Athena’s Chamber & Muses’ Tea Party

Immersive 3D and 360° experiences are among the most valuable types of resources, and so there are links to thousands of them distributed across the hundreds of pages on the Web site.

The Web Worlds@Cosma are thematic 360° images with visual links to a sample of ten to twenty of the best Immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the Web for a specific subject.

There are many Web Worlds distributed across the pages on the Cosma Web site.

The Web World below is a special one with links to many of the others.

There are hundreds of immersive 3D and 360° experiences to explore!

Click on objects to see 3D and 360° experiences, and click doorways to go to other Web Worlds.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

If you’ve been following Cosma, then you know that Web Worlds have been evolving over the course of the last year. Continue reading below to learn the story behind them.

———————–
New Worlds, Old Ways@MEHopper

The story of Web Worlds began while I was updating my MEHopper Web site last summer.

I had been playing around with virtual home staging software and noticed that some of the spaces looked as if they were generated in the virtual world SecondLife. It was neat to see that “nearly” photorealistic 360° images could be generated and exported from that system.

I’ve used SecondLife to create Knowledge Places for decades, and I knew that it was now possible to take and download 360° photos, but I hadn’t gotten around to trying it yet.

I finally got inspired to do it and started with (re)creating my MEHopper Gallery Toy World. Toy Worlds are dioramas created with dollhouse furniture and other miniature objects that are photographed with a RICOH THETA S 360° Camera. The resulting 360° photos are posted on Kuula to overlay links to the Web.

Sure enough, I was able to take a 360° picture in SecondLife and upload it to Kuula to add links in the same way that I had for the Toy World. The result was this new MEHopper Gallery.

Click on the pictures to read posts about when and where they were taken.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

———————–
Web Worlds@New Media Museum

The experiment was successful enough that I decided to try my hand at another one.

This time it was for a space for my New Media Museum Web site. I had experimented with making virtual museums using my own museum’s content, but this time the goal was to create an interface to other computer museums.

This goal also inspired me to resurect my idea of “Magic Doors” from my work in SecondLife. You can read about the history of them on the Knowledge Objects page.

M.E.Hopper's Magic Window in SecondLife 2006

M.E.Hopper's Magic Window Farm in SecondLife 2006

The result of this experiment was the Computer Museums Lobby below, and you can read the story about why this came about in this post on my New Media Museum Web site.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, objects to learn about them, “i”s to learn about the museums, and doors to enter the virtual museums.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

It was around this time that it dawned on me that Web Worlds was a good term for describing the 3D interfaces that I was creating in SecondLife and Kuula to make visual links to other immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the Web. I did some research and found that the term had been used to describe virtual worlds on the Web before, and so I decided that it was the right term to use for what I was doing.

———————–
Web Worlds@Cosma

It wasn’t long after the term Web Worlds stuck that I decided Cosma needed some of them.

One major goal of Cosma is to have 3D interfaces for spatial Knowledge Navigation of the resources on Cosma and other Web sites. The history of this work is on the Worlds page.

There are currently a series of Toy Worlds that serve as 360° visual interfaces for the major content areas of Cosma. There is also a Cosma Welcome Area Toy World on the front page of Cosma that has links to the others.

However, there are some content areas that don’t have Toy Worlds. That’s because I never got around to making them, and this has bugged me for awhile. Web Worlds struck me as a way to remedy the situation.

The idea of “Magic Doors” as links to other immersive 3D and 360° experiences came in handy, too. I’ve been adding links to immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the pages of Cosma for about five years, and there are thousands of them distributed across the Web site. Unfortunately, few people notice them because the links to amazing experiences blend in with more mundane links (Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Open Courseware, JSTOR etc.). I decided that Web Worlds with visual links could be a way to bring more attention the links to immersive 3D and 360° experiences.

I happened to be updating the Transportation pages, and it was one of the content areas with no Toy World. I also happened to have tons of cool objects in SecondLife to use for the job (Cars, Trains, Boats, Planes etc.). It wasn’t long before Transit Paradise was born.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

One limitation of my approach to making Web Worlds reared it’s ugly head, though.

You can only cram so many doors and objects into a single 360° photo.

This result was that there wasn’t enough room for all of the Transportation content, and I decided that Space Transportation needed to go into a separate Web World.

I was also updating the Space pages at the time and decided to address another weakness. While the existing Solar Extremes Toy World was a fine interface for the Solar System pages, there were some pages related to Astronomy that weren’t included in it.

Ultimately Space Transportation and Astronomy were combined into Space Depot.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Soon after that I was working on the Library page and saw experiences there begging for attention. The Great Libraries Antechamber resulted, and the post Little, Big, Old, Spooky Libraries explains more about it.

———————–
Hike the Web!

November 17th is National Take a Hike Day, and I planned a post to highlight some virtual hikes on the Web. A Web World with doors to those and some parks seemed like a nice idea, and so Hiking Trails Hall came into being.

I was also updating the pages in the Nature section of Cosma around that time, and I thought it would be good to make Web Worlds to emphasize the links to experiences quietly lurking about on those pages.

For example, there were links to 3D tours of Natural History Museums on the Dinosaur page, and so a Web World for accessing Natural History Museums seemed like a “should do.”

The Plant, Flower and Tree pages had links to some lovely Botanical Gardens, so Botanical Gardens Orangery was an obvious choice for another Web World.

There were many links to fun experiences on the Animal pages that needed attention. I also happened to already have some very cute animals in my inventory in SecondLife, so Critter’s Hollow was a no-brainer.

Finally, I created this Nature Center to integrate and access the four separate Web Worlds and introduced it in the Hike the Web post.

Touch doors and objects to enter 360° virtual experiences, touch “i”s to learn more, and touch arrows to go to other areas of the Nature Center.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

———————–
Beach Bum Break

Then came January, in New England, and this year was worse than usual! 🙁

I’m a hopeless “beach person.” That’s why there’s even a Beach page on Cosma.

I couldn’t go visit beaches with warm weather, so making Enchanted Beach Hut, Enchanted Beach Shack and the Enchanted Beach House below were therapy. You can read about it in My Enchanted Beach Houses post.

Touch doorways to visit 360° experiences, and touch posters and objects to find out more.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

It turned out that my beach adventures weren’t just therapy — they also inspire the design of the largest Web Worlds creation so far …

———————–
Wander the Web@Wanderlust!

Later in January I got busy slogging through updating and expanding the “World” pages (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Antarctica and their many children).

Years ago I made an arm-chair Travel Lounge Toy World. It was okay, but it didn’t showcase many immersive experiences.

In fact, there were so many links to fantastic experiences on the pages that I was updating, a single Web World wasn’t going to be enough. There ended up being six Web Worlds (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica).

Notice that I loved my Enchanted Beach House so much, I repurposed it for all of them. Then, as with the Nature Center, I made a central Web World to access the others. Voila! The result was Wanderlust Travel Villa!

Touch doorways to visit 360° experiences, and touch posters to find out more.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

———————–
Walk-in-Web

Earlier in February, after the extravaganza that was Wanderlust, I wasn’t sure that I would be up to making more Web Worlds any time soon. Then I was updating the Arts & Entertainment pages and realized a few things.

First, I don’t spend nearly enough time on them, and I don’t add that content to the other pages as much as I should either. I need to fix that.

Second, my earlier Walk-in-Art Toy World was kind of pathetic, and it didn’t have links to great art museums that you can visit on the Web.

Of course, that just wouldn’t do at all, so welcome to Walk-in-Art & Museums.

Touch the art and doorways to visit 360° experiences.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

———————–
One World to Rule Them All

After reading the story above, I hope you can see why I needed to make a single Web World to access the others. It became too unwieldy to find all of the Web Worlds distributed across the Cosma Web site, and old fashioned text links to them would be too boring and not in the spirit of why I made them.

I hope you enjoy using Web Worlds@Cosma to Hike, Wander and Walk-in the hundreds of 3D and 360° experiences that you can find through Cosma Web Worlds Welcome Area!

Enjoy!
— M. E. Hopper

Walk-in-Art & Museums!

February 5, 2025September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Last week I wrote Enchanted Beach Houses where I explained how I was inspired to create the Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa. It’s a “virtual travel” application with a visual interface to over a hundred 3D and 360° experiences.

In case you didn’t see it, here it is again.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

You can use the above interface or these posters to visit all seven “Web Worlds.”

One thing that I regretted was that I couldn’t include more 3D and 360° experiences.

There just wasn’t enough room in the Villa to link to the hundreds of experiences that I’ve included on the pages on Cosma.

For example, I had to decide whether to include the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre?

I ultimately decided to leave off the Louvre.

That means that there are links to virtual experiences on the page about France on Cosma that are not in the Europe Room in the Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa.

Here are examples of experiences that you will see links to on Cosma that are not in the Villa.

Virtual Tours (Louvre, Official Website)
Louvre Museum (360 Stories)
The Louvre Museum a 360° Experience (Escape Now, YouTube 360° Video)

I found myself leaving out a lot of museum experiences, and I was particularly sad to leave out experiences for some of the greatest art museums. That’s why I decided that this old Toy World Walk-in-Art could use an upgrade.

This is the old world. Click on paintings to see 3D and 360° experiences.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Now welcome to Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Touch art and doorways to visit 360° experiences.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Leonardo Lately
Magical Paintings
Into Van Gogh

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about the visual arts and museums …

Enchanted Beach Houses

January 31, 2025September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I live in the Northeast, and I hate January!

I know it’s “almost” February, but I’m not a huge fan of that either.

This is the view outside my window right now.

There’s more winter left than I can take, no matter what the ground hog says this weekend.

Look at my weekend forecast from yesterday.

What the heck is freezing spray advisory anyway? I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Freezing Spray Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service to warn sea vessels and sometimes road vehicles near the shoreline that accumulation of freezing water droplets and icing due to a combination of cold suspended droplets, wind, and cold air, so vessel movement is possible, however, accumulations are not expected to reach rates of 2 cm per hour, or else a heavy freezing spray watch, warning or a specific notice would be issued. — Wikipedia

Lovely.

I guess I should be grateful that it’s not a heavy freezing spray warning, right?

Somehow I just can’t muster that gratitude.

Being the beach person that I am, it’s at times like this that I do what I’ve dubbed “beachscrolling” — it’s a bit like doomscrolling, but far less depressing.

