Internet. Numero 9

Happy new year! It always comes around so quickly. I can't believe it's January again, but there it is. This is the first year in a while that we haven't gone somewhere hot for this miserable month, so I'm interested to see how I cope with sleepless nights combined with what can be overwhelming Scandinavian bleakness. I'm sure all will be well, however. There's plenty to do, plenty to watch, and plenty to see. There's also plenty of baby poo to clean up. OK, enough random mutterings. 

If you, like me, like the idea of smoking a cigar but have no idea what to do with one, then this is for you. 

If you've not see the deep, dark fears comics yet, you should click here. 

These are apparently the best face swaps of 2014. I'd agree. Bond/M is still my favourite. 

Take a note from Carl Sagan 

Or from this...

My dad says I always post about space, so this, dad, is just for you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the eight books every intelligent person on the planet should read. I'll be the first to admit I've read exactly none of them.

If you're a Chrome user, check out The Next Web's 10 useful extensions for 2015. They've very good, both in a useful way and a not so useful way, like this web history analyser. I'm not going to tell you which website I've spent the most time on today, this week, this month or ever.

OK, that's it. It's the weekend and I have brunch plans!

Ze Internet. Chapter 5

This week went incredibly quickly and nothing really amazing happened. To me, at least. All kinds of crap happened out there in the world. Don't get me started on America and their trigger happy cops. Our baby hasn't appeared yet, which is, quite understandably I think, all that I'm waiting for right now, so while I wait, you can look at this week's selection of crap from the internet. Lots of videos this week for some reason. Watch them. Do it. 

Let's revisit space to start with. Face it; you can never have enough. This is extremely beautiful, and quite thought provoking. 

Here's some more space. Well, typography and space. It's a great post about typography in Alien, a movie with a tagline so perfectly terrifying that it still gives me the shivers, 28 years after I first read it. 

Now let's look at brains! How strange to see one like this instead of the usual grey, solidified lump we get to see. I must admit I was shocked to see it so...gloopy. 

Where there's brains, there's zombies. This is an excellent zombie short from 2013.

And back to space. This is a nice cartoon of 'The most astounding fact', originally spoken by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Almost better hearing him say it. 

Here is what London would look like if we turned off all the lights. I find this so captivating. I long to spend time where there is zero light pollution. The closest I came was this summer, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We were listening to one of the park rangers give a short lecture about the canyon, when I just happened to look up and there, in all its wonderful glory, was the Milky Way. I didn't have my camera with me, and wasn't sure how I'd go about taking a photo even if I did (pretty sure there's more to it than wide angle lens and long exposure. Or is there?), so instead I just sat open mouthed, gazing upwards at the night sky. It was magical. 

OK, final space related thing this week, that new Star Wars trailer.

And now for something completely different. 

Have a good weekend. 

Overview

Absolutely stunning. I'm fairly certain that if everyone got to go to space and see our planet from above, there wouldn't be any war, and the environment would be far, far better off. Invest 20 minutes in this. 

"The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment."

Reminds me a lot of Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his most astounding fact. Just awesome. Nothing else. 

Thanks to Chris.