The Decemberists have made a music video of “Calamity Song” based on a key scene in my Favorite Book Ever, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Not too bad, though we don’t get to see Otis P. Lord’s head go through the monitor. Also Colin Meloy’s a bit old to be Pemulis, but whatevs.

The video above depicts an insertion sort implemented through Romanian folk dance.

See also: bubble sort, selection sort, and Shell sort.

Have you seen Merel Karhof’s Wind Knitting Factory? I guess if you read swissmiss you have. Which you should.

The site’s worth checking out — there’s a video. If you go watch it, I’ll spare you a really weak “windsock” joke.

So clearly this results in a pretty cool set of images. What I’d really like, though, is a 3-d graph depicting signal strength on a 2-d field.

Imagine if we replaced the rod with a disc composed of a set of concentric circles of lights. Suppose the number of circles that light up correlates with the strength of the signal, so that more signal => more light. Head to the city park, wander around in a grid pattern with this device, point the camera down from a building, and take a long exposure of the results. Signal would be represented as pools of light.

Someone go do this for me. Send me pictures.

I guess I could try to describe the Kollywood sci-fi movie Enthiran, but I think the above clip show (dubbed in Russian, but don’t worry, the dialogue doesn’t seem to matter) gets the idea across. As Gizmodo mentions, it really does put Michael Bay to shame. Incredible.

My favorite moment, I think, is when the giant tower of robots throws a helicopter into another helicopter.

Good find, Mr. Cooney!

Nothing says “Merry Christmas!” like the works of Werner Herzog.

And here’s the accompanying GEB dialogue.

Such a great title that I stole it verbatim. Derek Sivers posts some neat stuff.

Thanks for the link, Julia! I’m enjoying this “people send me neat things to post” model of blog-content-gathering.

… is the annual World Beard & Moustache Championships. While watching the video, you might recognize a few old friends. This video is actually from the 2009 competition. It comes courtesy of Mr. Cooney.

Maybe if I start in earnest now I can be ready for next year. That’s a good idea, right?

Benjamin Bagby performs Beowulf in the original Old English. The opening scene is above. It’s very impressive – the man’s got quite a presence.

The hidden gem in the above video, though, is the completely-open-to-interpretation audience reaction.

Nice find, Cooney!