For example, my favorite walk between King’s Beach and Nahant Beach looks like this now.

So I go visit various web pages where I’ve posted this 360° image that I took years ago.

When I go to walk at Revere Beach, this is what it looks like at the Wonderland MBTA Station.

Here’s a view from the South end of the beach.

That’s when I get a bit of joy out of re-visiting this 360° image that I took a few summers ago.

Finally, sometimes I get bored with my own still pictures of local beaches. That’s when I start beachscrolling on YouTube looking for other people’s 360° videos of beaches that I loved visiting in the past. This is probably more aptly dubbed “beachstrolling.”

Here’s a 360° video by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa for beachstrolling on Waikiki Beach.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Ryan Kawailani Ozawa (YouTube Channel)

Last week I got a little carried away, though.

I decided it would be more visceral to have a 3D interface for beachstrolling.

Here’s an imaginary hut that I hacked together on Waikiki Beach.

Just click the doorway to take a beachstroll.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Now that’s a break from winter in New England!

One problem, though.

I love to beachstroll on South Beach, too.

Here’s a 360° video from YouTube for doing that.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

vr360videos (YouTube Channel)

There’s just one door in my tiny beach hut.

What to do?

Make a beach shack with more doors, of course!

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

I was happy with my new digs for a few days.

Then I happened to be updating all of the country pages on Cosma, and I came across a bevy of 360° YouTube videos showing awesome beaches in Australia. Here are a few of them.

Sydney Bondi Beach (SouthernCross VR, YouTube 360° Video)
Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia (Tourism Australia, YouTube 360° Video
Bells Beach Drone Interactive Flight. (Spin 360-3D, YouTube 360° Video)

That beach shack got an(other) upgrade!

Welcome to my Enchanted Beach House!

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

If you get bored with my set list and want to go somewhere else, here is how to do it.

Start by picking a beach. It can be one you’ve been to yourself, or any other one.

You can find plenty of great U.S. beaches on Stephen Leatherman’s Dr. Beach website. If you’re feeling more adventuresome, then you can take your pick from the best beaches in the world using CNN Travel’s Worlds Best Beaches website. They have an Interactive Map to help you find a great beach for “beachstrolling.”

Once you know where you want to go, then go to YouTube and put in the name of the beach followed by “360°.” Voilà, you will probably have plenty of gist for beachstrolling.

So a few things happened during my adventures in beachstrolling this week.

One of those things is that I got inspired to add a new category of links called “Fun in the Sun” to the country pages on Cosma.

In addition, I was listening to the radio and heard these lyrics to the song A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.

There’s a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day
— Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Now that was food for thought, and look what happened after that …

Welcome to Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa!!!

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Happy beachstrolling … and other travels 😉

Find out more about beaches, travel and the World…

Americas Canada, United States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina
Europe United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece
Africa Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar
Asia India, China, Japan
Oceania Australia, New Zealand
Polar Regions Arctic, Antarctica

Beachy Adventures

February 4, 2024September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Hello, it’s been awhile.

You may have noticed that there haven’t been as many posts on Cosma as there used to be. There are a few reasons for this, but a big one is that, with an old project like Cosma, the focus on different parts of it must shift over time.

Last year’s focus began with cleaning up and expanding the content on the pages. The previous formatting wasn’t great, and there were quite a lot of broken links. They were pretty mangy, and it was time to deal with it.

Then the abrupt discontinuation of the 360° image hosting service called RoundMe required an additional focus on recoding and posting all of the Toy Worlds. You can see all of the re-posted Toy Worlds on Kuula.

Here is the main entry to the new version of Toy Worlds. Click on objects to find out about them. Use the menu or doors to visit other Toy Worlds.

While all of that was going on, the posts (which I call Adventures), a major priority for so long, fell by the wayside. Once upon a time there were over 200 of them that had been accumulating since 2016 when Cosma moved to WordPress after Wikispaces shut down (there were hundreds more posts there that were written over ten years and have never been re-posted here). Many posts on this site were outdated, and a lot of the YouTube videos were broken. I decided that it would be better to hide them until I had time to currate and repost them.

So, the time to focus on posts has arrived. Watch for many old and new “Adventures” to (re)appear in the semi-near-future.

I decided to start with (re)posting some “Beachy Things.” This isn’t because they’re all that central to the content of Cosma. They are not.

It’s just because whenever I start to work on something for Cosma, I tend to start with things that relate to my personal art and adventures, and those tend to be focused on beachy things. I attribute this to the undue influence of my pesky Hopper genes.

It is no coincidence that there are pages about beaches, lighthouses and sandcastles.

One of my first Toy Worlds was also a silly little beach scene. Here it is.

I first introduced that in this post called, not surprisingly, The Beach.

Here are other “beachy” posts that I spiffed up.

Beach Gazes
Gone Beaching!
Catch Some Waves!
Sand Art

I hope you have enjoyed this beachy break. If it has inspired you to visit a beach, either virtually or in real life, then check out CNN’s A Year of the World’s Best Beaches and Dr. Beach to find more sea, sand and sun.

Happy Beaching!

Jigsaw Puzzledom

May 1, 2020September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I got lost in puzzles, and I couldn’t get out!

However, unlike most normal people, I didn’t get lost in doing jigsaw puzzles.

Nope. Leave it to me. I managed to get lost in finding out about them.

The journey began when I saw this video about a color-changing jigsaw puzzle from the MoMA Design Store.

MoMA Design Store (YouTube Channel)
MoMA Design Store (Official Website)

Geeezzz! Who thought of that? It looks mind-bendingly hard, but still neat!

Then this time-lapse video posted by Andre F caught my eye.

Andre F (YouTube Channel)

Again, neat! The description of the video said that the puzzle was called Around the World.

I did a Google search and, Voilà!, I found it …

Around the World – 42000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle for $559.99 (Puzzle Warehouse)

… but, I had also fallen deeper down the rabbit hole that is Jigsaw Puzzledom.

I couldn’t help noticing that my search for Around the World Jigsaw Puzzle also brought up a video about a different puzzle from Ravensburger entitled Disney Moments. Here’s a mini-documentary about their 40,320 piece monster.

Ravensburger UK (YouTube Channel)
avensburger UK (Official Website)

You may have noticed that the video covered just about everything that most normal people would ever want to know about how puzzles are made. However, if you want to know more, then here’s a recent article from the New York Times that I stumbled upon.

Here’s How Those Hot Jigsaw Puzzles Are Made (Amie Tsang, The New York Times)

Then I got curioius and did some fact checing. Guess what?

The Guinness World Records website says that the jigsaw puzzle with the “mostest” actually had a whopping 551,232 pieces, and it was completed by 1,600 students of the University of Economics in Vietnam.

Nice trivia.

In addition, the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of jigsaw puzzles is held by Luiza Figueiredo in São Paulo, Brazil. This 360° video shows a quick glimpse of her epic collection of 1,047 puzzles.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

VR 360 (YouTube Channel)

Okay, as you can tell, I was way into Jigsaw Puzzle Land at this point.

Heck, while I was there, I decided that I might as well wander around and explore a bit more.

For example, YouTube kept suggesting that I watch a video about the history of jigsaw puzzles.

Piecing together the history of jigsaw puzzles (CBS Sunday Morning, YouTube)

If you would like to learn more about the history of jigsaw puzzles, then you might also be able to get your hands on the book The jigsaw puzzle: piecing together a history by Anne Williams (the historian featured in the CBS Sunday Morning clip above).

Also, did you know that you can order personalized puzzles from Shutterfly, Portrait Puzzles and Create Jigsaws?

Finally, if you’re still reading this post, let alone doing any of that stuff, then you’ve fallen deep into Jigsaw Puzzledom, too.

If that’s the case, then you should know that you’re in good company. Here’s an article that explains that you belong to a club that includes the likes of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Bill Gates and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones!

The Rich and Famous Who Love the Humble Jigsaw Puzzle (Wentworth Wooden Puzzles)

Fun stuff!

Alas, no matter how great the company, I had to finally drag myself out of Jigsaw Puzzle Land to share this with you, and then get back to work on what I should be doing (i.e. a much needed overhaul of this Cosma web site).

I will leave off here, but if you continue exploring Jigsaw Puzzledom on your own, then there’s a few things you should know.

First, be careful about calling yourself by a term like “Puzzler.” It’s colloquial. The correct, technical term to use is Dissectologist.

Second, you may want to join a club called the Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists. If you’re into jigsaw puzzles, seriously, check that out!

On the other hand, if this post has just gotten you in the mood to work a jigsaw puzzle, right here and now, then you will probably enjoy the online puzzles at Jigsaw Explorer!

Enjoy some for me! 🙂

Find out more about hobbies, fun and games…

Bubblephilia

February 13, 2020September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Pretty much everyone loves bubbles when they are kids, but some grown-ups elevate their passion for them to a whole ’nother level.

For example, a physicist at Emory University named Justin Burton and his team made news by publishing an article in a scientific journal about the ideal recipe for blowing giant soap bubbles. Here are links to the scientific article and the story on Ars Technica where I learned about it.

How to Make a Giant Bubble (Stephen Frazier, Xinyi Jiang, and Justin C. Burton, Physical Review Fluids)
Physicists Determine the Optimal Soap Recipe for Blowing Gigantic Bubbles (Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica)

The video from Emory University that was featured at the bottom of the Ars Technica article was okay, but it didn’t have any narration. I wondered if I could find a better one. Sure enough, there were a ton of them. Here’s a really cute one!

JoJo’s Science Show (YouTube Channel)
JoJo’s Science Show (Facebook)

Searching for that video turned out to be quite a rabbit hole. There are hundreds of neat YouTube videos about bubbles, and they definitely aren’t just for kids.

For example, here’s a mesmerizing and informative video from the The Slow Down Show YouTube channel that captures giant soap bubbles bursting in slow motion.

The Slow Down Show (YouTube Channel)

It was fun to see and learn about giant bubbles bursting in a controlled setting, but I found myself more drawn to videos of them floating around in the wild.

Here’s 360° video from Dr Zigs that shows a bubble master at work in a field.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Dr Zigs Extraordinary Bubbles (YouTube Channel)

Better yet, here’s a clip of some beautiful, giant bubbles haunting a beach.

