After spending a couple of minutes manually removing near-duplicate frames from some timelapse footage, thinking to myself this would be an ideal task to automate, I suddenly remembered FFmpeg had just the tool for the job.

One line in the terminal finished in under 2 minutes what likely would have taken me hours to do manually:

ffmpeg -i original.mp4 -vf mpdecimate,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -preset veryfast -c:a copy output.mp4

Worthwhile noting that the above command sequence is also optimized to keep the resultant file size relatively small & is definitely not suitable for Hollywood-level production output.

An elaborately decorated Lépine-style watch movement, likely produced in the mid-to-late 1800s.

Long overdue for service & in need of some attention in a number of areas—as evidenced by the regulator being advanced well past the end of the balance cock by its late owner.

Strolling the boardwalks at Parc National de Plaisance with the kids last week, we kept walking into long, thin strands of spider silk. Eventually, we spotted one of the culprits atop a rail & could see the threads it was spinning high into the air glimmering in the sun. It brought to mind some footage I'd seen on the BBC a while back documenting how spiders fly. Sure enough, we stuck around for another minute or two & got to see the little guy take to the skies.

I'd never have stopped to watch had I not known that it was feasible for spiders to fly (apparently by leveraging the Atmospheric Potential Gradient—a globe-spanning electric circuit that is perpetually present in the atmosphere). In the event you never knew, now you do & perhaps, someday, can witness the magic of wingless, natural flight firsthand, too.

🎥 BBC Footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSG4cFysbGU

🔬 Research from Bristol University https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2018/july/spiders-electric-fields-.html

🥾 Parc National de Plaisance https://www.sepaq.com/pq/pla/information.dot?language_id=1

The Northern Ontario settlement of Pringle, along the Trans-Canada Highway, is authentically in the realm of blink and you'll miss it.

https://goo.gl/maps/zNN3WCHkej1Kei1X7

Quixotically, the only sign for it is appropriately coloured & an ideal silhouette of its modern counterpart. It's even been bolted to the tree for enough time that the growth of the trunk has pushed it out into a Pringle-like shape.