chels

[chels]

I would really love it if a wasp recognized my face.

An actual sentence I said to a wasp researcher when she told me that wasps have identifiable faces and they can recognize each other in the hive. So I asked her if they could recognize a person’s face and she said, I don’t see why not. 

[chels]

I’ve been watching clips from this Japanese kids show called Pythagora Switch. First, there’s the delightfully lo-fi Rube Goldberg machines to start the program. And then -- THEN -- there is this bizarre segment about photography with the frenzied voiceover, “It can’t be done! It can’t be done! No human being can do this!” 

After watching this, I got curious about the origin of Rube Goldberg machines, and found out that they are based on cartoons of fantastical machines by an American guy called Rube Goldberg. But in England, they called them Heath Robinson machines because a UK cartoonist had the same ideas around the same time. There’s nothing original under the sun, eh? 

[chels]

This story has everything: a beekeeper named Joe Romance, a detective called Rowdy Freeman, organized crime and beehive heists.

[chels]

This is so moving. Imagine it: you’re in there, thinking and experiencing the world, and no one knows. For TEN years. I can’t even fathom it. Ben is a lovely writer (he’s 18 now and wrote the voiceover for this video), and a thoughtful person who has non-speaking autism. And that’s the point, he’s full of thoughts. I’m glad I listened in to hear some of them. I won’t soon forget this: “Because I couldn’t speak, I was suddenly seen as non-thinking.”

[chels]

On theme airport beer

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Happy Mother's Day to my mom, who somehow survived having this haircut and dealing with the saddest toddler all in one afternoon. She has better hair now, and I've figured out how to deal with the crushing reality of life on Earth

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G'bye NYC

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It's time once again to march for science

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She's been sitting like this for 20 minutes. She is fully awake.

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Time was wild in 1864

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Griffith Park was named after a man called Griffith J. Griffith, which is the only ridiculous thing about the place.

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"Lean more. No, lean less. Look more aloof. Smile a little."

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A little friend time in the Hollywood hills

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Lookit this old Sesame Street segment, just trying to brainwash us kids into not being picky eaters. 

[chels]

Matt Adrian’s stark bird paintings with absurd titles are precisely up my alley. 

[chels]

Thoughts during a changeover

Camera moves in televised tennis I'd like to know the first instance of:

- Pan up to the crowd and then zoom in on the corner until the only thing in frame is the blue, blue sky

- Slow zoom on the play clock and then defocus into a blur

[chels]

What an ‘infinite’ AI-generated podcast can tell us about the future of entertainment - The Verge

This is quite incredible. It’s a podcast, written (and read) by a machine. Up to now, neural nets making art have felt a bit gimmicky to me, but this short little story is full of lines that are somehow meaningful. Even if the thing that created them doesn’t know it. Which is just kind of…stunning.

Have a listen. There are strange little moments all the way through of surprising poetry. But that final line is haunting and beautiful and weighty.