Mark Day (YouTube Channel)

Whilst wandering around in the rabbit hole that is bubbles on YouTube, I also tripped across a brief clip by Kevin Casey Fleming that shows the beauty of a bubble freezing along with its surprising demise.

Kevin Casey Fleming (YouTube Channel)

All that was an amusing diversion, but then I got totally enthralled by an artist named Richard Heeks that’s elevated photographing bubbles to an art form. Here’s a link to his Flicker feed.

All Bubbles (Richard Heeks)

Finally, there are a slew of “how to” videos on YouTube for anyone that wants to get more involved with bubbles. Here’s one that starts out by explaining why (sadly) you can’t make heart shaped bubbles. On the up side, it describes how to make other interesting shapes as well as a way to touch and play with bubbles without breaking them.

SciTechDiscovery (YouTube Channel)
SciTechDiscovery (Official Website)

I hope you enjoyed this tiny romance with bubbles!

Find out more about science, physics, art and fun in general …

360+Fun=Philharmonics

October 25, 2019September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I came across a fun find on my weekly fishing expedition for 360° videos, and I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a fairly unusual publicity stunt.

Here’s the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s recent performance of Borodin whilst inside a passenger capsule on the London Eye.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Classic FM (YouTube Channel)
Classic FM (Official Website)

It was an odd way of promoting classical music, but it’s also hard to deny that it was a cool way to virtually experience the London Eye and a view of London’s skyline.

As is always the case, one unusual 360° video invariably leads to another.

Here’s the next 360° video of the LA Philharmonic playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

LA Phil (YouTube Channel)
LA Phil (Official Website)

Notice that video was, appropriately enough, filmed at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That’s because the video was clearly paying homage to Disney’s Fantasia.

It’s considered a “classic” for many reasons, and just one of those is the role that classical music played in the iconic film.

Fantasia – All the Classical Music Used in the Disney Film (Sofia Rizzi, Classic FM)

In case you’ve never seen it, here’s a link to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene from Fantasia

Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Fantasia, Walt Disney Studios)

Of course, if you’ve never seen the movie, then it’s definitely a “must see” for your bucket list.

Another oddity I found in this week’s 360° video haul was a clip of the BBC Concert Orchestra playing the Theme From Jaws.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

BBC Radio 2 (YouTube Channel)
BBC Radio 2 (Official Website)

If you’re a fan of John Williams and his movie tunes, then you might like taking a side adventure to watch the scads of YouTube videos that show him conducting his greatest hits …

Finally, here is my own little experiment in 3D music fun.

Here’s my Music Heaven Toy World. Click on notes to learn about music.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Have a fun rest of your Friday and a fantastic weekend to boot!

Find out more about music and art in general …

Talented Greenery

October 18, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Note: This post was updated and reposted in honor of Arbor Day 2026!

Check out this minute long 360° video from Genesis Visual Studios.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Genesis Visual Studios (YouTube Channel)

Peaceful, isn’t it?

The bees are busily buzzing about, but the plants aren’t doing much, right?

Well, those plants are up to a LOT more than they look like they are in the video.

Now, you’re probably thinking, yeah, right.

They can move towards light, VERY slowly. Big whoop-d-doo!

Not so fast. There may be more to those Ents in The Lord of the Rings and the Tree of Souls in Avatar than you might expect.

For example, did you know that plants really do “warn” each other of danger?

Here’s a recent video and a couple of related articles about the skill.

Buzz60 (YouTube Channel)
Buzz60 (Facebook)

When Plants Cry Out for Help, Their Neighbors Start Screaming, Too (Kat Eschner, Popular Science)
Insect Herbivory Selects for Volatile-Mediated Plant-Plant Communication (Aino Kalske, Et al., Current Biology)

This is just the latest development in a long line of research about the talents of plants.

For example, in 2013 there was a PBS Nature special dedicated to “plant behavior” entitled What Plants Talk About. Since then, once or twice a year, the topic pops up in the media.

Here’s a video published in 2016 by Richard Karban on TED-Ed that gives a very nice summary of some of the research that’s made the news.

TED-Ed (YouTube Channel)
TED-Ed (Official Website)

You can find out more from Richard Karban’s accompanying TED-Ed Lesson and these sources upon which he says it was based.

How Trees Talk to Each Other (Suzanne Simard, TED Talk, YouTube)
Plant Sensing and Communication (Richard Karban, University of Chicago Press)
How Plants Secretly Talk to Each Other (Kat McGowan, Wired)
The Intelligent Plant: Scientists Debate a New Way of Understanding Flora (Michael Pollan, The New Yorker)

Here’s a recent video and article about the subterranean fungi network that’s now been dubbed the “wood wide web.”

BBC News (YouTube Channel)
BBC News (Official Website)

Wood Wide Web: The Underground Network of Microbes that Connects Trees—Mapped for First Time (Gabriel Popkin, Science Magazine)

So plants can talk, trade and wage war.

That’s nice, but that doesn’t make them all that talented, right?

Well, believe it or not, with a bit of help from their friends, plants can “sing” too, and that shard of news is what actually inspired this very post!

This week I came across a device on Kickstarter from Data Garden that’s called PlantWave, and it’s designed to let you “listen to the music” of plants!

Here’s their two minute promotional video.

PlantWave (YouTube Channel)
PlantWave (Official Website)

Here’s a story with more background.

Let Your Plants Play Music, and Gardens of Sound Will Bloom (Arielle Pardes, Wired)

Of course, now that you know that plants can even “sing,” then it’s only fair to mention that, with a tad more help from their human friends, they can also dance!

Here’s a video of some doing a ballet to Chopin’s Mazurkas, Op. 67.

Mirela Athanas, ClairDeLune25 (YouTube Channel)

If you like that, then you will probably enjoy this extremely relaxing seven minute long video of flowers dancing to, appropriately enough, Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers.

Mirela Athanas, ClairDeLune25 (YouTube Channel)

So there you have it — the next time you’re surrounded by plants, even if you can’t actually hear them talk and sing or watch them move or dance right then and there, perhaps it may not seem “quite” so quiet 🙂

Here are some further resources about the many “talents” of plants.

Do Trees Talk to Each Other? (Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine)
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate (Peter Wohlleben)

Have a great weekend!

Find out more about plants, trees and flowers …

F.L.Wright (De)Tours

September 27, 2019September 4, 2026 ~ mehopper

It never ceases to amaze me how clicking on an innocent little link to a news story can turn into an unexpected, intriguing adventure.

For example, I clicked on a link to this story about a Frank Lloyd Wright house that will be going on the market.

A Frank Lloyd Wright Home in N.H. Will Hit the Market for $850,000 (Brittany Bowker, Boston.com)

The house is known as the Kalil House, and as is generally the case with Wright houses, there’s an interesting aspect to the architecture. In this case the house is one of seven “Usonian Automatic Houses” that Wright designed. They were intended to be moderately priced and used concrete blocks that could be assembled in a variety of ways.

That sounded like a sort of “LEGO” house, so I wanted to know more!

First, I found this video that shows the house.

Paula Martin Group (YouTube Channel)
Paula Martin Group (Official Website)

Interesting concept, but not my personal favorite example of Wright architecture.

However, while I was trying to find out more about how the house looked, something else caught my attention. The website for the sale of the house had a 3D tour.

Neat! Of course, I had to check that out!

That tour was created using a platform called Matterport. The core of their business is that they do a 3D scan of a space and host the 3D model on their platform so users can navigate by simply matching a blue circle attached to their cursor to white circles on the 360° image and clicking.

Matterport is clearly used for selling high-end real estate, but it’s also been used for other types of spaces, and their website has a gallery of interesting tours. The Arts & Culture and Historic sections feature hundreds of great sites. No surprise, I took some (de)tours.

I also accidentally tripped over something else.

There’s another Wright house up for sale, or in this case auction, in October. It’s in Phoenix, and it’s known as the Circular Sun House or the Norman Lykes House.

Heritage Auctions (YouTube Channel)
Heritage Auctions (Official Website)

Better yet, there was another 3D tour of it!

Once I found that, I decided a try a simple Google Search to find out if there were any other 3D tours of Wright houses
.
Sure enough, there were, which also meant more (de)tours for me!

There was even a tour of Taliesin West, which was Wright’s desert laboratory that was mentioned in the video about the Norman Lykes House.

Then my journey took yet another unexpected turn due to this article.

Take A 3D Virtual Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West (Katharine Keane, Architectural Digest)

That article was innocent enough, but it had a link to this article from a few years ago.

10 Facts About Frank Lloyd Wright You Didn’t Know (Carrie Hojnicki, Architectural Digest)

Here’s a sample of what’s in the article.

For all the praise Frank Lloyd Wright garnered in his 70-year career, the architect was equally a magnet for controversy in all its forms. With three wives and eight children (seven biological, one adopted), the architect spent much of his adult life racking up sensational, though not untrue, headlines like “SUIT ENDS WRIGHT ROMANCE; Sculptress Who Fled With Architect to Japan Obtains Alimony” (New York Times) or “ISSUE WARRANT FOR WRIGHT; Architect’s Wife Seeks to Re-enter Their Wisconsin Home” (also New York Times), each referring the personal tumult that seemed to follow the architect through much of his adult life.

Wow, so Mr. Wright wasn’t boring!

I did a tad more research about Wright’s life and found a trailer for a documentary about him entitled Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth & Modernism. It starts out covering his architecture, but it doesn’t end there!

Movies & TV (YouTube Channel)

I found out more about the “Murder” in the title of the movie in a YouTube video from the Smithsonian Channel entitled A Horrific Tragedy at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home, but it was so gruesome that I could not bring myself to include anything but a link to it here. I will caution you that you should take the word “horrific” seriously as you decide whether or not to click the link and watch the video!

I’ll stop sharing my own (de)tours here, but if you want to take some further ones on your own, then there are plenty of places to find out more about Wright’s work and his extraordinary life. You can check out the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust (YouTube Channel). The Architectural Digest has a very nice section. Then, of course, there’s good old Encyclopædia Britannica and last, but not least, Wikipedia.

Finally, on a brighter note, according to an article on Atlas Obscura, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy says that there tend to be between 15 to 20 properties for sale at any one time. These days, a fairly high percentage of those are bound to have 360° tours to explore, so that means that Wright fans can enjoy some new Wright architecture (de)tours with just a bit of clicking.

