Arthur Clarke’s notion that any technology insufficiently understood is like magic applies here.
Tag Archives: video
Compound Interest
I gather that Al Bartlett is something of an internet legend when it comes to getting people to think about the power of *rates of change*, be it doubling, exponential, or compound interest. I wish the video was a little shorter. I’d like to share it with Lily.
Marie’s Dictionary
More Girl Stuff
I have a daughter. She’s smart. She likes to build things. We live in the South.
Missing Features in English
A great video for beginning a fuller conversation about the nature of language.
For the Girls
If you have a girl in your life, show her this:
Greg Frugé’s Hydraulic Boat
As I wrap up work on _The Makers of Things_, I came across this video that Greg Frugé shot of one of his boats crossing a levee. That’s Frugé laughing as the boat crosses. It is one of the most delightful sounds you have ever heard: someone rejoicing in something he made doing what it is supposed to do.
Word Frequencies in “Star Wars”
So nicely done:
15 Sorting Algorithms
Okay, I confess that I found this visualization/auralization of sorting algorithms absolutely mesmerizing, which may or may not reveal something (terribly wrong with or) about me. For those curious, the algorithms are:
> selection sort, insertion sort, quick sort, merge sort, heap sort, radix sort (LSD), radix sort (MSD), std::sort (intro sort), std::stable_sort (adaptive merge sort), shell sort, bubble sort, cocktail shaker sort, gnome sort, bitonic sort and bogo sort (30 seconds of it).
[Link][] for more information.
[Link]: http://panthema.net/2013/sound-of-sorting/
Multiplying with Lines
I still find this method of multiplying fascinating, though, to be honest, I have done it with my daughter and we both found that once any of the numbers in the multiplicand or the multiplier are larger than five, then the graph from which you work gets a little messy and a little confusing. Note how all the numbers here are five or lower:
The Way Paul Graham Talks
I’ve written about Paul Graham as an essayist before, but, thanks to [Darshan Shankar][], it turns out he talks the way he writes: always trying to answer the question as simply as possible, always trying to think about the larger landscape and not get caught up in assumptions.
As Shankar points out, Steve Jobs was good at this, too: always keeping the basics in sight, even when doing some advanced design work. (A video of Jobs from 1995 is embedded in Shankar’s post.)
[Darshan Shankar]: http://www.quora.com/Paul-Graham/How-intelligent-is-Paul-Graham
The Candidate
I should have seen the twist coming, but I didn’t. Well done. Best 20 minutes of video I have seen in a long time. (And you should really click through to Vimeo and watch this full screen.)
Visible Accent
Found on Reddit, an animated `gif` that let’s you see what the particular pronunciation of a word is:
Learning like You’re Learning a Language
Victor Wooten is a talented musician and, it turns out, speaker. What I like about his talk is how he reminds his audience about how we learn to speak English and then wonders how we can apply that to how we can encourage students to learn other things the same way.
Data Sharing
Look what we will have to look forward to: