Interesting Links for 03-02-2023

[andrewducker]

1. James Gunn's plans for the DC Movie Universe look very sensible - and might actually be good!

(tags:tv movies dc comics )

2. The topologist's world map

(tags:topology map countries )

3. Timelapse of the future: A Journey to the End of Time

(tags:thefuture visualisation video timelapse space awesome )

4. An Astonishing Regularity in Student Learning Rate (Students seem to get better at about the same speed as each other)

(tags:Education speed psychology )

5. Squid skin inspires novel "liquid windows" for greater energy savings

(tags:squid colour glass )

Comments

[simont]

#5: the article mentions the possibility of being able to shade one part of a window but not another.

It's surely asking way too much, but if that were taken to its logical extreme, it would be fabulous – the idea of letting light come in through all parts of the window except whatever part is right this instant on a direct line between the sun and my monitor would be amazing! And the small shadow could gradually move across the window as the sun moved across the sky.

I'm sure that's taking the actual potential of the idea to SF levels of exaggeration, though.

[andrewducker]

I too would very much appreciate this!

(For about 3 weeks every year, which is when the sun is above the hill behind my house, but not also above the extended roof outside my office)

[mtbc]

I have worked in offices where a previous occupant had stuck papers to the window corresponding to the sun's path from the point of view of being seated at the desk.

[hairyears]

The limiting factor, here, is going to be the long-term stability of the pigments.

However, a liquid pigment film can be flushed-out and replaced, so this might be commercially-viable on the 'printer cartridge' business model.

[hilarita]

It would be nice to have a slightly less evil model than the HP printer ink scheme

[hairyears]

It would be even nicer if the Board of Hewlett Packard woke up to a lovely morning of orbital bombardment after a busy night giving their Marketing department vigorous enemas of diesel and lighted matches.

But, you know, duty to maximise shareholder returns...

[errolwi]

My home desk is next to a bay window that didn't have curtains until very recently. One reason for the lack of curtains was the nice 1920's top lights. We made a couple of plywood sun blockers that I could move around with the time of day/seasons.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/errolgc/36275697784/

[jducoeur]

1 - Given that they mention neither Greg Berlanti (who has at least part-helmed almost every watchable DC story of recent years) nor Harley Quinn: The Animated Seres (by far the best thing DC has done in the media in the past two decades), I'm not optimistic here.

I mean, it all sounds very faithful to the modern DC ethos -- and it's not an accident that I dropped DC comics cold many years ago, and (aside from Harley) have never looked back. It sounds to me like they're mostly going to make it more uniform, and miss the fact that the greatest strength of the MCU (especially on TV) is a deep focus on variety.