Find out more about architecture and arts in general…

Sand Art

August 26, 2019September 1, 2026 ~ mehopper

The last few weeks have been an odd mix of work and play for me.

On the one hand, I’ve been hard at work on a project that I’ll share here in the near future.

On the other hand, I’ve also been somewhat obsessed with sand sculptures.

This is because one of my favorite ways to take a break is to go for a walk on my nearest beach, and that happens to be a place called Revere Beach.

Here are some links to where you can find out about why Revere Beach is special.
How Revere Beach Became America’s First Public Beach (Edgar B. Herwick III, WGBH)
Boston’s Revere Beach: The Complete Guide (Kathryn Cirrone, Trip Savvy)

The beach is actually fairly deserted most of the time — there’s often just myself and a handful of other “beach people” walking or just soaking up some sun.

Here’s a 360° picture that I took which shows what it usually looks like there.

However, things got a lot busier the second half of July because the annual Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival ran from July 26th to July 28th, but the setup and sand delivery actually started happening a week before.

Of course, it’s fun to watch the festivities, and it’s almost impossible to refrain from taking snapshots when something like this happens on your home turf.

Here’s a short slide show of some shots that I took of the festival.

Here are my pictures of my favorite sculptures. Click the gallery for a slide show.

Normally I would have stopped there, but then I got an idea for a project stuck in my head that then took on a life of its own.

You see, as much as I love watching the festival unfold, it also strikes me as bittersweet. It is at the height of summer when preparations start in mid-July, but then the sculptures stay on display for weeks and slowly melt until bulldozers come and wipe them away in mid-August.

To me, the sculptures serve as sort of a metaphor for the short, sweet existence of summer. When they are being built and displayed, summer is in its full glory. Then the crowds leave, the sculptures deteriorate, and by the time they are gone, summer is almost gone too. Schools are starting, Halloween decorations are in stores, and the only thing anyone talks about is Fall.

So, I became obsessed with instantiating this perspective in time-lapses of the sculptures.

For example, here’s a slideshow with photos that I took to create a time-lapse of this year’s Center Sculpture showing its full life cycle from before it was born until it’s demise.

Here are time-lapses of just some of my other favorite sculptures.

There are some more time-lapse videos like these on a longer version of this post that I did for my personal blog From Sand to Sand.

Now, if you’re like me, you think of all of this as being about sandcastles, even though there were no “real” sandcastles this year — the closest thing was the sculpture of Notre Dame.

I admit to being just a tad disappointed that no one decided to build a sandcastle of some sort, even though it probably would have been judged as trite if they did.

That’s why I felt a bit of joy when further down the beach I saw a gentleman building a small, honest-to-goodness sandcastle.

It turns out that he was doing it to promote a cute little product called Create A Castle. Here’s a video about their kit, and there a number of others on their YouTube Channel.

TTPM Toy Reviews (YouTube Channel)
TTPM Toy Reviews (Official Website)

While I was poking around for information about Create a Castle and other related resources for this project, it really dawned on me that building things with sand, or sand art and play as Wikipedia calls it, has evolved from a child’s activity into an industry.

For example, a gentleman named Andy Hancock offers Sandcastle Building Lessons on South Padre Island in Texas. He has posted a whole YouTube Playlist.

Then, of course, Revere Beach isn’t the only place that hosts sand festivals and competitions — there are a ton of them around the country and the world.

The 10 Best Sandcastle Competitions in America (Kim Windyka Kim Windyka, Fodors)

Fun stuff!

Now that I’ve gotten documenting and sharing the demise of sand structures, I need to get back to work on that project that I’m preparing to release soon.

That doesn’t mean that I won’t be taking a few breaks to visit the beach, though.

Here’s the thing. Summer doesn’t officially end until the Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd. It may be on the wane, but there are still weeks left. Don’t let it go before its time. There is still plenty of time to enjoy some good old traditional warm weather activities like cookouts and visits to the beach.

I intend to do that, and I hope you will too 🙂

Happy Summer, Still!

Find out more about Sandcastles and Beaches …

Yellow Submarines

June 21, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

My last post was about an adventure with seals doing science in Antarctica.

This adventure begins where that one left off, but this is a very different, and fun excursion that happened because Boaty McBoatface surfaced in my news feed.

In case you never heard of him, Boaty’s a submarine that got his name via a publicity stunt by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre that went viral and didn’t turn out like they expected. He turned up in my news feed this week because he’s been doing science similar to the kind that the seals in my last post were doing, and the results have just been published.

Google assumed that if I would want to know what seals with antenna were doing in Antarctica, then I would definitely want to know about Boaty’s activities.

Here’s a video about Boaty’s discoveries as well as the fiasco that led to his name.

Audacy (YouTube Channel)
Audacy (Official Website)

Here are links to some stories about Boaty’s research.

Boaty McBoatface Sheds Light on Warming Ocean Abyss (British Antarctic Survey)
Rapid Mixing and Exchange of Deep-Ocean Waters in an Abyssal Boundary Current (Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, et al., PNAS)

Boaty’s research is important, but seeing him, whose thoughts could help but wander to The Beatles’ song/album/movie Yellow Submarine?

Google/YouTube couldn’t resist helping me along with those musings. Next thing I knew, nostalgia kicked in, and I was watching a trailer for the re-release of the movie in the UK and Ireland that was done for the movie’s 50th Anniversary.

Yellow Submarine UK Theatrical Trailer (Beatles, YouTube)

Then I discovered that The Beatles have official Playlists on YouTube, and there’s even a dedicated Yellow Submarine Playlist that has over twenty videos with all sorts of insider stuff about the movie.

The Internet then led me to scads of ancillary products inspired by the movie. For example, there’s a Yellow Submarine turntable from Pro-Ject (YouTube). Who knew?

LEGO also released a Yellow Submarine Set, and here’s their colorful trailer for it.

The Beatles’ LEGO Yellow Submarine vs. the Sea Monster (LEGO, YouTube)

That’s fun, but there are a number of fan videos that are pretty great, too.

Here’s a lovely stop motion video with a creative take on building the kit.

The Bits Beatles Tribute (YouTube Channel)

Here’s another fan made stop motion video done in the MTV style.

White House Productions (YouTube Channel)

Neat stuff!

Of course, LEGOLAND in California even went so far as to build a ride!

Theme Park Insider (YouTube Channel)

Personally, I prefer the open sea, and it turns out that there’s a ride for that, too.

An outfit called Submarine Safaris operates Yellow Submarine tours out of Tenerife and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Here’s a promo video for their tours.

Tenecar Tenerife (YouTube Channel)

If you’re inspired to book a trip on a real Yellow Submarine, then here’s a link to a video with some background on the Canary Islands that you may want to know before you head out on a real-life adventure.

Introducing the Canary Islands (Lonely Planet, YouTube)

There you have it. One minute you’re doing science with seals in Antarctica, and then the next thing you know, you’re exploring the warm waters of the Canary Islands in a Yellow Submarine.

Isn’t the Internet a wonderful place?

Finally, if all this talk about The Beatles has you craving something a bit more psychedelic, or you just want to play a little while longer, then here’s a trippy little 360° video that claims to be “inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Rock Hy. Zhang (YouTube Channel)

Find out more about music, fun stuff in general and ways of getting around in the water …

Into Van Gogh

May 30, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

It’s not unusual for one artist’s work to serve as the grist for another artist’s mill. However, few artists have their works “reimagined” as frequently or as creatively as Vincent van Gogh. Artists all over the world are still very much into making works based upon his iconic paintings.

For example, check out this surreal 360° video of a hot air balloon that’s a faithful 3D reproduction of Van Gogh’s famous Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

DiscGolfVR360 (YouTube Channel)

Here’s the article with more background about the ballon.

Giant Hot Air Balloon with the Face of Vincent van Gogh Sails through the Skies of Melbourne (Adam McCleery, Daily Mail Australia)

There is also an exhibit at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris that invites attendees to walk “into” Van Gogh’s Starry Night and other works. Here’s a one minute promo.

France 24 (YouTube Channel)
France 24 (Official Website)

That clip was a good introduction to the exhibit, but it didn’t convey the atmosphere of the experience as well as this next clip featuring Don McLean’s Vincent.

Ine RP Braat (YouTube Channel)

If you’re sad that you can’t step into that Starry Night exhibit, then let me introduce you to some artists that strive to take you “into” Van Gogh’s Starry Night via YouTube videos.

The first one of these types of videos I ever saw was this one by Robbie Dingo from 2007. He used SecondLife to “build” the painting, and then he filmed it.

Share Festival (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a link to Robbie Dingo’s post about the video.

Watch the World(s) (Robbie Dingo, Digital Double)

I also came across this 360° video with a similar mission in 2016.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Motion Magic (YouTube Channel)

Then I found this awesome 360° video in 2018.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Youtube Trendz (YouTube Channel)

The highlight of that clip was going into Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles, which is one of his works that’s been “reimagined” almost as often as Starry Night.

The Art Institute of Chicago had quite a bit of fun with “recreating” that painting when they were promoting their exhibit Van Gogh Bedrooms. They went so far as to create a replica of Van Gogh’s bedroom and then list it on Airbnb. Here’s a story about how thousands of people got into van Gogh’s bedroom.

Art Institute Re-Creates Van Gogh’s Bedroom to Rent on Airbnb (Corilyn Shropshire, Chicago Tribune)

Alas, that opportunity is no longer available, but you can step into this 360° video now.

Rendr (YouTube Channel)
Rendr (Official Website)

That video is actually a recording of a 3D model that Sokolovsky Ruslan posted on Sketchfab.

His model was also used to create a “virtual door” into Van Gogh’s bedroom with the augmented reality app ARLOOPA. Here’s a short clip of users stepping into the painting.

ARLOOPA (YouTube Channel)
ARLOOPA (Official Website)

Finally, the above examples have gone hand-in-hand with some creative uses of technology, but now here’s a fun low-tech take on Starry Night by YouTube sensation FlippyCat.

FlippyCat (YouTube Channel)
FlippyCat (Facebook Page)

Here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Leonardo Lately
Magical Paintings
Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about visual arts and media …

Musical Mischief

May 17, 2019September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Serendipity plays a hand in these posts — more often than not one post leads to another.

This is one of those times.

