Seoul Timelapse – Watch the Seasons Pass

This timelapse of the South Korean capital is amazing – not only do you get the city in all its glory but you get it throughout the year.  I do not know the technique that was used for this but there is one thing I can say – it must have taken a lot of patience.  Plus I am not even going to guess at how the Oh Choong Young managed to get the cameras in the right position each time they shot a new season of the year in a particular place. Altogether it is a stunning piece of work and I am sure that the city has never looked more beautiful.

History of Emoticons and Emojis

Any social media user has used an emoji or an emoticon at some point. The two though used for the same purpose are different and have different origins as well. One is of English origins and the other of Japanese origins. The resemblance between the two is considered to be purely coincidental.

Emoticons
An emoticon is a facial expression that is presented using various characters. Mainly, punctuation marks, numbers and letters. They are used to express a person’s feelings, mood and expression. Emoticons can also be used as a time-saving method. This is because a few emoticons can have the same meaning as words in a sentence.

History of Emoticons
The first emoticons were introduced in 1982, by Scott Fahlam. He was a computer scientist at Carnegie University. This man is also commonly regarded as the Father of Emoticons. Despite their introduction in the 1980’s, they were first used in 1972 on the Plato IV computer system.

Emoticons became more popular as the internet became popular. As a result, they became widely used in text messages and emails including Australian online pokies. They have also played a great role in communication through technology. They give a more complete expression of feeling and tone.

Emojis
Emoji are graphic symbols that represent an idea or concept regardless of language, words or phrases. They are mainly used in social media messaging. They exist to express various emotions and feelings. Emoji can also be used to sum-up messages and make text shorter. They are like emoticons, but emoji are actual pictures and emoticons are not.

History
Emoji first appeared in Japanese mobile phones around 1999. They are pictographs. A pictograph is a picture that conveys meaning and is based on resemblance to a physical object. For instance, casino game emoji’s at online casino sa or flower emoji’s on WhatsApp.

They, however, became popular after the 2010’s when they were added to several mobile operating systems. They now play a large role in the fields of social media. Popular platforms that use emoji are Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype just to mention a few.

Remember Lidice

On 2 July 1942, most of the children of Lidice, a small village in what was then Czechoslovakia, were handed over to the Łódź Gestapo office. Those 82 children were then transported to the extermination camp at Chełmno 70 kilometers away. There they were gassed to death. This remarkable sculpture by by Marie Uchytilová commemorates them. Yet what had they (and their families) done to warrant such an end?

The events leading to their death were complex but the pivotal moment had been the assassination of the Acting Reichsprotektor of the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. Czechoslovakia had been occupied by Nazi Germany since the April of 1939 and Heydrich was a greatly detested figure of oppressive authority. He was attacked by a British trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers. From the moment of his death a week later on June 4, 1942, from septicemia caused by his injuries, the whole country knew there would be reprisals. Nothing, however, could prepare them for the horror that was to come.

Running Lights

This is lovely.  Two boys discover a dead animal at the side of the road on their way home and decide to bury it.  If that doesn’t sound like a promising premise then be patient and watch Running Lights created by PetPunk.  Although you may not prescribe to the particular circle of life as represented in this animated short I do believe you will find it heart-warming at the very least!  If you don’t quite get it until at least half way through then don’t worry about that either!

Love in Luoping

If you have never heard of Luoping before, you have now.  If you have never wanted to visit Luoping (probably because you have never heard of it) then after watching this you will probably want to get on a plane… right now.  Situated in China’s Yunan province, Luoping is famous for its gorgeous scenery and its fields of rapeseed (canola) which, when in bloom, cover the mountains in a sea of golden bloom.

The place attracts many photographers, including the folks at Perfect View China.  What makes this different to the many travel videos we include on Kuriositas is that here there is as much attention paid to the people as to their surroundings.  Although this does have the effect of making the video look as if it might have been made for the local tourist board, in my opinion it gives an interesting second layer to this particular piece.

If you need convincing any more then Luoping is the site of a recent massive fossil find.  Over 20,000 fossils make up the remnants of an ecosystem which developed after the mass extinction of 250 million years ago.

Please Help Keep Kurositas Online

You may or may not know this but Kuriositas is curated by just one person – and that person would be me! There are a number of expenses that the site incurs each month and so, with my cap in my hand, I’m going to beg a favour.

If you enjoy Kuriositas, please consider helping out with the cost of running the site.  As you can guess, it takes a lot of time and effort, too!

Below this post you will see a button which will enable you to make a contribution safely and securely. There is also a Support Kuriositas button right at the top right hand corner of the site.

You can give as little or as much as you like – I’m not going to limit your choices. Anything will be gratefully received and will help to ensure that I can carry on bringing you all the great science, art and interesting things in-between that makes the site what it is.

So, if you read or watch something that you have really enjoyed, please think about sending us a small donation. Thanks!

Best regards

Robert-John

PS: The donation page is set to US dollars as that is where we get most of our traffic from. So, if you are outside the USA please remember to calculate the amount from your currency first!

