Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“GQ profiled master counterfeiter Frank Bourassa. Bourassa made $200 million in nearly flawless fake US twenties in a barn in Canada, got caught, and, you get the feeling pretty early on in the piece, didn’t really do any time for the crime.

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Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

The Spielberg Light
The backlight of a setting sun. A harsh artificial light coming through a window and the air full of dust. A t-rex peering through a car window lit by flashes of lightning. Steven Spielberg is a master of light

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“The opening scenes from dozens of movies, including 2001, There Will Be Blood, Lost in Translation, Seven Samurai, and Star Wars.

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Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

8-minute video - gorgeous Antarctica

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“The New York Times profiles 29 year old Alex Honnold, who climbs sheer cliffs without using ropes.

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Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“This is silly and I loved it: someone took the clip from Aladdin when he and Jasmine sing A Whole New World while riding the magic carpet and dubbed realistic audio over it.”

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Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Solving the Mystery of Link Imbalance: A Metastable Failure State at Scale
// interesting problem and problem-solving at FB scale

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Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

What happens when you shine world's strongest flashlight at world's brightest paint? Watch.

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

The Cranberries' searing acoustic version of "Zombie"

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“When producing their claymation-style feature films or Wallace and Gromit & Shaun the Sheep animations, Aardman Animations goes through 100s of pounds of modeling clay”

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Game Theory for Parents

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Just a chicken playing an operatic aria on a piano keyboard

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

An Instagram feed of fun illustrated facts

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Photography: the weird dreamy world of wet ground

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Ray Kurzweil's Mind-Boggling Predictions for the Next 25 Years

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

University band pranks director by playing Mii Channel theme song instead of Bach

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Inside Deep Dreams: How Google Made Its Computers Go Crazy

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Classic superhero bodies photoshopped for believability

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Lost at sea: the man who vanished for 14 months

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

I Asked 12 Scientists: What Is The One Fact Humanity Needs To Know?

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

The wonderful sounds of black ice skating
Recently frozen lake ice has some interesting properties: it looks completely black and makes some interesting sounds when you skate over it.

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

“In a lecture given in 1924, German mathematician David Hilbert introduced the idea of the paradox of the Grand Hotel, which might help you wrap your head around the concept of infinity.”

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

How The 'Kung Fu Fighting' Melody Came To Represent Asia

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

What happens to nearby streams and rivers when a tanker passes too quickly

Amit Kumar @akumar.me · Nov 14

Scientific Instruments of Yore
Stephen Erenburg takes you into his 30-year-long obsession with early scientific instruments