Ian Hecht's Public Library

ffmpeg command lines for converting to OGV, MP4 and webm for HTML 5 video.

webm html5 ffmpeg ogv transcode mp4 command

This might be too much bacon for even me... or not!

bacon strips burger burger king whopper food weird japan

Will 9-yr-olds help the world's mightiest military machine solve problems? Maybe!

pentagon leaders peace washington education game school teacher class politics military

New research suggests that governments will work better if a portion of their MPs are selected at random from the general population.

research selection education guardian government politics mathematics economists parliament

A well-argued essay on why all school kids should be taught how to code.

computer programming school education britain classes ict

Interesting infographic that shows the scale of the solar system. A little difficult to read, because the scale factor changes a couple of times, but gets the point across.

science education space physics solar system infographic

Infographic showing the depths of the ocean, along with what you can expect to find at each level.

education science biology oceanography infographic depth ocean

With teacher satisfaction in the US hitting an all-time low because of policies enacted by people outside of the classroom, Linda Darling-Hammond asks if the time has come to ask teachers what they think should be done to "fix" education.

education teaching classroom policy politics america U.S. teacher op-ed

Ever wonder what all those settings on the manual mode of your camera do? This dSLR simulator can let you fiddle around with each setting individually so you can see what the results would be.

photography camera simulator SLR DSLR

A collection of photos with writing prompts for language or social classes.

education english language arts prompts photos teaching writing

Proposed order and explanation for showing the Star Wars films to someone who hasn't seen them yet - 4, 5, 2, 3, 6.

film movie opinion nerdery star wars

Javascript-enabled effect allows you to fade before and after pictures of the 2011 Japanese earthquake.

photojournalism photography news japan earthquake

Not sure whether to be disturbed or amused: the toxoplasmosis living in your cat's litter might be changing your behaviour.

biology cat parasite psychology behaviour science

Good list of YA Fantasy books. I'd add Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness.

fantasy books YA young adult list reading

Hilarious tool that pairs booze with whatever music you're listening to. Profoundly goofy or just profound. You decide.

Music drinks generator drinking drink fun recipes alcohol

Disturbing look at gender-selected abortions and infanticide of female babies in South Asia. According to the article, 200 million girls are "missing". That would be close to the total female population of North America (around 227M).

girl world editor female stats culture politics infanticide abortion debate asia

Article arguing that the remarkable improvement in the Finnish education system is a result of a focus on equality instead of competition.

education classroom finland policy teaching learning socio-economics equality equity

Beauty product ad that hits the nail on the head.

photoshop ADOBE beauty video vimeo parody humour ad advertisement

I want! These playful designs are perfect for kids of all ages.

kids design furniture room house play

The story of a man detained at Guantanamo for seven years with no trial, no reason and no appeal. Finally, his case was heard by the Supreme Court and he was freed. Systems like Guantanamo only amplify mistakes made by governments.

politics law guantanamo justice injustice op-ed nytimes nyt