Chinahand's Random Stuff

[Chinahand]

You can tell President Obama is winding down and thinking legacy thoughts as his last year in Office begins.

His appearance with Bear Grylls was reasonably interesting, though trying to turn a 300 m stroll (ok, maybe a bit more) into the dramatic outdoor survival television Grylls is famous for was clearly difficult, so selfies, prayer and small talk dominated, with a goodly message about Global Warming added on top.

Now though, Obama is clearly wanting to confirm that Christopher Hitchen's was right to call him a "cool cat" riffing with Jerry Seinfeld in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It's totally lightweight, reprising the infamous "boxers or briefs" angle made famous by President Clinton and MTV - what is it with this fascination about politicians' underwear? - but at the same time it's great Internet TV, and Obama does manage to come over as personable and a pretty cool guy!

Enjoy it, I did!

[Chinahand]

I do love it when you've failed to solve a problem and suddenly you are presented with a wonderfully elegant solution.

 

Opps - so much for me understanding maths!

 

[manxy]

So we've moved on from a flat earth to a flat spiral?

(Those without a sense of humour might not understand the above)

 

 

.

[Manxfan]

Hope you like this. I thought this thread was a good place for it.

[doc.fixit]

..................thanks so much, very thought provoking! The grandkids love it as well!

[Chinahand]

Clearly another nasa conspiracy:

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Chinahand

[gerrydandridge]

Just shows how easy it is to stage one of the ISS conference video calls.

 

Strange how the inside of the ISS is about the same width as an aircraft fuselage, cover the windows, stick some props on the walls and some fake wires that do nothing and you wouldn't know the difference.

[Bobbie Bobster]

...you wouldn't know the difference.

Apart from the constant microgravity.

[Chinahand]

A nice explanation of how the OK Go video, above, was made can be found here. It is a bit more complicated than it looks. It was one shot, but it has been speeded up, plus there are were pauses in the shot which have been edited out - there is basically a transition every 21 seconds. What was happening is that every 27 seconds the plane had to pull up, loosing the freefall effect, climb and then get back into parabolic flight. The band got into position and waited while this was happening before restarting their manoeuvres. The final video was speeded up - turning the 27 second pieces into 21 second pieces and the gaps in between were edited out.

 

A huge effort for a really striking video. Though it is a bit annoying as it looks like it is only available on Facebook at the moment and any versions on Youtube keep getting removed for copyright infringement, so we'll see how long the latest version above survives!

Edited February 13, 2016 by Chinahand

[dilligaf]

A nice explanation of how the OK Go video, above, was made can be found here. It is a bit more complicated than it looks. It was one shot, but it has been speeded up, plus there are were pauses in the shot which have been edited out - there is basically a transition every 21 seconds. What was happening is that every 27 seconds the plane had to pull up, loosing the freefall effect, climb and then get back into parabolic flight. The band got into position and waited while this was happening before restarting their manoeuvres. The final video was speeded up - turning the 27 second pieces into 21 second pieces and the gaps in between were edited out.

 

A huge effort for a really striking video. Though it is a bit annoying as it looks like it is only available on Facebook at the moment and any versions on Youtube keep getting removed for copyright infringement, so we'll see how long the latest version above survives!

Like it.

Fantastic video and good music too. Thanks Chinahand.

[Chinahand]

NOAA, the USA's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is running a deep ocean exploration mission with ROVs.

 

They are live streaming it on the internet.

 

Clicking here and looking at either Camera 1 or Camera 2 will give you either an earlier pre-recording, or if you are lucky live coverage of the expedition.

 

It can be mesmerizing. Here's a new species of Octopus, never seen before just chilling out ;-)

[Chinahand]

They are preparing for a dive right now - the crews are undocking the ROVs and preparing to put them into the water. Live streamed from the mid Pacific!

 

Technology for the Win!

[Chinahand]

Hating the idea of hate does not make you a hater as haters aim their hate at the individual rather than the idea.

[the stinking enigma]

in yo face johnny five

https://www.rt.com/news/335411-champion-beats-computer-go/

[Chinahand]

I like this cartoon:

 

 

It highlights the dangers of unevidenced dogmatism on both the left and the right.

 

It is sociologically interesting that conspiracists transcend the left-right dichotomy. Each of the updated horsemen relies on a conspiracy of one form or another.