Me neither. I always associate American spaceports with sunnier climes but it seems that Kodiak Island in Alaska is pretty much the ideal place to launch great big things in to space. This short documentary, Spaceport Somewhere,tells the story of the blue-collar and high technology employees who make space exploration possible. It was created by Alaskan, award-winning filmmaker Brice Habeger.
A mixture of live action and animation is always something of a risk, but this animated short pulls off this tactic beautifully, using both forms of storytelling to take us inside the world of a man who has, it seems, lost almost everything that he ever held dear. Written, directed and produced by Till Nowak, this is one of the most outstanding short films I have seen for a while. Do NOT be put off by the length – it will not seem like that once you reach the end.
The title of this song by Mark Nevin with animation by Heather Colbert does sound like the King tried to take advantage of Ms Parton – and that is true but perhaps not quite in the way you might think. In fact, Elvis’ manager Tommy Parker wanted to take 50% royalties from the sales of one of Dolly’s songs if she gave it to Elvis to record. She, wisely, said no. Years later a young singer by the name of Whitney Houston gave I Will Always Love You a new lease of life – and this song tells the tale.
© plasticbag / flickr
Take a whistle stop tour of some of the most spectacular radio telescopes in the world and find out about what actually goes on there. On almost all of the continents these giants command the landscape as they survey the skies.
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Sculptor Tamara Kvesitadze (who is also an architect and a painter) created Man and Woman to remember a pair of star-crossed lovers that many of us have not hear of. It was installed in the seaside town of Batumi in Georgia to represent Ali and Nino from the 1937 novel by Azerbaijani writer Kurban Said.
This short animated documentary is based on interviews with young people from Germany and Israel. They are all relatives of the third generation with people who experienced the Holocaust during the Second World War. As such what they say about each other is revelatory and occasionally disturbing, to say the least. It was created by Gil Leron, Elad Izen and Shahar Madmon of Animation Forest.
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If you listen carefully just above this unassuming grate you can hear the ripple and splash of flowing water. This is the sound of the River Fleet, London’s largest subterranean river. Forced underground by the city’s burgeoning populace the river still flows from its source to its mouth where it joins London’s main waterway, the Thames. Yet what lies beneath?
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Below the ground there is a remarkable network of tunnels and chambers, put in to place by Victorian engineers, the final step in a process which took centuries. For over a thousand years there had been a shipping dock at the mouth of the river – its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon fleot which means a tidal inlet. Yet it was not destined to persevere as a river in its own right.
If you are looking for some accessible facts about the stars then you have come to the right place, courtesy of this fascinating and elegant animation about those balls of gas burning billions of miles away as Pumbaa from The Lion King once described them. Created by data design agency After The Flood for the BBC this will suit most tastes from idle curiosity to those of you with homework to do for tomorrow!
This is the peacock spider – and it knows how to show off. Featured today on our sibling site, the Ark in Space, this species wave their legs when first in courtship mode – and you might think that bizarre enough. Yet when he raises a pair of patterned flaps this elaborate courtship process goes from the comically strange to the extraordinary. There is little wonder why its common name is the peacock spider – pop over to Ark in Space to see more amazing pictures and videos.
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Before the rise of the Inca Empire, those with an eye to make money but no aversion to hard work, made their way to Maras. There, a subterranean stream surfaced and its waters were rich with salt. Deep underground there is a vast deposit of salt, perhaps the remnant of some prehistoric ocean. Hundreds of miles from the sea, this led to a small but important local industry supplying indigenous communities with salt. The ponds which were created to evaporate the water, leaving the salt behind, still exist and are worked to this day in the same way.
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In a time where the digital glimpse into a relationship is usually a picture perfect happy couple, appearances can be more deceiving than ever. A youthful romance turns from heart emojis to jealousy and control before your eyes in an impactful animated short film, “Sunshine,” for nonprofit Day One from global creative studio Lobo and BBDO. February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.
