Alan sez, “A great, but slightly disturbing, look at how pervasive green-screening has become in simply every scene in television these days. Pretty much everything you think is outdoors is faked, at least to some degree. I particularly like the faked ferry fire…”

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel 2009

(Thanks, Alan!)

Bowloftoast sez, “This is a short animation that takes the viewer through a progressive description of all (and all possible) dimensions, up to and including the 10th. It is an elegant introduction to the fundamentals of string theory and a mind-blowing toe-dip into the pool of the metaphysical.”

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

(Thanks, Bowloftoast!)

Marilyn sez, “Urban Camouflage: imaginative use of military ghillie suit where you look like a tree, local vegetation etc. Funny videos! Another guy disguised to look lie a pile of boxes that has tumbled from shelves in the warehouse area. When he starts to shuffle away it’s funny!” Shown here: “person disguised as pile of colored paper at Ikea, next to display of same.”

URBAN CAMOUFLAGE

(Thanks, Marilyn!)

Artists Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz cast life-sized candles of themselves in beeswax, then watched their waxy doppelgangers melt.

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz

(via Street Anatomy)

From the Speaker of the House’s blog — a chart showing the job-losses by month in the past two recessions (red=2001, blue=1991) against the current recession (that suicidal green line plunging to its death).

Shit.

What 3.6 Million Jobs Lost Over 13 Months Looks Like

(via Isen)

Bonnie sez, “Everyone has at least one friend who has seen parts of the Star Wars original trilogy but can’t quite tell you every plot point in order. Joe Nicolosi recorded his friend Amanda as she retells the story from the tiny amount she’s seen with hilarious results.”

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it)

(Thanks, Bonnie!)

Barry Ritholtz sez,

In doing the research for the “Bailout Nation” book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars.

People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Alexey Titarenko’s “City of Shadows” is a series of haunting, gorgeous long-exposure shots of street-scenes in St Petersburg, Russia. The long exposure-times turn the people in the shots into ghosts and suggestions of motion.

Link

(Thanks, Marilyn!)

Flickr’s Pixelsurgeon has remixed a bunch of BBC news-footage in which the anchors, having signed off, just look at one another with relief and sit silently waiting for the fade-out, calling the result, “The Day There Was No News.” The effect is nothing short of wonderful.

Mr Jalopy adds, “Somehow, this silent newscast is more eerie than normal boombastic version of the days events.”
Link

(Thanks, Mr Jalopy!)

WillS sez, “The Get Out Clause, an unsigned Manchester band who could not afford a camera crew for their video, ‘performed’ in front of a load of CCTV cameras, requested the footage from the camera operators under the Freedom of Information Act Data Protection Act and then stitched the results together for their music video.”

Link

(Thanks, WillS!)