Macro Timelapse

The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham said “Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet”. Not so Daniel Csobot at Natural Recall who researches the inner workings between the animal and vegetable world. This exquisite macro time-lapse shows those flowers at our feet at a speed which allows us to take in the wonders of nature at a speed we are not usually afforded. Lovely.

Cern – The Atlas Experience

ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that is searching for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy.  The detector is 100m below ground in a cavern few get to see. 

Yet thanks to filmmaker Christoph Malin we get the opportunity to see the experiment at a point when it is undergoing a technical upgrade (I could think of a few thousand things that probably need one more than Atlas, but there you are!).

As Malin says: “Regardless if you are an Engineer, Scientist or Filmmaker – at the very moment you step into CERN and ATLAS, you get totally soaked up by the omnipresent passion of all people involved there, the ever present spirit of Science and Particle Physics in detail – a world that totally immersed us.”

Mind the Gap

If you have lived in or visited London over the last thirty years then the three words which make up the title of this short film will be familiar as you will have heard them many time on the underground tube system of the English capital.  For one elderly woman the words have a particular resonance.  Starring Eileen Nicholas and produced, written and directed by Luke Flanagan, Mind the Gap is based on a true story.

Blackbirds by Gretchen Peters

Gretchen Peters has been a famous face on the American music scene for two decades.  Her latest single, Blackbirds, is a wonderful slice of American noir which pools her eclectic musical influences in to a murder ballad which tells the last chapter of a family’s history.  Together with a great stop motion silhouette animation from Eric Power this might not be one to show the kids just before bedtime. Oh, go on then.

Quiz: How Many of these Endangered Mammals are Left?

There are probably countless endangered mammals in the world but you will recognize all fifteen in the latest quiz from our sibling site, the Ark in Space.  Your job is to guess just how many individuals of each species are alive in the world today.  Some of the answers may surprise you (and some will make your heart a little heavy, but this is a quiz about endangered mammals, after all).  

There is little irony to be found in the fact that if you added up the total numbers of all fifteen of these species they would probably only be a fraction of a percentage in terms of numbers compared to us, homo sapiens (there probably is irony in the sapiens bit). In fact we’re probably more of a virus than a mammal in many ways…

Click on the picture above or HERE to do the quiz.

Naturevention

I am the first to admit that Naturevention has left me a little perplexed but not by any means in a negative way.  Written, directed and produced by Miro Laiho of Time Films, the story is told at three different periods in our history, the past, present and future.  Yet although it’s something of a puzzle (and I may just be a little dim today) it is something which I had to watch to the end.  See what you think and let me know!

Know Your Art? Then Try Our Horribly Difficult 20 Question "Who Painted This?" Quiz!

Do you know your Dali from your Dürer, your Goya from your Gauguin? Then try these 20 multiple choice questions.  You will take a back and forth whistle-stop tour through almost a thousand years of art history.  Yet which painters were responsible for the 20 masterpieces you are about to see?

Don’t worry if you don’t get all 20 – you won’t necessarily see the most famous work by each artist in this quiz. However, why not pass this on to your friends by sharing it? Watching them get a miniscule score will inevitably make you feel better.  Have fun with the schadenfreude!

If the answer you choose goes GREEN, then you got it right.  If it goes RED then you got it wrong.  You will also see how many others chose the different answers (in terms of a percentage).



Image Credits
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If you want to check out the answers as a single list, click here.

Quiz: Can You Name All 15 of These Big Cat and Wild Cat Species?

Fancy a quick quiz? Then click on the picture above and it will take you to our sibling site, the Ark in Space. Most of us know a lion or a tiger when we see one but some of the other big cats can be a little more difficult to name.  Throw in a number of wild cat species and it becomes more difficult to name them all.  Just how many of these amazing animals can you name?  The quiz is multiple choice so you do have some chance at least so why not give it a go?  You can find it over at the Ark in Space.

Richard III – That Horrible Histories Song

As the reburial of Richard III gets underway we thought we might as well jump on the band wagon (is there such a thing as a band hearse?) and give that most misunderstood of kings the opportunity to put the balance right. History has not been kind to Richard III and, as you can see from this amusing song from the Horrible Histories team, it’s mostly the fault of those terrible Tudors!

