Facial Interpretive Dance

I like the performance this fellow does of Paganini's violin concerto.  I think of it as interpretive dance for your face.  Human's are somehow wired to notice faces - so much that we think we see them on Mars.  We read each other's emotions through our faces and I think this fellow does a fine job matching his facial expression to the music.

Of course, there are a lot of people regularly manipulate their faces to evoke emotion as a profession.  They are called actors.  One of my favorite examples is child actor Henry Thomas.  The video below is his audition for the film ET.  In the beginning you hear the crew giving Thomas the background of the scene, then they start and Henry Thomas nails it.  He said later that he thought about his dog that had died inorder to bring these emotions to the front.  All I know is that it is an amazing performance.  In the end you hear Steven Spielberg say, "you got the job kid."  Yeah... you got the job.  If you haven't seen it before I recommend watching.

Science of Really Tall Trees

I can almost guarantee that if you watch all the videos in this post, it will change the way you look at trees.

A walk in California's giant redwood forest can be a transformative experience just being in proximity to these huge, ancient living things.  Sure tall trees are massively gargantuan biomasses that are awesome in their own right, but have you ever stopped to think about what it takes to allow a tree like that to exist?  The science is pretty interesting.  I mean, how does a tree suck water up hundreds of feet?  It turns out the answer isn't simple.  The video above offers an explanation and gives you some idea of what these giant living things go through every day.  Watch and be amazed!

Of course, once these huge trees exist, they literally change the landscape and the ecosystem around them.  Scientists like Stephen Sillett spend their lives trying to understand these giant beings and the plants and animals that depend on them.  The videos below give an interesting view into the world of giant redwoods and the scientists who climb 300ft up to study them (yes there's some great technical tree climbing action too).

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Slit Scanning Video

There is a cool technique for creating interesting videos making the rounds.  Its called slit scan photography.  As you know, video consists of a sequence of frames that are basically snapshots of moments of time that can be put together to give the illusion of motion.  Imagine splitting each frame of your video into horizontal lines and then creating a new frame of video by combining the first line of the first frame with the second line from the second frame and so on.  In this way each frame would show lines from multiple moments in time.  You end up with an effect where events happen first in the top of the frame and later in the bottom of the frame.  The result is, well, very interesting.  Take a look at the video and you'll see what I mean.

Very fun stuff from Adrien M / Claire B 

Amazing Parade Floats from Bloemencorso in Zundert, Netherlands

There is a celebration in Holland where they build the most amazing sculptures out of flowers that I've seen.  I know we have our Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC and the Rose Bowl parade in Southern California, but this is just different.  Bloemencorso is the annual parade of flowers in Zundert, Holland.  All of these floats are made of natural flowers.  Very impressive indeed!

The video below is much longer than I had patience to watch, but it was sure fun to fast forward through it to see the different creations.  You can see more videos on their website and in this gallery. 

Via This is Colossal

Spot The Space Station

On a clear night, just after sunset, go outside and look up in the sky.  Chances are that if you look carefully, you will see a few "stars" that are moving through the sky.  These are often satellites that are circling the Earth.  At sunset and sunrise when it gets dark down here on the ground, for a little while, the satellites are still up in the sunlight and what you are seeing is the sunlight reflecting off of them.  Try it!

One of the most fun satellites to search for is the International Space Station(ISS).  NASA has just posted a cool service that can send you an alert whenever the Space Station is flying overhead at your location.  It circles the Earth every 90 minutes or so, but the alert system will only tell you when the conditions are right for a good sighting, which will vary from a couple times a week to once a month. You can sign up at their Spot The Station web site.  If you do, it will send you an alert by text message or email when the Space Station is visible.  You can also use this applet anytime to find the location of the ISS.

Spot The Station

Workshop Weekend Reminder

A little reminder for San Francisco Bay area folks - We mentioned earlier that this coming weekend (Nov 10-11) will be the Workshop Weekend program in Oakland, and that among the classes will be something called "Awesome Aeroponics"which will be taught by Digital Diner's own Bix and Widdikay and friends.  We have some more good news.  If you sign up and use the coupon code AEROPONICS2012, you will receive a 25% discount on your registration.

I don't know about the other classes, but I can tell you that Awesome Aeroponics will be entertaining and informative.  You will learn about everything from Hyperlocavorism to Deep Water Culture, Nutrient Film Technique and Dutch Buckets.  In the end you will build and take home your own Aeroponic garden which you can use to grow a variety of different decorative or delicious plants in your own home or yard.  It will be a great class.  Come join us!

Henri captures the true Halloween

Henri 4 is quite the chat noir if you know what I mean.  His views are often insightful (in a dark and depressing way) and his outlook on Halloween is no exception.

Happy Halloween

E=mc^2 is Incomplete

In this video, Minute Physics does a really nice job of explaining the missing part of the most famous equation in the world, E = mc².  It seems that that simple version of the equation only holds true for objects that are not moving.  These moving objects have momentum which is represented as p in the slightly more complex equation, E²=(mc²)²+(pc)².  If you pay attention, you'll even see why it is that, according to Einstein, nothing with mass can move at the speed of light (or faster).  
Watch and enjoy.

Tasty Mex Hexaflexagons at Digital Diner

We did it!  We couldn't help ourselves.  We were inspired by Vi Hart to make the tasty hexaflexagon treats that you may have read about here on Digital Diner (If you have no clue what I'm talking about, you can catch up by reading read our previous posts here, here and here).  It was fun, educational, and mostly delicious.  We encourage any other curious readers to try for themselves.  IMPORTANT!  First, be sure to watch the safety video below... Even if you aren't going to make the hexaflexagon treats, you should really watch the video.  It's outstanding!

How to make your own Mex Hexaflexagon

Once you have watched the safety video, you should refresh memory by watching the Mex hexa flex video.  Also, before you start, you must get yourself some large tortillas.  Then the fun begins.  We found that in order to make the most efficient use of the tortillas, we cut each one in half and then cut a long strip from each side.  We calculated that in order to create the required 10 triangles, we needed a ratio of about 5 : 1, length : width of the strip of tortilla (actually 5 * 2 * cos( 60˚) : 1 which equals 5 : 1).  If your strip is too wide, say a 4 : 1 ratio, you won't be able to create the required ten triangles.  If your strip is too skinny, say a 6 : 1 ratio, you will have a very tiny hexaflexagon and end up with excess length of tortilla to cut off.  

Tortilla cutting

Next is the folding.  It can help to practice with paper first.  With a little patience we were able to fold some fine flexagons.

A tortilla hexaflexagon

Next you add yummy stuff.  Like Vi Hart, we put guacamole and sour cream on the first layer.

Then you must flex your flexahexagon in order to move the gooey goodness to the inside.  It is important to notice that because of the constraints of gravity, it is necessary flex your hexaflexagon by lifting up three vertices and opening up the bottom as Vi Hart does in her video.  If you are lucky it will flip nicely inside out.

After that, you need only to garnish with more yummy stuff.

 Then it is time to eat it.  It is quite a pleasant little gooey, messy treat.

Don't take our word for it.  Try for yourself!

We have some ideas for how to take it up a notch... stay tuned.  If it turns out, we'll publish the result here on Digital Diner.  If not, then forget I said anything at all.

How to Make a Drop of Water into a Work of Art

It's just a drop of water, but when it is frozen in time, suddenly it becomes a thing of beauty.  It happens so fast that we never see it, but with the magic of high-speed photography, the moment is frozen; captured forever.  In the video below, photographer  Markus Reugels shows his entire process, including the little Arduino controlled mechanism that helps him make a splash, so to speak.  I think the results are quite pleasing.

via PetaPixel