Time-Lapse: The Mountain

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Less than a month ago I linked to a stunning video produced by Terje Sørgjerd called "The Auora". A little over a week ago, he posted a second video filmed on El Teide in Spain. El Teide is Spain's highest mountain and, as Terje writes, "one of the best places in the world of photograph the stars and is also the location of the Teide Observatories, considered one of the world's best observatories". Terje goes on to write:

The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies. A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes. Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.

The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science

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John Gruber linked to an article this morning that I found very interesting, "The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science." John summarizes:> Chris Mooney on why cold hard facts and scientific evidence seldom change the minds of those who already hold a strong opinion. (E.g., climate-change deniers on the right, vaccines-cause-autism believers on the left.) Fascinating but utterly depressing.

Apple’s Mobile Strategy is to Make the Technology Irrelevant

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Kyle Baxter writes at TightWind:

Google is seeking a controlling position in the smartphone market and all of the benefits it entails. In Leading the Revolution, Gary Hamel wrote that what is not different is not strategic, and he’s right; pursuing the same strategy as Google is a fantastic way to fail. Apple could open iOS to chosen partners and try to compete with Google on their own terms, but that’s precisely the problem. That’s Google’s game, and one Apple will lose. Instead, Apple should try to continually define the industry, rather than control it. This means both creating the mobile industry’s device types (pocket-sized touch screen phone, touch screen tablet) and introducing new features and technologies that set the norm for mobile devices. By doing so, Apple can control the market without needing a monopoly position. Spot on.

A Programmer Explains Why Android Apps Are Ugly

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Christopher Mims, at technology review writes about developing for Android devices:

Developing for such a wide array of device screen sizes and aspect rations means that not only is it impossible to create pixel-perfect designs for Android interfaces, there isn’t even any guarantee that a given interface can be scaled to fit a particular screen. And in case you missed it, you should read this article that made the rounds a few days ago as well.

Paul Ryan's Multiple Unicorns

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Paul Krugman, writing about GOP Congressman Paul Ryan's proposed budget plan:

Notice the marked area at the bottom: Ryan is assuming that everything aside from health and SS can be squeezed from 12 percent of GDP now to 3 1/2 percent of GDP. That’s bigger than the assumed cut in health care spending relative to baseline; it accounts for all of the projected deficit reduction, since the alleged health savings are all used to finance tax cuts. And how is this supposed to be accomplished? Not explained. This isn’t a serious proposal; it’s a strange combination of cruelty and insanely wishful thinking.