Today in 1990: the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens

Matt Novak, aka @Paleofuture just tweeted that today, well, today, January 31, 1990 was the day that McDonald's first opened its doors in the then-Soviet Union, now Russia.

As novel as that thought was, even more interesting is Arizona State University graduate student and attorney John Carter McKnight's flickr feed of his 1989 attendance of the USSR's first rock festival.

Put on your time travel uniforms and enjoy.

[The Soviet Union in 1988-1989 by John Carter McKnight]

Artist of Note: Chile's Fab Ciraolo

The hot new artist of the season and the planet is sure to be Santiago, Chile-based Fab Ciraolo. Fab Ciraolo takes past-tense, seminal modern artists, performers, actors, musicians, et al (such as Frida Kahlo above, Salvador Dali and others) and mashes them up with contemporary artists. The above piece, showing Frida Kahlo wearing a Daft Punk t-shirt is a great example.

Whether or not you think Frida would actually wear a Daft Punk t-shirt today, is beside the point.

This guy is good. And his art will soon be for sale online, Fab told us via Twitter. His new website will launch at the end of February..

Chilean artist, Fab Ciraolo.

Beautiful Timelapse Video of São Paulo

#SP458 Timelapses from Julio Brunet Rocha on Vimeo.

It's one of the most populated cities in Brazil with some of the worst possible traffic you can imagine. To wit, on a recent trip to Brazil, it took Rita J. King and me three hours to travel 30 kilometers (approximately 18 miles). But in this video you will witness at least part of the reason why São Paulo is considered the de facto capital of South America.

Via @lianamachado

Fibonacci Mathematical Theory Used to Disprove Spongebob's "Pineapple Under the Sea"

This video warms my heart in ways I really can't, uh, quantify.

Khan Academy mathmusician, Vi Hart, has merged the beauty of the popular RSA animate style hand drawn stories, with the joys of Fibonacci's mathematical theorems, with the pleasure of one of the world's most insanely popular cartoon programs.

Via Audrey Watters.

Transport: A New Noir Short by Noah Kalina and Reggie Watts

TRANSPORT from Noah Kalina on Vimeo.

Reggie Watts and Noah Kalina have released a new short film meditating on time called TRANSPORT. It's lush, noir and worth every minute you spend with it.

Beards are Forever

 Lest we forget, beards are now! To be sure, they've been trending for a few years, but this short film pretty much demonstrates for us the apex of the latest iteration of the movement. For more studies on the joy of beards see Kristina Weise's hirsute "Build-a-Beard."

How Well Did Stanley Kubrick Predict How Dave Bowman from 2001 Would Age?

While in a conversation with Rita J. King about the scientific underpinnings of reality and Quantum Physics, I got to thinking about the prescience of Arthur C. Clarke's book 2001 and some of the more fundamental theories he was exploring in the fabric of existence.

Stanley Kubrick's re-telling of the story through film created an indelible associative list of images in my mind that have forever stayed there, such as when Dave Bowman (played by Keir Dullea) visits a version of himself in his 70s or 80s.

That got me thinking that this year, 2012, is forty-five years after the filming of the 2001, which was released in 1968. Keir Dullea, who was 30 when he played the role of Astronaut Dave Bowman is now about the age of the film aged him to.

 So how did they do?

Clay Shirky on the Long War on SOPA

After you've watched the above video from the Khan Academy explaining in simple and clear terms what SOPA and PIPA, are take another five minutes out of your day and read this important blogpost by Clay Shirky responding to David Pogue's recent assessment of the current political rhetoric surrounding SOPA. An important excerpt:

We should delight in the stand we’ve taken in favor of things like, say, notifications, and trials, and proof before censoring someone, but we should get ready to do it again next year, and the year after that. The risk now is not that SOPA will pass. The risk is that we’ll think we’ve won. We haven’t; they’ll be back. Get ready to have this fight again.

[Clay Shirky: "Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood"]

What Kids Want From Robots

According to PopSci, kids want friendship and help with their homework from robots.

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

The protest against #SOPA and #PIPA has begun. Wikipedia blacks out--but just a second after you see a enough of a teasing glimpse of what you came for to remind you what life would be like without it.

Wikipedia is offering access to some information, however--about SOPA and PIPA.