Please Say Something by David O’Reilly

JO JO IN THE STARS from STUDIO AKA on Vimeo .

Jo Jo in the Stars is a haunting new school animation with an old school feel. With tinges of Metropolis and Freaks, it’s the story of a robot/creature (that somewhat resembles Eve in Wall-E) forced to perform in a freakshow. One fan decides to rescue her and when his attempt doesn’t go as planned, he devises a much more heart-rending way of being with his love. Though it has very little dialogue, the piece conveys a great deal about sacrifice in the name of devotion.

This is a scintillating video of the entire Alan Parsons’ Tales of Mystery and Imagination album , inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s own Tales of Mystery and Imagination .

Really, put it on in the background and look at something else.

The full list is:
A Dream within a Dream
The Raven
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Cask of Amontillado
(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
The Fall of the House of Usher [this is a five part, 16 minute instrumental piece]
To One in Paradise

If you’d prefer to press play between songs and actually have something to look at, have the songs separately with videos.

The Fall of the House of Usher is my favourite song from this album. Possibly because it’s my favourite Poe story, possibly because it’s just brilliant.

The Raven grew on me (it’s the first time a vocoder was used in a rock song) though the other two based on poems did not.

The Cask of Amontillado is good (though he mispronounces ‘Amontillado’ GOD). I laugh every time Fortunato sings in a high-pitched, wavering voice, ‘What are these chains that are binding my arm?’ when he realises he’s been chained in a small cubby in a crypt. It makes sense, musically, but I would have been shouting like a lunatic.

Bonus!:
This page has a couple animated videos for The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado, if you’re interested.

That’s Slow Derek by Dan Ojari. It’s about a man who can’t keep up with the spinning of the Earth.

It reminds me of this map of our flat and stationary earth from 1893:

Click to giganticise.

See those nattily dressed fellows on the right?

Stop the world, I want to get off!

I love that they’re only flying on the earth that fast ‘in their minds’. Clearly, the earth must not be moving (not just because the Bible said so, which we all know is an accurate scientific and historical document but) because we’d fly off if it was moving. And if Professor Orlando Ferguson doesn’t understand the forces at work then those forces don’t exist.

Good to know people no longer cite random passages from the Bible to defend their irrational beliefs. (And if they do, it only takes a hundred years for them to look like idiots!)

If Tim Burton directed a Tool video and turned the disturbing level up to 11, this is probably what you’d get.

Neomorphus from Animatorio on Vimeo .

And there’s a making-of video.

Neomorphus Making Of from Animatorio on Vimeo .

You know you can fill your brain with interesting information you’ll never need by following one Wikipedia link to the next (there’s even a game based around that very thing ), but the Internet can make you smarter in other, more permanent ways. Using the magic of video.

[Warning: you can lose hours of your life on the following pages because there's always 'one...more...video...']

YouTube has the educational and entertaining SciShow , which is done by Hank Green (one of the vlog brothers ).

They do regular shows on experiments, science news, pioneers in scientific fields and loads of other geeky things. One of their newest features is the SciShow Talk Show. The initial episode:

Which leads directly to The Brain Scoop , a channel by Emily Graslie that focuses on the ‘interesting’ things behind the scenes at a Zoological museum. They have a shirt that says ‘ Everything is Dead ‘. That should tell you a lot.

Here’s a video for you to watch. Then watch more of hers.

I mentioned the vlogbrothers above, and they have a channel, Crash Course , which is what it sounds like. Quick courses on History (US & World) & English Literature, as well as Ecology, Chemistry and Biology.

This is the intro to English Literature.

Then there’s Vsauce , which has science, as well, but is also heavy on general trivia. Vsauce like to explain/answer interesting questions. Like the science of the friend-zone:

If you like your trivia heavier on the funny and delivered with an English accent, head over to the Quite Interesting channel , with all of the QI episodes. You’ll laugh your arse off and learn a few things, as well.

Back in the States, Ze Frank is always funny, but his True Facts about animals are hilarious.

If you’re more into techy-geeky than science-geeky, there’s Code Academy , a free, online coding tutor that allows you to go at your own pace. My husband is using it to learn Python, but they have tracks to learn HTML, Javascript, CSS, Ruby, APIs, and jQuery.

Speaking of learning to code, K has also done a Coursera course on Python; one of the assignments of which was making a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock game and the final was to build your own asteroid-shooter game so he enjoyed himself immensely. He’s also taken a course through Udacity and recommends that, as well. There are loads of free courses online, but I’m only including those I’ve personally heard good things about. If you’ve tried a site you liked, hit up the comments and let me know.

There’s a Coursera course coming up in March on Self Knowledge I’m considering doing, though my life is going to be in some turmoil due to employment fun, so we’ll see how that goes. If you’re taking it, please let me know. Perhaps we can be study-buddies.

If you need an information-fix and don’t have time to watch videos for some reason, there’s the Twitter.

I’ve recently got onto the Twitter and one of my favourite accounts is Curiosity , the most recent inhabitant of Mars. It posts in the first person, which is bloody fantastic.

Lookie what I did! It’s a hole in 1 rock on Mars. This “mini drill” was a test, more to come! http://bit.ly/11sLZ1s http://twitpic.com/c1oava

How do I take selfies on Mars? By taking multiple pics w/ a camera at the end of my arm. Here’s how it’s done: http://go.nasa.gov/UHonU2

BECAUSE IT TAKES SELFIES ON MARS YOU GUISE

Another interesting feed is Tyler Simko ( @thequantumaniac ), which is the Twitter feed of Quantumaniac , a blog full of physics and science goodness.

The fabulous Professor Brian Cox ( @ProfBrianCox ) has a twitter feed that’s just as enjoyable as you’d think.

For the funny trivia-lovers, there’s @mental_floss and @qikipedia , which is run by The QI Elves and makes me snort with laughter at least once a day.

There are a bajillionty [totally scientific number] of other educational twitter feeds, please let me know which ones you like. Before I end this post, I have to mention @BBCNews , because just today it brought this to my iPod:

Thanks to their feed, I got to watch that before I was even out of bed this morning. Learning things rocks

Saturday next is the 204th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth so this week’s posts will be focusing on Mr Poe, the person who first opened my eyes to the wonderful darkness within.

Today, animations.

First up, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, narrated by James Mason, released in 1953.

Next is the trailer for a stop-motion animation of ‘The Pit and Pendulum.’ The full film can be purchased here .

An animation of the Alan Parson’s Project song ‘The Raven’, which uses some of the poem as its lyrics.

Another Alan Parson’s Project song. This one is for ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’ (It’s a little annoying that they mispronounce ‘ Amontillado ,’ but the song is still good and the animation is nice.)

This is ‘The Raven’ read by James Earl Jones, set to ‘Moonlight Sonata’ and includes evocative photography as a slideshow.

Tim Burton’s ‘Vincent’, which references several of Poe’s works and is narrated by Vincent Price, who was an enormous fan of Poe.

And finally, this clever animation of Poe, attempting to shoot the introduction to his show ‘Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination.’