Fat Bear Award?

September 24, 2025September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I just read this fun story on CNN!

Fat Bear Week 2025 is the Distraction Everybody Needs (Lilit Marcus, CNN)

I couldn’t help but click on it because I was curious, and I did need some distraction.

So, there is a “Fat Bear Award” and it is pretty well known.

It even has a Wikipedia page. Here’s a quote from it.

Fat Bear Week is an annual event held in late September or early October by Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, commemorating the seasonal preparations made by Alaska peninsula brown bears inhabiting Katmai as they ready themselves for their winter hibernation. The competition is organized by the National Park Service and Explore.org. Spectators from around the world are invited to cast online votes to determine the bear that has most effectively accumulated fat reserves. — Wikipedia

If you want to watch Fat Bear Week voting unfold, here’s a link to the website.

Fat Bear Week (Explore.org, Official Website)

If you need more distraction, then watch Explore.org’s Live Cams. You can also check out Explore.org’s YouTube Channel that has Live Streams and a bunch of Videos.

Of course, I did 🙂

Then I went looking for 360° videos of the bears on YouTube.

Here’s a link to one that I think might be of bears at Katmai, but I’m not certain.

Swimming With Bears (National Geographic, YouTube 360° Video)

Of course, I couldn’t help but watch this video, even if it isn’t from Katmai.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Wildlife Protection Solutions (YouTube Channel)
Wildlife Protection Solutions (Official Website)

So, that’s was a LOT of distraction!

However, if you still need even more, check out Critter’s Hollow.

Yes, if you look around, there’s a bear!

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Enjoy & Happy Fat Bear Week!

Find out more about bears and animals in general …

Corn Mazed!

September 10, 2025October 31, 2025 ~ mehopper ~ 1 Comment

Step into my latest Web World!

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring.

You can also see it on Kuula.

Backstory

I’ve made a LOT of Web Worlds over the last few years. You can see them here.

They are fun to make and use, but the navigation is fairly simplistic.

However, I know better things are possible.¹

Last week I decided to figure out how to make more complex “Myst-like” creations.

The process of learning and practicing the new techniques was a tad tedious.

So, I took a break, and my September is Corny post was the dubious result.

What I failed to mention in the post was just how lost I got in corn mazes.

It was ludicrous — it turned into way more than the tiny break it was supposed to be!

Dr. Mary’s Handy Dandy Guide to Corn Mazes below was the result.

Then along the way I happened to Google “How to Make a Corn Maze.”

I REALLY got lost in that, and then, lo and behold, it hit me.

Making a corn maze would be an excellent way to practice my newly minted technical skills!

Voilà, my new Corn Maze above was the result.

As for how long it will take you to explore it, no worries.

It is tiny — it isn’t even the size of a city block.

It will probably only take you a few minutes to finish.

Only time will tell how much larger my future Web Worlds will get, though 😉

I have made some fairly extensive “Knowledge Places” in the past (e.g. Knowledge Paradise).

Enjoy!

Dr. Mary’s Handy Dandy Guide to Corn Mazes

Inspiration

Life Lessons in a Corn Maze (Kelsey Luing, Boston.com)

Guide

Pro Tips: How Not to Get Lost in a Corn Maze (Kelsey Luing, Boston.com)

Here some links to help you find a corn maze near you.

Corn Mazes in Massachusetts (Boston Central)
Which corn maze is the best? Vote now! (USA Today)

1. The owl and the end of the maze is my homage to the mascot of the 3D MIT’s Athena/Muse software and associated applications which I studied during my doctoral research and also worked on as an MIT employee in the 1990s.

September is Corny!

September 5, 2025September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Have you ever noticed that most months tend to be associated with certain adjectives.

October is spooky, December is festive, and so on …

I think of September as corny!

One obvious reason for this is because it’s when corn is harvested and readily available.

Another reason is because September is usually the month of the Corn Moon — this year it’s September 7th (this Sunday).

Here’s a story about it.

Full Corn Moon & Harvest Moon in September (Anne Buckle & Vigdis Hocken, Time & Date)

This Corn Moon is special because it is going to coincide with a lunar eclipse (Blood Moon).

Here is a video and a link to a story about the phenomena.

Moon Phase (YouTube Channel)

The Full ‘Corn Moon’ Rises This Week — Bringing a ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse to Most of the World (Jamie Carter, Live Science)

It isn’t going to be visible in the US, but some of you are in places where it will be a sight to see.

September is also when I tend to notice stories about corn mazes popping up in the news.

Here’s one recent example from my local news.

