Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing. The number of articles around it are getting crazy but I enjoyed one that poses that the moon landing shots are artistic masterpieces. They certainly must have literally changed how we looked at our place in the universe, and isn’t that what the best art does? It got me thinking about what sort of camera Neil Armstrong used with those big ol’ padded astronaut gloves on. I came across a blog from the Smithsonian about stumbling upon a bag of junk Neil had in his cupboard. Imagine just having a whole bunch of artefacts from a pioneering mission that changed history and just stuffing it in the closet next to a box for the Salvos.
Another person who is giving us a different perspective on the world is photographer and inventor Gary Greenberg. His TED Talk is about the beautiful details of the nano world. His 3D microscope can send us into a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids world that transforms tiny everyday objects into something amazing. This link has more photos Gary has taken of sand. I had no idea it was so varied.
You might have seen this week that Elon Musk’s working on a way to link computers to our brains via tiny threads. As someone who wishes that books got into my brain faster I feel very optimistic about this but as you read on you see that the threads are implanted into the brain requiring drilling through your skull. In the future this drilling will be done by laser drills (sounds like fun). The New York Times details what the possibilities could be. Thinkers and futurists such as Stephen Hawking have said we’ll have to assimilate with machines or be subservient to them in the future. The smartphone is really stage one of a machine appendage but soon we might be artificially upping our intelligence through tiny USB cables. Can’t wait.
I’m working my way through Stranger Things 3 on Netflix at the moment. It’s a cunning and calculating show that tweaks the nostalgia nerve like a well-aimed laser drill. As a child of the 80s I have memories of most of the references the show makes. In season 3 the show’s hotheaded sheriff Hopper takes on his own Magnum PI style after seeing Tom Selleck. It’s the show disappearing up its own arse, so hilariously one clever editor cut together scenes from the show with the original Magnum PI intro. Also, for graphics and TV geeks, there’s this rundown of how Stranger Things got its retro opening credits. It’s an evocative opening sequence and perhaps unsurprisingly the designers have created many of the great recent credit sequences.
At the May election it seems Australia chose coal over the environment (particularly a coal mine over the Great Barrier Reef) . It does make you feel rather helpless about what you can do to help. LADbIble have started a campaign to make the reef an Australian citizen, thereby affording it the rights and protections of every other citizen. It may be cheeky but I really hope it’s a success. Here’s the campaign site.
