Mr. Ian Byrd, gifted teacher and fellow lover of all that is interesting in the world, is once again sending us a weekly set of Puzzlements. Click the links below to check them out! 

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For January 6th, 2023

• Stephen Orlando creates "light paintings" by attaching LEDs to kayakers' paddles.

• A mesmerizing map of popular US baby names animated by year. Definitely worth clicking the gear and slowing this one down to half speed.

• Enjoy the suspense of this lava creeping closer and closer toward the camera! 

• Timing is everything in this OK Go’ video, which is 4 seconds of real-time stretched into 4 minutes. How many weird little details can you all spot? (Naturally, there’s a making-of video!)

• David M. Bird creates little figures from acorns and photographs them in nature. In this video, he tries very hard to capture an oriole. And check out David's site.

For January 13th, 2023

• Watch a robot built from Lego solve a Rubik’s cube! (Note that one of the arms is a camera.)

• Miguel Endara took a photocopy of his dad's scrunched face and created a portrait using 3.2 million dots!!! (And how could you not show A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte next?)

• Check out this prototype motorcycle that self-balances and follows you around.

• Watch these 3D-printed objects come to life when lit with a strobe light. 

• This time-lapse sequence of Jupiter’s atmospheric bands spinning is hypnotizing. The photos were taken by Voyager 1 back in 1979.

For January 20TH, 2023

• Each frame in this animation from Kazuhiko Okushita is drawn with a single stroke! 

• A huge library of animated engines. I especially like the Grasshopper beam engine!

• Yes! Watch popcorn pop in super slow motion. 

• Ben Jensen made a material called Vantablack that absorbs 99.965% of visible light, making 3D surfaces appear completely flat. No other substance absorbs more light! Read more about Vantablack at Wikipedia.

• A 360º video filmed inside of an ice cave under the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. Click and drag the video to rotate the camera. Part of a much longer PBS video about ice.

For January 27th, 2023

• Maho Takahashi creates sculptures using only pieces of pencil lead!

• Bees learn how to "play soccer" (and then teach their friends). Thanks to Don for sending in this related article.

• Some amazing behind-the-scenes footage of the stop-motion in Kubo and The Two Strings. The origami boat is particularly cool. Made here in Oregon!

• Raul Oaida and Steve Sammartino created a working car using half a million Lego bricks.

• Love this adorable miniature recreation of a Space Shuttle launch, using garlic and popcorn.

For February 3rd, 2023

• An intricate Raptor finger puppet from Barnaby Dixon. Love the sound effects

• Check out this super-powered magnet. My favorite moment is the vacuum around 2:00.

• Stunning paper letters from Sabeena Karnik. That Christmas tree is something else…

• A massive snowball rolls down a hill!

• A reader shared this hypnotic video of thousands of starlings flying in a formation known as a murmuration.

For February 10th, 2023

• 52 classical pieces from 31 composers all mashed up in this delightful video. Check out the comments at YouTube to see the list of songs.

• Hannu Huhtamo explains how he creates light paintings using long exposures. What a fun project!

• BMX champ Matthias Dandois shows off some nice tricks on a bike, all done on flat surfaces. No ramps or jumps! (Bonus Puzzlement: right at 2:38 you can see Shibuya Crossing – the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world!)

• Watch a set of Lego Mindstorms strumming (and fingering chords!) on an acoustic guitar.

• Using ink and water in an aquarium, Thomas Vanz creates imagery that looks like a supernova. My favorite moment is at 1:43. Here's the making-of video!

FOR February 17th, 2023

• An infinite Lego domino circle! 

• You won’t believe that these objects are made out of paper mâché. The detail on that drawer!

• The sounds of Yellowstone – along with some fantastic slow-mo video.

• What do you notice about world-class runners' form in slow motion? 

• This six-second time lapse represents 12 years of footage. You're looking at four exoplanets orbiting the star HR 8799 – over 133 lightyears away. Read more here.

For February 24th, 2023

• How to draw perfect circles by hand.

• Harbin, China, hosts an annual Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival featuring giant castles, pyramids, and animals, all made of ice and snow. 

• Mahmoud Tammam creates beautiful renditions of Arabic words, illustrated to match their literal meaning (so “dog” looks like a dog).

• In Hawaii, after a cliff collapsed, a steady stream of lava began pouring into the ocean, creating a pretty impressive sight.

• Watch this performing arts theater automatically transform its seating!

For March 3rd, 2023

• This fascinating bridge in the Dutch town of Leeuwarden is actually lifted out of place to let ships pass.

• Artist Seb Lester creates stunning calligraphy that starts with water.

• Love the many gangily arms on this Lego machine! From Berthil van Beek (whose YouTube channel is worth a look).

• Angelina Erhorn creates ceramic dishes that look like folded paper.

