Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

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Adventures in Music Link Page

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 10:41 PM PST

Neil Gaiman in the New Yorker

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:56 PM PST

Nice profile of Neil Gaiman in this week's New Yorker, written by Dana Goodyear, who really followed Neil around to get the story -- caught their duo act at the WorldCon in Montreal last year, where Ms Goodyear was being introduced to everyone who had a good Neil story to tell.
Gaiman, who is forty-nine and English, with a pale face and a wild, corkscrewed mop of black-and-gray hair, is unusually prolific. In addition to horror, he writes fantasy, fairy tales, science fiction, and apocalyptic romps, in the form of novels, comics, picture books, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Now and then, he writes a song. Gaiman's books are genre pieces that refuse to remain true to their genres, and his audience is broader than any purist's: he defines his readership as "bipeds." His mode is syncretic, with sources ranging from English folktales to glam rock and the Midrash, and enchantment is his major theme: life as we know it, only prone to visitations by Norse gods, trolls, Arthurian knights, and kindergarten-age zombies. "Neil's writing is kind of fey in the best sense of the word," the comic-book writer Alan Moore told me. "His best effects come out of people or characters or situations in the real world being starkly juxtaposed with this misty fantasy world." The model for Gaiman's eclecticism is G. K. Chesterton; his work, Gaiman says, "left me with an idea of London as this wonderful, mythical, magical place, which became the way I saw the world." Chesterton's career also serves as a warning. "He would have been a better writer if he'd written less," Gaiman says. "There's always that fear of writing too much if you're a reasonably facile writer, and I'm a reasonably facile writer."
Kid Goth (via Forbidden Planet)

(Image: Neil Gaiman, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image from torre.elena's photostream)

Previously:


Orphan ad

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 10:27 PM PST

An antique Chicago orphanage ad, age unknown ca 1893. Send two stamps.

Homeless Children


Adventure 15: The "Boffo" Finish

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:52 PM PST



Finale to "Stormy Weather" 1943 with Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers

Any performer will tell you, the way you leave the audience is the way they'll remember your act. There's no finale like the one in Stormy Weather.

As I said at the beginning of this program, I'm constantly amazed at the "pop culture amnesia" that seems to be an epidemic today. People have forgotten some of the greatest achievements of mankind... and what have they replaced it with? Infomercials, current events clowns, celebrity gossip and patently phony reality shows. Now, I can already hear you saying... "Well. me and all my friends know about important stuff... all kinds of stuff!" Whenever I ask one of my archive interns what kind of music they listen to, I always get the same answer- "All kinds of music!" Then I ask, "Who's your favorite country and western artist?" or "What's your favorite opera?" and I get blank stares. It turns out that "all kinds of music" means "acid house, electronica, trance, darkwave, eurobeat, speedcore, etc."- a million different names for the same kind of music. It isn't their fault that they're ignorant of the cultural riches of the 20th century. Big media has kept them in the dark so they can spoon feed them "pre-packaged, pasteurized entertainment product".

The "good stuff" is all out there. You don't need a fancy shmancy archive. All it takes is a "breadcrumb", a clue, a YouTube video clip, an MP3, a name to Google- and this wonderful world opens up like a flower. It turns out that the world we live in isn't such a drab and dreary place after all!

But if you need reminding just how ignorant the world we live in can be, click through that Amazon link up there and look at the credits for the stars of "Stormy Weather". If you know who those people actually are, all you can do is slap your forehead and shake your head.

I hope I gave you some good "breadcrumbs" today. Give me a few in return in the comments.

Adventure 14: The Importance of Skill

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:05 PM PST



Nathan Milstein: "Paganiniana" 1968 (sorry for the typo in the slate)

Now here's an area of music where I'm a little out of my familiar territory. I played violin for one grueling year in elementary school and swore off it forever (much to the relief of my parents). Although I'm interested in violin music (as long as someone else is holding the fiddle) I've never really explored the repertoire for solo violin. I know a little bit about Paganini- he was a flamboyant showman who used pyrotechnic technique to dazzle audiences- and I know Nathan Milstein was a great violinist who performed into his 80s- but I can't call myself knowledgeable about this stuff at all.