The last post about Furby Hacking left me itching to explore another Road Not Taken.

It turned out that Sam Battle’s odd creation, Furby Organ, led YouTube to suggest all sorts of other intriguing music related mischief to explore. So I took the bait and went surfing.

The first, most insistent suggestion that YouTube made was to take a look at Wintergatan’s unusual Rube Goldberg’esque extravaganza called the Marble Machine!

Wintergatan (YouTube Channel)
Wintergatan (Official Website)

Like many other music hackers, they posted numerous videos about how they did it on their YouTube Channel. That includes “How it Works” Part 1 and Part 2. You can also visit the retired Marble Machine at the Speelklok Museum in Utrecht.

Next YouTube incessantly suggested that videos from Animusic were worth a watch.

AnimusicLLC (YouTube Channel)

Right again!

Animusic also posted a video about making it on their YouTube Channel.

A little less predictable suggestion was a video about how Intel built a physical Pipe Dream demo for a conference. Take a look, but be aware that it’s not until the middle of the video that you can start to get the gist of the demo.

Steven Leibson (YouTube Channel)

Talk about Rube Goldberg’esque!

Next up was another video from Animusic with a distinctly different vibe.

Alexandre Dobruski (YouTube Channel)

A musician on YouTube calling himself SirGagarin just couldn’t resist posting his take on the genre using Hot Butter’s synth-pop instrumental Popcorn!

SirGagarin (YouTube Channel)

All of this couldn’t help but remind me of the Grand Daddy of all musical tech wizardry, Disney’s Fantasia.

In case you’ve never seen it, here’s a link to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene from Fantasia

Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Fantasia, Walt Disney Studios)

Of course, Fantasia has been re-imagined many times over the years, and modern digital wizardry has aided and abetted in adding a few honorable mentions to that pantheon.

For example, here is a 360° video of the LA Philharmonic playing the iconic opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, appropriately enough, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Be sure to stick with it and look around to get the full Fantasia effect.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

LA Phil (YouTube Channel)
LA Phil (Official Website)

Disney also produced a modern take on Fantasia entitled The Sorcerer’s Apprentice that had a fun scene featuring the hit song Secrets by One Republic.

It always struck me as a shame that no 360° version of that scene was ever made. Apparently I wasn’t alone. There are a couple of 360° fan videos by some school kids and a cover band that try to get the job done as best they can.

Perhaps One Republic felt the same way, too.

They never did a 360° video for Secrets, but later on they did make an enchanting 360° video of their hit song Kids. Here’s a link to that awesome video.

Kids 360 version (OneRepublic, YouTube)

It’s worth a watch, or even better, two. It so well done that it takes a few viewings to catch how much is going on in the scene.

Like all great musical tech wizards, they also did a “behind the scenes” and posted it on their YouTube Channel.

Now here’s another inductee into this informal “Musical Tech Wizard Hall of Fame” that’s evolving right here in this post.

If you watch television at all, then you’ve probably seen a commercial for the Elton John biopic Rocketman that’s being released May 30th. It’s timing coincides with his final world tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road that will include more than 300 shows across five continents.

What you may not know is that at the same time as he announced the tour, he also published a lovely 360° video that includes recreations of some of his most iconic performances. Here’s a link to that fun video.

Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Legacy – VR360 (Elton John, YouTube)

As you watch the video, you can’t help but wonder how it was made. The good news is that you don’t have to guess, because being the great music hacking wizard that he is, Elton John also posted a Making of Farewell Yellow Brick Road that explains the amazing amount of work that went into the clip.

While on the topic of tech wizards of the musical world, it would be remiss to not also include another leader of the pack.

Paul McCartney has never been one to shy away from cutting edge tech, so it’s no surprise that he was one of the first artists to publish a 360° video of a live concert — it was filmed during his historic final show at Candlestick Park. Sadly, that video is not available on YouTube, but a couple of his other forays into 360° video are on his Pure McCartney YouTube Channel.

Here’s one of them that’s an amusing experiment in multimedia and montage.

Paul McCartney ‘Dance Tonight (Pure McCartney, YouTube)

Finally, I can’t resist sharing my own little experiment in music related mischief.

Here’s my Music Heaven Toy World. Click on notes to learn about music.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Enjoy & Happy Weekend!

Find out more about music and technology …

Furby Hacking

May 10, 2019September 15, 2026 ~ mehopper

It’s odd how some toy fads come and go as one hit wonders while others seem to stick around and take on a life of their own. Of course, there’s no question that one of the oddest toys with the longest track record is Hasbro’s Furby.

Whether you’re a Furby lover or hater, you have to admit that they’ve got staying power. Perhaps it’s because they give the illusion that they do have a life of the their own, but personally I believe that it’s because of the wide variety of mischief that they can support.

Treating a Furby as a “starter” pet has a certain amount of charm. That’s probably why there’s a ridiculous number of Furby videos on YouTube that feature things like them talking to Siri and dancing Gangnam Style. It’s right up there with cat and dog videos.

However, if you’ve owned a Furby, then you know that the real fun doesn’t begin until you get two or more of the critters together. Then they really carry on. Here’s a party of 20 of them chattering away to each other.

Jared Bendis (YouTube Channel)
Jared Bendis (Official Website)

That trick will entertain kids for a bit, but it’s certainly not the main source of attraction.

That honor most certainly must go to the “hackability” of its personality. While parents may encourage their children to be responsible and take Care of Furby, their off spring are inevitably going to explore how to Turn Furby Evil.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Furby personalities, here’s a short demonstration of the difference between a good and bad Furby (complete with burps).

besttoysguide (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a commercial that plays on the idea.

FurbyOfficialUK (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a 360° video that shows that when you get a group of evil Furbies together, things can get really scary. It also shows that you can find a 360° video about almost anything as well as that there’s some very odd stuff on YouTube (as if you didn’t know that already).

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Max Deacon VR – Hella Rad Toys (YouTube Channel)

That video was actually about a game entitled Tattletail that takes the concept of evil Furbies to a whole ‘nother level.

Furbies Get Their Own Horror Game with Tattletail (David Gelmini, Dread Central)

Now if you think that this post is going to stop at someone hacking together a Furby coven, you’re wrong. There are far more extreme Furby hacks out there.

For example, one father and son duo took the concept quite literally, and this resulting “longish” video is surprisingly gruesome.

What’s Inside? (YouTube Channel)
What’s Inside? (Facebook Page)

Then there’s another guy who decided to transform his Furby into an Amazon Echo that he then dubbed Furlexa. The video of how he did it is shorter than the last one, it squeezes in a ton of Furby history, and it has a lot more details about Furby innards. Oh, and we also get to find out if Furby is flammable.

Howchoo (YouTube Channel)
Howchoo (Official Website)

Furlexa strikes me as sort of creepy in all sorts of ways, but here are instructions on how to make one if you’re into that sort of thing.

I turned a Furby into an Amazon Echo. Introducing: Furlexa

Finally, my award for best Furby hacker goes to an artist named Sam Battle that frames his work under the moniker Look Mum No Computer. He engages in a niche practice known as circuit bending to create things like a Furby Organ.

Here’s a feature video and article about his work by Dani Deahl from The Verge.

The Verge (YouTube Channel)
The Verge (Official Website)

Circuit bending: Hacking a Furby in the name of music (Dani Deahl, The Verge)

If you’re inspired to hack a Furby, or other toys, here are some links to get you started.

6 Amazing Terrifying Toys that have been Circuit Bent (Steve Aoki)
Intro to Circuit Bending (Joseph Thibodeau, Hack a Day)
Circuit Bending For Beginners (David Erik Nelson, Performer Magazine)
Simple Ways to Circuit Bend a Toy (Instructables)
How to Circuit Bend (WikiHow)

If you want to learn all about how Furbies came about and keep on succeeding, check out this neat article.

The History Of Furby, The Electronic Pet That Took The Late ’90s By Storm (Lucia Peters, Bustle)

Happy Furby Hacking!

Find out more about toys and robots…

Extreme Biking, Artfully!

April 12, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

This week I came across something that I thought was fairly unique.

There is a Scottish BMX rider by the name of Kriss Kyle that has elevated his extreme biking into an art. Here’s a video published by Red Bull that starts out with a brief introduction to the young man and then transitions into an artistic performance he calls Kaleidoscope. Stick with it — just when it gets a tad tedious, he introduces a new twist.

Red Bull (YouTube Channel)
Red Bull (Official Website)

The way I first found out about Kyle was by stumbling over this 2 minute featurette that is a “behind the scenes” 360° video about the making of Kaleidoscope. Among other things, he mentions that he had to take motion sickness pills to get through one of his stunts.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Red Bull (YouTube Channel)
Red Bull (Official Website)

As if Kaleidoscope wasn’t “artsy” enough, Kyle was later invited to do a demonstration of his riding inside of a new wing of the Tate Modern Museum. Here’s the museums explanation of the literal publicity stunt.

The Tate Modern Museum were launching a new gallery wing and wanted an exciting, immersive experience to help promote the launch. The agency brought Kriss Kyle, the legendary BMX rider on board to perform stunts through the gallery and showcase the space in a fast-moving 360° immersive experience. — Kriss Kyle@The Tate

Here’s the resulting 360° video that has a distinctly different vibe than Kaleidoscope.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

David Betteridge (YouTube Channel)
David Betteridge (Official Website)

Finally, Red Bull sponsored an even more extreme demonstration of Kyle’s talents with Dubai’s major landmarks as a backdrop.

Red Bull (YouTube Channel)
Red Bull (Official Website)

So, Kyle’s work is pretty unique, right?

Well, not so much as you might think.

It turns out that there’s another BMX rider with an artistic bent. His name is Danny MacAskill, his work is also sponsored by Red Bull, and his stunts also tend to fall under the category of “don’t try this at home.” Here’s a video of his entitled Imaginate that is a wonderful example of his creativity at work.

Red Bull (YouTube Channel)
Red Bull (Official Website)

MacAskill has also taken his art to great, adrenaline inducing heights. Here’s a video entitled The Ridge in which he returns to his native Isle of Skye to go on a breathtaking and death-defying ride along the Cuillin Ridgeline.

Cut Media (YouTube Channel)

It’s easy to see why Red Bull loves these guys!

You can watch a ton of other extreme riders on Red Bull’s web site dedicated to Moutainbiking (MTB) as well as their YouTube Channel.

