Stunning two minute video of a Starling Murmuration. Such a glorious phenomena.
From filmmaker Jan van Ijken.
Some wild genius has used Genius — the site generally used to explain Hip Hop lyrics — to completely break down Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Below are two 60-minute documentaries, made twenty years apart, about Clive Wearing, a Brit with the worst-ever recorded case of amnesia. Clive's memories only last between seven and thirty seconds.
I first read about Wearing in the 90s in Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Sacks later spoke about him on an episode of Radio Lab, and wrote about him again in The New Yorker in 2007.
Prisoner of Consciousness, 1985:
The Man With the Seven Second Memory, 2005
Oliver Sacks: Music and Amnesia
From 2007: Oliver Sacks on Clive Wearing, an English musician struck by a devastating brain infection that left him with retrograde amnesia and a memory span of only seconds.
Wearing is still alive as I write this. He's 86 and has been living with "the illness" for almost 40 years.
Clive Wearing - Wikipedia
Contributors to Wikimedia projects
I listened to this episode of 99% Invisible a while back and have been thinking about it ever since. It explores tradition, religion, class, and the holy work of Parsis who labor in the roofless Towers of Silence, sacred structures where bodies of the dead are left for vultures.
Regardless of what you think about religion, India, or vultures, I promise you, it's a fascinating listen that goes places you won't anticipate.
Towers of Silence - 99% Invisible
Situated right near downtown Mumbai, India is an area of about 55 acres of dense, overgrown forest. In one of the most populous cities in the world, this is a place where peacocks roam freely — a space out of time. This forest is protected by a religious community. It has survived in a relatively
Lasha Madan
It's reported by Producer Lasha Madan.
The Pudding does a deep dive on climate in 70 international cities over the next 45 years. Mouse your way to misery with data!
Climate Zones
Explore how will your city feel in the future.
Last year they mapped record-high heat in the US:
Mapping Record-High Heat in U.S. Cities
We’re tracking how the hottest year on Earth is affecting heat records.
I love beautifully-crafted things.
Jon-Paul Wheatley hand-makes soccer balls (aka footballs). Though usually they're just for show, he has made balls for Adidas, FIFA, and Burberry.
He recently made a limited edition of 1000 balls which he called The Original 92. They were USD300 each. I didn't hear about them until they were sold out, but probably would have purchased one even though I do not play football (aka soccer), because I love beautifully-crafted things.
Here are some of the balls from his Lab:
Wonderful stuff.
Check out his site, 12 Pentagons, to see the full gallery of other Lab designs.
He's also got a YouTube channel with some how-to vids and other stuff:
jonpaulsballs
I’m Jon-Paul and I make balls. This is my public ball R&D lab. I spend my time exploring new constructions, testing materials, designing balls around themes and reverse engineering popular balls throughout history.
Never Too Small's latest episode highlights a Paris apartment belonging to a screenwriter. As always with NTS, the video is pithy, direct, and full of charm.
You can explore other NTS videos on their channel or their website. They also have a magazine. Have to make a note to myself to see if Issues is carrying it.
Never Too Small
Showcasing the best design ideas and solutions for small format living.
Though not much of a fan of Gotye, I was delighted when CDK's dance video for Somebody That I Used to Know recently went viral. Unorthodox choreography is my jam. Here are some of my favorites.
Celui qui tombe. Choreography by Yoann Bourgeois.
Kenzo World starring Margaret Qualley. Directed by Spike Jonze. Choreography by Ryan Heffington.
Steve Reich / Come Out. Dancers and director unknown. Choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. I believe De Keersmaeker may also be the brunette dancer, but don't hold me to it because prosopagnosia. If the audio sounds familiar to you, you're probably a fan of MF Doom's America's Most Blunted.
Sia / Chandelier. Dancer, Maddie Ziegler. Choreography by Ryan Heffington.
Welcome Home. Dancer, FKA Twigs. Directed and choreography by Spike Jonze.
And here's the CDK video that inspired this post. Choreography and direction by Sergio Reis. Almost as impressive to me in this one is the clothing.
There are numerous sites documenting the ground we walk on, but my favourite has to be MSRY's Archive of Japanese Access Covers (sewer covers).
You can view the entire archive of 2400+ photos on their Flickr site.
Some similar links:
Written In Stone is a gallery of sidewalks and the stamps and seals left by the people who laid them.
Written in Stone
A gallery of sidewalks, and the stamps and seals left by the people who laid them.
Here's another for Oakland, California:
Oakland Underfoot
fossils in the city’s hardscape
And Denver, Colorado:
Sidewalk Stamps — Andrew Alger
Denver sidewalks are not great. In the next election cycle you can vote to make them better & I hope you do! One great thing about Denver sidewalks are these wonderful little stamps! What a great advertising method. Most stamps I find are decades old. Maybe companies don’t do this anymore. There
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Five Books tags itself as The Best Books On Everything. The site has an archive of more than 1700 interviews with authors and experts, each recommending five great books in their field. That means more than 8000 book recommendations from people who know what they're talking about.
Five Books
If you’re looking for the best books on any topic, Five Books has the world’s largest collection of expert book recommendations.
