Drone Photography, Urban Digital Laboratories, and Search Trends: Lux Recommends #12
By Sam Arbesman
Welcome to Lux Recommends #12, the last edition for the year of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about.
Articles
The best drone photography of 2015, from around the world: “Take a look through these photos and you’ll see why drone photography has become such a wildly popular activity.” — Adam K
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards: A bit lighter fare from the world of photography. — Sam
As World Crowds In, Cities Become Digital Laboratories (via Sam):
Every 10 seconds for two years, Dr. Dobler and his colleagues at New York University’s urban observatory have taken a panorama of Manhattan. Across hundreds of wavelengths of light, they are recording the rhythmic pulse of a living city, just as astronomers capture the activity of a variable star.
“Instead of taking pictures of the sky to see what is going on in the heavens, we are taking pictures of the city from a distance to see if we can figure out how the city is functioning,” says Dr. Dobler, a scientist at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress.
The math of humor: Why certain words sound funnier than others. — Sam
Are You Annoyed By the Sound of Chewing? “The same thing can happen with the sound of someone cutting their nails or even tapping their feet. This sound is not only annoying, it can drive some people into an uncontrollable rage. This neurological disorder is called “mysophonia” or the fear of sound.’”— Adam K
Google’s A Year in Search 2015: Top five consumer tech searches: iPhone 6s, Samsung Galaxy S6, Apple Watch, iPad Pro, LG G4— Adam K
Graphic Novels
Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk, recommended by Josh
Artists
Check out the work by these fantastic, science and technology-inspired artists:
Family Stories
And for the end of the year, please enjoy this appearance of Sam’s grandfather in Popular Science back in 2014 for being one of the longest-continuous readers of the magazine:
See you in 2016!
