I’ve discovered a fantastic blog called Lucid Movement (http://www.lucidmovement.com). It’s basically an archive of clips of things breaking, bouncing, exploding, wafting, etc. filmed with high-speed cameras. It’s excellent. Here is a taste of what you’ll get over there:

I can watch this stuff for hours.

While I was watching some of this stuff (for hours), I began to look more closely at all the little pieces that make up and come out of these relatively brief moments in time. In the time it takes for a water balloon to pop in real life, you can’t even say “Blerg!” That’s how quick it goes. But when you watch it in slow motion, you have enough time to say “Blerrrrrrrrrrg.” You also get to watch each individual water droplet go on its own little journey, which is really cool.

It kind of makes you think about the things that happen really fast in life. Like when you get a new job. There is a period where you’re clueless about everything and it’s just absolute madness, but eventually you learn the ropes (or else you get fired), you learn people’s names, you develop a routine, and all the chaos that was there right at the start falls into place and settles itself. And you think back on this time and think, wow, what a stupendous kablooie that was, and you don’t remember every little detail and you don’t remember the amount of time it all took. But if you think about it, about specifics, about the little tiny details of how it actually all flowed, you might find that it wasn’t just a crazy burst, but an intricate process, a ballet of interconnected happenings that eventually finds a balance with gravity and and nature, becomes a visible result.

How about that.

Filed by Bil at 11:25 pm under Pop Culture, Politics, The Science