If you happen to be a very adventurous rider, you might also enjoy this article.

Seven of the Scariest Mountain Bike Trails (James Smurthwaite, Mountain Bike Rider)

If you enjoy adventures with a side of adrenaline then check out these other posts …

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
NYC Highs
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about cycling, sports and the arts …

Super Sexy, Singing Mice

March 7, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

It’s not often that mice sneak into the news, but they do manage it from time to time.

One story that gotten a lot of attention is about how researchers created “super mice” by injecting nanoparticles into their eyes to give them “night vision.” Here are links to the stories about that research.

A Shot of Nanoparticles Lets Mice See in the Dark (MIT Technology Review)
Night-Vision ‘Super-Mice’ Created Using Light-Converting Nanoparticles (Matthew Warren, Nature)
Mammalian Near-Infrared Image Vision through Injectable and Self-Powered Retinal Nanoantennae (Yuqian Ma, et al., Cell)

In case you’re wondering what that would look like, here’s a link to a 360° video about how animals see the world that will give you a sense of it. The video concludes with segments on how rats see the world normally (2:32) and snakes see the world in the infrared (3:30).

How Animals See The World (BuzzFeedVideo, YouTube)

So that’s “interesting.”

Another story was a bit more entertaining. It involved a critter called Alston’s singing mouse. Here’s a link to a one minute introduction and an article about the talented little guys.

Singing Mice Perform Incredible Songs (Animal Wire, YouTube)
Interspecific Dominance Via Vocal Interactions Mediates Altitudinal Zonation in Neotropical Singing Mice (Bret Pasch, Benjamin M. Bolker and Steven M. Phelps, The American Natura)

In fact, these mice, and others, actually sing ultrasonic love songs. Here’s a link to a video and some articles about the talented, frisky little guys.

Male Mice Sing for Females (Slate, YouTube)
Male Mice Song Syntax Depends on Social Contexts and Influences Female Preferences (Jonathan Chabout1, Abhra Sarkar, David B. Dunson and Erich D. Jarvis, Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience)
Call of the Wild: The Male Mouse’s Adorable Ultrasonic Mating Songs (Jim Festante, Slate)

Adiposity Signals Predict Vocal Effort in Alston’s Singing Mice (Tracy T. Burkhard, Rebecca R. Westwick and Steven M. Phelps, Proceedings of the Royal Society B)

Awww, such sweet little fellas! 🙂

Finally, the most interesting news was about how studying the singing mouse’s serenades could lead to treatments for humans with communication disorders that are a result of things like stroke or autism. Here’s a link to a video and some articles about that research.

Singing Mouse Study Shows How Brains Achieve Conversation (NYU Langone Health, YouTube)
Singing Mice Could Offer Clues About How Human Brains Manage Conversation (Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica)
These Mice Sing Their Little Hearts Out — and That’s Good for Neuroscience (Jessica Boddy, Popular Science)
This Singing Mouse’s Brain Could Reveal Keys to Snappy Conversation (Kelly Servick, Science Magazine)
Motor Cortical Control of Vocal Interaction in Neotropical Singing Mice (Daniel E. Okobi Jr., et al., Science Magazine)

So that’s neat stuff, but if you’re sad because you thought this was going to be about a mouse actually singing a song, with words, here’s a link to a clip from Sing to help you feel better.

Sing – Singing Mouse Scene (Fandango Family, YouTube)

Find out more awesome things about mice, music and communication in general…

Palessi Shoes

December 3, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Payless pulled off quite a stunt!

They set up a fake “luxury” store dubbed “Palessi” and filled it with their $20-$40 footwear. Then they invited so called “influencers” to a clever party, and the invitees actually ended up paying up to $600 for the Palessi shoes.

Here’s a link to an ABC News YouTube video and news story about the “prank.”

Payless Opens Fake Luxury Shoe Store as Prank (ABC News)
How Payless Tricked Influencers Into Paying $600+ for Their $20 Shoes (Holly Rhue, Elle)

Here’s a link to a Payless commercial that explains the prank.

The Payless Experiment (Payless YouTube)

Of course, it’s shoe haute couture that was being lampooned in the ad. Yes, some people really do pay many hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for shoes.

Here’s a video tutorial and article for those of you that are unfamiliar with brands like Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik that are featured at places like Neiman Marcus and shows like Sex and the City.

AllTop Ten (YouTube Channel)

Top 25 Most Expensive Shoes in the World (Beautiful Life)

Lest you think it’s just those of the feminine persuasion who fall prey to expensive shoe fetishes, here’s an article that covers the masculine side of the isle as well.

Top 10 Most Expensive Shoe Brands of 2024: From Gucci to Stuart Weitzman (Finances Online)

So, you may wonder, why are such shoes so outrageously expensive?

Here is a link to a short featurette thta covers some reasons why Christian Louboutins start at more than $600 and can cost more than five grand.

Why Louboutin Shoes Are So Expensive (Business Insider, YouTube)

Here’s a link to 360° video by the British Fashion Council with Manolo Blahnik explaining his artistic design process.

Join Master Shoemaker Manolo Blahnik in Virtual Reality

Finally, here’s a link to a fun video of Consumer Reports slaughtering a Manolo Blahnik.

Cutting up Manolo Blahnik Shoes (Consumer Reports)

Here’s a link to their research and results.

Are Manolo Blahniks Worth the Money? (Consumer Reports)

Short story, yes , they are better constructed, and perhaps more fashionable, but not necessarily more comfortable.

No shocker there 🙂

Find out more about fashion and commerce …

Creepy Old Bots

October 26, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Before there were robots, there were automata.

Automata are old-fashioned robot like contraptions, and they tend to make the news from time to time.

The latest example is a 360° video featurette from the BBC about The House of Automata. Here’s a link to that video.

The Strange Dolls That Come to Life (BBC Global)

Personally, I find the creatures like the ones in that video a bit creepy.

It turns out that I’m not alone. Here’s a whole video about creepy automatons.

Slapped Ham (YouTube Channel)

The thing I find even creepier than the bots in the video is what people paid for them!

It must be an acquired taste.

While many automata of a certain age tend to be kind of creepy, some aren’t so bad. In fact, they come in all shapes and sizes, and some of them can be quite pretty as well as fascinating.

A great place to see that as well as to learn about automata is at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ. That’s because Murtogh Guinness, of Guinness beer fame, was an avid collector of automata and their close relatives, mechanical musical instruments. He left his entire collection of more than 700 gadgets to the Mooris Museum.

Here’s a video and link about that motherload of automata.

The Midnight Archive (YouTube Channel)
The Midnight Archive (Official Website)

Musical Machines & Living Dolls: Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata from the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection (Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ)

Here’s a link to the history of Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s lovely artists mentioned in the video.

Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s Writer, Lady Musician and Draftsman (History of Computers)

While it doesn’t always make the news, there is a surprisingly large community of fans of both old and new automata. There’s even a yearly AutomataCon at the Morris Museum.

Find out more about automata and bots in general …

Magical Paintings

October 19, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Two earlier posts on Cosma entitled Walk-in-Art and Art Revisited covered a trend for new immersive 360°/3D/VR technologies to be used to revisit and add new dimensions, literally, to classic art masterpieces. Some examples covered in those posts included three-dimensional reimaginings of van Gogh’s Starry Night, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium explicating Bruegel’s A fall with the Rebel Angels and the Salvador Dalí Museum’s experience entitled Dreams of Dalí: A Virtual Reality Experience that allowed visitors to use a VR headset to step into Dalí’s painting entitled Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus..

Now there’s a new, fantastical twist on reimagining classic paintings on the block.

Remember those nifty magical paintings in Harry Potter where the people in the paintings move around, interact with people in other paintings as well as people in the real world? (Muggles’ Guide to Harry Potter)

Well I’ve just stumbled across a 360° video that takes the concept to a whole nother level. There’s nothing else to say that doesn’t spoil the fun, so just watch and be sure to look around!

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

SoKrispyMedia (YouTube Channel)
SoKrispyMedia (Official Website)

That’s just awesome I had to share it!!!

Here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Leonardo Lately
Into Van Gogh
Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art 😉

Find out more about the visual arts …

Rock n’ roll, Noise Pollution?

July 15, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Is rock and roll noise pollution?

If you are a rock and roll fan, then you probably know that this is a question that AC/DC famously weighed in on in their song Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution (YouTube).

If you are a language or communication expert, rock and roll fan or not, you probably have a bit more nuanced response that might begin with the phrase “it depends” and end up including words like perspective and context.

But what do lady bugs think?

Your answer might be who knows … or cares?

Well, it turns out that somebody tried to find out, and the answer is surprisingly relevant as well as entertaining.

b/60 (YouTube Channel)
b/60 (Facebook Page)

Here are links to the Newsweek story and the journal article mentioned in the video.

Loud Rock Music Like AC/DC Can Hurt Animals, Ecosystem but Willie Nelson Has No Effect, Study Says (Scottie Andrew, Newsweek)
Population‐Level Manipulations of Field Vole Densities Induce Subsequent Changes in Plant Quality But No Impacts on Vole Demography (Lise RuffinoSusan E. HartleyJane L. DeGabrielXavier Lambin, Evolution and Ecology)

Personally, I found it funny that they singled out Willie Nelson as representative of the “not rock and roll” condition. I also couldn’t help but wonder if the ladybugs were just too busy dancing to eat 🙂

Seriously though, the study was actually about an important issue. There really is such a thing as noise pollution, and in some cases, it can be harmful to animals (including us). Here’s a link to an informative video about the impact of noise on humans.

Noise Pollution Is Much Worse For You Than You Think (Tech Insider, YouTube)

It isn’t just us humans and other land animals that have a problem with noise. It’s a problem for animals in the ocean, too.

Scripps News (YouTube Channel)
Scripps News (Official Website)

So, that study about ladybugs opinions on rock and roll had a point, albeit an odd one.

However, I’m still not convinced that rock and roll is noise pollution. I lean towards siding with AC/DC on this one, although I must confess to being more on the same page as Joan Jett.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (YouTube Channel)
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (Official Website)

I even tried to find a 360° video of her or someone else performing I Love Rock N’ Roll.

