No Doubt “Push And Shove” ft. Busy Signal & Major Lazer [music]

I’ve always been a fan of No Doubt, so while making a playlist to study to today I kept wanting to listen to this track over and over again — I may have gotten more study out-of-the-way if I wasn’t grooving so much, hmmm — totally digging the massive chorus:

No Doubt have a great ska sound and are one of the coolest bands on the planet in my (biased) opinion. Formed in 1986, the band lineup consists of mostly parents now which adds to their charm and all-round coolness. Although I never got into Gwen’s solo material, I’m glad her and the original gang are back together.

Push and Shove is the band’s much anticipated sixth studio album since Rock Steady in 2001. Not their most energetic album, but a damn-well-accomplished comeback.

Magnificent Supercell captured by Wedding Photographer Mike Olbinski [time-lapse]

A supercell is a thunderstorm with a persistently rotating updraft. ~ Wikipedia

After four years of trying, Arizona photographer and storm chaser Mike Olbinski, with the help of his friend Andy Hoeland, finally captured what he was searching for — an incredible supercell: (you should full-screen it)

“The timelapse was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II with a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 lens. It’s broken up into four parts. The first section ends because it started pouring on us”

First three clips were at 1-second intervals = 880ish photos. The last sequence was around 90, 5-second exposures. Music by Kevin MacLeod – incompetech.com/

“It took four years but I finally got it. A rotating supercell. And not just a rotating supercell, but one with insane structure and amazing movement.

I’ve been visiting the Central Plains since 2010. Usually it’s just for a day, or three, or two…but it took until the fourth attempt to actually find what I’d been looking for. And boy did we find it.

No, there was no tornado. But that’s not really what I was after. I’m from Arizona. We don’t get structure like this. Clouds that rotate and look like alien spacecraft hanging over the Earth.

We chased this storm from the wrong side (north) and it took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side. And when we did…this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters.

One thing to note early on in the first part is the way the rain is coming down on the right and actually being sucked back into the rotation. Amazing.

A few miles south is where part two picks up. And I didn’t realize how fast it was moving south, so part three is just me panning the camera to the left. During that third part you can see dust along the cornfield being pulled into the storm as well…part of the strong inflow.

The final part is when the storm had started dying out and we shot lightning as it passed over us.

Between the third and fourth portions we drove through Booker, Texas where tornado sirens were going off…it was creepy as all heck. And intense.

I hope you enjoy this. Once thing I’ve learned about timelapsing is that I always wish it would be longer or wouldn’t end. I wish I had been south and been able to record this storm come at me for 45 minutes.

But I love it the way it is. I wasn’t ever certain I’d see structure like this even though it’s been such a goal of mine. But we did it. … And by we, I mean myself and my buddy Andy Hoeland.” ~ Mike Olbinski

Amazing.

Western Australia’s Near-Earth Asteroids [time-lapse]

Amazing. Damn you light-pollution! The teeny-tiny object passing across the screen from top-left moving down is a 45m wide asteroid dubbed, 2012 DA14. What makes this asteroid significant is that it was predicted to pass at 28,000km from Earth — the closest encounter with an asteroid ever predicted. Scary stuff right? Impact calculations verified that the asteroid had such a low density that it would have burst as it hit our atmosphere, if it indeed was to hit Earth, which obviously it didn’t, Phew.

Photographer Colin Legg, busy making calculations and calibrations of his own 350 km east of Perth, not only managed to capture DA14 passing the 3.24am sky, but a flurry of celestial activity and satellites along with it:

The scene was captured at 50 mm, iso 8000, f/2.2, 8 second shutter, 9 second intervals [using a Canon 5D Mark II and a 6D].  For more details and other examples of my work, check out – facebook.com/ColinLeggPhotography

Wow; I counted at least 25 objects in that short window of time and space. Beautiful!

Earth From Space – Full ISS Time-Lapse Edit [time-lapse]

Stunning. Astonishingly beautiful and almost surreal footage like this makes me want to turn my computer into a shrine and worship the internet and the awesomeness of science and technology! Only the ISS can show me this side of the world, and I love it.