• It's time for some slow-motion magnet collisions! You can skip to the end to see how fast the collisions were in real time.

Puzzlements for March 17th, 2023

• Well, here's how paper is made. That thumbnail is quite the curiosity-provoker.

• The 2023 Underwater Photographer of the Year award winners. Gotta go with Suliman Alatiqi's The Trunk as my favorite. Thanks to several folks for sending this one in!

• The Mauritshuis museum, home of Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring, has loaned the famous painting out. Meanwhile, they're showing off a series of remixes and calling the exhibit My Girl With a Pearl!

• Check out this lovely leaf art from @lito_leafart. Lots more on the artist's Instagram. Thanks to Juliette for sending this one in!

• There's absolutely nothing creepy about this robotic mouth singing a little tune.

For March 31st, 2023

• It's a mushroom sorting machine! I love how they align the mushrooms and evenly slice the stems. 

• A 33-hour time-lapse of the cells of a tadpole egg dividing. The filmmaker, Francis Chee, built a custom microscope and lighting system to capture the action. And a follow-up video is here!

• This waving flag is not animated. So why does it wave? Backup link in case Twitter doesn’t work for you.

• Photographer Zack Seckler traveled 2,000 miles through South Africa, taking photos from a two-seater plane. Animal tracks, shadows, herds of flamingos, and a solo turtle look like abstract elements of a painting.

• Let's watch a baby giraffe run for the first time! Jump straight to the good stuff at 2:22.

For April 7th, 2023

• One of the original puzzlements! Why does this paper dinosaur keep turning its head to look at us! Bonus! Print and cut your own!

• A whole youtube channel of very fancy pancakes! My favorite is this: pancakes that look like bacon and eggs! Find many more at the TigerTomato YouTube Channel.

• Bookstore employees use forced perspective to make a book into their face.

• This adhesive tape has Lego-compatible stubs on one side. Imagine the possibilities!

• Helga Stentzel makes some pretty delightful art, including a series called Clothes Line Animals. 

For April 14th, 2023

• Here’s a strange-looking, real-life illusion! The camera’s shutter speed is the same as the helicopter’s rotors, so the blades appear to stay perfectly still as the chopper flies away.

• Incredible stop-motion using paper, plastic, and glass. Hayley Morris takes us behind the scenes of a clever music video.

• How they shoot videos for food commercials. 

• I expected the stuntman to jump, but not the camera operator! You get several angles of this stunt. (From a The Bourne Ultimatum behind-the-scenes featurette.)

• It's NBA Playoffs time! To celebrate, here's Steph Curry practicing three-pointers. How many can he make in a row? I watched it at 2× speed and noticed how consistent his shooting motion is. 

For April 21st, 2023

• Turkish artist Garip Ay recreates Van Gogh’s The Starry Night by painting on water, then destroys it and paints another Van Gogh! A perfect puzzlement for predicting. The moment when he adds yellow is pretty awesome. What will it become? You can learn more about Garip Ay and his techniques here.

• These glow worms are both strikingly beautiful and super gross. Their blue lights shining on hanging threads make their caves quite surreal. 

• It's NASA’s updated nighttime map of the world, lit only by human-created lights. So many patterns to investigate!

• How many handsprings can a human do in one minute? Of course, let your students predict, and then find out here. You might also show the three competitors first and let students make predictions. You'll see Li Jiamin right away, Hou Kai is at 1:10, and Ozell Williams starts at 2:29

• I'd really like to see this this giant octopus play structure in person! It was designed by Florentijn Hofman and is located in Shenzhen, China. Hofman's other works include a gigantic rubber duck that has traveled the world.

For April 28th, 2023

• Watch astronauts on the International Space Station play with a floating ball of liquid, injecting it with dyes.

• It's the world's smallest Rubik’s Cube. Just 6mm wide!

• A zoetrope is a classic animation tool. By spinning, it creates the illusion of movement. Then watch this 3D version at Disneyland. Instead of slits, it uses a strobe light. I also wrote about how that Toy Story zoetrope led to the Puzzlements newsletter.

• Artist Jonty Hurwitz creates strange sculptures that only look right when reflected by a cylinder. Pretty amazing! This video features a hand, and this one shows off a cat.

• Howard Lee paints invisible trees!

For May 5th, 2023

• A robot builds an infinite train track one piece at a time, just as the toy train needs it.

• Yes. Not only is this tempura shrimp meal adorably tiny, but it was also prepared with tiny equipment! Frying with candle power?  Much more here.

• Love this absurd animation from Florent Porta. 

• Magical long-exposure photographs of drones! This is called "light painting," and here's a (non-drone) tutorial from Jason Rinehart. See the final product at 3:21.

• Bowler Ben Ketola rolls a 300 in under 90 seconds using all of the lanes!