Image Credit

The Giant Puffball: Nature’s Orbicular Idiosyncrasy

There are worse things you can find in the woods.  As summer turns to fall, woodland and meadows the world over play host to one of nature’s more orbicular idiosyncrasies.  It is large, round, white and has a distinctly extra-terrestrial appearance.  Yet the giant puffball is very much of this world, albeit one of its stranger fungal denizens.

It can also make for a tasty meal.

Image Credit Nunzy Gareffa
As much as anything else the giant puffball is noticeable and notable by its unexpected and sometimes astonishing size.   It has a distinct lack of camouflage advantage and can become a meal – not to mention a temporary home – to any passing herbivore such as the rabbit above.  Yet although easy prey to animals its structure is immensely strong.  Giant puffballs have been seen to push up slabs of asphalt as they develop, such is the powerful forces generated by their growth.

Dancing in the Movies

If like me you are a big fan of dance then take a few minutes out to watch this – but beware! You may be a little dizzy by the end of it!  CLS videos have put together this amazing compilation of dance moments from films that span the decades.  Many you will know and a lot will leave you thinking “where on earth did that amazing looking piece of choreography come from?”  If you have a need to know you can find them all on the CLS blog.

Grandma's Pie

Grandma hasn’t so much got early onset, she has irredeemable, completely and untterly gone onset (if there can be such a thing).  So when a dragon attacks the town she is utterly oblivious while defenders try to save their once quaint abode.  But let's face it - priorities are priorities and when a pie needs to be baked it bloody well needs to be baked - and things do get rather ensanguined during the process. Grandma's Pie was created by Camilo Castro and Ricardo San Emeterio at the Ringling College of Art.  I have to suspect that Messrs Castro and San Emeterio had perhaps a little too much fun devising the grisly demises of the various brave knights who face the dragon.  Bravo, chaps!

A Father’s Day

So, you may know how we at Kuriositas love anything undeadish so how could we possible ignore a short film like A Father’s Day?  It is set – as so often – in a post-apocalyptic world (here it is the UK, possibly post-Brexit too!).  A father is unexpectedly reunited with his daughter among the ruins of the world as they knew it, a father is determined to make this day special, even if they are already dead. A Father’s Day was written and directed by Mat Johns with funding by Creative England and BFI Newtork.

Center Pivot Irrigation: The Real Crop Circles

If you have been in a plane over a large agricultural hub you may have casually glanced out of your window. And then you may have performed a very, very quick double take. What on earth are those circular shapes below? They are not the alien crop circles of infamy that’s for sure – in fact whole fields seem to be circular in shape. There are way too many of them, too, to have been done as some sort of practical joke. So, what are they? Welcome to the world of center pivot irrigation.

Image Credit Flickr User Tresijas

Why Do Cats Like Boxes So Much?

One question which gets asked time and time again is what, exactly, is the fascination that cats have with boxes?  Until they learn to talk we may never know the answer but we can have a few educated guesses.  Over at our sibling site, the Ark in Space, is a photo-packed feature on this most vexing of issues.  OK, it’s an excuse for a cute-fest but, honestly, do you care?

Image Credit Paul Hyde

Spectrum

Who is the masculine man?  This is the question that Spectrum poses and indeed the concept of masculinity in dance and society as a whole.  The video was directed by Artur Zaremba in collaboration with dancers Jontae McCrory and Stefanos Dimoulas.  As dance becomes more gender fluid (is it the mirror of society or is it the other way around?), these are questions which have to be asked.

Sunrise, Bull Rock, Cork, Ireland

A few times of year during the summer, the sun is lined up perfectly to rise through the natural tunnel running through the Bull Rock. This is a short video showcasing this amazing rock and its neighbors, the Calf and the Cow by landscape photographer Peter Cox.  It is a powerful and immediate piece of film which I have to say made me feel almost like I was there – but my strongest feelings are, however, a need to really be there!

Catkin

A young girl lives with an unhappy home life finds solace in nature.  This alone sounds a little been there, done that.  However, what makes this animated short by Charlotte Davis (who created it during her time at Hertfordshire University) is how beautifully nuanced it is. As any animator will tell you it is no mean feat to create an inner life for a character made out of pixels.  Yet Davis does this with panache and delivers a short and heartfelt story which you may find lingering in your mind for quite a while.

What is Synthetic Biology?

We now have more knowledge about DNA than ever before and that opens certain paths which many oppose.  Yet there may be positive sides to being able to manipulate DNA as this visual essay by Vasil Hnatiuk.  Although this particular shape of things to come might be scary (or even terrifying) to many I have to admit I like the sound of cities made from renewable materials…

Mo‘ynaq – Graveyard of Ships in the Desert

Many have visited an abandoned city and wondered what catastrophic event could have caused such an exodus from a metropolis once so evidently thriving. Yet these cities are usually hundreds if not thousands of years old, the everyday clamor and cry of civilization just an echo. Visit Mo'ynaq in Uzbekistan, however, and you can see apocalypse right here, right now.

