Chez Moncef

thekidshouldseethis: Male kangaroos often fight to establish...

Tue, 03 Nov 2015 10:16:58 -0500

Male kangaroos often fight to establish dominance or win a mate. Fights consist mostly of balancing on their tails while trying to knock their opponent off balance. Also: A bit of wrestling.
Watch this video from the BBC’s Life Story…

springwise: Start-up cancels and rebooks hotel rooms to get...

Thu, 26 Mar 2015 19:20:24 -0400

springwise:

Start-up cancels and rebooks hotel rooms to get users the best deal
We have seen numerous ventures — such as #Tweetstay — promising to secure holidaymakers a better deal on hotels by bartering on the customer’s behalf. Now DreamCheaper has automated the process. The German start-up helps customers to make the best of hotels’ fluctuating room prices, by canceling and rebooking their room anytime it spots it at a better price. READ MORE…

centerforinvestigativereporting: Americans have a striking...

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:05:43 -0500

centerforinvestigativereporting:

Americans have a striking double standard when it comes to perceptions of violence in the name of Islam vs. Christianity.

springwise: Smart acupuncture pen checks if you’re getting...

Sun, 18 Jan 2015 00:31:16 -0500

springwise:

Smart acupuncture pen checks if you’re getting enough vitamins

Regular readers of Springwise will have noticed that the number of different health tracking products hitting the market in recent months has exploded. They’re increasingly enabling consumers to perform their own health check-ups at home, with devices such as Cue offering a mini laboratory-in-a-box that can track 5 different healthcare metrics at a molecular level, and Peek Vision — the smartphone app for eye examinations — enabling roving doctors take a full eye exam anywhere.

Similarly, Vitastiq is now allowing anyone to track their vitamin and mineral levels through a handheld device and app that blends scientific data with thousands of years of acupuncture wisdom. READ MORE…

staff: This is huge. Today, President Obama himself has come...

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 22:51:08 -0500

staff:

This is huge. Today, President Obama himself has come out in favor of a number of clear, specific, and firm net neutrality rules that will keep the internet free and open. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

Give yourselves credit for this one. Tumblr users have been out in front of this issue all year. 130,000 of you called Congress in a single day. You showed Washington and the FCC what democracy looks like—it looks like the internet. You made your voice heard, and the president was listening.

The specifics: Obama has called for the reclassification of broadband service providers under Title II, which means the FCC can hold them to the same sensible rules that telephone companies are regulated through. This means—and this is directly from the president—that there can be no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization, and that the rules will cover mobile, too. To sum it up in a couple words: Fuck yeah.

One last thing: we’re almost at the finish line, but we’re not quite there yet. It’s vitally important that the FCC, in light of the president’s announcement, act to issue these rules (and not any of the weaker, riskier proposals that are in consideration) during their December meeting. We need immediate action. In the meantime, our policy team will be taking your concerns directly to the FCC, and you can keep updated on any further actions you can take by following themediafix and fight4future.

We’re almost there, guys. Let’s bring it home.

thekidshouldseethis: We just tried this super easy Reversing...

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:03:04 -0400

thekidshouldseethis:

We just tried this super easy Reversing Arrow Illusion, and it is, in fact, super easy. Draw two left-pointing arrows on a piece of paper and then put a clear, empty glass between you and those arrows. When you pour water into the glass, you’ll see something that you might not expect. How exactly did that happen? From Physics Central:

No, you aren’t going crazy and you haven’t found yourself with Alice in Wonderland staring at arrows pointing in opposite directions. In fact, you have just demonstrated a physics concept called refraction, the bending of light.

When the arrow is moved to a particular distance behind the glass, it looks like it reversed itself. When light passes from one material to another, it can bend or refract. In the experiment that you just completed, light traveled from the air, through the glass, through the water, through the back of the glass, and then back through the air, before hitting the arrow. Anytime that light passes from one medium, or material, into another, it refracts.

Just because light bends when it travels through different materials, doesn’t explain why the arrow reverses itself. To explain this, you must think about the glass of water as if it is a magnifying glass. When light goes through a magnifying glass the light bends toward the center. Where the light all comes together is called the focal point, but beyond the focal point the image appears to reverse because the light rays that were bent pass each other and the light that was on the right side is now on the left and the left on the right, which makes the arrow appear to be reversed.

Related mind-benders: the amazing T-Rex illusion, a basic demonstration of optical cloaking, and from ASAPscience, Can you trust your eyes?

via The Awesomer.

You may not have heard of Jonathan Hoefler or Tobias...

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:45:42 -0400

You may not have heard of Jonathan Hoefler or Tobias Frere-Jones but you’ve seen their work. Before their recent split, they collectively ran the most successful and well respected type design studio in the world, creating fonts used by everyone from the Wall Street Journal to the President of the United States.