I had no luck, but I did trip over one of Cheap Trick performing at their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Enjoy, or not, as you see fit 😉

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

HBO (YouTube Channel)
HBO Max (Official Website)

Find out more about music and noise …

Exoplanet Junket

June 2, 2018March 13, 2024 ~ mehopper

This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau.

The core of the project consists of a set of interactive 360° images that show “imagined” surfaces of five exoplanets (TRAPPIST-1e, Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, PSO J318.5-22 and HD 40307 g). Here are three articles about the experience.

This Brilliant Interactive From NASA Lets You Virtually Explore Planets Far, Far Away (Jacinta Bowler, Science Alert)
Visit Exotic Exoplanets with NASA Visualization Tool (Mike Wall, Space.com)
NASA’s New VR Demo Puts You on Distant Exoplanets (Ryan Whitwam, Extreme Tech)

NASA’s new experience includes a feature that let’s you download snazzy travel posters for each of the planets, and those posters have a backstory of their own. Here’s a Buzz 60 story about three of the posters in the new project.

Buzz60 (YouTube Channel)
Buzz60 (Facebook Page)

Here’s a Slate article with some more background on the Work Projects Administration (WPA) See America poster series that inspired the style of NASA’s travel posters.

See America Through a Nostalgic Lens With These Neo-Vintage Travel Posters (Kristin Hohenadel, Slate)

This isn’t the first time that NASA has dabbled in publishing travel posters. The three exoplanet posters featured in the video are actually a subset of fifteen posters that NASA released in 2016 as a series entitled Visions of the Future.

Here are some links about the posters and where you can still download them for yourself.
Exotic Cosmic Locales Available as Space Tourism Posters (NASA/JPL)
Space Tourism Posters (NASA)
Visions of the Future Posters (NASA/JPL)

NASA also published this special page about the inspiration for the posters.
About Visions of the Future Posters (NASA/JPL)

Of course, the timing of the release of the Exoplanet Travel Bureau is no coincidence — it’s neatly timed to coincide with last month’s launch of NASA’s planet hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Here’s a short one minute explanation from NASA Goddard about what TESS will be doing.

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Find out more about planetary systems and planets near and far …

Méliès Doodled!

May 4, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

You’re almost certainly familiar with Google’s Doodles. They’re an excellent, entertaining way to spend some time learning something new, in passing, every day. They also almost always point to some little known, but interesting backstory. Today’s Doodle is a particularly beautiful example of that. It celebrates Georges Méliès, and it is special for many reasons.

One reason is that it’s Google’s first Doodle that’s a 360° video. Here is a link to see it.

360 Google Doodles/Spotlight Stories Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight Stories, YouTube)

If you’re reading this after the Doodle’s gone, then check out the archived version of Celebrating Georges Méliès. As always, it looks better if you increase the video quality to the highest level that your viewing device will support, and you might need to watch it a few times through to catch all of the action and detail.

The video is fun on its own, but it is guaranteed to send cinema history buffs over the moon. If you don’t happen to be a cinema history buff, then it will take a bit of explaining to help you see why the Doodle is SO awesome. However, I’ll confess that, having taught cinema history at MIT and then other places in Boston over the years, it’s hard to know where to begin. It could easily be a semester long course, but here’s the shortest version I can manage.

The best place to start is with explaining why Georges Méliès was so special. Here’s a mini-documentary I use to introduce him. It’s kind of hokey, but it gets the job done.

DYnazty (YouTube Channel)

If you happen to have seen Scorsese’s Hugo, then you’re already way ahead. That movie was a tribute to cinema history in general as well as Méliès specifically. Here’s a review by that explains the myriad of ways that is true.

Jack’s Movie Reviews (YouTube Channel)
Jack’s Movie Reviews (Twitter)

By the way, here’s Hugo’s fantastic introduction to cinema history.

TheAOL102 (YouTube Channel)

It can’t be done any better than that! Now that you’re up to speed on Méliès and his role in cinema history, here’s a link to a “behind the scenes” look at how the Google’s Doodle, Spotlight Stories and Arts & Culture Teams collaborated with Cinémathèque Française (Wikipedia).

Behind the Scenes Back to the Moon (Google Spotlight Stories, YouTube)

This isn’t the first time that Google collaborated with Cinémathèque Française to create a 360° video celebrating Méliès and his role in cinema. Here’s a link to a video where the Google Arts & Culture Team also worked with them to create a piece entitled Kinoscope.

Kinoscope – A Virtual Reality Journey into the World of Cinema (Google Arts & Culture, YouTube)

The video was created in conjunction with the exhibit The Cinema Machine: from Méliès to 3D that ran at Cinémathèque Française. The show is no longer there, but here’s a nice review.

Critic’s Notebook: Exploring the Nuts and Bolts of Filmmaking at the Cinematheque Francaise (Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter)

You can also see Cinémathèque’s Collection on Google Arts & Culture.

Finally, as a bonus, here’s another interesting 360° video clip I stumbled across that shows the history of VR in movies in a VResque format.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Raging Cinema (YouTube Channel)

Find out more about cinema and art in general …

Dogs at Museums

March 26, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Dogs and museums are things that you don’t expect to see in the same sentence very often. However, if you live in the Boston area, then you might have seen them together in the cute story covered by most local media about Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts “hiring” a 12 week old Weimaraner puppy named Riley to protect their collections from unwanted visitors. Here’s a clip from the local CBS News channel and their news story about the little guy.

CBS Boston (YouTube Channel)
CBS Boston (Official Website)

Museum Of Fine Arts Welcomes New Pest Detection Dog (CBS Boston)

So, dogs and museums aren’t as incongruous as they may seem at first.

In fact, there’s also a Museum of the Dog in St. Louis, MO backed by the American Kennel Club. Here’s a local news clip about that museum.

Nine PBS (YouTube Channel)
Nine PBS (Official Website)

Last year the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis also hosted an exhibit entitled Dogs: Faithful and True. Here’s a clip from the local news channel about it.

WRTV Indianapolis (YouTube Channel)
WRTV Indianapolis (Official Website)

Here’s a longer, more in depth piece made in connection with the exhibit that features a chat with a musher from the Iditarod.

Pet Pals TV (YouTube Channel)
Pet Pals TV (Official Website)

The Smithsonian even has a whole page dedicated to dogs entitled Dog: Museum’s Best Friend. So dogs and museums aren’t incongruous, and this is all even fairly down to Earth stuff as far as the conservative world of traditional museums go.

A bit further off the beaten path was a contemporary art show that premiered in London in 2016 that featured interactive sculptures by Dominic Wilcox as well as wall based paintings, drawings and collages that dogs would appreciate. The paintings were even created in colours dogs can see and scented in the subject matter of the art work.

Onlooker (YouTube Channel)

The literary minded geeks might also be itching to thrust their hands into the air. Yes indeed, there is a quirky novel by Jonathan Carroll entitled Outside the Dog Museum.

Of course, the less intellectually inclined readers amongst you are probably disappointed because this post hasn’t been about what you thought it was going to be about. You thought it was going to be about C.M. Coolidge’s series Dogs Playing Poker colloquially known as Dogs at Cards, didn’t you?

Don’t fret — here are a few morsels for you 🙂

HighRollerRadioTV (YouTube Channel)

15 Things You Should Know About Dogs Playing Poker (Kristy Puchko, Mental Floss)

Find out more about dogs, museums and, of course, just a tad o’ humor 😉

The Beach

February 14, 2018February 7, 2024 ~ mehopper

One long term goal of Cosma is to include an entertaining, interactive and immersive 3D Interface. There are already “demos” of what that might look like, but none of the available technologies are ideal, so there is no full implementation of the vision (yet).

The most recent demo is a fun little Toy World that started out as an experiment in using a 360° image as a “previs” tool for a full implementation in Unity3D.

Click on objects to find out about them.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Stay tuned for more fun experiments soon!

Find out more on the Worlds and Worlds Challenge pages …

See also Beach, Lighthouse and Sandcastle

Space Art & Junk

January 30, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

In certain circles it is not uncommon to trip across the debate “Is graffiti art?” You can also find scads about it online if you are so inclined (Google). However, the debate doesn’t come up all that often in the context of conversations about satellites or space… until now.

In 2018 a company named Rocket Lab launched some previously announced satellites from New Zealand. They also launched an unannounced satellite, and more notably, one with no explicit scientific or technical purpose. That satellite was The Humanity Star, and it was a carbon fiber geodesic sphere about 3 feet in diameter that is designed to reflect the sun in order to be one of the most visible objects in the night sky from anywhere on Earth for about nine months. Here’s an article about the satellite, its sponsor, Rocket Lab’s CEO Peter Beck, as well as the message that it is intended to convey.

Space-Spotting: How To See Humanity Star and Other Objects in Orbit (Lisa Ruth Rand, Popular Mechanics)

The satellite was intended to be a relatively short-lived statement of inspiration, but it created quite a stir. Here’s a link to a one minute video about the satellite, its creator and the controversy surrounding the whole enterprise.

Rocket Lab NZ Blasted for Sending Giant Disco Ball into Space for No Real Scientific Purpose (1 News, YouTube)

The story behind the controversy is that Caleb A. Scharf, Director of Astrobiology at Columbia, published this scathing rant about the satellite via Scientific American.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Satellite Vermin (Caleb A. Scharf, Scientific American)

Scharf’s post was picked up and echoed by other news outlets. Here are some examples.

Space Gets an Artificial Star. Astronomers Ask: Do We Need More? (Christina Caron, New York Times)
Company Shoots Shiny Orb into Orbit and Angers Astronomers Over Space Graffiti. (Ben Guarino, Washtington Post)

The truth is that if you dig deep enough, there was probably more controversy about this than was warrented. First, while “light pollution” is a serious issue (worthy of an entire post), this particular case of it is a temporary and spurious scapegoat. The same is true about the accusation that it is contributing to the problem of “space junk” since this modest little missionary was designed to follow modern protocols for such things and plunge to its own pre-calculated death upon the conclusion of its short life.

Interestingly, while the satellite probably didn’t deserve the bum rap it got, it did end up serving a higher purpose. It brought attention to the serious, real problem of the massive amount of “space junk” that’s floating around our planet now and the bevy of stuff that is likely to join the ruckus in the near future.

Here’s a two minute visualization generated by Stuart Grey using tracking data from Space-Track.org that shows how space debris has propagated over the last half century.