Mass Appeal: Ward’s Berry Farm Sunflower Maze (Polikseni Manxhari & Amaka Ubaka, 7 News Boston)

Here’s a brief 360° video by Bryan Ensign that will give you a sense of what it is like to visit one.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Bryan Ensign (YouTube Channel)

Here some links to help you find a corn maze near you.

Corn Mazes in Massachusetts (Boston Central)
Which corn maze is the best? Vote now! (USA Today)

If all this talk about corn made you crave some, here’s a link to plenty of “corny” recipes.

43 Corn Recipes You’ll Make All Summer Long (Food Network Kitchen)

Finally, here is a link that’s somewhat obligatory at this point.

35 September Jokes To Remember (Carissa Soh, Little Day Out)

So you see, September is corny … or maybe it’s just me that is 😉

Have a great September!

Find out more about the Calendar …

Beach Bum’s Magic Game Room

July 30, 2025August 19, 2026 ~ mehopper

‘Tis the season for games!

At least it is for me, because I update my “fun” pages every year around this time.

Of course, the game page is the most fun to do.

While I was doing research for upgrading the history section of the page, I stumbled upon this awesome article published in 1972 that has a ton of neat history about the game Spacewar and a lot of other “computing” related things as well.

Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums (Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone)

I loved the word “bum” in the title of the article so much, I decided to use it in the title of this new “Web World” that I made to showcase some neat interactive “game” related experiences.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring

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

Enjoy!

Find out more about the games …

Find YOUR Cool Museum!

June 25, 2025June 25, 2025 ~ mehopper

It’s officially summer, and baby it’s HOT outside!

Hot Outside

Stories like this are everywhere.

A Potent Heat Dome is Building Over the US, Sending Temperatures into the Triple Digits (Luke Snyder and Mary Gilbert, CNN)

Thus there are also many stories like this one about how to stay cool.

Here are 7 Fun Ways to Beat the Heat this Summer (Kelly Chan, Boston.com)

I was surprised to see that the above story didn’t mention museums, though.

Of course, I’m probably biased about this because I just updated my New Media Museum’s guide to learning about media and computing in the Boston area (NMM@Boston).

Media & Perception
Harvard’s Mark I & Hopper
MIT’s Whirlwind & Forrester
Artificial Intelligence & Robots
Logo & LEGO
Games & Immersion
Micro Center & MIT Flea

Not everybody is going to want to geek out to my guide.

Most folks are likely to opt for well-known museums like those in this article.

12 Boston Museums Everyone Should Visit at Least Once (Kristi Palma, Boston.com)

There’s actually a whole website devoted to the Museums of Boston.

If you’re further afield, here’s a website for finding somewhere to enjoy cooling off.

Museums & Galleries in New England (Visit New England)

Finally, if you’re nowhere near Boston, then there’s a site for you, too.

The 51 Best Museums in the United States (Condé Nast Traveler)

If you’re lucky, you may even have get free admission if you are a member of a museum in the North American Reciprocal Museum Association.

“The North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association® network is a mosaic of 1,470 art museums and galleries, historical museums and societies, botanical gardens, children’s museums, zoos, and more. When you sign up with your favorite participating NARM institution, you can receive reciprocal membership benefits across the United States, Bermuda, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.”

My membership to Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) includes it. If you have a museum membership, it’s worth checking.

Perhaps you’re feeling adventurous and want to try a museum that’s a bit off the beaten path, but is specific to your interests.

For example, if you’re into sports, there’s a Sports Museum located in Boston’s TD Garden (which is above where I catch the commuter rail).

In fact, there are other sports museums here in this state.

Sports Museums in Massachusetts (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism)

There are also hundreds of them around the country. You can find them here.

Sports Museums in the US (Museums.US)

Museums.US is a great place to find all sorts of museums.

Here’s a page with links to well over a hundred categories.

Museums in the US (Museums.US)

Although, I couldn’t help noticing that “illusions” wasn’t a category on the list.

This means that you wouldn’t find some of the experiences described in this post.

Perception, Illusions & Holograms@Boston (New Media Museum)

One of the experiences covered in the post is the Museum of Illusions, Boston.

It has illusions galore, and many of them are mind-bending!

This museum displays a variety of well-known optical illusions.

Example Exhibits, Museum of Illusions, Boston

It also has many more elaborate exhibits such as an Ames Room.

Ames Room, Museum of Illusions, Boston

If you’re not in Boston, there are plenty of other neat museums out there.

Here’s a story about some of them.

10 of the Most Unique Museums In the United States (Nina Derwin, MSN)

The post includes the Idaho Potato Museum in, where else, Idaho. It covers the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, and last, but not least, the Spam Museum in Minnesota.

Of course, if you live anywhere near them, you’ve probably already heard of them.

Here’s a “somewhat” obvious trick for finding museums near you that you haven’t heard of yet.