Font Men, gives a peek behind the curtain into the world of Jonathan and Tobias. Tracking the history of their personal trajectories, sharing the forces that brought them together and giving an exclusive look at the successful empire they built together.

demand-progress: The NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records...

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:19:13 -0500

demand-progress:

The NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” (Washington Post)

Join us in protesting the National Security Agency’s wide-ranging invasion of privacy.

Take action →

centerforinvestigativereporting: The state of California says...

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:17:36 -0500

centerforinvestigativereporting:

The state of California says it will cost $20,000 and take two years to export basic data on child care inspections. The majority of states already make these public reports available online, but California has no plans to do so.

Why it’s hard for parents in California to find out if day care providers are breaking the rules.

thekidshouldseethis: How does the space that you’re making...

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 22:50:34 -0500

thekidshouldseethis:

How does the space that you’re making music in change the sound of the music? French drummer Julien Audigier, Audio Zero, and Wikidrummers put this video together to demonstrate the “natural echoes and decay patterns” of drums in different environments. No artificial reverb added.

In the archives: more drums and more sounds.

via The Awesomer.

On Paul Graham and Duck Dynasty

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 12:47:20 -0500

On Paul Graham and Duck Dynasty:

cbracy:

A redneck with a cable show said some very stupid and hateful things about black people and gay people. It’s captured the American imagination for the last week and reignited the red state/blue state divide.

Around the same time, the (arguably) most influential investor in one of the…

thekidshouldseethis: Why does the full moon look larger when...

Sat, 07 Sep 2013 00:54:49 -0400

thekidshouldseethis:

Why does the full moon look larger when it’s near the horizon than when it’s high up in the sky? For generations, astronomers, psychologists, brain researchers, and many others have hypothesized about this effect, and yet there still doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer.

In this TED Ed, Andrew Vanden Heuvel explains The Moon Illusion, and the theories behind our perception of our moon’s size in the sky.

Previously on this intriguing topic: The Moon Illusion with ASAP Science.

thekidshouldseethis: Take a trip through The Solar System — our...

Sat, 24 Aug 2013 14:14:57 -0400

thekidshouldseethis:

Take a trip through The Solar System — our home in space in this animation by information designer Philipp Dettmer.

Related watching: design, planets, an animated explainer of DNA and the last five minutes of Extreme Stars.

Thanks, @godoacuna.

My brother’s new album comes out tomorrow on Thirsty Ear...

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 00:24:17 -0400

My brother’s new album comes out tomorrow on Thirsty Ear Records. It’s been getting great press in the Guardian and NPR, to name just a few.

springwise: Electronic licence plates can be invalidated...

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:45:36 -0400

springwise:

Electronic licence plates can be invalidated remotely

The Tennessee Government has already brought drivers’ licence registration into the 21st century by using self-service iPads for renewals. Now South Carolina may introduce electronic licence plates that use electronic ink to signal when a car is stolen, suspended or uninsured. READ MORE…

The innovation in government bug is spreading!

thekidshouldseethis: Founded in 1853, Steinway & Sons has...

Sat, 20 Jul 2013 22:39:58 -0400

thekidshouldseethis:

Founded in 1853, Steinway & Sons has been building award-winning, hand-crafted pianos for 160 years, so clearly they know how it’s done. In The Making of a Steinway, they share the extraordinary, year-long process. From Open Culture:

Several decades ago, John H. Steinway (the great-grandson of Henry E. Steinway) narrated an audio tour of the New York factory, where he described the generations-old process of making a Steinway grand piano. In 2011 Ben Niles, the producer behind the documentary film Note by Note, synced the audio tour with present-day footage of the Steinway factory…

I’ve mentioned before that I wish that we had a how things are made video for every musical instrument. This is a brilliant addition to the ones we’ve collected so far: violin, cymbals, steel drum, and flamenco guitar.

via Open Culture.

Fascinating!

new-aesthetic: “An ode to the journey of ó on a shipping label”...

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:13:01 -0400

new-aesthetic:

“An ode to the journey of ó on a shipping label” found at http://i.imgur.com/4J7Il0m.jpg, via @shyhoof.

staff: Share posts you love straight from your Dashboard! Just...

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:01:18 -0400

staff:

Share posts you love straight from your Dashboard!

Just enter your friend’s email address and you’re good to go.

It’s about time! I’ve always found it frustrating that you could never get to the permalink from the dashboard.

I just discovered Reggie Watts’ comedic side. This video...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:11:01 -0400

I just discovered Reggie Watts’ comedic side. This video is an excerpt from his hilarious performance at PopTech in October 2010.

Part 2 is my favorite, but I also thoroughly enjoyed Parts 1 and 3.

Any other videos I should watch?

(HT Shawn Feeney)

Stunning unintentional capture of a meteor burning across the...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:49:00 -0400

Stunning unintentional capture of a meteor burning across the night sky in this time-lapse video by Colin Legg originally set up to track Asteroid 2012 DA 14 flying by Earth.

(via It’s Okay To Be Smart)