April 26, 2020
The British Once Built a 1,100-Mile Hedge Through the Middle of India
The British Empire had been working on this giant hedge for at least 30 years. It had, at long last, reached “its greatest extent and perfection,” wrote Roy Moxham in The Great Hedge of India. [...] One British official wrote that it “could be compared to nothing else in the world except the Great Wall of China.” ¶ As he reported on the extent and health of the hedge [in 1878], though, Halsey knew its time was coming to an end. That same year, the empire stopped all funding for the mad project, and it was not long before the hedge had disappeared entirely. When Moxham, an English writer, went looking for it in 1996, he couldn’t find a trace. In search of Colonial India's British "Customs Hedge" (Atlas Obscura) [more inside]
As above, so below
As Above is a short film exploring the tight link between the microscopic world and immensity of the universe. Illustrating our universe’s never ending dance of destruction and creation, in which life can emerge...
As Above was made of one single shot filmed on the 8mm2 (0.3 square inch) surface of a chemical reaction.
As Above was made of one single shot filmed on the 8mm2 (0.3 square inch) surface of a chemical reaction.
Definitely not long-armed men in fur suits
Gibbons hang out, run about, freak out about animals (rodent, dog, hedgehog), bother animals (dog, tiger), photobomb opera performances and make babies cry. [more inside]
There never was a Monique III
A Space Elk Named Monique - Recently I found myself wondering about the animal subjects who participated, unwillingly and unwittingly, in their development. Who was the first creature to wear a satellite collar, and how did it go? [more inside]
Quantum Steampunk PopularMechanics.com
Popularmechanics.com article on Quantum Steampunk an interesting synthesis of modern quantum physics and nineteenth century engineering. [more inside]
Big Leaf Maple Syrup
Native to the west coast of North America, the big leaf maple (called such as its leaves can be almost a foot wide) has always been talked about as being able to produce maple syrup from its sap. For the first time, it's being studied if it's possible to commercialize big maple syrup in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle Times, use incognito mode if you have to). There's already one company able to make 500 gallons a year (NPR). Perhaps, you'd like to buy some at $3/ounce?
You’d have to be a monotonous nerd to go through them all . . .
Composer Alex Ball (previously) continues his series on influential early commercial synthesizers with a feature-length documentary: Electromotive — The Story of ARP Instruments. This follows last year’s Land of the Rising Sound | A Roland Retrospective (previously), and The History of the Prophet Synthesizer from 2018. [more inside]
A face badly in need of a fist
Twitch.tv is more than just video-games:
24/7 Bob Ross, 24/7 Food Shows, 24/7 Iron Chef Japan, 24/7 Anthony Bourdain, 24/7 MST3K, 24/7 Public Domain Copyright Free Films, 24/7 Most Extreme Elimination Challenge MXC!, CritterVision: deer, raccoons, geese, possums, foxes, squirrels, etc., 24/7 Eagle-cam, 24/7 Choppertown: chops, trucks, cars, etc., 24/7 PokerStars.
LV426
April 26th is Alien Day! Twitter celebrates with delightful material in their #AlienDay hashtag. My favorite thus far uses office supplies to a menacing end. Happy Alien Day! Hug a face hugger!
Ma La Notte, No!
Back in the 80's singer songwriter impresario jazzman Renzo Arbore ran a variety show on Italian televsion called Quelli della notte, launching pad for Roberto Benigni among others, the theme song of which was Ma La Notte, No!, (lyrics here), the basic sense of it being that the slings and arrows might trouble you during the day time, But At Night - Not! Well. Corona changes everything, and twenty Neapolitans with time on their hands and a song in their hearts have updated the piece to In Quarantina Sto! (Italian subtitles for those unfamiliar with Neapolitan dialect). Music starts at fifty second mark. [more inside]
أيادينا
Our Hands by Abdellatif Abdul-Hamid (1982): the filmmaker’s first short film with the National Film Organization, produced after his return to Syria from the Soviet Union, Our Hands is a compelling visual essay on labouring, gesturing hands. [content warning: scenes of animal injury and death] [more inside]
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