Damien's Irishperson in Exile Diary

The rabid and almost comprehensible meanderings of a software engineer and psychology student moved to Cambridge from Ireland.

Archive for the ‘Video’ category

I blame Maggie Philbin for having to learn second-order integration.

September 14th, 2009

Image by Damien Ryan via Flickr

It’s safe to say that Tomorrow’s World was responsible for the careers of most of this generation’s scientists in the UK and Ireland.

The show was oftentimes ridiculed for being out of touch and it was joked that having your product featured there meant it would never be seen outside of a research lab, but that half-hour on Thursday evenings gave a love of science to myself and many others over the years and is sorely missed.

While rumors of its return turned out to be nothing more than a cynical branding exercise, the BBC has finally released some old episodes from its archives. Unfortunately, the SDI simulation that I mistook for reality isn’t one of them.

No comments »

Posted in Education, Television, Video

“The part about the Hookers was a lie.”

September 7th, 2009

The Men Who Stare at Goats, based on Jon Ronson’s account of one of the US military’s strangest black ops project, looks to be much funnier and absurd than the source material would suggest.

Based on research into the First Earth Battalion (and various other projects involving belief in magical thinking) the book is a trip down the rabbit hole of the American military-industrial complex at its weirdest.

The cast alone makes it worth checking out.

2 comments »

Posted in Funny, Video

Happy Emergency Christmas

February 21st, 2009

In the Crisis of Credit visualised, media design student Jonathan Jarvis takes a simple approach in showing how the US banking system has plunged the global economy into recession. How long will it take before all the Obama supporters start calling for his resignation because he took too long to undo years of greed and short-sightedness?

Happy Emergency Christmas everyone.

No comments »

Posted in Thoughts, Video

“An bhfuil tusa ag leabhairt lomsa?”

November 1st, 2008

Image by jodimarr via FlickrHere’s a great video about a bored Chinese shop worker who learns Irish before moving there, without realising that very little Irish is used in day-to-day life.

Highlights include the Taxi Driver reference and a cameo from Frank Kelly (better known as Father Jack in Father Ted) and the result is a touching short film that’s equal parts hilarious and shaming. Maybe I’ll try and find my old Inter. Cert. course books and have a refresher before I start Cognitive Psychology.

No comments »

Posted in Funny, Thoughts, Video

Flipping Great

September 14th, 2008

Demitri Martin presents the findings from his life’s research without needing to resort to Powerpoint or indeed data measurement.

No comments »

Posted in Funny, Video

How can so much awesomeness exist?

June 26th, 2008

Image by ‘Scratch’ via Flickr

Joss
Wheedon, Neil
Patrick Harris, Super Heroes,
Super Villains,
and a theremin.

This only way this
could get any more awesome would be if it tied in with How I Met
Your Mother.

No comments »

Posted in Funny, Reviews, Video

A Brief History of Meme

June 1st, 2008

Cover of Pork and Beans

Weezer are known for their
inventive videos, from Buddy Holly (which
was included as part of Windows ‘95 to show off its multimedia
capabilities) to Islands
in the Sun.

The video to Pork
and Beans, the single from their soon to be released Red Album,
contains a potted history of some of the more pervasive internet memes.
If you’re having trouble finding them all Fox
Australia has a nice little cheat sheet.

No comments »

Posted in Funny, Video

A Screen that Ships without a Mouse Ships Broken

May 8th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Clay
Shirky’s talk from O’Reilly’s 2008 Web
Expo points out just how much free time we actually have to “waste”
on social participation projects. The next time you roll your eyes at
someone for editing Wikipedia or Musicbrainz, at least they’re doing
something rather than contributing to the billions
of hours of free time spent in front of the latest reality show.