Google “Unusual and Weird Museums, and then add your location to the search.

For example, my search for Unusual and Weird Museums in Boston included this article.

11 Quirky and Unusual Museums in Greater Boston (Celina Colby, The Boston Calendar)

The search also included this article from Atlas Obscura.

Unusual Museums in Massachusetts (Atlas Obscura)

If you’ve never hear of Atlas Obscura, then you MUST check it out!

Atlas Obscura: The Definitive Guide To The World’s Hidden Wonders

You’re bound to find something interesting near you.

Finally, it’s only fair to mention the museum that inspired this post.

The Museum of Ice Cream is a “cool” and “instagrammable” place (and yes that’s a real word according to the Cambridge Dictionary).

One just opened in Boston, and there’s one in New York where it originally started.

You can also find one in Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Austin and even Singapore!

There you have it. I hope this inspires you to find a cool, refreshing experience near you!

However, if you prefer to stay ensconced in your air conditioning, then perhaps you might enjoy exploring this “Web World” with links to hundreds of virtual 3D and 360° experiences!

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

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

You can find out more about “Web Worlds” in this post …

Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web!

Stay Cool & Happy Summer!

Find out more about Museums@Cosma …

Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web!

February 25, 2025September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Welcome to Web Worlds@Cosma!

The pages of Cosma have links to many thousands of the best resources on the Web.

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

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

Hike the Web

November 14, 2024September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

Sunday, November 17th is National Hiking Day, and it’s one of my favorite “made up” holidays!

Here’s an inspirational video about it that includes a bit of nice history.

On This Day (YouTube Channel)
On This Day (Official Website)

Celebrating is easy — just take a hike, or a walk, if that’s more your speed.

The U.S. National Park Service maintains this handy map to help you find a place near you.

Find a Park Map (U.S. National Park Service)

Now, perhaps you are someone who needs a bit more inspiration than watching a video and clicking a link to find a park, or maybe you’re not in a position to take a hike or walk at all.

In that case, perhaps a “virtual” hike might help you celebrate. There are actually a surprising number of ways to take those on the Web.

For example, the U.S. National Park Service maintains a page for that, too.

Find Your “Virtual” Park (US National Park Service)

In addition, many of the parks’ websites have “Photos and Multimedia” pages that include “virtual” experiences. Here is an example from the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Virtual Tours (US National Park Service)

There are also many 360° videos on YouTube that provide virtual visits to National Parks.

For example, Air Pano has made quite a few of them. Here are links to pages on their website for three of them. Their home page has a map where you can find more.

Grand Canyon National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park

Here’s another YouTube Channel with a long playlist of great videos.

National Parks Virtual Tours — 360° Immersive Travel Experiences (Odyssey Visual Media)

Of course, Google doesn’t just make it so that you can immerse yourself in YouTube videos — they are also behind Google Earth. Here’s their “virtual visit” to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon (Google Earth)

There are also some neat custom made “virtual” experiences. Virtual Yosemite is an example. There is also a Virtual Yosemite Directory.

Finally, writing this post inspired me to create this 360° experience called Hiking Trails Hall.

Click the “doors” to enter 360° virtual parks and “i”s for information about them.

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

All of this nudged me to update the “nature” pages on Cosma. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was inspired to create this entire Nature Center with three other spaces to explore in addition to Hiking Trails Hall. Again, click “doors” to enter 360° experiences, “i”s for information about them, and arrows to go to other areas of the Nature Center. Some objects also link to fun 360° experiences.

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

Enjoy & Happy Hiking!

Learn more about nature …

Little, Big, Old & Spooky Libraries

October 26, 2024September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I take a lot of walks in the towns along the coast north of Boston, and along the way I take pictures of things that catch my eye. Lately, those things have included Little Free Libraries.

They are the sort of thing that, once you’ve noticed them, they seem to be everywhere.

One of the neat things about them is that they are all decorated in different, fun ways.

For example, here is one of the first ones that I noticed in Marblehead.

Some of them are in beautiful, eye catching locations like this one in Swampscott.
Little Library, Swampscott Fisherman's Beach

They often reflect their surroundings, sometimes literally.

Little Library, Swampscott Commons

I also walk in Salem from time to time, and there are quite a few there. Here is one that is particularly appropriate for this season.

Little Library, Salem

After a while, I realized that Little Free Libraries was rapidly becoming one of my art projects.

That’s when I decided to check out their site.

Litle Free Library: Take a Book. Share a Book.

It was great to see how vast the movement has become — it’s truly a world-wide phenomenon!

It also turns out that the site has a map of all of the locations, and the descriptions often include pictures. I encourage you to take a look at what’s near you and participate.

