Author: Chris Higgins

Sometimes we all just need to slow down. When that happens, I like to pull up this calming video in which Matthew McConaughey stares at the rain, sips coffee, and contemplates life.

A little backstory first, though. This video is several layers deep in remix culture. The original source was a 30-second TV commercial for the Lincoln MKZ entitled “Diner.” As the MKZ ads go, it’s unremarkable; the main event is when the rain stops and McConaughey gets to open his sun-roof.

Then things got weird.

The Auralnauts took it upon themselves to make a five-minute version of the ad, extending every shot to the extreme, adding ambient music, adding new narration (by Jon Bailey), and turning the thing into what they dub McConaughey’s “existential crisis.” It’s brilliant.

Finally, that five-minute video turned into an hour-long masterpiece by YouTuber AmbientPopstar. It’s the kind of thing you can (and should) play as background sound while you work. Or, heck, play it at your next party. It is an hour long, after all. Enjoy, and “look at all that rain.”

CALM, HOUR-LONG VERSION

This is the “slow video” you’ve been looking for.

EXISTENTIAL CRISIS VERSION (5 MINUTES)

For reference, here’s the cut by the Auralnauts. Don’t drink while watching this, you’ll do a spit-take.

In this TED Talk, ecologist Suzanne Simard summarizes her three decades of research into tree communication. Her experiments demonstrate that trees can share resources and information through underground fungal networks. These interactions also allow them to look out for one another, sharing resources when certain trees are under stress, or immature trees are at risk.

This is fascinating stuff—particularly when Simard explains how trees of different species communicate and share resources. Check it out:

Check out the TED site for a full transcript.

[h/t: Kottke.]

National Geographic has a new web series called Ingredients, in which chemist George Zaidan walks us through the ingredients in typical household materials. First up is a video about toothpaste. Zaidan checks the ingredients list and explains what everything does, discusses the history of toothpaste, and even gets into how you can make toothpaste at home.

What’s impressive about this video is that Zaidan actually explains the chemistry of these ingredients and what they do. It would be easy to make a few wisecracks and move on, but this video is genuinely educational. Learn up!

From the YouTube description, here’s an important update:

UPDATE: Since we filmed this video, the FDA has banned triclosan and 18 other ingredients from “consumer antiseptic wash products” (aka soap). You can read the details below, but the FDA is basically saying that none of these ingredients clean your hands any better than plain old soap and water. The FDA did not ban triclosan from toothpaste, but you can easily check whether your toothpaste has it by checking the ingredients label. Triclosan would be listed under “Active Ingredients” in the “Drug Facts” box on the back of the package. Most toothpastes don’t have triclosan, so you can choose to brush without it if you’d like.

The California Academy of Sciences has a live Shark Cam on YouTube. It shows an HD underwater view of a shark lagoon, and it even works at night (in black and white night-vision mode).

The display is very soothing, though the actual shark content is quite low. If you like watching rays cruise by—and who doesn’t?—you’ll love this. You may also enjoy putting it on as soothing background video. Chill out and watch:

If you’re curious what species you’re seeing, check this field guide. Long story short, it’s tons of rays (of various species) and diamond fish. If you want more sharks, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Shark Cam.

In 1983, Leonard Nimoy produced a low-budget TV special called Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories. In the hour-long special, he recalled the original series and talked about the first two Trek movies, as Star Trek III: The Search for Spock wouldn’t be out until mid-1984. The special was taped in Boston at Channel 56, which was the main station showing syndicated Trek episodes in the Boston market at the time.

More than a decade later, William Shatner came along with his own direct-to-video package, William Shatner’s Star Trek Memories.

But let’s step back and revel in 1983’s quiet hour spent with Nimoy, as he walks us through, quite literally, his memories of the show and movies. He talks about how he got the part, how the show worked, and gives just a hint of what might come next. (Keep in mind that at this point in the movies’ continuity, Spock’s fate was, at best, unclear.)

The special is broken into four parts on YouTube. Enjoy:

Johnson & Johnson has made an estimated 100 billion Band-Aids since their invention in 1920. But what led to this invention? It took a little ingenuity, some sticky tape, and plenty of scrapes around the house.

In 1920, Josephine and Earle Dickson were newly married, and Josephine often suffered minor cuts and burns around the house. Earle was a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson, and the pair worked together to make improvised stick-on bandages for Josephine’s minor injuries. These were made from sticky surgical tape and trimmed-down sterile bandages.

Eventually, the pair figured out that they could make a lot of pre-made bandages by laying out a long roll of sticky tape and cutting out lots of little pads. Together with some crinoline to keep the sticky bits from getting prematurely stuck, they had created adhesive bandages…later known as BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages (ahem).

With a little further engineering—and some clever marketing to the Boy Scouts—Band-Aids became a household name. Here’s the history of the invention in just 100 seconds:

Further viewing: Watch a Super Silly ‘50s Band-Aid Commercial.

Traffic jams are interesting phenomena. While we tend to think of them as the result of car crashes (and sometimes they are), far more often they’re a subtle outgrowth of the way we drive, and how we apply our brakes.

Humans often overreact to small changes in traffic flow, and that reaction cascades into a massive slowdown. In the video below, CGP Grey illustrates how traffic works, and why humans are typically bad at managing traffic flow.

This video explains that endlessly frustrating phenomenon where you’re stuck in a jam, assuming there’s some massive wreck just up ahead, but there is no wreck and never was—you just magically speed up at some point. If you’ve ever wondered why that happens or what to do about it, have a look:

If you’re interested in this, there’s a lively discussion thread on Reddit talking about this whole business.

In the video below, Tory Belleci from the MythBusters Build Team inflates a giant balloon, and we wait for the thing to pop. It’s like consensual torture. Having said that, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would—the suspense comes in waves, as it goes on far longer than I expected. At times I wondered if the balloon would even pop at all. Tory even repeats his lines, it goes on for so long. Just watch poor Tory’s face as he waits for the inevitable explosion. It’s awful and wonderful all at once.

Incidentally, the Build Team is working on a new Netflix show. Get excited!

How does film music get made? Why are some musical themes—like those from, say, Star Wars or Harry Potter—so memorable? And how can it be that the most popular film franchise of our era, the Marvel movies, doesn’t have this kind of hummable music?

In this fantastic video essay, filmmakers Brian Satterwhite, Taylor Ramos, and Tony Zhou go deep on the issue. A big part of the issue is “temp music,” or music from other films used as a stand-in before a composer is brought in to write the real thing. You’ll be amazed at how close the temp music and final tracks are in the cases presented here.

Listen up:

If that’s not enough comparison of temp-to-real-score for you, here’s another eight minutes:

Finally, Dan Golding responds with his own essay on film music, taking the discussion deeper, particularly with regard to Hans Zimmer. Check it out:

See also: Everything is a Remix.

You may have seen “floaters” in your vision, especially if you look at a blank wall or a bright blue sky. What are they? And should we be worried about them? What about visual snow, phosphenes, and the blue entoptic phenomenon? Although you may not recognize all the names, chances are you’ve seen most of these at some point—and now Inés Dawson will explain them in depth. Enjoy:

If you want more detail on this topic, or video isn’t your thing, read this blog post by Dawson going into vastly more depth. For more videos from Dawson, check out her channel Draw Curiosity.