Research and Development

George Smoot on the shape of the universe. Mindbending scale, multiple magnitudes of beauty. Thinking of dark matter as invisible matter is a much better analogy. As he says in the talk, “Matter just follows where Dark Matter goes”.

Franco Sacchi on the third biggest wood after Holly and Bolly.

Finally, a classic, Stewart Brand on the long now.

I have always been obsessed with putting myself in the moment, and through my work, other people. It’s a very powerful thing to see people forget about their everyday lives and come back to now - which is all we really have.

The world keeps throwing up places that seem to bring out extraordinary performances out of people, seemingly by their very existence. The “because it’s there” syndrome. It’s interesting to contrast Manoa Drollet surfing Teahupoo, and Travis Pastrana playing in his own backyard. Both in the moment, one in a natural environment, and the other in an environment of his own imagining.

The sheer imposing physicality of Teahupoo made me recall an experience I had recently in Anthony McCall’s “Line Describing a Cone”. The cone being of light didn’t stop it from transporting me into another world, bringing me back to the moment.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept, based around the beauty and perfection of the natural imperfection of nature, and how to incorporate that into man made objects, buildings and places.

Lateralisation of brain function is the concept of the left and right sides of the brain having divided functionality - something as a left hander I am particularly interested in - and how such “handedness” develops.

77Boadrum is a performance by Bordedoms. I wish I could have been there - a perfect example of Wabi-Sabi and Lateralisation of brain function?

A truly astounding descent.

One of the most innovative ads of the year.

I believe this is the location, after scouring the comments.

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This lead me to recall the rush of seeing the below video for the first time - via EveryoneForever, but now, from Vimeo.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s BASE jumping entry, I think I have found, The Troll Wall. Map Link.

Tim Brown on creativity. Many of the concepts/methods explored in this talk are particularly empowered by the use of Open Source software to implement the services, tools and experiences described in this talk by Tim Brown.

Burt Rutan: Entrepreneurs are the future of space flight. It’s staggering to me that both the Concorde and Blackbird have gone through their respective life cycles without being replaced. Burt Rutan talks about the number of prototypes he has been able to create at Scaled Composites - and hinted about the true number, including the classified variety, being much larger.

This led me to John D. Carmack, of idSoftware, and his venture: Armadillo Aerospace. The new propulsion systems look suitably functional, and beautiful at the same time.