The Horse Boy

I've been hearing amazing things about "The Horse Boy" - a documentary that focuses on a family's love for their autistic son, and their extraordinary journey to Mongolia in search of a miracle.

It looks emotional and inspiring. You can catch a great interview on The Treatment with the father (and writer/ producer) Rupert Isaacson.

I gotta feeling

Who wouldn't want to go to the University of Quebec after seeing this. Compare this to the ad campaigns for many universities that all end up saying the same thing. This has something they don't have - energy, passion and creativity.

Watching a dog think

This is amazing



Found via Cuteoverload

Worry

Brilliant insight and execution by Fallon for Traveler's Insurance.



Hat tip to If It's Hip, It's Here

Our Art Art Hour

Ze Frank is awesome.

A small world (beyond imagine)

I was doing a presentation the other day, and was talking about how modern technology and communication has made the world a much smaller place - and how basically this is a good thing. Not exactly a revolutionary thought, I know - but I'm constantly amazed by the inspiration that's all around us. And today, I stumbled across this remarkable video. By giving context to the numbers, it does a wonderful job of demonstrating just how truly tiny we are when compared to the universe. Humbling.



Thanks to Bad Astronomy for the link

Apollo 11 owner's manual

This might have to be an early birthday request. It's apparently presented like a real owner's manual, so will go nicely with my 2004 Toyota Corolla booklet. Thanks to the always entertaining Bad Astronomy for posting.

The start of a beautiful friendship

I seem to be on a bit of an animal theme of late, but this is wonderful. I love the last image of the little critter following his new "dad". Thanks to @JulieMa for sharing.

Andy & Mearl: Best friends from Tim Brown on Vimeo.

Our laughing cousins

This amazing study mapped the similarities of laughs across five species by tickling young gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. They found that not only do they all laugh, but they share acoustic similarities with humans, especially babies (check out the audio samples). And just like humans, gorillas and bonobos laugh only when exhaling - just another example of how much we have in common with our closest cousins.

All of this reminds me of how sad I feel whenever I see an image of a chimp or an ape behind bars. It's not only because of the mental pain we are inflicting by isolating such a social creature (just like we are). But I think it's also because I feel that if we can't feel empathy for these animals, what hope do the rest have.

Found via Boing Boing

I shot the serif

How smart. Found on the always inspiring Swissmiss, via ffffound - by Tom Gabor.

We all just wanna be social

Image source

This video from the Sasquatch Music Festival just makes me smile. I find it fascinating watching the tipping point (at the 1.20 minute mark), when this guys spontaneity spreads and is embraced by an ever expanding group. The desire to want to be a part of something is ultimately irresistible.

A great opening

Watched a really interesting movie on the weekend - JCVD, starring Jean Claude Van Damme. I can't recall ever watching any of his movies. But this is a great performance. He plays himself, a 48 year-old washed up actor who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a real life robbery. It's a really raw, honest performance. He can really act.

This is the french trailer. What I also loved was the opening credit with the boy and the balloon. It's brilliant. It's just a little thing - but I always think it's a great sign of what's to follow if they've put time and effort into a creative opening.

The joy of sharing

More great stuff from T-Mobile and Saatchi & Saatchi. Awesome what can come from bringing people together and giving them something to do.

First they send out an intriguing invite via YouTube. The result, 13,500+ people turn up at Trafalgar Square. They hand out 2,000 microphones so people can join in, and away they go - kicking it off with a rousing version of Hey Jude. The final video is wonderful. They clearly thought it through, numbering all the microphones so they could capture and isolate those individual "solo" performances.

Double Happiness

Beautiful images from the Cherry Blossom season in Tokyo (that opening image is something special). It just seems so wonderful that they have such a visual symbol of a passing moment in time - and even better that they stop, celebrate and appreciate it. Wish I was there.

Found over at Alexandre Gervais, via @Alexgervais

Sakura in Tokyo from James T. Kirk on Vimeo

Mountain voices

Wow - just discovered this group via Twitter (thanks @craftapalooza). They're called First Aid Kit. I love the little look they give each other at the end.

chalkboard inspiration

School was never this inspiring. Beautiful music and amazing video for the song Autumn Story by Firekites.


Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

Back to being a shepherd

Sad to see the end of season 2 for the Flight of the Conchords. But they went out in style - making music back on the farm in New Zealand. Love Murray on the tractor.

NASA TV rocks

I spent a bit of the weekend watching NASA TV and the amazing coverage of STS-119 - the current space shuttle mission to the International Space Station. To be honest, I haven't really been paying much attention to any of the recent Space Shuttle launches. But after following @nasa on twitter, I found myself totally absorbed yesterday by stunning live images of the spacewalk (EVA). The two astronauts (Steve Swanson and Joseph Acaba) were out there for 6 1/2 hours. It's quite a thing to watch these two tiny figures clinging to the massive Space Station, with Earth as the backdrop - all happening in the moment.



While on the space theme, I was totally blown away by this footage of Jupiter slipping behind the sun - you can even see the moons orbiting Jupiter. Thanks to Bad Astronomy for posting this link (an awesome blog by the way)



This is an older link that I found on another great post over at Bad Astronomy. The moon, which to our eyes is so immense, looks so small in comparison to the mighty sun.

My Twitter mosaic

Just for a bit of fun, here's my list of friends on Twitter. It's nice to get the complete visual view. Try it out at Twitter Mosaic. It's easy - enter your user name, hit go, and copy the code.

Of course, for those who have thousands of friends, I guess it will just keep scrolling...and scrolling down the page.

Thanks to Servantofchaos for posting.

Get your twitter mosaic here.