Here’s a a short clip of some time-lapse photography I took in Kilkenny City last night. While time-lapses are fun to watch, they usually consist of life (humans, nature, engineering) sped up to show slow progress over a quick period.
However, instead of a time-lapse showing people scurrying about the place, I wanted to show the earth itself rotating, because when everyone is done moving for the day and stationary at home in bed, the world continues to spin.
Digital cameras make it easier to do these slow-shutter lapses, so I pointed my camera at the clock tower of the Kilkenny Design Centre and then directly across the road to the entrance gate of the castle itself. Photography like this is slow, it can take an hour to get enough pictures to make 5 seconds of video and that’s why the clip is so short.
To break it down, depending on the time-lapse picture you’re capturing, it can take up to 30 seconds to get one picture (you leave the shutter open for 30 seconds to let enough light in to capture the stars). In turn, it takes 25-30 pictures to make 1 second of video.
I was lucky last night. The redesign of the area outside Kilkenny Castle means the harsh orange street lights that usually populate urban areas, and drown out our view of the stars, have been removed in favour of more subtle lighting. While that helped, the subtle lighting then shut off shortly after midnight. Whether that was for energy saving reasons (which I applaud) or whether they went on the blink (which wouldn’t surprise me!) the area was left covered by moonlight which was unusual but perfect!
http://www.vimeo.com/11271906
I like this picture of a French customs officer playing with his sniffer dog in a deserted Charles-De-Gualle airport as the ash from the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull-göes-bööm, continues to ground flights across northern Europe.
Meanwhile, staying with northern Europe and, of course, sniffer dogs, this four legged explosives expert joined his handler recently as they took part in a NATO exercise in Norway.
Man, cats seem really useless now…
I watched an engaging and funny talk today given by Ken Robinson at TED 4 years ago.
In it he talks of how the inherent creativity in young people is curbed by education systems worldwide that put academic subjects like maths and science ahead of the arts and vocations. He describes how the school system we know today came about in the 19th century to provide useful, productive workers for the industrialism at the time (you can watch the talk here).
And things haven’t changed. I was out recently with a group of friends who are secondary school teachers. They talked about how important it was to enforce rules regarding the school uniform because it prepared the students for the office place uniform of the shirt and tie. Which is a worrying thought for 2 reasons.
- If school is to prepare young people for the workplace, why is it that taxpayers fund schools and not the large employers that students are being prepared for?
- What kind of workplaces are students being primed for that make the mindless, rote learning which dominates education, a good preparation?
Well perhaps the Young Explorer answers that. Boy oh boy you can start deflating your child’s optimism for a cheery future early with this toy. A cubicle bound desk-jockey my son, that’s what your schooling will train you for.
The Young Explorer manages to make the McDonald’s Drive-Thru Food Cart look aspirational.
This blog post will change your life. Well the part of your life that you spend behind the wheel of a car. And it’s not a change for the better.
I present to you the four slowest driven cars on the road. If this pattern hasn’t stood out to you in the past, it’ll jump out at you now.
So much so that if you find yourself in the middle of a sluggish convoy, you can bet that it’s one of these cars in front. If you have a chance to overtake one of these cars, do it, DO IT! And avoid the inevitable frustration coming down the road.
Indicators? They’re optional for these drivers. An awareness of the traffic around them? Nope, not a chance. A constant 60 km/h in both 100 and 40 km/h zones. You bet!
Here’s a little glimpse into the minds of these drivers.
Yes Knight Rider’s KITT is back! At least for a 20 second ad anyway, and that 20 seconds is better than the whole series of the resurrected Knight Rider show from 2008. Voiced by the original artist, William Daniels, KITT is seen getting a tyre change and some pampering in a Kwik Fit. The ad launches this coming Monday. Hopefully this leads to a series of the ads!
The trailer for Sylvester Stallone’s new cock-a-block action flick The Expendables was released last week and while there was much excitement it. And that’s understandable, I mean Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same film? But that’s where part of the problem is, it isn’t really Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same film. And that’s just one of the snags.
First up, judging by the trailer (watch it here) the movie looks like an ’80s action flick and for me that just won’t do. Even in the ’80s action movies were tepid with humdrum looking and sounding action sequences. Then Die Hard came along and changed things visually. But The Expendables looks like we’re right back there with its uninspiring visuals.
Then there’s the ‘legendary’ line up, but there seems to be a lot of padding…
All the talk is of Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same movie but, again going on the trailer, there is a complete lack of Willis abseiling through a window on a firehose or Schwarzenegger urging people to get to a helicopter.
Basically, two of the world’s biggest bad-asses don’t seem to be blowing anything up or putting bullets through peoples’ foreheads. They just seem to be, well, talking. And while that scene looks cool, it may just be the best part of the film. So enjoy that scene again and again below.
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