Images like this would have united the world a few years ago and I guess with more mediums of media and cgi we’ve become less sensitive to recognizing or certainly acknowledging true beauty.

Footage from the International Space Station orbiting Earth is always impressive, but this 5 minute edit by Michael König is truly the pièce de résistance:

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km.

The Scarf

I finally find a scarf I genuinely like and of course it turns out to be a Missoni. Ahrg! It would be selfish of me to spend hundreds of dollars on one indulgence. …Then again, considering all this cold weather we’re getting lately it could be a wise investment, for my neck… On that note; can anyone here translate German for me? Nicht? Scheiße! Oh well, I should probably get a haircut, pay library late fees and man up and brave the coming winter chill. Or, I could be crafty like Nichola and make my own scarf. Hmmm? One of these days, one of these days we will meet, scarf, you just watch your ba… scarfiness!!!

YES! First Exam Down!

The Delivery Prank

I’m not usually a fan of pranks because not everyone has a tasteful sense of humor. Most unfunny people tend to think that pranks must involve some sort of violent scenario or someone getting hurt, which is not cool. This prank however made me laugh a little:

The Mastery of Anime Backgrounds [new site]

Japanese animation is called anime, which is the abbreviated pronunciation of “animation” in Japanese (of course), and unlike western animation, themes in anime can range from ultra cute and colourful to explicitly disturbing, dark and/or philosophical. Themes vary depending on the context of the narrative which is why anime is so diverse and forever expanding and contesting the conventions of animation — the Japanese know how to tell a great story and aren’t necessarily bound to adhere to western standards.

Anime background artists are dedicated to their craft, and much of their details don’t even get acknowledged fully; just look at the amount of TLC that went into these backgrounds and know that some of these are only getting less than five seconds worth of screen-time! That’s devotion for you, literally. One Tumblr user has set out to give credit where credit is due by displaying photos of anime backgrounds with the main characters digitally omitted, so we can all marvel at their textural splendor. A neat idea I think. Not every anime TV-series or film is great (there are a hell of a lot of duds out there), but some animes are masterpieces in their own right:

Akira. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
Created by Tatsunoko Production, TMS Entertainment.

Paprika. Co-written and directed by the late Satoshi Kon. Created by Madhouse.

Magnetic Rose, from Memories. Directed by Kōji Morimoto and animated by Studio 4°C
Script by noted anime director Satoshi Kon, based on a story by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Metropolis. Loosely based on the 1949 Metropolis manga by the late Osamu Tezuka.

The anime had an all-star production team, including renowned anime director Rintaro, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo as script writer, and animation by Madhouse Studios with conceptual support from Tezuka Productions.

Tales From Eathsea. Directed by Gorō Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.

Psycho Pass. Directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani — Created by Production I.G.

The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki. Directed by Mamoru Hosoda
Created by Studio Chizu and Madhouse.

Another. Directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. Created by P.A. Works. – 06

Ghost in the Shell. Directed by Mamoru Oshii — Created by Production I.G

Kiwi Opts for Jail over Home Detention Because He’s Sick of Playing Xbox

Let me get this straight, some knucklehead gamer had an Xbox overdose and for some reason now believes he has something to look forward to in jail? What a tough guy, then again, I suppose his ass would have to be.

That’s right, a 19-year-old Whangarei man under house arrest had pleaded with police to serve the rest of his 11-month sentence in jail because he was “sick of playing Xbox.” Funny part is, he was granted his wish:

A Whangarei man who said he was “sick of playing Xbox” while on home detention has got his wish to serve the rest of his sentence in jail after calling police to tell them he was going to breach detention.

Senior Constable Paul Nicholas, of Whangarei police, said the Hikurangi man rang police on Tuesday to say he was bored serving home detention, was sick of playing Xbox and would rather serve the rest of his sentence in jail instead.

Mr Nicholas said the 19-year-old had already served 10 months of an 11-month home detention term and with one month to go “had run out of Xbox games to play.”

He said the man told police he would breach his home detention if he wasn’t picked up and taken to jail. The man got his wish and is now in Ngawha Prison.