VALIS Studio

VALIS is an immersive studio that deploys emergent tech to create new forms of storytelling. UTFT.

[VALIS Studio @valisstudio]

@twoclipping SEEDANCE

[VALIS Studio @valisstudio]

@armaxnpuri @Mho_23 UGC

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

If you're under 53 years old, you have never once been alive while a human was farther than 250 miles from Earth. Tonight, four astronauts are heading 252,000 miles out. That's a thousand times farther than any person has gone in your lifetime.

The 250-mile ceiling is where the International Space Station floats. Every astronaut since December 1972 has been stuck in that zone. Spacewalks, science experiments, cool photos from orbit, sure. But nobody left the neighborhood.

The last crew to go farther was Apollo 17. December 1972. Nixon was president. The internet didn't exist. Cell phones were 11 years away. The youngest member of that crew is now 90 years old.

The farthest any human has ever been from Earth is 248,655 miles. The Apollo 13 crew set that number in 1970, and they didn't mean to. Their oxygen tank blew up, and the emergency route home took them farther out than anyone before or since. Tonight's crew will break that record on purpose.

And the crew itself. Victor Glover becomes the first Black astronaut to leave Earth's neighborhood. Christina Koch becomes the first woman. Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian fighter pilot, becomes the first non-American to do so. When they come home, they'll slam into the atmosphere at 25,000 mph, faster than any human has ever traveled.

The Moon's south pole has ice. Water ice, sitting in craters so deep that sunlight hasn't hit them in billions of years. A 2024 NASA study found way more of it than anyone expected. You can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which gives you rocket fuel, breathable air, and drinking water, all made on the Moon instead of hauled up from Earth. George Sowers at Colorado School of Mines calculated that Moon-made fuel could shave $12 billion off a single trip to Mars. The Moon is a gas station on the road to Mars.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced last week a $20 billion plan to build a permanent base at the South Pole over the next seven years, with landings every six months. China is developing its own lunar lander and spacesuit, aiming for a crewed landing by 2030. The Artemis program has burned through $93 billion so far, and the first actual surface landing is penciled in for 2028. There's a real question of who gets there first this time around.

Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon in December 1972 as part of Apollo 17. He's 90. Asked about it this week, he sounded pretty relaxed. "Mars is attainable," he said. "We're humans. That's what we've always done."

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: Meta announces they'll be shutting down the Metaverse, after pouring $80,000,000,000.00 into the project.

[Moon Dragon @frozenaesthetic]

Emotions that don't exist in English:

Sonder (German)

The realization that every stranger you pass has a life as vivid and complex as your own

Mono no aware (Japanese)

The gentle sadness of knowing everything beautiful is temporary and loving it more because it will not last

Merak (Serbian)

A deep sense of contentment found in small moments. Shared laughter, warm light and feeling fully present

Iktsuarpok (Inuit)

The restless anticipation that makes you keep checking the door, waiting for someone who has not arrived yet

Toska (Russian)

A quiet heavy ache with no clear cause. A sadness that settles in and refuses to explain itself

Forelsket (Norwegian)

The euphoric rush of falling in love, before reality has a chance to interrupt it

Kilig (Tagalog, Philippines)

The sudden flutter in your chest when affection catches you off guard, a warmth that arrives before logic does

Hiraeth (Welsh)

A deep longing for a home that no longer exists, or maybe never did. A homesickness for a feeling rather than a place

[Freyy @Freyy_is]

nobody talks about how genuinely wild music is at a fundamental level. an instrument disturbs air molecules. those molecules cross a room and reach your ear. your ear transforms that into electricity.

that electricity shifts your consciousness. and without any coordination, without any shared culture or language, every single human society that has ever existed found their way to this. that is one of the most profound things about being human.

[primadonna @versaceschanel]

major gag occurred.. rosalía arrived, served insane vocals and choreo, looked gorgeous, orchestra behind her, switched the genre and shook the british tea tables https://t.co/b8XcGWpaC9

[Kekius Maximus @Kekius_Sage]

🚨Scientists have now found all of the DNA and RNA bases in meteorites

This suggests humans didn’t originate on Earth — we came from space.

[Carla ❁ @shannonlada]

🇧🇷🥇 En 102 años de existencia de los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno, ningún atleta sudamericano había ganado nunca una medalla.

Eso cambió con el esquiador alpino Lucas Pinheiro y su histórico oro para Brasil. #MilanoCortina2026

[Rothmus 🏴 @Rothmus]

I have been trying to find this for over 30 years.

Kids today don’t know how good they got it.

[DepressedBergman @DannyDrinksWine]

"Cinema is my country, my family. My religion is cinema."

--- François Truffaut

Remembering François Truffaut on his 94th birthday.

Full Excerpt:

"I don’t live outside cinema.

I want to make normal films—that is my life.

I am rather inclined to turn away from real life, I take refuge in cinema.

I like life in moderation.

I nevertheless feel I am living a more normal life when I am involved in a shoot.

Cinema is my country, my family. My religion is cinema."

('Truffaut on Cinema', Anne Gillain, translated by Alistair Fox, 2017)

Clip from:

La nuit américaine (1973)
Director: François Truffaut

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

Nine days after Star Wars opened in 1977, Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) wrote in his diary: ‘Am pinning my hopes on Star Wars percentage which could bring me £100K or more if it does Jaws business, as predicted.’ He ended up earning an estimated $95 million for what amounted to 20 minutes of screen time.