It was fun to explore them, but I realized that taking tons of pictures and posting them would be unnecessarily duplicative. I abandoned my little, rapidly burgeoning art project.

On the other hand, I decided to add Little Free Libraries to Cosma’s library page.

I did that, and then I got wrapped up in adding more links to the page.

One detour I took was watching a YouTube video about the World’s Most Beautiful Libraries.

That led to trying to find 3D “virtual field trips” to each of them.

Sure enough, there were some. Best of all, I even found a 360° video tour of the spooky library that was used for filming scenes in the Harry Potter movies.

After I finished adding links to all of the “virtual tours” of libraries that I could find, I realized it would be even better to go a step further.

I’ve been making 3D spaces with “doors” to virtual field trips on the Web, posting them on the 3D image sharing site Kuula, and then embedding them on the pages on Cosma.

The first one I made was the Computer Museum Lobby, and then I made one that I dubbed Transit Paradise and then another one called Space Depot.

Why not do one for big, old, spooky libraries?

Voilà – here it is!

Welcome to The Great Libraries Antechamber.

Touch doors to enter the virtual tours, and touch the bookshelves to open Web sites.

You can also see the Great Libraries Antechamber on Kuula.

Finally, here’s a tiny “scavenger hunt” to get you started on exploring the libraries.

These are arranged “roughly” in order of difficulty.

1. Which library has a famous Long Room with two floors?
3. Which library was used for filming in the Harry Potter films?
2. Which library has 1,348 miles of bookshelves?
4. Which library houses the Book of Kells?
5. Which library has murals that illustrate the Evolution of the Book?

I hope you enjoy exploring the libraries, and thank you for joining me on this journey through little, big, old and, most importantly, spooky libraries.

Have a great Halloween!

Easter Tidings & Tidbits

April 16, 2022September 10, 2026 ~ mehopper

I’ve been immersed in working on updating Cosma pages about technical subjects like computers and the internet lately.

Make that TOO immersed, I needed a break.

Given it’s Easter weekend, make that a bunny break!

First, I dug up my old Bunny Fix post from 2020. That was fun, but those bunny clips were only a few minutes long. I wanted more, so I headed to YouTube in search of some more bunnies.

However, I didn’t find any because I got distracted by a video about Easter traditions.

The Adventure Buddies (YouTube Channel)

Some of the traditions were fun and familiar, but others not-so-much. The Scandinavian Witches, Czech Switches and Cold Water in Hungary weren’t so enviable.

Of course, that cute Australian Easter Bilby caught my eye. I set off on a YouTube safari in search of them. Here’s one of the better videos I found.

Behind the News (YouTube Channel)
Behind the News (Official Website)

Those bunnies and foreign traditions were fun distractions, but my favorite Easter thing to do remains coloring Easter eggs. That is why I was a sucker for this video about ways to dye them. It is a bit long, but each time you think the ideas won’t get any more creative, they do.

Cleverly (YouTube Channel)
Cleverly (Official Website)

Finally, one last fun traditional distraction is the Easter Egg hunt.

In case you can’t do a real one, here’s a 360° video with a quick virtual version.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

ABC11-WTVD (YouTube Channel)
ABC11-WTVD (Official Website)

There you have it. That’s the end of my break — I hope you enjoyed coming along for my unexpectedly meandering (de)tour through Easter tidbits =:)

Find out more about bunnies and celebrations in general …

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…

Zip the World!

November 15, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Virtual zipline rides are addictive, and they’re also a neat way to see the world!

I found this out by accident.

While I was planning a trip to Niagara Falls, I stumbled over a 360° video of a zipline ride.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Akron Drone Services (YouTube Channel)
Akron Drone Services (Official Website)

Then I watched it again “just for fun,” and that led to a “side adventure” that grew into this post.

That’s because watching the Niagara Falls video led to YouTube suggesting another minute long 360° video of a zipline ride in Cañon City, Colorado within Royal Gorge Bridge & Park.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Royal Gorge Bridge and Park (YouTube Channel)

Then another 360° video of a zipline ride by Superfly Ziplines in Whistler, British Columbia popped up. Again, only a minute long — innocent enough, why not?

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Superfly Ziplines (YouTube Channel)

How beautiful, not to mention seasonally appropriate, was that!?!? Show me more!

The next 360° video that YouTube suggested was of a ride at Zip World in Wales.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Orchard Immersive Tech (YouTube Channel)

Wahoooo! Notice that the speedometer on the video said 100 MPH!

That ride turns out to have been on the longest zipline in Europe and the fastest in the world. Great to experience virtually, but probably terrifying in real life!

A Google search showed that Zip World is a sort of playground for grown-ups with a number of jungle gym like “destinations.” Here’s a non-360° video about what they offer.