Stuart Grey (YouTube Channel)
Stuart Grey (Official Website)

Of course, the problem of “space junk” in not a new and shiny problem. It has been a growing concern in scientific and engineering circles for decades. Here’s a link to a PSA from the ESA about it.

Dealing with space debris (ESA, YouTube)

Here’s a link to a related segment from the BBC.

Time to Take Out Space Trash (BBC Newsnight, YouTube)

Here’s a link to a fantastic article from the Washington Post that also provides more specifics about controversial subjects like “collisional cascading impacts” a.k.a. Kessler Syndrome (Wikipedia) and the CubeSats that are especially worrying to some space scientists and engineers.

Thousands of Tiny Satellites are about to go into Space and Possibly Ruin it Forever (Avi Selk, Washington Post)

If you are so inclined, you can track objects yourself at SATFLARE: Online Satellite and Flare Tracking. Space.com also maintains a site where you can track the Latest News About Space Junk and Orbital Debris.

If you think satellites are cool in general, then you might want to check out an app that Google Earth and Analytic Graphics Inc. made to track the positions of satellites around Earth. You can find out about the app on this blog post.

There’s even a whole site dedicated to Satellite News!

Finally, if you want to learn more about space and space travel, explore Space Depot!

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

You can also choose your own adventure by clicking on the links below.

“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon

Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid

Find out more about getting to space, uses for satellites, space and arts in general…

Leonardo Lately

October 22, 2017September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Leonardo da Vinci sure gets press for a gentleman who hasn’t been around for five centuries! That’s not to say that it’s not well deserved. Here’s a brief video that gives just a glimpse of why he was such an amazing guy.

Past Vault (YouTube Channel)

The Smile

Of course, one perennial reason for Leonardo’s popularity is the never ending fascination with how he achieved Mona Lisa’s smile. This video is about just one study about it.

Newsy Entertainment (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a link to a video that further explains the fantastic techniques that Leonardo used to create the illusions that make the painting so enigmatic.

How Leonardo Da Vinci Augmented Reality More Than 500 Years Ago (The Atlantic)

Unfortunately, it’s hard for an average person to actually experience the effect for themselves. In case you’ve never been to the Louvre and tried to see the original, here’s a 360° Video that will give you a sense of what you will probably encounter (skip to 2 minutes into video).

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

360 Vacation VR (YouTube Channel)

The Genius

One of the above videos was made to accompany a story by Walter Isaacson about Leonardo da Vinci in the The Atlantic, and that story is a sample of the book Leonardo da Vinci that Isaacson has just added to his pantheon of biographies about geniuses (Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs).

Here’s an inspiring 2 minute video where Isaacson talks about Leonardo’s creativity.

New Scientist (YouTube Channel)
New Scientist (Official Website)

Here’s a link to another video where Isaacson discusses the book.

Walter Isaacson on Accessible Genius of Leonardo da Vinci (CBS, YouTube)

The Auction

It is probably no coincidence that Isaacson’s book was timed to coincide with the auction of Leonardo’s last painting in private hands — the Salvator Mundi was auctioned at Christie’s.

Associated Press (YouTube Channel)
Associated Press (Official Website)

Here’s a link to a video from Christie’s that explains the importance of the painting.

In truth, though, the authenticity of the painting still remains controversial in some circles.

Mystery over Christ’s orb in $100m Leonardo da Vinci painting (Dalya Alberge, The Guardian)

The painting ended up going to Saudi Arabian Prince Badr bin Abdullah, and the Wikipedia page about it keeps tabs on its whereabouts and exhibition status.

The Movie

Good news — Leonardo as Leonardo may be coming to a screen near you! Leonardo DiCaprio, who is named after da Vinci, is going to be starring in a movie about his namesake, and it will be based upon Isaacson’s book.

Here’s a link to a story about about the project.

The Role Leonardo DiCaprio Was Literally Born to Play (Yohana Desta, Vanity Fair)

Given what Leonardo da Vinci himself documented about his own exotic exploits, well, that should be “interesting” — it would be hard to be boring. Okay, it has the potential to be pretty gruesome, but fascinating nonetheless.

If you want to know about Leonardo da Vinci, but can’t wait for the movie, here’s a link to an older documentary.

Leonardo’s Universe (National Geographic, YouTube)

You can also find out a ton more about Leonardo on The History Channel and Wikipedia.

Find out more about the time I met Walter Isaacson at Harvard…

Finally, here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Magical Paintings
Into Van Gogh
Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about the arts and history…

Up, Up and Away

August 31, 2017September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Want to take a ten minute break and float away from it all?

Here are some nifty 360° videos that will take you on some virtual hot air balloons rides!

This first clip is from the The Golden Ring of Russia Air Balloon Festival.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano VR (Official Website)

The next one is a one minute view of a ride in Cappadocia, Turkey.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

VIEMR – Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality (YouTube Channel)

This one takes you on a quick ride over the Theban Mountains in Egypt.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Vocativ (YouTube Channel)
Vocativ (Official Website)

If you’re hooked, there a ton more hot air balloon 360° videos …

Finally, for those who are too young to know or too old to remember, here’s a fifty year old pre-MTV flashback by the The 5th Dimension singing the song that inspired the title of this post.

Groovy!

If you like this adventures then perhaps you will enjoy these other posts …

Heights!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
NYC Highs
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about getting around by air, adventure and the World in general …

Dive-in-Art

July 11, 2017September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Check out this video from the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival.

FloridaKeysTV (YouTube Channel)
FloridaKeysTV (Official Website)

There are a ton of YouTube videos about the annual fest, and here’s an article about it.

Watch An Underwater Music Festival ‘Make Waves’ for Reef Protection (Florida Keys News Bureau)

You might think that this event is fairly unique, but it turns out that there are lots of divers who are also fans of the arts, so “arts under the sea” is not nearly as rare as you might think. For example, underwater art museums are thriving. Here’s an article about where you can find your nearest “dive-in” art museum.

Underwater Museums of the world: Immerse Yourself in Art in the Depths of the Sea (Ukranian Shipping Magazine)

Here is a video about the Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA) mentioned in the article.

Dmitriy (YouTube Channel)

There are even some artists who are specifically known for exhibiting underwater. The photographer Andreas Franke once made news by staging an art exhibit on the Vandenberg battleship that was deliberately sunk off the coast of Key West to create the second largest man made reef on the planet (watch the Vanderberg sink). Here’s a 360° video of the exhibit.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Subsurface Media (YouTube Channel)

The pictures from the exhibit were brought up to create a landlubber’s exhibit. Franke moved on to create an exhibit on the SS Stavronikita off of Barbados, and then he went on to create another exhibit on the USS Mohawk CGC off the coast of Sanibel Island.

Barbados Property Search (YouTube Channel)

Ghostly Underwater Art Gallery Breathes New Life to Sunken Ship (Sheena McKenzie, CNN)

Jason deCaires Taylor is another artist who is known for his underwater work, but he specializes in sculpture rather than photography. Here’s a TED talk where Taylor provides insights about what motivates his work.

TED (YouTube Channel)
TED (Official Website)

The eclectic multimedia artist Doug Aitken worked with LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art to construct a large-scale underwater installation entitled Underwater Pavilions off of Catalina Island. Here’s an official video from MOCA about the work.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (YouTube Channel)
The Museum of Contemporary Art (Official Website)

Here’s a cool 360° video that gives a great sense of what it’s like to visit the exhibit.
Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Superswell VR (YouTube Channel)

The current that tends to run through all of the underwater artist’s work is the appreciation and preservation of the Earth’s ocean environments, so please share this to support their work!

Here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Leonardo Lately
Magical Paintings
Into Van Gogh
Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about the arts and the ocean …

Art Revisited

January 15, 2017September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Artists have revisited, reinterpreted, and in more recent terminology, “remixed” earlier artist’s work for as long as there has been art. Happily, this trend is alive and well, and new immersive 360°/3D/VR technologies are being used to revisit and add new dimensions, literally, to classic art masterpieces.

Here’s a link to an earlier post where I showed how artists experimented with allowing viewers to experience entering van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Walk-in-Art

The latest example of this type of thing to cross my screen is this YouTube 360° video from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium explicating Bruegel’s A fall with the Rebel Angels.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (YouTube Channel)
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Official Website)

Great stuff, and it is in good company. There is a growing list of examples of famous works being reinterpreted in creative new ways. For example, last year the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (FL) held an exhibit entitled Disney and Dalí: Architects of the Imagination.

That exhibit featured an experience entitled Dreams of Dalí: A Virtual Reality Experience that allowed visitors to use a VR headset to step into Dali’s painting Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s “Angelus.” Here is a video and article about the VR experience.

CNET (YouTube Channel)
CNET (Facebook Page)

Explore a Salvador Dalí Masterpiece in Virtual Reality (Lulu Chang, Digital Trends)

This video is a preview of just the Dreams of Dalí VR experience.

Goodby Silverstein (YouTube Channel)
Goodby Silverstein (Official Website)

Finally, and most importantly, here is the 360° video of Dreams of Dalí.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

The Dalí Museum (YouTube Channel)
The Dalí Museum (Official Website)

While it is probably going too far to say that “remixing art” using various three-dimensional techniques is a “killer app” for new immersive 360°/3D/VR technologies, it is at least an interesting trend to celebrate.

Finally, here’s my own little fun 360° experiment with “walk-in-art” that I made as part of a series of Toy Worlds for Cosma. Click on paintings to walk into them!

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Find out more about the visual arts and media …

Walk-in-Art

October 29, 2016September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

New media artists tend to revisit and reinterpret earlier artist’s work, sometimes intentionally and with attribution, and other times not so much. Either way, it’s interesting to compare (re)implementations. For example, here’s a 360° video I just tripped across that experiments with the idea of allowing the viewer to “walk-in” van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Motion Magic (YouTube Channel)

It is interesting to contrast that video with a relatively well known work made ten years ago by Robbie Dingo. He used SecondLife to “build” the painting, and then he filmed it.

Share Festival (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a post about the artist’s post about the video written back in 2007.

Watch the World(s) (Robbie Dingo, Digital Double)

Both works are engaging, and the fact that the newer artist also chose van Gogh’s Starry Night, with or without awareness of Dingo’s earlier SecondLife work, creates an interesting contrast.

Find out more about the visual arts and media …