New Year's Party 1200 Years in the Making Catches World by Surprise

  Chichen Itza, Yucután, Mexico - December 21, 2012. 
  Onlookers were shocked and terrified this morning when the Kukulcán pyramid at Chichen Itza began to rotate, spin, and open up like a gigantic puzzle box. For moments, the six tourists then visiting Chichen Itza feared that this event was a portent of the much-advertised 2012 apocalypse. Then the massive pyramid began to emit fireworks and confetti, as well as play catchy music using an intricate system of bells and whistles that had apparently been built inside.

Inside the Monkey Lab: A Story Collider Comic

Click here to read Inside the Monkey Lab
on the Story Collider website

This summer I got a small paid gig illustrating comic books for The Story Collider, a podcast and online magazine that collects audio stories about how science has effected people's lives. My second comic, Inside the Monkey Lab went online in October.

"Guy Schaffer wanted to understand the brain, but the only job he could find was in a monkey lab — a lab where a monkey attack led to a deeper set of crises."

Time and Pressure: A Story Collider Comic

This summer I got a small paid gig illustrating comic books for The Story Collider, a podcast and online magazine that collects audio stories about how science has effected people's lives, "From finding awe in Hubble images to visiting the doctor... Whether we wear a white lab coat or haven't seen a test tube since eighth grade"

My first comic, Time and Pressure, went online in May, and illustrates Rachel Bitney Wecht’s story of her struggle to woo a physicist—The Story Collider’s own Brian Wecht.

Click here to read Time and Pressure
on the Story Collider website

Fun Math Games - Monty Hall and Nim

You unlock this door with the key of imagination.  Behind it is another dimension.  A dimension of goats.  A dimension of cars.  A dimension of counter-intuitive probability tricks with which you can astound your friends.    You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas.  You've just crossed over into:  The Math Games Zone.

Alchemy: Its history and theory

My friend Michael McConnell is designing a gallery exhibit about the periodic table of the elements.   I am a rabid Alchemy enthusiast, so Michael gave me a special assignment:  By Spring 2013 I shall create a 10 minute (or 10'x10'x10') presentation on the elements as understood by the Alchemists.  To prepare for the project I wrote this "thesis" to base my work around.  Here I shall take a "just the facts, Ma'am" approach to the history of Alchemy and focus mainly on what was pertinent to the periodic table.  Still, talking about Alchemy is not an exact science because Alchemy itself was not an exact science, but rather, a "philosophical art" for which each Alchemist had his own unique approach and theories about what he was doing.

The origin of Alchemy:

Hellenistic Egypt, ca 300 BC.  Greek colonists look at the religion of the Egyptians and see similarities between their god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth (The-Thrice-Great).  Both were gods of language, gods of magic and psychopomps (in charge of transmitting souls from one world to the next, like the grim reaper) In the minds of some, the two figures merge into one character called Hermes Trismegistus. 

The Elixir

. .

An ugly man turns to the secrets of alchemy to make his inner self apparent on the outside —at any cost.

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Process Statement:

I created The Elixir as my final for Sight and Sound: Film in the Tisch School of the Arts way back in June 2010. It was shot on 16 mm film using an Arri S 16mm Camera from 1952.  The story of how this film came to be is long and colorful.  Technical and personal difficulties abounded in production.

Blood Splatter FX - Resources

My friend Sam has tasked me with helping to develop special effects for his upcoming film, Saint Mark's Hooker.  Today, we discussed techniques for shooting a full-on shotgun blast to the chest.

I didn't know anything about making bloody explosions before I did my research, but now I have a working knowledge of the techniques involved and the ideas have started to flow.  There are a lot of good resources on the web that I'm compiling here to make the search easier for anybody on a similar quest.

The first (and probably the cheapest) method of making a fake gunshot that I found is from IndieMogul.  In this video Keir MacDonald shows us how to put a condom full of fake blood under a target's shirt,  and use a washer attached to fishing line (if you're inside) or black thread (if you're outside) to snap the condom, making the blood burst out.

In Keir's method, you might need to cut the shot so it begins when the washer exits frame, or else it breaks the illusion.