Zip World (YouTube Channel)

After watching ten 360° videos of zipline rides in under 15 minutes, it occurred to me that ziplining is a “thing” at tourist destinations, and taking 360° videos of the rides is too. I couldn’t help but wonder, how many more 360° video clips of rides are there out there?

A YouTube search for zipline+360 turned up hundreds of results from all over the world!

Better yet, the rides themselves are only about a minute’ish long, by definition, and they’ve got great bird’s-eye views of scenery that you wouldn’t see otherwise. If you’re into seeing great places, what a way to do it!

Happy Zipping 🙂

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
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!

Find out more about travel, the World and adventure in general …

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 …

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…

Catch Some Waves!

April 26, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Want a quick mini-vacation? Check out this 360° video of tuberiding.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Waveor Company (YouTube Channel)
Waveor Company (Official Website)

It’s beautiful, but as you looked around, did you notice that there’s no surfer in the video?

I didn’t realize, at first, that it’s a promo for a game called Virtual Surfing. So, while it’s awesome that it’s so realistic, it’s not real.

On the other hand, there are a couple of fun 360° videos of real tuberiding on YouTube.

Here’s one with Ollie O’ Flaherty tuberiding off of Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Wild Atlantic Way, Discover Ireland (YouTube Channel)
Wild Atlantic Way, Discover Ireland (Official Website)

If you are a surfer and want to do this yourself, then here’s an article where surfing pros share their favorite places to go tuberiding.

The Best Tubes on Earth According to Experts (Ashel Pierson, Surfline)

If you’re not a surfer, but would like to be one, then here are some helpful links to get you started catching waves …

Surfology: How to walk on water in 7 easy steps (Surfline)
Surfology: Surf School Directory (Surfline)
Surf Schools: A Guide to Learn How to Surf (Surfer Today)
Top 10 Surf Schools (National Geographic)
10 of the best surfing schools in the world (Jennifer Hudson, The Guardian)

Hang ten!

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
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Zip the World!

Find out more about sports and adventure …

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 …

NYC Highs

March 30, 2019September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

New York City has a new place with a view.

Two weeks ago Hudson Yards opened to cheers from the developers and some jeers from the community.

The Escheresque whimsy of The Vessel captured the media’s attention at the opening, but the views from the observation deck called Edge is the big draw. Here’s a link to a clip about the views.

Sky-High Observation Deck Being Built in NYC (Associated Press, YouTube)

Seeing the views from Hudson Yards inspired me to open my files and look for my notes about other clips with views of New York City posted online — they’re all 360° videos, so look around!

This first clip takes you on a two minute stroll along the High Line which was mentioned in the Hudson Yards clip above. It’s a 1.45 mile long elevated walk way that ties together Greenwich Village, the Meatpacking District, Chelsea, and Midtown Manhattan. The views are nice, but more down to Earth than those at Hudson Yards.

TXTExploring the High Line, NYC’s Elevated Urban Park (Washington Post)

Of course, no matter how many new views are generated by new developers, there will never be a more iconic vista in New York than the one from the top of the Empire State Building.

Empire State Building 360 4K VR (Thoughtworks Canada)

A more adventuresome 360° experience was posted by the New York Times. It is a two minute clip from the perspective of a guy who climbed the spire of World Trade Center.

Climbing 1 World Trade Center: Man on Spire (The New York Times)

Finally, The New York Times< also published another great view from even greater heights. It's entitled Take Flight, and it was featured in their 2015 edition of Great Performances. The piece lifts you up from a New York City street at night to take you on a mesmerizing flight of fancy towards the Moon.

Take Flight 360 Video (The New York Times)

The soundtrack is fine, but I can’t help hearing Christopher Cross’s Arthur’s Theme when I watch it.

There’s also a non-360° version on The New York Time’s YouTube Channel that shows each of the individual performances up close, and here are some more stories about Take Flight.

Editor’s Letter: Take Flight With Virtual Reality (Jake Silverstein, New York Times Magazine)
Great Performers Take Flight (New York Times Magazine)
Behind the Scenes of ‘Take Flight’ (Kathy Ryan, New York Times Magazine)
The Art of Flying in the Movies: A cinematic history of going airborne (A. O. Scott, New York Times Magazine)

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

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about North America and the World …

Go For a Fly!

January 17, 2019September 6, 2026 ~ mehopper

Want a quick pick-me-up?

Why go for a walk or coffee when you go for a fly instead?

Here are links to some short 360° videos that will have you soaring like a bird in a jiffy!

Paraglide Over Peru In 360 (The New York Times)
Paraglide the Pacific Coast in VR (USA TODAY)

Relaxing so far, right?

