Writing: All of these shows are what we might call 'clever,' which is generally a big selling point for me. Unexpected, heavily layered, structurally complex writing for comedic effect - a lot of recursive, iteratively growing humor. They're all also quite big on dialogue, and are comparatively 'dark'.

Themes: All of them also feature self-destructive and dysfunctional characters, to different degrees. In addition to this:

Rick & Morty: Does brilliant deconstruction of science fiction concepts without a condescending outside perspective. An amazing example is (spoilers) the time that Rick makes Cronenbergs of the entire global population, or the time that Morty's indecisiveness creates split quantum timelines.

Potentially good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5A5Mb__fiA

Always Sunny: Never shies away from exploring the darkest consequences of its incredibly self-absorbed, idiotic, low attention span, high energy, self-destructive cast.

Potentially good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_49P1RtqU0

Arrested Development: ...I'm not good at writing these synopses; I just wanted to see if I could figure out why I love these shows so much. Anyway, Arrested Development is the most heavily layered of all of them, so in just a few episodes it builds up an incredible library of call-backs, double meanings, etc. It's also less abrasive than the other two, if you have something against offensive shows.

...I don't know if there any good example scenes. You should just watch it.

Perhaps tiny fibers are interlocking, causing an effect along the lines of layering alternating pages of two phone books? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOt-D_ee-JE

Never mind, apparently sports writing can get pretty gross... "Jason Whitlock, a black sports writer, slammed Williams in a 2009 Fox Sports column for having "chosen to smother" her beauty "in an unsightly layer of thick, muscled blubber." His main gripe, unsurprisingly, was about what he called her "oversized back pack." He explained, "I am not fundamentally opposed to junk in the trunk, although my preference is a stuffed onion over an oozing pumpkin.""

Makes me want to try this out and then pick up the bubble. So cool to see that it doesn't pop on impact. I guess the cold air makes it more difficult to pop because the outside layer is in the middle of freezing? I'm not a science nerd so I'm just assuming that.

This type of concrete (or something very similar) has been in use since 1973 in the Netherlands. Currently about 90% of the Dutch highways use this. Its big advantages are less noise, less aqua planning and more visibility due to less water from tires. Its disadvantages are somewhat less grip, more wear and issues with freezing. The freezing doesnt necessarily break the concrete but any salts used to de-ice the road will also be washed away meaning that the top layer of the road will often be very slippery. In the Netherlands, with between 23 and 46 days with temperatures below zero on average, the amount of trouble that causes is acceptable compared to the advantages.

It could also be my monitor causing the subtleties to stand out, but If you kind of step back and look at him, he's quite yellow in some areas, quite red in others, and you can see brush strokes between some of the layers of makeup.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

It'll haunt me forever ... that vertical iPhone shot. Seriously though pretty cool - that glass break at the end looked very real, were there multiple layers there?

I'd guess that it would cause warping as the structure got bigger, they need the previous layers to cool rapidly to prevent deformation (although the previous layer needs to be hot enough to get a good water tight bond). Coming up with the right temp so that it forms a seamless flat surface would be difficult without causing running.

Not to be "that guy" (okay, what the hell, I love being "that guy") but aside from arty stuff, light shades, the aforementioned ashtrays and perhaps some really funky vases/glasses, this really seems to be limited by the method of extrusion and the refraction caused by having so many curved surfaces throughout the piece.

So to make it seamless would they need to up the ambient temperature plus the speed of the nozzle? Or could they just make the nozzle quick enough that the previous layer hadn't started to cool before the next one hit?

I like that idea - you could even grow a layer of delicious fruit over the painting, so that only true fruit lovers could get to appreciate the artwork

Your video, Journey through the layers of the mind, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Terrorist attacks are more multifaceted.

First, they are an opportunity to generate work for the defense industry.

Second, they are usually for a reason. Often some angst over our own actions in foreign countries. For example, the news says AQ is a bunch of crazies that hate freedom, however AQs demands prior to 9/11 were to get our military out of the holyland. While that's not an offense that deserves blowing up buildings, it is definitely not the same as some banal excuse like hating freedom.

Thirdly, they are often perpetrated by some persons/groups that we had a hand in creating. We install the mujahedin in Afghanistan, knowing full well what they'll do to women, and then use their treatment of women as one excuse to later invade. Saddam worked for us, was egged on to fight Iran, was egged on to suppress insurgents (the 'own people he gassed'), and we later used his actions as one excuse to invade.

At the time, the mujaheddin was useful for fighting Russia as a proxy. At the time, Saddam was useful for perpetuating a war where we sold arms to both sides. Afterwards, they were useful for scaremongering so we could perpetuate war when otherwise things got too quiet and folks would ask about why we're spending big $$$ on defense.. (In the mean time hand-waving the much more direct 9/11 Saudi connection).

... Plus if on the off chance things do 'settle down' in areas we invade, that creates new markets for US companies to peddle their wares. You can reopen the Khyber pass for western land trade with Asia, you can build an oil pipeline, and you can prevent a euro based oil exchange from opening in the middle east. All things that benefit our industry.

So in practice, as far as big industry is concerned, there's a utility in 'fighting terrorism' (and perpetuating terrorism) that just doesn't exist with internal shootings. As such, unless another 'evil empire' shows up, the terrorism cow is gonna get milked for the foreseeable future.

Sure, there's a rhetoric about preventing terrorism, but our actions do nothing to that effect. It's just a statement that's useful in manufacturing consent.

There's a particular irony, though. That is, that while such behavior is 'not very nice' (to put it mildly), it does however provide for our security by keeping our armed forces exercised, prepared, and up to date - such that if a real threat were to emerge, our military would be ready at that time. While that seems unlikely, when you look back in history at previous major conflicts, most were precipitated rather quickly, on the order of months (it takes many years to design and build equipment for a military, and the first ~half a year of any major war has been fought with what was on hand). So in a round-about, rather evolutionary way, perpetuating threats actually does make us safer as a whole.

To clarify the word 'evolutionary' : Take 10 microbes. All 10 have no militant nature. None are made for combat. It only takes 1 to mutate and become belligerent in order to erase all the others from existence. If some others also mutate to be combative, they will survive. The non combative are lost, their reproductive lines cut off. As there's always a chance to mutate to anything at any time, eventually, there is a combative mutation. So, all life on earth has a militant nature at some layer of abstraction - those that exist are those that successfully resisted some force (or parried the force to its benefit. Like plants that use a plant eater's dung to fertilize the seeds of the eaten fruit).

The relationship holds true at a biological level, interpersonal, societal, national, and international level. Societies that allow the kind of educational and military development that leads to victory, are those that have dominated the planet socially and economically. For example, Europe's centuries of infighting made it resistant to invasions from the Mongols, Caliphates, etc, and ultimately led to the age of colonialism. For the strengths built with infighting, are later leveraged for expansion. As such, the use of "terrorism" to perpetuate conflict, is ultimately an exercise in developing strength that can later be leveraged.

Our national policy is largely developed in think tanks, and those organizations are planning lifetimes ahead. So these kinds of considerations are very relevant.

TL/DR : Yes, agreed, the terrorism thing is B.S. on many levels.

-scheherazade

It's all vector. The first part is lower power, so it's cutting through to a different layer to the second part, hence the different colours. That's why the flame is so much larger for the second part.

Another interesting part for me was the sound. There must be some great patterns that would sound incredible as they were etched.

When I watch videos like this, the first thing I think of (other than how beautiful the earth is) is how thin is the layer of air that all 7 billion of us live in and rely upon to sustain us. And how stupid it is for anybody to think that our activities couldn't possibly have any effect on it.