Author Archives: Chompsky
Behold: the most famous manned voyage of the 20th century on its way home. To wit:
After proving that humanity has the ability to go beyond the confines of planet Earth, the first humans to walk on another world — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — flew the ascent stage of their Lunar Module back to meet Michael Collins in the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module. Pictured here on 1969 July 21 and recently digitally restored, the ascending spaceship was captured by Collins making its approach, with the Moon below, and Earth far in the distance. The smooth, dark area on the lunar surface is Mare Smythii located just below the equator on the extreme eastern edge of the Moon’s near side. It is said of this iconic image that every person but one was in front of the camera.
(Image: NASA, Apollo 11; Restoration – Toby Ord)
RIP: (the other) Big Fellah.
An enlightening graduation short by Géraldine Charpentier-Basille tells the deeply personal story of transgender Lou and the difficulties they faced with clothes, periods and labels when growing up.
Inspired by both the work of American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler and Charpentier’s “non-queer friends”, the director describes her film as “a representation of a queer person made by a queer person”.
And you think you have problems.
Hot Wheels
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Behold: dusky shots of the Viritech Apricale – a hydrogen fuel cell powered hypercar currently in development by the manly-sounding UK-based start-up.
Performance and construction details are sketchy so far but the company hints at an ‘innovative graphene-reinforced pressure vessel in which hydrogen storage tanks actually make up part of the chassis’.
The ultra lightweight Apricale – of which 25 will be built, selling for around £1.4 million each – will make 1,100bhp and the first deliveries are expected in late 2023.
The Liffey, Dublin. Tuesday.
Colum Cronin tweets:
A boat, a bird, buildings and billowing clouds. [Yesterday’s] lovely Spring day [was] brought to you by the letter ‘B’.
A spectacular new compilation of funnel clouds, tornadoes and contorting skies by Mike Oblinski, set to ’The Last Goodbye’ by Eric Kinney and Danica Dora.
Previously: Vorticity
Full screen and sound up for best effect.
David
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Who Are You?
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A pleasingly Zen short by motion designer Alex Barnet. Food for thought. To wit:
The Headless Way is a collection of philosophies and meditations by the late great Douglas Harding on the subject of the true nature of the self. I collaborated with his protégé Richard Lang to create this short video which gives a small taste of Harding’s understanding of the nature of the self through the lens of distance and observation.