Here’s a link to a higher energy video that takes you gliding over Yosemite.

Hang Glide Over Yosemite National Park in 360 Degrees (Nature on PBS)

For an even faster paced ride, here’s a link to a video that takes you over Austria’s Paznaun Valley.

Paragliding in the Paznaun Valley, Austria (Garmin)

Curious about how it’s done?

Here’s a link to a five minute hang gliding lesson.

Hang Gliding Above the Ocean in 360º (Seeker VR)

You can find out a lot more about both paragliding and hang gliding from the US Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

Finally, here’s a link to a video with the story of how Francis and Gertrude Rogallo invented hang gliding.

Francis Rogallo (1912-2009), Hanglider Pioneer (Steve Close)

If you want more of a break, check out these earlier posts …

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Wingsuit Rush!
NYC Highs
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about flying and adventure in general …

Toy Worlds@Cosma

December 21, 2018August 19, 2026 ~ mehopper

I’ve got toys on the brain.

Why not? It ’tis toy season, after all!

Except that if you’ve been reading these posts for awhile, then you know I’ve had toys on the brain for many months now because I’ve been creating experimental interfaces to this site, and I’ve been using toys to do it 🙂

Cosma.org is a directory of some of the best content resources on the web, so showcasing great resources is the primary goal of this project. However another key goal has always been to provide a fun spatial interface to those great resources. There have been many versions of interfaces made in many ways over the years (HyperCard, SecondLife, Unity3D etc.). You can find out more about them on the Worlds page.

A funny thing happened while doing “previs” for a future version, though.

It turned out that using a RICOH THETA S 360° Camera and Kuula to hack together a demo led to an unexpectedly fun and useful interface.

This 360° image is the first in a series of Toy Worlds that serve as a 3D interface to Cosma.

Click on objects to find out about them.
Use the menu or doors to visit other Toy Worlds.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Here is one of the earliest, less “polished” demos that I created before all of the Toy Worlds that are distributed across this site. There are some fun nooks and crannies to explore in this one!

While it is a bit “rough around the edges” relative to the other, later demos, it does have the advantage of having been shot in an actual dollhouse, so it is the most “toy season” appropriate Toy World demo of them all!

Bit of Backstory

I bought a RICOH THETA S 360° awhile ago.

I didn’t want me and/or the house in every shot as I learned to use the camera.

Then I had an idea! Why not use a lamp shade to cover the camera?

I tried that, but the only lamp shades in the house were too little to get a sense of the focal point and resolution in the shots.

There was lamp shade shopping to be done.

That is how I found myself in a Target with a lamp shade on my head checking out the view.

Ooops! 🙂

So, I found the perfect lamp shade and started to learn how to shoot 360° images.

Of course, inside a lamp shade is boring!

That’s why I also grabbed some cheap, silly stuff at Target when I got the lamp shade.

Next I decided to test out the 360° photo sharing service called Kuula.

It has the ability to add links, so I decided to make something more elaborate to test out the linking capabilities.

Here’s the first “shade world” that I created in order to test links in Kuula 🙂

It was around this time that I began to realize that a more elaborate version of this approach might work for doing “previs” for some “microworlds” that I plan to make and embed on this site when there is a sufficiently advanced way to show high quality and interactive 3D spaces on web pages.

I began going in that direction with this “microworld” that was my first experiment in using Kuula as a “previs” tool before creating something in a more robust platform like Unity3D.

Then I found this adorable dollhouse in a local antique shop, and I just had to start making some far more elaborate demos!

In order to get more objects in the dollhouse and provide closure to the space, I built it out with some wooden frames. Then those wooden frames turned out be so useful, they clearly took on a life of their own!

So, things went on from there to become the interface to Cosma that Toy Worlds are now — you will see many Toy Worlds distributed across this site.

At this point I’ve taken these demos to their natural conclusion as far as making interfaces to this site. My next adventure will involve either moving on to a new 3D/360° platform or going back to using Unity 3D for making visual interfaces to this site. You can watch for updates about my progress doing this on the Worlds page of this site.

While I’m not planning on creating any more Toy Worlds for this site, that doesn’t mean that there is no future for them.

I don’t know if you noticed, but Toy Worlds also happen to be a great, newfangled way to do those good old staple projects for elementary school students, dioramas.

I’m hoping that elementary school teachers and anyone who is raising an elementary school kid will not only get a kick out of exploring Toy Worlds@Cosma.org — they might also be inspired to create some of their own!

So there it is — I hope you enjoy Toy Worlds & Happy Holidays!

Find out more about Worlds@Cosma …

Disgusting Food

November 2, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

At the end of my last post, I pointed out that there are a ton of leftover Halloween candy recipes on YouTube, and I singled out this particularly outlandish, unappetizing example.