Line Signal

I love a short film that doesn’t put all the answers on a plate for you, instead leaving much to the imagination and that is exactly what Line Signal by Meat Bingo does.  In terms of exposition there is just what you see (and it’s beautifully shot) and hear.  Who is the young businesswoman with her mysterious deals? Who are the strange figures she encounters in the wood when the signal to her mobile phone fails?  Or as my ancient neighbour used to say about almost everything he watched, what was that all about, dear?  I’m not sure but I loved it!

Are There Aliens?

Who can say but this short animation created by Beakus for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (the one in London!) puts the possibilities forward simply and concisely.  The sad reality is that we probably won’t find out in our lifetimes unless there is some sort of Independence Day event but given the odds I would, for one, certainly like to think that it is only a matter of time before we have the answer.

Buckminster Fuller on the Geodesic Life

"I must reorganize the environment of man by which then greater numbers of men can prosper." Buckminster Fuller, American neo-futuristic architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor as told to Studs Terkel during interviews recorded in 1965 and 1970.  Although it skims the surface of the ideas of this extraordinary man this is a fantastic homage by Quoted Studios.

Hyperjump

If you like kinetic light sculptures then they really don’t get much better than this. Created by Tundra Collective, Hyperjump takes us to one of the halls of the former First Cadets Corps in Saint Petersburg.  There are 25 moving head light beams on truss stands with a powerful sound system for good measure.  When the light sculptures started to move, the electronic light devices come to life. It’s an 11 on the 1-10 scale of cool art.

Pasteurized

When you are a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough then you need isolation, quiet and, above all, no pesky felines arriving on your doorstep without a by your leave.  However, life for this scientist is not ideal by any means and made worse by an unexpected visitor whose arrival will change everything.  Written and directed by Nicolás P. Villarreal, Pasteurized has won a number of awards.  Watch and find out why!

Supernatural Spring Break: An Alphabetic Guide

Spring Break: at time to let your hair down and have some fun. Of course, if you happen to be a supernatural beasty the same rules apply, only with some little differences. Here, the students of Columbus College of Art and Design have a little fun with the whole concept of spring break and bring you an alphabet of its extravagances, seen through the eyes of a menagerie of monsters.

Flowers

There should have been enough time-lapses of opening flowers by now for us all to have become completely fed up with them.  Yet they keep coming and they keep getting better.

This one, created by Thomas Blanchard, is just lovely and is the result of 9624 shots being brought together to make just over two minutes of film.

Diversity Among Winners at the Oscars

A lot of attention was paid to the lack of diversity among Oscar nominations in 2015.  This video by Bard Edlund shows how many black, Hispanic, and Asian winners there have been throughout history (including this year), across four main categories -- best actor/actress, supporting actor/actress, writing (original and adapted screenplays), and directing.  You can see why a lot of eyebrows continue to be raised.

The Last Space Shuttle Launch

8 July 2011.  Is it really that long ago, already, that the last space shuttle launch happened?  Here to remind us of what we are missing these days is some incredible footage of STS-135 by Bill Bennett who was invited by Arri and NASA to record this final launch for posterity.  The camera, an Alexa rolling at 120fps was just a 1,000 feet from the Launchpad – and triggered remotely. The result? Is there a one word superlative for awesome?

African American Female Firsts: For International Women's Day

To mark International Women’s Day here are ten African-American women who changed (and continue to do so) lives and perceptions through their deeds, challenging attitudes not only because of their gender but their color too.  The above video gives a very short insight in to their lives but you can read more about them on Kuriositas here.

Monument Valley by Drone

The magnificent sandstone buttes of Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah state line – what a perfect site to send a drone up high and capture some amazing footage.  That is exactly what the folks at FreewayDrone did, getting special permission from  the Navajo Film Office to fly for two days.  The results are something quite ridiculously beautiful: the serenity and sheer immensity of the landscape is perfectly caught.