New Genki Sudo!

 What is this? A beautifully choreographed music video from Japan. Take a few minutes out of your day to take it in. Enjoy. Via @neb

The Sound of Fear

Check out this chilling exploration by the BBC's Sean Street of what makes sounds chilling to us.

[BBC 4: The Sound of Fear]

via @aleksk

"Do Easy"

In these complicated times of information and technology overload. We could all benefit from the words and philosophy of William S. Burroughs as captured in this 1982 Gus Van Sant short, "Do Easy."

Via @KatelanFoisy

Base, Interstitial Images of Russia by Vadim Savrayev

EnglishRussia Magazine has posted a series of visceral images of Russia by photographer Vadim Savrayev. Described as images of moments that are "rarely noticed" it's almost more of a window into Russian culture that may never be seen by people who have never been there. The images are poignant, base, sober and touching.

[EnglishRussia: Moments That Are Rarely Noticed]

Via @sofia_henriques

Love and Life

A couple died together after 72 years of happy marriage holding hands, and when the husband died first, doctors detected a heartbeat anyway because they were holding hands and it was her heart that came up on the monitor.

And then right after I saw that, I saw @brainpicker posting on A Sky Full of Kindness (illustration, above, available on Etsy).

If you spend one minute and 56 seconds of your day watching this video from the recent Assocation of Science & Technology Centers summit, it will be time well spent. This project developed by Tel-Aviv University demos quantum superconductors locked in a magnetic field. You can find more information at QuantumLevitation.com.

Lest you have any confusion, the future is now.

Via @ScienceCenters

Blog of Note: The Serendipity Engine

Image credit: Aleks Krotoski. The creation of the Serendipity Engine. 

 Readers should drop what they are doing right now and check out the collaborative new project by researchers Aleks Krotoski and Kat Jungnickel called "The Serendipity Engine". What is it? In their own words: "The Serendipity Engine is a physical manifestation of theoretical and technological interventions that can be used to enhance serendipity on the World Wide Web. It is a working machine that uses bike parts, flower pots, cake, pulleys, lightbulbs and other concrete objects to articulate the processes that could be translated into digital “solutions” that will re-engineer the potential dystopian social trajectories of current (social) software trends*." The site is in its early stages but already has delivered some heady, intellectual stuff that is well worth a read. In a recent post, for example, they look at the 1958 Guy Debord concept of "Dérive"

In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones. But the dérive includes both this letting-go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities. In this latter regard, ecological science, despite the narrow social space to which it limits itself, provides psychogeography with abundant data.

[Bookmark: "The Serendipity Engine"]

Hoping you're very happy out there, @MacTonnies

A screenshot of @MacTonnies penultimate Tweet to @RitaJKing before dying. 

Two years ago today the Internet lost Mr. Mac Tonnies.

Read some earlier posts on this blog remembering Mac Tonnies.

Also see:
The Atlantic: Finding Time, A Response to Rob Walker's Cyberspace When You're Dead.
NYT: Cyberspace when you're dead
A Digital Memorial for a True Transhumanist, by Rita J. King
My First Digital Death, by Rita J. King
What Sparks My Imagination, by Mac Tonnies

Cycling Cultures: Why Cycling Thrives in Some UK Cities

Just discovered Cycling Cultures a fascinating research project by UK-based sociologist Kat Jungnickel examining why cycling thrives in certain UK cities. Her project examines four UK regions Hull, Hackney, Bristol and Cambridge, with accompanying blogs for each region. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. From the site: "Cycling Cultures is a multi-method sociological research project that focuses on four relatively high-cycling cities in the UK in order to find out why cycling thrives in particular areas." [Cycling Cultures]

Infinite Perspectives: Places I'll Remember

Imagine if maps could pop off the page like the terrain they represent? When cartographer Jeffrey Ambroziak had that thought as a kid, he solved the problem by working on an algorithm that creates an Infinite Perspective.

Science House is curating a spectacular exhibit at UNDERLINE Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibit of three-dimensional topographic maps, designed by renowned cartographer Jeffrey Ambroziak, is based on a revolutionary technique that yields true three-dimensional maps in spectacular detail.

The exhibit is a stunning new look at the world – from the mountains of Yosemite to the canyons of Mars. The geographical sequence of the maps follows Ambroziak’s personal travel history. His childhood, steeped in the mystery and allure of the haunting face of Mt. Ranier, for example. The exhibit even shares a lasting memory of the rippling terrain of another world. “Mars hangs in the night sky,” Ambroziak says, “enticing the earth bound viewer with the possibility of realizing childhood dreams.”


Infinite Perspectives opens on October 15.

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind

Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo.

Via Fembot Hedonism Review