What's happening online

Innovation, technology, sustainability and inspiration

[lucremonkey]

Daily you come across many different species of animals. But the museum will always show you more, especially the ones like the Smithsonian. They have over 144 million different objects in its collection!

But did you know that this for instance includes 620.000 specimens of birds? Representing 85% of diversity found in the world? For the whole collection, 99% isn’t on display, but stored behind the scenes. Now Great Big Story is opening this up for you! How lovely to see diversity found in the world! :)

Watch the behind-the-scenes collection of the Smithsonian

[lucremonkey]

Not only is Sherlock one of the best series ever because of the lengthy episodes, the masterful acting or the brilliant plots. The cinematography is also of a very high quality. 

Now you might have noticed this by being dragged into the story by the beautiful shots, but did you ever realise a lot of this is also down to the concept of symmetry? Celia Gómez has made a compilation with an overlay showing you how this has been executed to perfection!

Watch all the symmetrical beauty

[lucremonkey]

Some people are like an open book, but you also should never judge a book by its cover. All nice analogies but what about real old books, the ones that you would want to read; but are too fragile to open? Now MIT has found a solution.

Their new camera  and algorithm project can actually read books straight through the cover! It’s ‘only’ 9-pages for now, but how awesome is it already that we can do this with modern technology?

See the full explanation of this technique

[lucremonkey]

The D-Day landing scene in Saving Private Ryan is perhaps one of the best scenes in modern movies. But have you ever wondered what makes it such a masterpiece? The Nerdwriter got you covered!

He nicely shows how Steven Spielberg is masterfully combining massive chaos together with shots with a very clear focus. If you also take into account that there isn’t a lot of documented video of D-Day, it becomes even more clear that this is a true work of art!

See the full breakdown of the scene

[lucremonkey]

The age-old question: should you pick money over time or the other way around? More time gives you space for fun, but perhaps less money to do fun stuff. Then again, with money you have the bank balance but perhaps not the time...

The New York Times has decided to study this and most interestingly first found that time is perhaps worth more, but then close examination showed a different result: it’s not which one you pick, but the value you place on both of them will determine your happiness! So perhaps this is more a question or learning more about yourself than picking the best option :)

Read the full article

[lucremonkey]

You might be longing for your Netflix & Chill moment this evening already, but have you ever realised that this subscription might be worth more than just the latest season of Narco’s but help you raise your kids?

Jacob Klein has done the math and figured that Netflix could save your children seeing 150 hours of advertisement a year! That is 150 hours of junk food, sugary stuff, over-hyped toys, etc. that you are less likely to need to argue against! I am sure that even in a world without cable-TV companies will find other ways to reach children, but the finding does raise an interesting new way of looking at it! (or actually not looking at it! ;)

Read the full report

[lucremonkey]

One day astronauts will go to Mars, which is not just a technologically complex things, but also has impact on the astronauts psychological wellbeing! So NASA has tested how they would respond.

For a full year they have been simulating living on Mars, confined to their dome and occasional “Mars walks”. Communications was even artificially delayed 20 minutes to mimic Earth/Mars communication! This is like The Martian all over again, except without Matt Damon ;)

See the astronauts “return to earth”

[lucremonkey]

The Black Death was perhaps one of the most horrible and impactfull things on the human race. But the old mantra says that in times of war innovation and human advance also get massive boosts. So could the same be true for these types of events?

As so it seems! Because there is not just one, or a couple of positive effects; but already a list of 10 can be found! Sure these things would’ve happened otherwise as well, but the Black Death as a catalyst had its effect! Let’s hope we don’t ever witness something similar; but it is still interesting to look at history from a different perspective :)

Read more about this

[lucremonkey]

With the olympics just over, we saw athletes that trained for 4 years for one moment. But imagine astronauts: they train their whole lives hoping that they even get to go to space. And imagine if they get this shot and then the mission is complete...

Scot Kelly & Mikhail Kornienko reflect on leaving space and knowing you need to readjust to life on earth and probably not seeing space again. It’s an interesting insight into their journeys and the emotions that come to these normally very factual professionals :)

Watch the interview

[lucremonkey]

How many apps do you use? One for messaging, one for banking, one for ordering food, one for... ENDLESS! Enter: Wechat! The New York Times has published a very interesting article on Chinese tech firms including this.

They show you how a lot of daily activities can all be bundled in an app like Wechat and what this could mean for the future of social sharing and business model changes. So be prepared (or even anticipate)! :)

Read more about the one-app-to-rule-them-all

[lucremonkey]

If you are in an office job, you are most likely writing a ton of e-mails. But are they good enough for people to really read them? The correct length, tone, etc.? Once again, Artificial Intelligence is here to help!

Respondable is a gmail plugin that analyzes your message while writing. It doesn’t only score the likeliness of getting a response but also suggests ways to improve. Being clever, it’s not just based on rules like “all e-mail have to be short than” but it changes it’s suggestions based on the actual mail your typing. Handy! :)

Go and power-up your e-mails

[lucremonkey]

As a returning topic; Artificial Intelligence is still on the rise and rise and will take more visible roles in your daily lives. The fear is still that they will take over the world, but here is one more expert to change your view.

Leading AI scientist Ben Goertzel envisions the future in which AI will tutor your children and take care of your grandma. He sees humans tansition to a singularity where AI’s and humans evolve together.

See how AI will help us

[lucremonkey]

How many pieces of clothing do you own? And how many of those did you actually wear in the past year? Most likely; you have a lot of items that seemed the perfect fit for those days / nights, that never seem to come and they get worn once before sitting dormant for years and eventually ending up in the trash.

Now the Birmingham University has launched a project called the Internet of Clothes in which garments can request you to be donated! This smart wardrobe is fitted with RFID-tags that tracks usage. What a nice and sustainable way of using technology!

Read more about this

[lucremonkey]

Humans becoming part machines is the stuff of Terminator and the end of humans in general. But think about it... your smartphone is your life and devices are entering your life more and more! So why not turn your skin into an interface?

Enter DuoSkin: a fashionable gold-leave temporary tattoo that works just as well as a computer interface as a fashion statement. The thinking around this is interesting as it would be just as usable as an input device as a notification device. What do you think? 10 years from now this is a central element of your lifestyle?

See DuoSkin in action

[lucremonkey]

Google; in its quest to make the world available and searchable has after mapping the streets of the world with Maps and global libraries with Books, now launched a new app that maps global Arts & Culture.

Including the work from thousand of museums from across 70 countries, this is not just a massive online library. The application allows you to browse artists as if their paintings are all in one museum, explore paintings by colour and catch up on daily themes. Love these projects that show the true power of connecting the world through the web!

Explore Google Arts & Culture

[lucremonkey]

There have been an unlimited amount of alien movies... But this year, Arrival plays an interesting twist on this genre. Starting with the arrival of the aliens on earth, the story focusses on Dr. Louise Banks, a famous translator to figure out how to communicate and stop disaster.

Sure, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was also focussing on this a bit, but I hope this movie shows an extra layer which is true for aliens but also for humans today: how can we ensure we truly understand each other and our intentions? Because let’s face it; even the human race with all languages mapped always seems to be incapable of having a proper discussion on the topics that really matter like wars and global warming...

Watch the trailer

[lucremonkey]

You might think you are dreaming big and “self-starter” is on the top of your resume. But then see what Justo Gallego has managed on the outskirts of Madrid.

He has spent the past 53 years building his own cathedral. With no architectural background and now being 90 years old he know he won’t be able to finish it, but that doesn’t stop him keeping at it! What an inspiration! :)

Watch the full story