Not as much fun as Glastonbudget 2009, but if you do have to spend a long weekend in a field in Leicestershire, then I doubt there are any better things you could be doing.

A few weeks ago I saw something truly incredible. Out in the Egyptian desert I got to look at Jupiter through a fairly high-powered telescope. Two dark bands of colour wrapping around the planet and 4 of its moons. It was breathtaking.

As a kid, two things really captured my imagination – dinosaurs and space. Hardly the most original things for a young boy, but I still think they’re both pretty awesome. In fact, when a friend asked me a few days ago what period in history I’d go back to if I had a time machine, my first reaction was that I’d go and check out some dinosaurs. Still a big kid I guess.

I digress.

I’ve just watched this amazing video, and if you ever want to realise quite how small and insignificant we are in the Universe, then this is a very good starting point.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Enjoy. In 720p.

I spent the whole of yesterday filming skaters going around a skate park on the outskirts of Liverpool. Had I known that all I needed to create an x-treme gnarly dude sweeeet dude sweeeet sports video was a piece of tarpaulin and a wide street, I could’ve stayed at home in bed a bit longer.

A couple of games-related videos that I’ve stumbled upon today.

First up is Super Mario Bros by Andreas Heikaus. It goes on for a bit too long, but it’s a pretty cool mixture of live-action and CGI:

And secondly, If games had super-easy mode courtesy of College Humor:

In April 2010, Kodak launched a new HD video camera called the Playsport. Our brief was to create some video content to showcase the camera’s key features:

• Shooting HD video underwater
• 1080p HD and 720p HD at 60fps
• Rugged design so it can go anywhere
• Built-in image stabilisation

In conjunction with the videos, Kodak also ran a sweepstake on Facebook to win a Playsport bundle.

The solution

The Playsport isn’t only aimed at extreme sports fanatics and adrenaline junkies. Specialist video cameras already exist in this market which are smaller, lighter and a lot more expensive. So whilst our content had to look good, we decided that it also had to be a lot more rough and ready – achievable by anyone with a bit of imagination and some gaffer tape.

The key thing for us was that every single piece of footage (and sound) had to be shot on the Playsport. We also didn’t want any post-production, overdubs, video enhancements etc. So working within the constraints of a tiny budget, we shot all the footage ourselves (with the help of a small production company), and then edited it all in iMovie (I did all of them apart from At the Car Wash).

Feeding time

Get your skates on

At the Car Wash

Gone with the Wind

Gone to the Dogs

We created a branded Youtube channel to host the video content…

as well as a tab on the KodakUK Facebook group to promote the campaign and host the sweepstake.

Very cool idea. Very cool video.

“FREE FALL: World champion freediver Guillaume Nery special dive at Dean’s Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world filmed entirely on breath hold by the french champion Julie Gautier.”

Before Micro Machines invaded every playground in the land, I was in a very happy monogamous marriage with Matchbox.  I had no need to look at the brasher, more American Hot Wheels cars, and the one time that I did do the dirty was with a French mistress called Majorette. So that was okay.

But now Hot Wheels are trying to lure me in with a series of interactive videos that make good use of YouTube annotations. It’s great to see this technology being used in a way that doesn’t get in the way of the fun, so for the time being, I’m shacking up with the Americans.

Via Digital Buzz.

This is the second example of this type of animation I’ve seen recently and is even better than the Parkour one. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of work which even manages to include a spunking nob without descending into smut – something I would never have thought possible.

The thing that I like the most about this is that you presume someone is gonna stack it really badly…

…and when they don’t you’re still happy. How does that work?

Found on CrackUnit.

Here’s an inventive way of using YouTube – once you’ve waited for the movie to load, you can click on different places in the timeline to play a corresponding piano key.

Of course, the first thing I did was a show-stopping performance of No Limits (which sounded amazing in case you’re interested), but I’m sure you can play other tunes too. So next time you fancy tinkling on the old ivories, pop down to YouTube.