Moving pictures, a movie comic, and what to drink when you’re done moving
Adam Ferriss’ Instagram
A few years ago I wrote about Adam Ferriss, who writes his own computer programs to create magnificent, unpredictable moving artworks, which are regularly featured in GIF form in The New York Times. It’s worth checking out his Instagram, where he shows off work in progress and some of the craziest, mind-trippingly cool stuff I’ve ever seen on a screen. For the past few months he’s been working on a program that uses a cellphone camera to capture a photograph-like window, then keeps it hovering in the space where the image was taken as Ferriss walks away. I know that sounds completely unintelligible, so just watch the video.
Following Ferriss on Instagram, you can see how the programs evolve—both in terms of the actual program (as far as I can tell) and what Ferriss discovers he can do with it. Compare the videos below to the one above.
Whereas some of his programs create a biological, amoebic playground of colors and movement, this new project evokes a temporal sensation, creating snapshots of moments in time as he moves through space. There’s a quantum quality to it, and I can’t get enough. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]
Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi—Captain Phasma
I went into Star Wars: The Force Awakens expecting Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma to be my new favorite character. She was played by someone from Game Of Thrones! She had ridiculous chrome armor and a cape! There was literally nothing about her that wasn’t amazing, but she didn’t actually end up doing anything in the movie. Thankfully, Marvel’s Star Wars comics are picking up some of the slack with a Phasma-focused miniseries from Kelly Thompson and Marco Checchetto that fills in some details of what she was doing at the end of Force Awakens. I’ve only read a few issues, but the book is already shedding some interesting light on who Phasma is as a person, thanks to her interaction with her de facto sidekick, a female pilot who just seems happy to be included. The series revolves around Phasma blaming her bit of treason from the end of the last movie on some random dude and then trying to execute him before he can deny his involvement, indicating that she’s more self-serving than her demeanor would suggest. It’s too early to say if the series will really deepen Phasma, but at least she gets to do something. [Sam Barsanti]
Skratch Labs hydration mixes
Gatorade has a lot of crap in it. Take the classic lemon-lime flavor: The first two ingredients are sugar, amounting to 34 grams of the stuff, which isn’t the best thing to dump in your stomach after a workout. Even G2, Gatorade’s “low calorie” alternative, lists sugar as the first ingredient, buoyed by sucralose, a.k.a. Splenda, and another sugar substitute called “acesulfame-potassium.” Then there are the thickening agents, dyes (like yellow 5, whose negative effects caused Austria and Norway to ban it), and other stuff. A few years ago, I switched over to Skratch Labs after reading about them in Wired, and I haven’t gone back. Their drink powders use simpler ingredients, have significantly less sugar, no dyes, and are non-GMO, gluten and dairy free, kosher, and vegan. The powder also makes it significantly cheaper than buying bottle after bottle of Gatorade, and it tastes a whole lot better. (I’m partial to Lemons+Limes and Passion Fruit.) Now that I’ve drunk Skratch for a few years, Gatorade tastes like syrup to me—not surprising, considering it and pancake syrup have roughly the same amount of sugar per serving. [Kyle Ryan]