More amazing splash photography by Markus Reugels via This is Colossal

• Hrmm… 2012 was the best year yet?
• How the internet is accelerating the evolution of language
• 12 Letters that didn’t make it into the alphabet
• Recreating the Mona Lisa using polygon rendering genetic algorithms
• Testing audiophile claims and myths
• An eBay for Professors to sell college courses directly to students
• Why are (almost all) economists unaware of Milton Friedman’s thermostat?
• Unexpected behind-the-scenes horror film photos 
• Authors’ responses to the film adaptations of their work (Ellroy’s praise for The Black Dahlia is somewhat inaccurate)
• The oldest living species of the modern house cat: Palla’s Cat

More at buzzfeed.

First modern Olympic Games in Athens, 1894 – via

Two very interesting Olympics based items popped up today. The first is a collection of photos from the Olympics of past that goes all the way back to the very first games. That can be found here.

And also, this video that profiles just what professional photographers will go through to cover events like track and field from every angle to get that one shot.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s “View from the Window at Le Gras” was taken in 1826 and is considered the world’s oldest surviving photograph. Starting September 9, the photo, which is usually housed in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, will be on display at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim.

via Smithsonian Magazine Retina

Almost 20 years after Baraka, Director/Cinematographer Ron Fricke is returning to cinema with Samsara and the film looks nothing short of fucking amazing.

Filmed over 5 years, 25 countries and 100 locations, Fricke’s follow up will also be devoid of dialogue, text and narrative and instead, tackle the theme of “humanity’s relationship to the eternal” purely through music and images.

Goddamn beautiful images at that.

The movie was shot entirely on 70mm film, but is set to be released via digital 4K projection, with no plans for a 70mm print; which is a damn shame and hopefully not another nail in that looming coffin for 35mm and film (stock). Mind you, I’ll be just as happy to get an actual theatrical of this awesome looking film considering a supposed ‘lack of market’ in NZ.

Anyhow, check it out (and in HD if that wasn’t obvious enough).

Capturing images in the infrared light spectrum makes for some really gorgeous pictures. Be sure to check out the rest.

More awesomeness at slightlywarped.com

Photographer Navid Baraty is a jerk that takes awesome photos from over the edge of New York skyscrapers. Obviously he’s not really a jerk (or at least I can’t say so, cause I’ve never met the man but I’m sure he’s an upstanding citizen), but sweet jebus some of these photos remind a bit too easily, the whole horrible heights fearing thing.

via

The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition winners

• Great fun/dumb science video: How powerful is an MRI magnet?
• Scientists develop a spray on battery
• Has the Speediest Pulsar Been Found?
• Upcoming Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies That Aren’t Remakes, Sequels or Prequels
• Awesome personal account: Intolerable intolerance
• Crazy: Ex-Wall Street banker, may have swallowed poison pill during courtroom conviction for arson

Finally, along with this Phil Plait write up (bookmark him!) is this really cool video from NASA detailing the recent observations of a giant planet 63 light years from Earth orbiting only 4 million kilometers from its sun. So close is this, that its atmosphere is being boiled and blasted away, streaming a tail of gas ‘behind’ it.

Fuck do I love the crazy/cool things out there for us to keep discovering. Keep it up Universe.

Big Picture: National Geographic Traveler Magazine: 2012 Photo Contest

• The Science of Illusion
• MIT creates glucose fuel cell to power implanted brain-computer interfaces
• Neuroscience + Supercomputing + Nanotechnology = Human Brain
• Here’s the translation of what David asked the Prometheus Engineer
• Ai Weiwei: to live your life in fear is worse than losing your freedom
• Suprise! Slow media months turn nothing news into scandals

And because you can never have too much Community related things on the internet:

By now, you’ve probably seen this hilarious photo series by Lithuanian photographer Tadao Cern. Now see the slow-mo video version..

Thanks Colossal.