to me is how much it sounds like wood, e.g. xylophone and marimba. Not what I would have guessed, but not sure I had a guess.

Beautiful animated short (13min). Recommended.

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[Note: no dialog, only non-verbal storytelling.]

(h/t ms_danson

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My sweetie and I have not been able to stop going "EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" at one another all afternoon.

Via Metafilter, where people are reporting their pets' responses to this video, e.g. "My dog started licking the speakers when I played the video." and "My now-spayed, formerly very fertile cat came running in with her RESCUE THE KITTEN expression