Leftover Halloween Candy Pie (Bite-Size Glam, Inc.)

It occurred to me after the fact that a far simpler and quicker solution would be to just put all of the leftover candy into a food processor. The results would probably be equally “interesting” and inedible.

So along the same lines, here’s something else hot off the press that is likely to keep you from wanting to gorge on Halloween candy… or anything else for that matter.

Check out this link to a Buzz60 feature about the Disgusting Food Museum that has just opened in Malmö, Sweden.

The Disgusting Food Museum Will Let You Try Gross Foods From Around the World (Buzz60, YouTube)

The Disgusting Food Museum is being brought to the public by Samuel West. Not so surprisingly, he also happens to be the guy behind the Museum of Failure. Here’s a link to a video about it.

The Museum of Failure (Tom Scott)

One has to wonder if the Disgusting Food Museum will end up in the Museum of Failure, right?

The Disgusting Food Museum isn’t quite as unique of an idea as you might think, though. There’s also an “official” SPAM Museum. Here’s a video about it.

SPAM Museum (Hormel Foods)

I even found a nice, folksy 360° video tour.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Nomadic Hippie Daredevil Puppet (YouTube Channel)

Odd, but fun stuff!

Finally, in case you’re wondering, there’s also a more traditional Museum of Food and Drink in New York, and here’s a link to video about it.

What a Food Museum Looks Like (MOFAD)

Find out more about food …

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 …

Wingsuit Rush!

September 21, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

Hey, adrenaline junkies, how about a quick fix?

Remember all of those action movies where people jump out of airplanes or off of buildings wearing wingsuits?

Did you ever think it would be cool to do that for real?

Well, now you can get a sense of what it would be like.

Here are some 360° videos that share the experience from the jumper’s point of view. It’s the next best thing to doing it yourself, so don’t forget to look around!

In this first video, Jeb Corlis jumps out of a plane with a group of friends. It starts off as a nice, peaceful experience, but the suspense builds by the end as the ground comes up to greet you.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Jeb Corliss (YouTube Channel)

Of course, the above video was cut so that you didn’t actually get to see the landing. Here’s a short, fast clip of someone wingsuiting over Dubai, and it shows what it’s like to land. You also get to see what it’s like to jump from a plane and then land on the ground in about a minute and a half after visiting some skyscrapers up close and personal in between. Geronimo!

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Dubai360 (YouTube Channel)

As fun as it is to see what it’s like to jump out of a plane and not go splat, the experience of “basejumping” off of stationary things like cliffs can be even more adrenaline inducing. Here’s a dramatic perspective from Jokke Sommer and Halvor Angvik whose basejump takes them up close and personal with the mountains of Stryn, Norway.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

Making View AS (YouTube Channel)

Finally, my favorite video of all shows Gabriel Lott jumping off of a mountain, buzzing some traditional skydivers, and then landing near a beautiful beach! 🙂

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

If all of this adventure from the safety of your own screen isn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, and you’re just dying to get out and try it yourself, here’s a few things to consider before you “try it at home.”

First, there’s a lot more to it than just buying a suit from a vendor like Squirrel and jumping off of a cliff or building. Here’s a nice one minute video primer that covers the basics of what you really need to do before you jump.

Rated Red (YouTube Channel)

Here’a a helpful article with even more information published by a place called Jumptown that just happens to be a skydiving center here in Boston.

How to Become a Wingsuit Flyer (Jumptown)

Here’s another nice, honest article about wingsuiting.

10 Things No One Tells You Before You Become a Wingsuit Jumper (Francis Blagburn, The Telegraph)

Of course, it’s one thing to find the obligatory Wingsuit flying article on Wikipedia. It’s another to find their page with the List of fatalities due to wingsuit flying.

Personally, I file this under things that should make sane people just say, no!

Still, I hope you enjoyed this vicarious adrenaline rush compliments of some adventuresome folks who didn’t say no, and then even took 360° cameras along so us landlubbers could experience their rides, too!

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

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Go for a Fly!
NYC Highs
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out about other ways to get around in the air and adventure in general …

Candy for Nerds

June 15, 2018September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

This is the time of year when people in northern latitudes head out on vacation and look for fun things to do along the way.

How about adding a candy factory tour to the itinerary instead?

Yes indeed, this is a fun, geeky thing you can do in many places. In fact, the Food Network even created a lovely series of four short one’ish minute 360° videos that show tours of candy factories where some of the most popular candies are made.

