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Author: matt

Catalog of urban legends

Catalog of urban legends

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Snook on YouTube did a video that covers just about every major urban legend and famous conspiracy.

Here’s a list of subjects he covers in his 70 minute video:

Gray aliens
Loch Ness Monster
Area 51
Bigfoot
Boogeyman
Men in black
Bloody Mary
Candyman
Spider bite
The hook
The kidney thieves
Glad you didn’t turn on the lights
Killer in the back seat
Humans can lick too
Body in the bed
Body in the water tank
Man under the car
Halloween hanging
Cropsey
Corpse in the chimney
Toxic fumes lady
The goat man
Dog boy
Mothman		Black eyed children
Chupacabra
Techiteki
Lo Llorona
Charlie no face
Slitilated woman
The Jersey devil
Krampus
Springhealed Jack
The Monkey Man
Paul is dead
Red cloak
The red room
Walking Sam
Seven midnight jogger
The night marchers
Stolens gateway to hell
The well to hell
Fatal flair
Foreign dreams
The rat king
Water babies
Pond monster
Pinky pinky

Making a John Wick 4 suit

Making a John Wick 4 suit

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Hacksmith Industries builds a lot of interesting stuff. A plasma light saber, magnetically attracted Captain America shield, and many other cool creations. This one, however, was really interesting.

I found the gunplay in John Wick 4 to be pretty ridiculous – which was made more so by a paper-thin suit that was supposedly bullet proof enough to get hit hundreds of times and still work.

These guys decided to put this idea to the test. They try to make a suit that is actually bullet proof.

It took them well over a year and many failures and a full reset that involved material research, testing, etc. However, in the end, it turns out that it is reasonably possible – at least for a few rounds. Like most things, if you shoot the same spot a few times, it’s unlikely to stop bullets. It also is unlikely to keep you from broken ribs and massive contusions caused by the round impacts. Still, surprising results.

Render using a virtual lens onto film – in Blender

Render using a virtual lens onto film – in Blender

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Sirrandalot is not the first person to use a film-grain/film-like shader effect to give a certain feel. He is, however, the first to use Blender’s Cycles path-tracing engine to create a highly detailed physical modeling of a 3D camera body, simulate the various properties of a glass lens (then multiple lens system), the properties of chemical film, and then render scenes through this highly complex setup to generate real film-like images. Check out the final not-photos here or on Imgur.

You can download the camera and play with it yourself.

3d printed mathematical models

3d printed mathematical models

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Henry Segerman is a mathematician who likes to help visualize mathematical principles using 3D printing. He has a book that pairs the ideas and topics with 3D objects you can print out.

His YouTube channel covers an amazing number of topics. Different kinds of irregular dice (slant, skew, dLX, wild d6’s, and others) that are fair but look very different than the standard regular polyhedral style dice. He makes interesting puzzles, visualizing 3D printed objects of higher dimensions, impossible geometry, interesting gearing, topology, and many other cool topics.

What’s great about his channel is that he’s a mathematician so you get a healthy dose of the theory that makes the objects possible.

Classic Ghost Story channels

Classic Ghost Story channels

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It’s fall – my absolute favorite season. That means cooler weather, shorter days, and crisp brisk nights under starry skies. It also means it’s perfect time for a good classic ghost story next to a crackling fire at the end of the day. You can keep your modern low-budget gory, cheap jump scare movies. I prefer a good Victorian/Edwardian era ghost story on a cool fall evening.

Here’s some of my favorite places to get some great ghost stories read to you.

Bonus: Sherlock Holmes

  • Magpie Audio – Greg Wagland gives one of the undisputed best renditions of the complete Sherlock Holmes collection of stories. He voice acts the various characters magnificently. I think it’s far superior to even paid versions. Absolutely worth a listen. He also has stories from G.K.Chesterton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, H.G.Wells, and many others of the era.

An interesting list of recommended Christmas Ghost stories

Halloween Drive-in Cinema of Horrors

Halloween Drive-in Cinema of Horrors

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At the Clark County Fairgrounds in October, Cinema of Horrors sets up a temporary drive-in and puts on a few weeks of scary movies.

I’ve gone in years past and it’s a lot of fun for what it is. There are a few small booths with food carts, merch, and people walking around dressed in scary costumes. They have classic scary movies (Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, etc) as well as a few family nights (original Ghostbusters, Casper, Beetlejuice).

Definitely fun for fall.