Nepal Earthquake
News and images from the Nepal Earthquake have been especially sad because I love many of the affected places.
In 2012 (with my wife) and 2013 (with my brother-in-law) I visited both Kathmandu and Everest Base Camp.
Hubble Space Telescope
As I post this, things are ramping up for the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope.
To make the occasion, we made this video for Objectivity which looks at Isaac Newton's own hand-made reflecting telescope. A tube "floating" on its stand, It was amazing how much the old treasure reminded me of Hubble itself.
Here's our Hubble video from Deep Sky Videos.
And if you just like a good telescope, don't miss my whole series of "telescope tour" videos also on Deep Sky Videos.
Professor's Door Sign
Many of you will be aware that Professor Martyn Poliakoff is now "Sir Martyn".
His door at the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry has been changed accordingly.
I did not miss my chance and (with Sir Martyn's permission of course) have got myself a souvenir from all my years visiting his office to make videos!
The original non-Sir version - Sir Martyn signed the reverse side!
Large Hadron Collider
With the Large Hadron Collider firing up once more, I went through my old photos and dug up thee pictures from my visits in 2012 and 2013.
There is a long list of videos we made - here is a playlist.
Eclipse 2015
A few shots from the eclipse in March 2015 (taken near Bristol) with Audrey and Lulu!
The Best and Worst Ways to Shuffle Cards
If you are an "overhand" shuffler like me, this video is a wake-up call.
It is the first in a week of videos about card shuffling on Numberphile.
This video, with card shuffling legend Persi Diaconis, has three "extra bits" of unused footage (because I asked Professor Diaconis so many questions about things like casinos, cheating and shuffling machines!)
More card shuffling videos will be posted later in the week.
Here are some additional useful links...
Papers
Trailing the Dovetail to its Lair (7 shuffles)
Shuffling Cards and Stopping Times
Overhand Shuffles
Book
Magical Mathematics by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham
Coin Tossing (also with Professor Diaconis)
Why make this video?
Posting a "different video" to a channel like Numberphile inevitably raises comments and questions?
Why did you do this? What is the point? Are you out of ideas?
Why did I make this video? Because I thought of it and wondered what it would be like.
That's a nice thing about being a YouTuber (as opposed to, say, working in traditional TV).
Anything goes.
It'd be a pretty boring life if we just made the same videos over and over again - for film-makers and for the viewers!
So what is the point of this 1-200 video? You decide.
For a channel called Numberphile, maybe it is just a little love song!?
Maybe it is a comment on Google's push to define and categorise everything, even something as abstract as numbers?
Or maybe it was just something cheerful to upload on a Friday afternoon?
Maybe it is all these things?
There's really no need to explain. I just made it. It's free to watch it or ignore it.
I wouldn't even bother writing this blog, but it provides a link with which I can quickly answers questions, which I am learning is quite efficient!