When Star Wars premiered in May 1977, even its cast and crew had little idea of the cultural juggernaut it would become. Alec Guinness, already an accomplished actor with an Academy Award to his name, viewed his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi with some skepticism. In fact, he reportedly found some of the dialogue clunky and even doubted whether the film would resonate with audiences. Yet, shrewdly, Guinness negotiated a deal that included a small percentage of the film’s profits—something highly unusual at the time for an actor in his position.

Just nine days after the movie’s release, Guinness confided in his diary that he was hopeful the percentage might yield him around £100,000 if the film managed to perform like Spielberg’s Jaws. What unfolded was beyond his imagination: Star Wars exploded into a worldwide phenomenon, earning hundreds of millions and spawning a multi-decade franchise. Guinness’s share ultimately netted him an estimated $95 million over the years for less than half an hour of actual screen time.

His decision remains one of the most legendary deals in Hollywood history—a testament to foresight, negotiation, and a little bit of luck. Obi-Wan Kenobi became not only an iconic character but also a financial windfall Guinness could never have predicted.

© Hollywood Historia

#archaeohistories

[Kateri Seraphina @KateriSeraphina]

Anthony Hopkins ne trouvait aucun exemplaire du livre à Londres. Il s'assit alors sur un banc de métro.
C'était en 1973. Hopkins venait d'obtenir un rôle dans un film intitulé *La Fille de Petrovka*, adapté d'un roman du journaliste américain George Feifer.

Comme tout acteur sérieux, il voulait lire le livre original. Il passa une journée entière à fouiller les librairies de la célèbre Charing Cross Road à Londres.
Rien. Le livre était introuvable au Royaume-Uni.

Frustré et épuisé, Hopkins entra dans la station de métro Leicester Square pour prendre le train et rentrer chez lui.
C'est alors qu'il remarqua quelque chose sur un banc.

Quelqu'un avait oublié un livre.
Il le ramassa. Le retourna.

*La Fille de Petrovka*.

Le livre exact qu'il cherchait depuis le matin, abandonné sur un banc de métro dans une ville de huit millions d'habitants.

Hopkins n'en revenait pas. Il l'emporta chez lui, le lut et remarqua quelque chose d'inhabituel. Les marges étaient remplies de notes manuscrites à l'encre rouge. Des annotations. Quelqu'un avait soigneusement annoté tout le livre.

Il n'y pensa pas plus. Il utilisa les notes pour mieux comprendre son personnage, se prépara pour le rôle et rangea discrètement cette coïncidence parmi les étranges moments de la vie.

Quelques mois plus tard, Hopkins se rendit à Vienne, où le film était tourné.
Un jour, sur le plateau, on lui présenta un visiteur.

George Feifer. L'auteur du livre.

Ils parlèrent du film, des personnages, de l'histoire. Puis Feifer mentionna quelque chose qui laissa Hopkins sans voix.
« Je n'ai plus d'exemplaire de mon propre livre », dit Feifer. « J'ai prêté mon exemplaire personnel à un ami il y a des années. Il contenait toutes mes notes dans les marges. Il l'a perdu quelque part à Londres. Je ne l'ai jamais revu depuis. »

Hopkins sentit ses cheveux se dresser sur la nuque.
« J'ai trouvé un exemplaire », dit-il lentement. « Sur un banc dans le métro. Il est rempli de notes manuscrites. »

Feifer le regarda avec incrédulité.

Hopkins alla chercher le livre et le tendit à l'auteur.
Feifer pâlit.

C'était son exemplaire. Son écriture. Ses annotations. Le livre personnel qu'il avait perdu des années auparavant – oublié par hasard sur un banc de métro, au moment précis où Anthony Hopkins, l'acteur qui en avait le plus besoin, s'y asseyait.

Dans une ville de millions d'habitants. À travers des milliers de rues. Parmi des centaines de stations de métro.

Le bon livre. Le bon banc. Le bon moment.

George Feifer a retrouvé son livre perdu. Anthony Hopkins a gagné une histoire qu'il raconterait toute sa vie.

Carl Jung appelait cela la synchronicité – l'idée que les coïncidences significatives ne sont pas aléatoires, mais font partie d'un schéma plus profond tissé dans la réalité.
Hopkins a toujours été fasciné par cette idée. Il a parlé d'apprendre à simplement s'émerveiller de la vie.

« Je ne sais pas s'il existe un plan directeur », a-t-il dit un jour. « Mais parfois, il se passe des choses trop parfaites pour être expliquées. »

Peut-être était-ce de la chance. Peut-être était-ce le destin. Peut-être était-ce l'univers qui souriait discrètement.

Ou peut-être, juste peut-être, certains livres sont-ils destinés à trouver leurs lecteurs.
Et certaines histoires sont-elles destinées à être racontées.

[John Watches Horror @Y2John84]

In Memory of Rutger Hauer

23 January 1944 - 19 July 2019

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

David Lynch reflects on life and the idea of death.

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

Film shots inspired by paintings.

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

Celebrating the 80th Birthday of not just a superstar artist, but a superstar human being. Dolly Parton.

Dolly and Kermit singing Everyday People (1987)

[Be A King @BerniceKing]

This #MLKDay, let’s join my father in having the AUDACITY TO BELIEVE…and to be love in acting according to our belief. #MLK #MartinLutherKingJr

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Martin Luther King Jr. understood better than almost anyone that racial justice and economic justice are inextricably intertwined. Watch his powerful call to end poverty from his final Sunday Sermon.