Time Trumpet

One of the funniest TV series of recent years is shortly to be released on DVD, but also available online in its entirety thanks to Blinkx. For those who didn’t know, Armando Iannucci’s creation is set in the year 2031, and features clips and reminiscences from the turbulent period 2008-2012. Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton and others wax nostalgic for the time when Tesco invaded Denmark, Dale Winton became a suicide bomber, Celebrity Rape-an-Ape hit our screens and Charlotte Church vomited herself inside out. The official site has fragmentary clips. Alas the only episode guide I could find is pretty threadbare.

1970s Danish Interior Design

revealed through the medium of judiciously censored porn. Look at the textiles on that!!!

The human brain’s problems with global warming

The Dennett post last week was quite popular, so here’s another similarly brainy video. I’m becoming quite a fan of the psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson, both for their academic research and their engaging popularisations (“Stumbling on Happiness” and “Strangers to Ourselves” respectively). Here are fourteen minutes of Gilbert in action talking about how we are well-adapted to respond to immediate threats from taboo behaviour, but not gradual threats from an impersonal process. “If global warming were caused by gay sex, millions of Americans would right now be massing on the streets demanding the Administration do something about it.”

Electric face dancing

Via Glittrgirl and BoingBoing, something really rather disturbing. Electric pulses make human muscles twitch. A simple circuit turns music notes into electric pulses. Daito Manabe has some friends who are willing to let him attach electrodes to their faces. Put it all together:

No pain, no gain (wait, where’s the gain?)

20 years of the Web (starring Danbri)

I beam with pride to see the video from the 13th March session at CERN on the first twenty years of the World Wide Web, since KDnC’s own Dan B is one of the panelists, and there are name-checks for Libby and Damian. Also contributing is some guy called Tim Berners-Lee. Dan’s presentation starts with 42 minutes to go and he contributes in the discussion starting with 25.30 minutes to go.

Danbri and TimBL at CERN press conference

“Think of the web not as a static, given thing but as a project that is only just getting going.”

Extreme LED sheep art video

Thanks Lisa for recommending this. Finally someone finds a good use for a flock of sheep and a sheepdog. If only “One Man and His Dog” had been like this.

The twouble with twitter

Another amusing twitter-bashing video

Dan Dennett on cuteness, sexiness and sweetness

In a few hours, philosopher Daniel Dennett will be giving a talk here in Bristol. As a taster, this recently released (and quite short) TED video combines his interests in consciousness and evolution. We might think that sweetness, for example, was “out there” in the world before our senses picked it up. Dennett argues that the experience of sweetness is itself something that has evolved to pick out something that was relevant to the survival of our ancestors. In other words, our internal conscious experience has been shaped by evolution in the same way that our bodies have.

Street Views UK

Google Street View has been activated for the UK (and the Netherlands). Here’s Berkeley Square, where I am at the moment. A little closer. Anyone finding anything embarrassing/ noteworthy in their locality, y’know, like they did in the States? (more virtual rubbernecking: Strangest Sights in Google Street Views) Follow the action on Google Sightseeing,

The worlds longest sausage

Yes really. Photos at National Geographic, found via BoingBoing.