The zoetrope continues to evolve in to the twenty first century – and this particular twist on the art form is known as the caketrope. This example by Alexandre Dubosc is the domestic "cake" of the felidae family (in other words it's a caketrope of cats!). Otherwise known as Gâteau Gato it is a majestic example of what you can do with flour, eggs and the imagination. And if you are raising your eyebrows thinking that this is CGI then take a look at Dubosc’s Flickr sets where previous projects are shown in the making.
The story of dinosaurs spans millions of years so who better to encapsulate it, then, than a four year old? Nathan Mezquida gives us an insight in to the lives and demise of these creatures that fascinate children of all ages. His dad Allen is an animator but gave Nathan full directorial control over this joint project and the result is both charming and, at times, bloodthirsty. This is a delight right here, right now: what better gift could a father give his son? Yet I’m sure the Mezquida family will cherish this for years and I can only hope that Nathan shares his first film with his own kids in a couple of decades.
If this had been called “The Borrowers in Space” it would not have surprised me at all, such is the quirky feel that I get from Orbit Ever After. A family of scavenger subsist on what they can find spinning past the wreckage of a spacecraft in which they live. Yet son Nigel is smitten by a girl on another piece of barely life-sustaining debris. The problem is, it’s going in the opposite direction! Orbit Ever After is a film by Jamie Stone.
No, this is not a belated April Fool’s prank. They look as if they may have been pinned there by an over enthusiastic gardener to impress the neighbors but the fruit of the Jabuticaba really does grow off the trunk of the tree.
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Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, has always stood as a bridge between east and west. 
Bismuth is quite amazing. Slotted between lead and polonium on the periodic table you might not thing it would have any properties beneficial to health at all – yet it does. It has quite an interesting history too, as you can gather from the video above (the second from our bespoke YouTube channel). If you would like to learn some more interesting facts about bismuth then follow this link to our article on this most enigmatic of elements, replete with a lovely collection of photographs.
There is cute and then there is just unspeakably, adorably cute. This extremely photogenic guy is the tree-kangaroo, a native of both Australia and New Guinea. At one point in their evolutionary history, this branch (see what I did there?) of marsupials decided to go back whence they came – to the trees. And there they persist, although all species of tree-kangaroos are sadly endangered. The Ark in Space has their story together with some great photographs.
Image Credit the pitcher
At four times the size of our pale blue dot, there is a storm raging over Saturn’s north pole – and it is six-sided. That's right - a hexagonal hurricane. How did this geometric shape come to be, what caused it? This and other questions about Saturn (great footage of the planet’s own version of the northern lights) are answered in this great video, produced by: Dennis Overbye, Jason Drakeford and Jonathan Corum.
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Here are some images of this incredible phenomenon. First, a raw Cassini image acquired on Feb. 26, 2013 which shows the planet's hexagon structure around its polar latitudes, as well as the central spinning vortex over its pole. There is an old Latin saying - ordo ab chao - out of chaos, comes order. Whoever it was who first said that probably didn't have Saturn in mind.
Have you ever run out of one color toner but need to print something in black and white? Have you then been told by Customer "Support" that your printer is only designed to work when all the cartridges have some ink in them? Have you then wanted to destroy your printer (and possibly bring down civilization for the hell of it, too)? If so then this video by Dustin Farrell is for you. Here is one man who dared do that which we all have dreamed about. Ave, Dustin!
This little guy (or gal) is cute, at least once you get used to it. However, this Little Thing cannot get used to the loneliness of being alone. Around him is an abandoned city of man but our new friend can find no one to play with. This animated short by Or Kan tor won a number of awards and it is easy to see why. If you need to have your heart melted today, then watch Little Thing.
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The Indonesian province of East Java (green, left) is the home to the Ijen Volcano. The volcano has an enormous, turquoise acid crater lake at the top of a two mile ascent.
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Image Daniel Rubio