But I can tell you that when I first saw this clip on EMI's Great Recordings of the Century DVD, my jaw was hanging on the floor. Ever since Andy Warhol made "ideas without skill" fashionable back in the 60s, it seems to me that popular culture has been playing a game of "skill limbo". How low can we go? How badly drawn can a cartoon be and still be considered a cartoon? How many drum machines and sequencers can we stack up to avoid having to learn a real instrument? How much plastic surgery does it take to make acting skills unnecessary? I really don't know the answers to those questions. Every day is a new horror.

But when I see someone who has both an idea AND skill, I'm reminded just how doggone powerful and dynamic a creative artist can be. I'm sick and tired of accepting "half a loaf". Speak to me with eloquence. Dazzle me with your skill. Communicate an important idea. I insist on "all of the above".

Adventure 13: Artists Communicating Together Without Words

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 08:26 PM PST



Duke Ellington: "Improvisation for Miro"

Another stunning clip from Norman Grantz's Improvisation. Here, the painter and sculptor Joan Miro (apologies in advance to the punctuation police) and jazz composer Duke Ellington meet for the first time for an improvised jazz session. I've witnessed similar unusual artistic collaborations myself- I produced a rock video for Bjork (more apologies!) that was designed and animated by John K. Parties at my house are always interesting interactions between cartoonists, musicians and creators of all stripes. Sometimes these sorts of things don't work out- Walt Disney and Salvador Dali's "Destino" was never meant to be (and when it finally was completed, it was even worse than it started out!). But when two great creative minds in different disciplines can work in tandem, wondeful things can happen. I'm sure there are more unusual collaborations between artists. If you can think of some, tell me about them in the comments.

Adventure 12: A Priceless Fragment of American Folk Blues History

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 08:04 PM PST



"Three Songs By Lead Belly" 1945

In case your credit card isn't maxed out from my previous recommendations, here is another "must have" set of three DVDs... Legends of Country Blues Guitar.

Just like "Swingin' the Blues" perfectly catches the essence of Jazz, this landmark film distills the essence of folk blues. The staging and cutting in this little film is exquisite. Lead Belly was a man whose temper kept him in trouble with the law. Bob Dylan described him as "one of the few ex-cons to record a children's album". But he is best known as the "King of the 12 String Guitar". Like the Carter Family, his extensive recording career was responsible for documenting and preserving scores of folk songs that would not have survived otherwise. His importance to American folk music can't be overemphasized. This clip is the only time he ever appeared on film- a treasure of the first magnitude.

Adventure 11: Jammin' The Blues

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 07:39 PM PST



"Jammin' the Blues" with Lester Young

Quick Note: I uploaded the legendary short film, "Jammin' The Blues" starring Lester Young to YouTube to share it with you. But Warner Bros has seen fit to disable the audio in my YouTube upload. So instead of recommending Warner's release of this classic film on DVD, I am going to point out that the same short is available on Norman Grantz's Improvisation. The print isn't quite as clean as on the Warner Bros DVD, but it contains rare outtakes from the making of the film. The YouTube video above is from Grantz's DVD.

Animation is anything but an improvisatory medium. Every frame is painstakingly created by hand, and animators time the action down to a 24th of a second. Only the very best animators are able to overcome the constraints of frame by frame filmmaking and imbue their work with a feeling of spontaneity. Chief among these rarified breed of animators is Ralph Bakshi. I've written about him twice already in my stint here as guest blogger, but it's not just because he's my pal. It's because he is so unique. Ralph's first three pictures, Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin are intensely personal- just like Lester Young's sax solos. He accomplishes his results in the same way- by constructing his films as a real-time performance with virtuoso animators. Scenes are animated and laid down and another scene takes its place. The result might not be as polished as other animated films, and the narrative can become quite fragmented, but it's a hundred times more honest than talking dogs and princesses.

"Jammin' the Blues" may just be the most beautiful film about Jazz ever made. I don't need to say anything more than that.

Adventure 10: Bernstein On What Makes American Music American

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 08:53 PM PST



Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man, Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts

Here is another hot tip on a fascinating set of DVDs... Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts.

