Tag: YouTube videos

The largest flashmob wedding proposal … and more

Being happily married for over a decade already, I’m not too much into wedding proposals.  But the power flashmob is often mesmerising – crowds of people, sometimes as large as few thousands, gather together, self-organize, and execute projects of amazing size and complexity.  And all of that for no financial benefit – just for the love it, the idea, and, of course, tonnes of fun.

This, however, would never had been possible without the power of the Internet in general, and social networks in particular – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites provide a huge platform for organizing such acts.

By now, there are so many events, and people participating, that there is even a TV show – Mobbed – on mainstream network – Fox.  What these people do is organize flashmobs into professional productions, helping people announce their secrets to the world.  I haven’t seen much of the episodes yet, but this one is absolutely amazing – several thousand people help the guy to flashmob his girlfriend with a wedding proposal .. and even more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5-1PBCO5Y]

If you don’t want to spend 40 minutes watching all behind the scenes, setup, and the result, here is a shorter, 15 minute or so, version with just the result.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F9WZgTgB9E]

This is truly … ah, I wish I could find more words to describe it, but since I obviously can’t … TRULY EPIC.

John Carmack talks about the physics of light and rendering

For a while now I am thinking that you don’t really know something until you can easily explain it or talk about it, in simple words and with people who might not even know one thing about the subject.  John Carmack is well known and respected in the field of computer graphics and gaming, and watch him talk about light and rendering!  I now nothing of it, and I watch this whole talk, glued to the screen, catching every word.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6UKhR0T6cs]

Apart from the physics of light, this provokes thought on other subjects too.   The complexity of simple things comes to mind.  Something that we all observe every day and seldom think about – turns out to be so complex.  The importance of computer games is another subject.  I’m a big fan of Quake in particular, and I’ve heard a billion times people asking questions on why is this important at all and how this makes the world better.  Well, I guess, that question is easy to answer now.  Some game makers push the technology, push the science, and they do make the world better.  But they need us – gamers, once in a while, to pay for that and to provide feedback on what works and what doesn’t.