Category Archives: Video

Those Evil Things

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I think the analogous topic for physics is radiation: that all radiation is a bad, evil, dangerous thing, when radiation is all around us. Visible light is radiation, as are radio waves, and all objects emit radiation in the context of blackbody radiation — the most common experience being that moderately hot things radiate noticeably in the infrared and sometimes in the visible part of the spectrum.

There are other basic, common misconceptions, like things needing an impetus to keep moving, and some more targeted ones, like insulation heats things up. But I think the connection here is in the “it’s evil” misunderstanding.

The Wise Gyroscope

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Abstract: Owls have a curious variability in the postrotatory head nystagmus following abrupt angular deceleration. Owls can exhibit a remarkable head stability during angular movement of the body about any axis passing through the skull. The vestibular apparatus in the owl is bigger than in man, and a prominent crista neglecta is present. The tectorial membrane, the cupula, and the otolithic membranes of the utricle, saccule and lagena are all “attached” to surfaces in addition to the surfaces bearing hair cells; these attachments are very substantial in the utricular otolithic membrane and in the cupula.

I want to say side-fumbling is almost completely eliminated, but I will link to the story instead.

Previously we have seen chicken-head stability.

Bonus: slo-mo landing

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Gulp

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Gulp

‘Gulp’ is a short film created by Sumo Science at Aardman, depicting a fisherman going about his daily catch. Shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics. The film has broken a world record for the ‘largest stop-motion animation set’, with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.

And the Winner is… The Turboencabulator

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Several years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. We were getting ready to tape our first introduction video, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This man should have won an academy for his stellar performance. Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down, this became the biggest talk in the industry, vs our new product which we were introducing. I think you will enjoy this once in a lifetime performance from this gentleman.

That there’s some awesome word salad, with a creamy low-calorie cryptojargon sauce. The Wikipedia writeup has a reasonable approximation of the transcript.

Update: more fun at turboencabulator.info