Interesting and/or cool stuff I've come across from art, design, technology, photography, movies I've watched and liked and, occasionally, my thoughts.
Marcin Wichary wonderfully writes about discovering an obscure technique for sharpening and de-moiréing old images using FFT or Fast Fourier Transform.
I also loved this bit:
I’ve always had this theory that any long-term project requires two ingredients: things you’re good at, and things you want to learn. The first group gives you a feeling of accomplishment and mastery. The other one? It keeps things interesting.
via Pixel Envy
There can be too much light.
Today I learned: a Kugelblitz is the (theoretical) phenomenon where the concentration of light (or heat, or radiation) is so intense that it warps spacetime enough to spawn a black hole.
Further down the same Wikipedia rabbit hole I learned of the concept of black hole starships — using black holes as an energy source for interstellar travel.
I often get goosebumps from music, most of the times it's songs that build up to "really big", Minnie Ripertons "Les Fleurs" is one that immediately comes to mind. Well, now I know why that happens—I get scared.
According to Huron, researchers have discovered that several of the frisson’s acoustic correlates—things that seem to induce the sensation in listeners—are fear-related. These correlates include rapidly large increases in the loudness of music, abrupt changes in tempo and rhythm, a broadening of frequencies and an increase in the number of sound sources, among other factors.
– phys.org