Image Credit Flickr User Martijn Munneke

The Soviet era sign still welcomes people to the city. Yet there are few visitors who stay more than a few hours. They all leave after they have done looking at what is reminiscent of a scene from a science fiction disaster movie - big ships adrift in the desert.

A Frenchie's Miserable "Miss-mom" Howling is Made in to a Concerto

We don't often have two videos in one post on Kuriositas but you have to see this.  Walter Geoffrey the Frenchie does not like being left alone in the car – please watch the short video above for ample proof.  When his human companion has to leave him behind for a short time he understandably gets a little upset. His almost musical but nonetheless miserable howling entranced YouTube viewer at the end of May this year.  It entranced one of them, lyoug, so much that they created the video below.

Note that Dog concerto in A-sharp minor is is completely unedited, no speed change or autotune.   The only addition is Guitar Pro’s MIDI clarinet and harpsichord sounds.  It’s probably the best thing I’ve seen all month.  Walter Geoffrey may still be miserable but at least now he is musically so…

Things To Do When You Can't Sleep Because Of Racing Thoughts

Let’s face it. Sometimes you just can’t make the voices in your head shut up and go away, can you?

Hold on: we didn’t mean it like that. We meant figurative, metaphorical voices that represent your innermost stresses, anxieties, and worries, not actual creepy voices that whisper things in your ear, like instructions on how to cook tuna flavored cupcakes. (Don’t ask.)

Yes, folks. Trying to get to sleep while you’re brain is moving at 200 mph isn’t the easiest feat in the world to accomplish. Quite the contrary: it literally feels impossible.

What’s worse is, when you start beating yourself up about not getting to sleep while you’re trying to get to sleep, then, well, you really aren’t going to get any sleep. You’ll be stressed about being stressed which will keep you awake longer. And that, friends, is counterproductive.

We’ve got a suggestion for you: learn how to take it easy. That might sound easier said than done, but it’s a valuable piece of advice that no one should ignore. So how does one actually “chill out” as the kids call it these days, anyway? What does it take?

Just a little bit of self-care maintenance is all. Here are 3 things to do when you can’t sleep at night because of racing thoughts from Sarah of the Sleep Advisor. Ready, set, relax!

Make a list

“Rename your “To-Do” list to your “Opportunities” list. Each day is a treasure chest filled with limitless opportunities; take joy in checking many off your list.” ― Steve Maraboli

A recent study that Baylor University and Emory University conducted in which over 50 young adults were surveyed revealed that writing to-do lists helped them fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster than those who didn’t.

Sometimes our racing thoughts are caused by the anxiety we feel about all of the tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines we feel looming over our heads on the horizon.

These could be a big presentation you have to give for class or work, a massive special event you’re planning, bills you have to pay, taxes you need to do, or blog posts about reducing stress to get better sleep that you need to write.

Grabbing the nearest notebook and jotting down all of these goals and duties will help you clear your head and make you feel like you’ve got a better handle on things than you think you do. Also, it will help you realize what’s necessary and what’s not. That’s important, too.

Say, while we’re on the topic...

Write it out

“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” - Stephen King

Write out your feelings. Pencil, pen, keyboard, smartphone or tablet screen - it doesn’t matter. Just focus on expressing how you feel about what’s going on in your life and in your head.

Describe what you’re afraid of, what’s bugging you, what’s making you feel like you’re in a perpetual state of anxiety. Articulating what’s happening in your life will help you manage your stress and boost your physical health as some studies have suggested.

So, why not take up the ancient art of journaling to explore the possibilities of your life and help fine tune your circadian rhythms considerably at the same time?

Focus on now

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” - Dr. Felice Leonardo Buscaglia Ph.D.

Most of the time those anxious thoughts that are kind of, sort of driving you into a sleep deprived craze aren’t based in the here and now.

They’re about things that haven’t happened yet, or regrets about the past, or false constructs that you bult to make yourself worry yourself for no good reason other than the fact you might be addicted to the adrenaline rush.

Whatever your excuse (or reason) might be, it’s best to step back and accept that you’re having these thoughts. Acknowledge that they exist, then also acknowledge other things that exist outside of yourself, too.

Become aware of the room and your surroundings by focusing on one sensory stimulus at a time. Look at the colors, hear the sounds, feel the sensations, and start thinking about what’s out there and less about what’s in here, so to speak.

We hope that these tips for quieting down your rampaging, anxious mind have been helpful to you. We wish you peace, good luck, and way more than forty winks in bed tonight. We also hope that whatever you’re going through sorts itself out sooner rather than later in a way that benefits everyone involved - you especially.

Bio:

Hey, I’m Sarah. Recent vegan, long-time yogi and lover of a great sleep. I used to suffer from insomnia in my teens but since turning to meditation and yoga (and paying more attention to my health in general), I’ve found that I’ve never slept better! I get to bed early and gone are the days of lying awake with anxious thoughts. And I want to help others sleep more soundly, too!