Leonard Bernstein was an accomplished composer and conductor, but if you want my opinion, he really stood out as being one of the world's greatest educators. He began a series of televised educational concerts in 1958 called "Young People's Concerts", and systematically educated America's youth about great music for the next 15 years. Bernstein didn't talk down to the kids. Looking at these lectures today as an adult, there's still plenty for me to learn. It distresses me that there's nothing even remotely like this available to kids on television today. It's a crime in fact.

In this clip, Bernstein sums up how America's melting pot of cultures distilled many different kinds of music into quintessentially "American" music. Too often we try to ignore cultural differences and pretend they don't exist. Pointing out the things that are particular to a group of people is seen as "impolite". I prefer to celebrate all of the ethnic cultures around me here in Hollywood- Hispanic, Asian, Black, Middle Eastern- it's all more interesting to me than the plain old white bread people I grew up around. As a cartoonist, the differences between all of us are much more interesting than the similarities. Viva la difference!

Anyway... In this clip, Bernstein turns over his baton to a guest conductor, composer Aaron Copland. Great stuff!

Adventure 09: Buddy And Shirley At The Codfish Ball

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:45 PM PST



Shirley Temple and Buddy Ebsen: "At the Codfish Ball" from Captain January 1937

Music and Dance are sisters. They go together. They both know how the other one moves. And they're able to seamlessly meld together to create something that communicates on a level far below conscious thought. How do you go about describing the way a melody makes you feel, or how a dancer's attitudes convey joy or heartache or excitement? The great thing about art is that it can take a million words to describe it in detail, yet you still haven't communicated its meaning as well as just viewing it.

When I share great old stuff with young people, inevitably someone in the crowd will pipe up with "How come only old stuff is good? New stuff is good too!" Well, it may be true that there is great new art being made here and there, but this kind of talent and artistry isn't as common, and it isn't in the mainstream media the way it was in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Case in point: Shirley Temple. Here's a little kid whose dancing is just as good, if not better than anything on "Dancing With The Stars". Buddy Ebsen just plain kicks ass in this clip and even he is hard pressed to keep up! This freakin' 8 year old makes Beyonce look like a tired old nag! They weren't alone. Check out MGM's That's Entertainment for more... and the other studios too- Fox, Columbia, Warner Bros... every studio was loaded with talent like this.

Animators need to study great dancers and learn from their techniques. I sat down with a couple of my interns at the archive and analyzed this particular clip. It has a lot of interesting things to teach animators and entertainers of all types.

Adventure 08: The Ambassador Of Jazz Comes Marching In

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:13 PM PST



Louis Armstrong and Friends: "When The Saints Go Marching In"

I'm afraid I'm a little bit at a loss for words on this one... What do you say about a man who is the beginning and end of all things Jazz? I'm sure that even the most musically illiterate kids know who "Satchmo" is. But as much as I know about him, I keep discovering new things myself.

All I'm going to say is that if you have even a passing interest in Jazz, you absolutely need Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens recordings. And of his later records, the affectionate tributes to W.C. Handy and Fats Waller are standouts.

Armstrong was known as the "Ambassador of Jazz". His trumpet continues to represent it well, and continues to speak to everyone... even those of us who are far removed from New Orleans in the early part of the 20th century, where the greatest American artistic achievement began. Louis Armstrong IS Jazz.

Adventure 07: Superhuman Powers of Concentration

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 05:44 PM PST



Sviatoslav Richter: Chopin Etudes Op. 10 No. 1-4

Music has the power to spur performers on to superhuman feats of skill that from the audience just don't look humanly possible. Here is just such a performance...

Russian virtuoso Sviatoslav Richter (on DGG and EMI) was one of the towering figures of classical music in the 20th century with a repertoire as broad as any pianist before or since. He saw himself as a servant of the composer and criticized performers who took liberties with the letter of the score. He disliked recording, and preferred to perform in quickly arranged concerts in almost total darkness.

Richter believed that performing with only a single small light on the piano helped the audience focus on the music. Undoubtedly, it also helped him focus, and in this clip, he very nearly loses his cool. The BBC negotiated for months with Richter to be able to televise one of his performances. He grudgingly agreed, but stipulated that he have total control of the lighting and camera angles. Just after Richter launched into some of the most technically difficult pieces in all of the repertoire for piano, the video director decided to turn up the lights a little, thinking no one would notice. Well, Richter noticed, and in the middle of concentrating on his performance, he flashed a look to the camera that would melt steel. I've seen that look before on my dad's face when I was a kid!

