We’re Kinda Different

Sometimes, you come across something so perplexingly, brilliantly, deliriously and completely whole, you wonder two things.  You wonder how and when the idea sprang into existence.  Then you wonder why it took this long to make it to the rest of us.  Such is the case with We’re Kinda Different by Ben Meinhardt (with artistic direction and trumpet playing by his young son).

It tells the story of a little fella who has been born with his butt underneath his face.  This three minute musical interlude introduces us to his world and tells us how he came to terms with his condition – even though he thinks he needs to get checked out by a doctor.  I think this should be compulsory viewing for teenagers who are so enveloped and overwhelmed by the beauty standards they have imposed on them by the internet (yes, that was a bit lazy of me), that this might serve as a reminder that they, too, are kinda different in a special way – their own way.  We’re Kinda Different conveys a very powerful message in possibly the silliest way imaginable, but that does not detract from its point.

One of my father’s favourite sayings was “Blessed be the cracked, for they let in the light.”  I never thought that it could become even more of a layered statement than it already is, but there you go.  This little fella has certainly let a little more light into my day - through his particular crack, as it were...

Watch the full song below.

MIB: Neuralize This! - A Men in Black Comedy Short

Sometimes, you just can’t get the staff.  When you work for MIB as a field agent, the main aim of the job is to protect humanity from any threat posed by aliens – but also to provide refuge for any seeking to immigrate or to seek asylum.  The two agents at the heart of MIB: Neuralize This! get it wrong on virtually every conceivable level… but the viewer has a lot of fun on the way.

The production values here are pretty high – it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish this fan film from the real thing.  It has an alien incident, action, lots of action (it starts in media res, so you need to understand the Men in Black universe to an extent) and, most importantly for me, tight plotting and scripting.  It’s a self-contained MIB incident with a very satisfying end (well, not for the alien, perhaps).  But the fact that it is so well self-contained – a MIB vignette as it were – is its greatest strength, though hats off to director and writer Martin Sofiedal for the atmosphere, VFX and pace of this seven minute short.  There is no self-indulgence here, which can be a flaw of so many fam-made homages.

 A mention for the cast, too.  Despite the brevity of the film, they all bring their characters to life in this short time.  The agents seem to know each other’s shortcomings well, which might indicate that they have worked together for quite a while – although I am not entirely convinced that their success rates will have them on the office leaderboard.  You might feel sorry for the alien, who isn’t given much of a chance to explain itself, but perhaps the human witnesses get the rawest deal – watch the film to see why!

(This short is not affiliated with Sony or the official Men in Black franchise. It is a not-for-profit fan film.)  Get yourself a cuppa, press play below and have a fun seven minutes.

Looks like it was taken yesterday...

Have you ever seen a photograph from decades ago and almost refused to believe that it is so old.  So it was with this one.  While researching an upcoming article for Kuriositas on Flickr’s The Commons (where various organisations upload their archive pictures) I came across the picture above.  Of course, it is in black and white, but I was immediately struck by how modern the subject of the picture looked. The picture has not been upscaled or put through AI. He looks like a model for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike or Calvin Klein, with his tanned body, gently tousled hair and (slightly moody) good looks.

In fact, this photograph was taken in 1922.  That’s 103 years ago…

It really is one of those double-take moments.  This is someone from 2025 who has access to the Tardis, surely?

So, who is this athletic time-traveller? Thomas Edward 'Tom' Blake (March 8, 1902 – May 5, 1994) was an American athlete, inventor, and writer, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of surfing. He played a crucial role in evolving the sport from a local Hawaiian tradition into a nationally recognised pastime.  It is thought that this was taken at  Brighton Beach (situated along the southern coast of Brooklyn, right next to Coney Island) where he competed with a certain Johnny Weissmuller in an open water swimming race.

Looks like it was taken yesterday.

Time to Change the Collective Noun for Pandas!

 At some point in the 1990s or early 2000s, someone, somewhere on the internet gave the giant panda the collective noun “an embarrassment of pandas” and it stuck.  No one knows, and don't ask the pandas.  They're too busy rolling downhill. This collective noun, frankly, denigrates the panda population – put simply, it’s a slur! Our sibling site the Ark inSpace has decided to do something about this, making an appeal for a populist change. As you might expect from Ark, there is a wonderful collection of panda pictures to accompany the article. You can even vote for your alternative collective noun, or suggest one yourself.  Why not pop over and vote?

Image Credit

200 Nuns Walk into a Movie Theater...

It sounds like the beginning of a joke but that is exactly what happened in Sydney, Australis on the 24 April 1938. The picture here shows a huge nun ensemble, gathered together to watch Tarzan’s Revenge.  OK, so that is a complete lie.  The movie that the nuns were so keen to watch was “Cloistered” which, as you have probably guessed, was all about nuns. French nuns.  French nuns going about their daily lives.

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To get access to a convent in this way was very unusual at this time, so for director Robert Alexandre it was something of a coup.  Likewise, in Sydney, hundreds of nuns descending on a cinema at the same time was considered newsworthy (even though the young man on the left of the picture above seems distracted - girl trouble of another kind, no doubt). It all gets a little meta.  The media was curious about nuns who were curious to see a film about nuns, about whose lives little was known.  Regardless, the nuns do seem to be looking forward to the event.

Shattering Stars - the Story of the Indian Scientist Mocked for his Ideas

You may not have heard of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-95) – but that’s no problem – you are about to.  When studying in the 1930s at Cambridge, Chandra was mocked for his idea that not all stars become white dwarves at the end of their lifecycle.  He believed that when stars achieved a certain mass, they would form something denser – denser than anything that had been previously observed.

In fact, Chandra was the first scientist to start thinking about what we now call black holes.  After his now infamous knockback, Chandra’s life took a different path but he still won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on stellar evolution.  This is his story – and great use is made of recordings of Chandrasekhar himself.  It is directed by Peter Galison, a historian of science at Harvard University.  Special mention should be made about the wonderful art direction and animation by Shiv Kachiwala.

Galison’s short film sheds light on the life and achievements of one of the 20th century’s most remarkable scientific thinkers, while also examining how scientific endeavours are sometimes influenced by human flaws.

The Ice Builders (or How to Create your own Glacier)

In the Himalayan mountains of Northern India, life has never been easy.  However, there are new pressures on the traditional life of the Zanskar valley, coming from external sources. As the narrator of The Ice Builders says, the Tibetans are “the first victims of climate changes” but adds “very soon, you will all be victims too.” This is said in a very matter-of-fact way and not as a threat – but something inevitable.

The people of Zanskar, part of the Ladakh region, depended on the glaciers, at the bottom of which they built their villages.  Over the past 15 years, however, the local people have been forced to not count on the presence of the glaciers for their water anymore.  They have disappeared.  This film, directed by Francesco Clerici and Tommaso Barbaro focuses on how the Ladakhi people (particularly Sonam Wangchuk – activist and engineer) have responded to this.

The solution has not been to give up, pack their bags and move away. Stories from the past inspired these people to build artificial glaciers. Of course, the methods used to create them had been lost to time so today’s Ladakhi have had to reinvent the wheel, as such.   Using modern science, Wangchuk’s solution has been to create what he calls “stupas of ice”.  And they are spectacular.

Watch the video below – a testament to human ingenuity in the face of adversity.