The Kid Should See This.
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There's just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...
But we don't underestimate kids around here.
Kid-friendly not-made-for-kids videos for all! Collected by Rion Nakaya and her three four year old co-curator.
Tip Jar: Curating this blog takes work! If you like the videos on this site, please support the science education projects that we've picked on DonorsChoose.org.
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When I looked up Google’s Driverless Car, I ran into this Model T assembly line video on US History Educator Blog. The video not only shows the revolution of progressive assembly in Henry Ford’s factories (which changed how things are made around the globe), but some surprising 100 year old footage of how sturdy the Model T was on rough dirt roads, through snow, through rivers, down steep hills… down embankments more than a few feet high…
“Hey kiddo, did you know that there’s a car that drives itself?” And so began the kid’s introduction to Google’s Driverless Car. From PC Mag:
Google released the video to celebrate that it has safely completed 200,000 miles of computer-lead driving.
The video shows [Steve] Mahan sitting in the driver’s seat as the car steers itself, using radar and lasers to make sure the road is clear. The car takes him through the drive-through of Taco Bell, then to the dry cleaners as Mahan jokes that “this is some of the best driving I’ve ever done.”
“Ninety-five percent of my vision is gone, I’m well past legally blind,” Mahan says in the video. ”Where this would change my life is to give me the independence and flexibility to go the places I both want to go and need to go, when I need to do those things.”
Google said it arranged Mahan’s ride through a carefully programmed route as a special test outside of its core research efforts.
“We organized this test as a technical experiment, but we think it’s also a promising look at what autonomous technology may one day deliver if rigorous technology and safety standards can be met,”
As I think so often when posting to TKSST: The future is now (finally)!
Oh, British Pathé! You and this Dynasphere are both awesome. The kid should definitely see how crazy this vehicle is! From wikipedia:
The Dynasphere was a monowheel electric vehicle invented in 1932 by Dr. J. A. Purves from Taunton, Somerset, UK. It had 2.5 horse power and once attained a speed of 25 mph.
And there are more monowheels to be seen, via the Retronaut.
Metropolis II, a kinetic sculpture created by Chris Burden, is currently showing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 18 roadways, including one 6 lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks… According to Burden, “The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars, produces in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st Century city.”
LACMA’s blog gives some detail:
- The cars are attached by a small magnet to the conveyor belt that brings them to the crest.
- The only motorization of the cars is the conveyor belt to the top.
- Once the cars cross over the crest and head downward, their entire movement is by gravity.
- They travel at a scale speed of 240 mph, plus or minus.
- The tracks they take are Teflon coated to reduce friction.
- The tracks are beveled at 7 degrees to give added torque for speed when
they come through corners and curves.- The trains are out of the box electric train sets that run on electricity.
Taken at Burden’s studio, this video is a bit shorter and perhaps provides a better understanding of the scale and constant sound that the 1,100 toy cars produce. Metropolis II is currently an ongoing installation at LACMA with showtimes on Fridays and weekends.
Slot car racing in Finland: What’s great about this is not the actual slot car racing (though both co-curators liked that), but the serious benchwork happening to fix and fine tune the cars.
via Devour.
The wind. The sun. The scenery. The happy dog faces sticking out of car windows! The co-curator’s favorite part was at the end when the dogs are all introduced. I like dog ears flapping in the wind. The kid should see this if they haven’t already!
Thanks, @dougmcarthur.
The Mother of All Hot Wheels Tracks.
A 2,000 feet long powered Hot Wheels track that goes up and down the stairs, through 14 rooms of a house, around the outside of the house, and a jump over a hot tub.
Via Devour.