Watch Richter's hands carefully. Superman is REAL!

Adventure 06: Beehives, Bluegrass and Beautiful Ignorance

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 10:43 PM PST



The Osbourne Brothers: "Rocky Top", "Ruby"

This clip comes from another "must have" DVD... Bluegrass Country Soul. Back in the sixties, there was an explosion of bluegrass festivals- gatherings of fans and musicians in an open air venue to relax and enjoy music together. They were informal affairs. People would bring a picnic lunch and lawn chairs and sit in the sunshine enjoying the Dillards, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs or Roy Acuff. The performers even encouraged fans to bring along reel to reel tape recorders, and you can find hundreds of these incredible live recordings circulating in the mp3 trading newsgroups.

When I watch this clip, I'm transported to another time and another place. Those beehive hairdos would be hilarious in any other context, but here they seem right at home. A lot of hipsters look down their nose at "hicks" and "trailer trash", but I see great beauty in this stuff. My friend John K describes this old time country music as "beautiful ignorance: the high lonesome sound of an injured animal all alone in the woods, not knowing why he hurts or whether it will ever stop." My God! My heart stopped when he said that. Beautiful ignorance! What a beautiful way of putting it.

Adventure 05: A Scenester And A Square

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 04:06 PM PST



Jimmy Dean and Jim Henson's Rowlf, "You Are My Sunshine"

I mentioned before how upset I was to find out that "The Jimmy Dean Show" DVDs were out of print. It was a really important show- the first country-western music show in prime time. But it was also the first nationwide TV series to feature Jim Henson's Muppets.

This clip is brilliant. Henson is a drop-dead genius. Since he passed away, the spark of life and vivid spontaneity of the Muppets' performances have faded away with him. The characters all seem to be reading lines off of scripts now, but look at the brilliant feeling of ad-lib and give and take between Rowlf and Jimmy Dean in this clip. Also, keep in mind that the puppet is operated by two people- Henson operates the mouth and one hand and his wife operates the other hand. The complexity of co-ordinating that sort of co-operative performance is totally erased by the vivid performance. Animators can learn a lot from puppeteers when it comes to creating a living, breathing character.

Adventure 04: Rhythmic Innovation

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 03:50 PM PST



Dave Brubeck Quartet (with Paul Desmond) live in Belgium 1964

One of the things about "bad" music that drives me up the wall is unimaginative rhythm... boom, boom, boom... everything on the same beat... sequencers repeating the same simple patterns over and over again with no variation. It's downright inhuman. That said, most popular music from the past 100 years or so seems to invariably fall into standard 4/4 time. The interest is created by the way the musicians work around that familiar beat.

But some musicians go further... In rock music, Frank Zappa experimented with all kinds of time signatures and musical forms. In Jazz, the innovator of this unique concept was Dave Brubeck. Brubeck's album "Time Out" had music in a variety of time signatures, none of them typical. It's probably his most famous album- odds are you already have it.

Animators tend to fall into rhythmic ruts too. It's hard to create a spontaneous and textured performance by plugging together the same old rhythms over and over. Some of the most original animators, like Jim Tyer, never approached the same action or pose the same way twice in their entire career. For them, forcing themselves to do something they had already done before was impossible.

If you love jazz as much as I do, get over to Amazon and get a pile of the Naxos Jazz Icons DVDs. They're incredible.

Adventure 03: The Power To Create Emotion in Time

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 03:42 PM PST



Maria Callas sings "O mio babbino caro" by Puccini

What the heck does opera have to do with cartoons? you ask... Well, more than you might think! Opera is an all embracing artform, incorporating live theater, singing, orchestral music, and dance all into one package. Cartoons are like that too... a big ball of great drawing, music, comedy and interesting characters that creates its own world. The stories in operas are generally soap opera potboilers- incestuous love affairs, treachery, deathbed revelations, and even hunchbacks dragging around their murdered daughter in a sack! Cartoons are like that too... the story isn't nearly as important as everything that goes into telling it.

