Category: Because it’s Friday

Because it's Friday: Draw a Stickman

There are times when everyone needs to release their inner child.

We’ve all drawn stickmen and stickwomen, now you can draw and have an animated adventure with you stickman or stickwoman.

image

Go on you know you want to.

Because it's Friday: Time Lapse Views from Space

Last night I was flying back home and the skies were clear. I love to watch the street-lights snaking all over the country accompanied by the movement of vehicles. It’s great fun trying to identify some of the locations as we passed over them.

Returning to a theme from a few weeks ago here are some absolutely fabulous time-lapse videos of the earth taken from the International Space Stations.

I wonder how many places you recognise:

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS

Because it’s Friday: Wind Powered Cheese

There’s a famous cheese in these parts called Garstang Blue.

It’s described like this:

Longridge Sunset

A unique, rich, mellow and indulgent blue cheese with an open body and a velvety, smooth and creamy texture.

Creamy white in colour with blue vein radiating from the rind. It is best served at room temperature.

What it doesn’t say in the description is that the main source of power for the production of this cheese is a huge wind turbine right next to the factory.

The turbine has become a bit of a landmark because it sits in the middle of what is quite a flat area stretching for miles around.

Anyway, the purpose of the post, I love to see ‘how it was made’ videos and here’s the one for the turbine:

Dewlay Turbine

So that’s how you get wind powered cheese.

(If you’re wondering where I sit on the Wind Turbine debate – I like them!)

Because it's Friday: Visual News

Back to the regular Friday them of how we make things more visual, today’s example is – the news.

Newsmap has been around in beta for a little while, but I’ve never written about it. Here is the news for today (4th November 2011 at 8:20) for the UK in visual form:

image

It’s not the only visual news site out there, but I like this one.

I have to admit though, it always makes me slightly sad, while many of these things are really important, some of the things that get people attention are not important at all.

On a lighter note: It always manages to highlight something I hadn’t seen, and that’s exciting for an information addict.

Because it's Friday: Long Exposure Photography

I’ve always been a bit of a fan of good long-exposure photographs, this is partly because I don’t think I’ve ever taken a really good long-exposure photo.

I suppose I’m following on from last week a bit.

Here are a few of my favourites (mostly from Flickr)

Windsor Skyway

Ball of Light - Googly Eyes

Juha

Garrapata Surf #7 - Garrapata State Park, Big Sur, California

Moon Rising

Mossman

Ball of Light - Salt makes you thirsty

Stanley Force B&W

Buttermere Star Trails

Test of Time, Hole in the Wall Beach, Davenport, California

turn

Rescue Cabin, Tidal Causeway, Lindisfarne

Hardknott Pass Startrail 

hood river moonlight

I think that’s probably enough for now.

Because it's Friday: Timelapse Artistry

I’ve always loved time-lapse videos. I think it comes from watching early nature programmes like Life on Earth.

I suppose I’ve always marvelled at the dedication and commitment of people over the extended periods of time required.

The following two videos are absolutely fabulous examples of the art:

Landscapes: Volume One from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

By Dustin Farrell

Because it's Friday: Voice Activated Lift in Scotland

Voice commands were a big part of the iPhone 4S launch this week so I thought I’d pick up on the theme:

Burnistoun Lift

Because it’s Friday: Flying Solo

I’ve always loved the thought of being able to fly solo – without a plane. Just flying.

I’m  not sure I’m brave enough to do it with a jet pack or a wingsuit though, but it’s inspiring to watch people who are:

Jetman Flight at Grand Canyon West
Wingsuit Base Jumping

And I’m definitely not brave enough to fly through an arch in a mountain.

";” alt=””>

Jeb Corliss flies through a Chinese mountain

Share this:

Because it's Friday: Domino Fun

Someone (I can’t remember who) pointed out this Google Chrome Domino cascade the other day:

Google Chrome Falls Down

It reminded me of how much fun we used to have with dominos when we were kids, but we never quite got to do anything as fun as this one from a supermarket somewhere in Finland:

Supermarket Domino

I wonder if they sold all of the boxes of (broken) breakfast cereals and biscuits afterwards.

Because it's Friday: iPod Magician – Marco Tempest

Some illusionary fun with a bunch of iPhones from Marco Tempest; that’s about as much as you need to know:

iPod Magician – Marco Tempest

Because it's Friday: Try something new for 30 days

I love the talks from TED, the wealth of these free resources is incredible.

This short talk from Matt Cutts packs a punch in just a few minutes:

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

What are the things that you would love to have a go at?

It reminds me of a challenge I set myself a little while ago which has lapsed a bit.

I’ve always thought it is more important to focus on the things that they are going to start doing rather than the things they are going to stop doing.

Because it's Friday: Danny Macaskill

I’ve never had a highly developed sense of balance and have always marvelled at those that do.

What Danny Macaskill does with a bike absolutely amazes me:

Danny Macaskill – Industrial Revolutions

The videos are so well produced too.