Six Things, Volume 63

Peanuts | Flipbook | Eclipse | Machine | Accents | Cat

Thing 1 – Peanuts

One of the great pleasures in life is watching people doing things extremely well. It doesn’t really matter what it is – a chef, a musician, a cricketer, maybe even (if that’s your bag, although personally it is a bit of a stretch) an accountant or an actuary. It’s the ease of it, deriving from many hours of the honing of skill, a single-minded dedication to the craft. And there’s also the crucial extra thing, the undefinable ingredient you might call ‘talent’ that sets the expert apart from the rest.

So here is seventeen minutes or so of Charles Schulz drawing.

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Thing 2 – Flipbook

We can’t all be Schulzes. But you have to start somewhere.

The Flipbook Experiment will take thirty seconds of your time, and you will feel at least a small part of something odd, silly and fun. The aim is to make the longest Flipbook ever.

The instructions are simple: to the best of your ability, trace the drawing made by the previous person. The success of the project will of course depend on people’s willingness to adhere to the basic principle. I know I can rely on you.

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Thing 3 – Eclipse

Those who witnessed it professed it the experience of a lifetime. Chris Lintott, who has seen a few things in the sky in his time, got quite emotional (get his book, by the way – this astronomical ignoramus found it fascinating throughout, and, even more importantly, understood it all). I am making vague plans (in a kind of ‘oh this would be a great thing to do’ way) for 2026 or 2027. But until then, here’s NASA’s telescope feed in its entirety. Cut to just after an hour for the juicy stuff (and, even viewed on an iPad, it’s quite the thing).

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Thing 4 – Machine

Randall Munroe did a few comics about the eclipse, notably this one about the importance of seeing totality.

He’s also been busy putting together this extremely enjoyable way of wasting spending time creatively.

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Thing 5 – Accents

I really enjoyed this article about accent shift in Antarctic researchers.

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Thing 6 – Cat

Thanks to old mucker Chris Coates for sending me this 7-minute cartoon from 1988. It says ‘for ages 9-11’, but I dunno, I’m nearly 59 and it kept me thoroughly amused throughout. That either says something about age recommendation standards in the 1980s or my mental age.