One of the things I admire in classical music is the way conductors create magic by varying their tempi through accelerando and retardando (that's speeding up and slowing down for us non-musicians). Minute adjustments in just the right places (aka rubato) can make the music broaden out or seem hurried, or languid... it's the power to create emotion in time. Animators do exactly the same thing when they do "slow ins and outs", "staggers" and "hitting accents".

The world of opera is huge and varied. It's hard for me to boil down a recommendation. The best introduction on DVD (Zefferelli's La Traviata) is out of print. But I encourage you to attend live performances, listen to the Met's live HD simulcasts, add some operas to your Netflix cue, and perhaps pick up the DVD this clip comes from, Great Recordings of the Century.

Adventure 02: Bakersfield Shines in a Nudie Suit

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 01:08 PM PST



Buck Owens and his Buckaroos on the "Jimmy Dean Show"

Buck Owens was the poster boy for the "Bakersfield Sound". At this time, many country artists like Eddie Arnold, Ray Price and Jim Reeves were softening their sound and adding lush strings. But the Bakersfield Sound went the exact opposite direction, by merging the raw honky tonk style with rock and roll licks (and even Mexican polka music!) Owens' partner, Don Rich steals the show here with his beaming smile, goofy guitar pyrotechnics and perfect backing harmony, but pay attention to Owens' rhythm guitar work here. It's rock solid.

My pal Jim Smith was the one that turned me on to Buck Owens. Jim wrote the Ren & Stimpy theme song and was one of the creators of the show. He's a Texan, drawl and all, and his guitar playing owes a lot to the cartoony fun of Don Rich. Glittering nudie suit, pedal steel guitar, and great singing... what more can you ask for?

Sadly, the "Best of the Jimmy Dean Show" DVDs appear to be out of print. It's a very important show for more than just country music fans... I'll explain that a little later in our adventure. But there's lots of great Buck Owens on CD. (Vol 1 and Vol 2). Merle Haggard is the dark contrast to Buck's bounce in the Bakersfield sound. Also check out Hank Williams (of course) and Hank Thompson. If you ever get to Bakersfield, CA, visit Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. It has great sound and food and a lot of Buck's wild Nudie suits are on display.

Adventure 01: The Coolest Sound EVER!

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 12:27 PM PST



Booker T and the MGs: Green Onions, Live in Oslo, Norway 4/7/67

Don't waste a second. Go buy this DVD right now. (Stax/Volt Revue Live In Norway 1967) Sam & Dave, Otis Redding... wow! this concert captures Memphis Soul at its absolute peak. Booker T and the MGs were the house band at the Stax Records label, playing back up to a host of great soul artists. Their big hit, "Green Onions" contains one of the most recognizable riffs ever, and the soulful organ sound has gone on to become the epitome of "cool".

Animators know that it's important to grab your audience and get them into the rhythm of the cartoon right away. No music does that better than this. The metronomic walking bass line and the slashing organ and guitar accents would be the perfect soundtrack for cool character walks. Get up and walk around the room while you're listening to this. It's impossible not to walk cool to this song!

If you like this, check out other artists on the Stax label, as well as organ trios like Jimmy Smith and Bill Doggett; surf instrumentals and "secret agent" style guitar bands, like The Shadows.

Activist MIT cartographers aid Peruvian squatters

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 12:19 PM PST

Jeffrey sez, "This MIT Media Lab project worked with activists on Friday to make maps with a community of Shipibo who've taken up residence on the bank of the river Rimac in downtown Lima - a city of 11 million people. Using only helium balloons and a cheap camera, the GrassrootsMapping.org team, part of the Center for Future Civic Media, took pictures of the extralegal settlement from ~500 feet up. The images were rectified and the resulting map may help the Shipibo in their legal battle to gain deeds to the land. GrassrootsMapping.org is a project which supports communities in cartographic dispute by creating low-cost mapping tools."

Grassroots Mapping with the Shipibo in the center of Lima (Thanks, Jeffrey!)