How M&Ms Are Made Exclusive 360° Candy Factory Tour (Food Network, YouTube)
How Pez Are Made 360° Candy Factory Tour (Food Network, YouTube)
360° Exclusive How Peeps Are Made (Food Network, YouTube)
How Smarties Are Made Exclusive 360° Candy Factory Tour (Food Network, YouTube)

Of course, even smart nerds might like to know how Dum Dums are made. Sadly, I couldn’t find a 360° tour of a Dum Dum factory from the Food Network, but I found another video that does the job nicely.

How Dum Dums Makes 12 Million Lollipops a Day (Food Tech Today)

There’s also an entire Website and YouTube Channel devoted to Dum Dums!

Dum-Dums (Website) and Dum-Dums (YouTube Channel)

I also tried to find a 360° tour of a good old fashioned basic Nerd factory, but I found this one about Nerd Ropes instead. It is a bit silly, but it does also include an explanation of how Nerds are made.

Nerds on Food Networks Unwrapped

If you are in the mood to really geek out and learn a ton of things about candy and its history, then here’s a Mental Floss episode that will certainly add to your candy trivia stash.

38 Sweet Facts About Candy (Mental Floss)

Of course, if that’s a bit too intense for you, then perhaps you would prefer to sit back and enjoy this cute 360° video of a candy coaster ride.

360 Video Roller Coaster VR HD Gummy Bear Candy Coaster Animated (The Official Gummibär Channel)

If you decide that you do want to take a candy factory tour, then here are a few articles to get you started on planning your visit.

10 Best Candy Factory Tours In The World (10 Most Today)
Live Out Your Willy Wonka Fantasies at These 10 Candy-Factory Tours (Kristine Hansen, Fodors)
Chocolate and Candy Factory Tours (Elizabeth LaBau, The Spruce Eats)

Find out more about food …

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 …

Heights!

August 7, 2017September 6, 2026 ~ mehopper

A Monday morning caffeine fix is nice, but how about a serious adrenaline rush instead?

Nothing will get your pulse going like some good old fashioned adventure at extreme heights. Luckily, there are a ton of 360° videos on YouTube designed to do just that, so pick your poison from these five specially selected experiences, don’t forget to expand the video, turn up the resolution, look around, and especially down! 🙂

Dive from a very tall cliff …

Cliff Diving From a Rocky Ledge in Italy (Red Bull Cliff Diving)

Walk a tightrope over a deep canyon …

Walk The Tight Rope (Discovery)

Take a paramotor flight over some water falls …

Paramotor Flight Above Iguazu Falls Rafael Goberna (Red Bull)

If you haven’t had enough of a rush yet, then check out the Thrillseekers YouTube Channel, and if you’re a real adrenaline junkie, head over to the ExLife YouTube Channel!

Finally, if you enjoy adventures with a side of adrenaline then check out these other posts …

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

Find out more about adventure …

Best Cat Toy?

July 21, 2017September 9, 2026 ~ mehopper

This site doesn’t usually deal in silly internet memes (list) like cute cat videos, but it is Friday, and this character on YouTube called FlippyCat went and posted this awesome 360° video.

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

FlippyCat (YouTube Channel)
FlippyCat (Facebook)

If the think the dominoes art part is cool, and you want to waste more time, head on over and check out the rest of FlippyCat’s World of Dominoes YouTube Channel. Here’s a promo video to give you a sense of what’s there.

FlippyCat (YouTube Channel)
FlippyCat (Facebook)

Find out more about cats, toys and fun in general …

AirPano

October 16, 2016September 8, 2026 ~ mehopper

While reviewing the posts during “the move,” there was one glaring omission that emerged. It turns out that there was never a post about a fantastic Russian crew going by the name “AirPano” that has been traveling the world using drones to capture and publish fantastic 360° panoramic videos, and they have been doing it since before there were 360° YouTube videos. As soon as there was such a thing, they were doing that, too. It was very remiss to not “Spotlight” their work before this. Here’s their boiler info. off of their YouTube channel…

“AirPano is a not-for-profit project created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts focused on taking high-resolution aerial panoramic photographs. Although we usually photograph from a helicopter, we also like to shoot from an airplane, a dirigible, a hot air balloon, and a radio-controlled helicopter. Today AirPano is the largest resource in the world — by geographical coverage, number of aerial photographs, and artistic and technical quality of the images — featuring 360° panoramas of the highest quality shot from a bird’s eye view.”

So true, so true, they are definitely not exaggerating. Check them out!

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano (Official Website)

Watch the video below in 360° on YouTube here!

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano (Official Website)

Here’s a great article about them!

A Cut Above the Rest: Stunning Drone Photographs Capture the New Seven Wonders of the World Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before (Becky Pemberton, Daily Mail UK)

Find out more about them!

AirPano (Official Site)
AirPano (YouTube)
AirPano (Facebook)

Find out more about the world…