As part of the series of “Long Shorts” (videos, generally short ones, that exemplify long term thinking or longer perspective).
Of all the great time lapses done in film, some of the very best belong to Baraka. Visually stunning, with an equally increadible sound track, this movie is really the most amazing in the wordless visual genre.
This Thursday at Fort Mason, Carlo Petrini, reigning king of the Slow Food Movement, will be discussing something along the lines of “Slow Food and Why It’s A Good Idea”. He’ll also be publicizing his new book, Slow Food Nation: A Blueprint for Changing the Way We Eat
Slow food is a movement that has grown in response to our fast-paced instant gratification culture (much like the Long Now itself!):
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
Slow Food Fans include Alice Waters, owner of Berkeley Favorite Chez Panisse; Deborah Madison, co-founder of Green’s Restaurant, and a host of people familiar to anyone who reads Gourmet Magazine religiously.
Members meet in regional convivia (a sumptuous name for a sumptuous discussion) to discuss biodiversity, local produce, sustainable farming practices, slow food in schools, and other issues. Members also sacrifice themselves in the name of science by sampling slow cuisine and wine.
There are meetings and events all over the country, most notable for San Franciscans is The Golden Glass, coming up in June. Eat and drink in the name of sustainability and cultural preservation, and learn more about what you can do to make slow food a part of everyone’s diet.
As part of the series of “Long Shorts” (videos, generally short ones, that exemplify long term thinking or longer perspective).
This German made Academy Award winning short is one of my absolute favorites in the Long Short category.
Someday in the future our trouble with our current systems of networking and wireless and routers and protocols and software will seem as charming and obvious as… well as charmingly obvious as the hassles medieval monks may have had with the first books, if you can believe this cool video. It’s a glorious send-up about medieval tech support — in part a spoof on tech support of all kinds, and in part a jab at technology which depends so much on tech support. Very funny and worth a minute of your time. It’s origins are explained here, where you can also find the video:
A comedy about medieval tech support, learning how to use a book. It’s from a show called Øystein & Meg (Øystein & I) produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting television channel (NRK) in 2001. The spoken language is Norwegian, the subs in Danish. It’s written by Knut Nærum and performed by Øystein Bache and Rune Gokstad.
It just so happens that three of the longest running scientific experiments are located in the foyers of university physics departments. These three long-running tests were first reported as a set in a 1984 article in the European Journal of Physics. One of them, the pitch drop has achieved some internet fame. But it is not the oldest. The oldest experiment is the Oxford bell and it has been running about 160 years. All three were later updated in the Annals of Improbable Research in this 2001 article:
We are happy to report that three of the world’s longest-running scientific experiments are indeed still running. It has been a number of years since anyone checked on all three. With assistance from scientists in several nations, we have managed to do so.
In 1984, the European Journal of Physics published three remarkable reports, each describing a different experiment that had been continuing for decades. The youngest — the pitch drop viscosity experiment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane — had been started in 1927. The oldest — the now-and-then-famous Oxford electric bell at Oxford University, was begun in 1840. The third experiment, the Beverly clock at the University of Otago in Dunedin, was commenced in 1864.
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