Previously:



Adventures in Music

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 11:35 AM PST


swbrubeckefj.jpg

When I was a kid, I always loved the "Wonderful World of Disney" show. It seemed that every show had the word "adventure" in the title. At Disneyland, Walt built a whole land around the concept of "adventure". Today, I hope to be able to pass along to you a little of my excitement about early to mid 20th century music. I want it to be just as much fun as shooting hippos on the jungle cruise, so let's all call it an Adventure!

Here's how it's going to work... I'm not a professional musician. I only know how this stuff applies to animation. I'll share my comments and recommendations along with the clips, but that shouldn't be the end of it. Chime in on the comments and add your own observations and recommendations. If you really like some of these clips, ask the "Boing Boing Brain Trust" for advice on what books, CDs or DVDs to look for. The clips I'm posting are just a small taste of the great stuff that's out there. Grab on and run with it. This is going to be an educational experience for all of us.

Don on your pith helmet and safari jacket and get ready for an ADVENTURE IN MUSIC!

Annnnaaa one, Annnnaaa two...

Zoomable paper London streetmap

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 11:19 AM PST

Map2 is a clever London streetmap: each of its quadrants unfolds to show a zoomed-in view of that region, then refolds again quickly and easily.

Map2 (via Red Ferret)


Veterans, some with brain injuries, curate neglected Army archaeological collection

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 11:02 AM PST

Steve sez, "Brain-injured vets are curating a huge, neglected archeological collection from Army Corps of Engineers:"
The collection dates to the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building dozens of locks, dams and reservoirs, and the ground beneath them was excavated for archaeological treasures.

Prehistoric and historic pottery, stone tools, arrowheads, Indian beads, necklaces, earrings and ear spools, and ceremonial artifacts, even human remains, were collected. The items then sat in boxes and paper bags in university museums as well as private basements, garages and tool sheds.

In recent weeks, U.S. veterans - many with traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder - have begun processing, cataloguing, digitizing and archiving the collection as part of a one-year $3.5 million project, funded with federal stimulus money.

US military vets working on archaeological project (Thanks, Steve!)

(Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Photo by David Knoerlein)

Relief tents, Haiti, and temporary shelter

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 10:53 AM PST

Crisiscamp London co-founder Vinay Gupta discusses his "hexayurt" project -- as seen in the Worldchanging book -- in light of the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, and how relief tents are a "bandaid on a gunshot wound":

Relief tents are a lie: they last for a year. By the time the tent has rotted and the people are homeless again, the eyes of the media have moved on to some other disaster, and everybody says the situation is fine. "Transitional sheltering" is supposed to take over from the tents, but it's always, always, always too little too late. Nobody can afford a thousand bucks a family anyway. Not for all of them. NGOs, being fairly small compared to the size of the problem, generally count the successes rather than the failures anyway.
HEXAYURT COUNTRY (Thanks, Mark!)
Previously:


5 Jokes About The Apparent Eagerness Of Certain Democratic Members Of Congress To Abandon Health Care Reform In Light Of Scott Brown's Electoral Victory

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:39 AM PST

David "Get Your War On" Rees brings you "5 Jokes About The Apparent Eagerness Of Certain Democratic Members Of Congress To Abandon Health Care Reform In Light Of Scott Brown's Electoral Victory," including: "A member of the House Democratic Caucus goes to the doctor. The doctor says, 'I have bad news and good news. The bad news is you have a broken foot. The good news is, you're a congressman, which means you have health insurance, which means you'll be able to get treatment without going totally bankrupt, unlike many of your constituents, who you are actively betraying by thinking only of your electoral prospects. And also,' the doctor continued, 'I can't believe you actually broke your foot by jumping off a bridge just because a Republican told you to. What kind of spineless loser are you? Get out of my office. I can't stand to look at you.'" (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Secretaries vs. Magnesium

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 07:37 AM PST

Magnesium is an element common in our bodies, the Earth's crust and the Universe at large. The weird thing: While shavings—or small pieces—of magnesium are highly flammable, a big chunk of the stuff very much is not. This "Mad Men"-era video pairs a group of secretaries with a variety of industrial torches in order to demonstrate why it's so difficult to get bulk magnesium to burn.

"The only way to get to the bottom of the problem is to set maggie on fire and watch her burn."

Previously:


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