“Americans have gone west to escape the ills of society while bringing the ills of society with them, pretty much since Manifest Destiny; one regional myth was that, once here, everyone would have the chance to experience something wild. In reality, of course, settlement always brought land-access issues, prompted human displacement, and fueled socioeconomic disparity. That remains true now, as Billionaire Wilderness makes evident through its examination of one of the most beloved playgrounds of this part of the nation.”
This is such a cool idea: Denis Shiryaev used Gigapixel AI’s neural network to upscale a classif video from 1896 into 4k; as Timothy Bee points out, a similar approach could then add color.
One of my long-term projects involves making the small part of the internet I use every day available offline. As I lean toward a more nomadic lifestyle, I may not always have ready access to the familiar shows I stream on Netflix, for example, or that one news article from a few weeks ago. A single hard drive could store everything I have ever watched, read, and listened to, though, and so I want to make that happen. This goes well with one of my other long-term projects, which involves curating evergreen digital media for posterity’s sake. Think of the former as every movie I have ever watched, and the latter as the classics I want to save for my kids. There are many subltle challenges to this, but none so obvious as the fact that even video from a few years ago looks bad on modern displays. Denis’s demonstration gives me hope that this may not always be the case.
Very few people actually enjoy Mondays. If you’re in the majority, I’ve got the cure for you: check out Andy Martin on Vimeo, where he posts delightfully weird short animations. My favorite is easily Selfie, and if you enjoy that one The Welsh Egg Choir and his The Plants series are both great ways to spend a few extra minutes blissfully unaware of the drudgery that is the first in a long succession of nine-to-five days. Enjoy.