Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has an incredible set of stairs which were designed by a Filipino architect Rafael Nelson Aboganda ala Escher-style. An architectural marvel that seems to violate the laws of physics and basic logic by looping back into itself. An optical illusion you may actually participate in. More…
Category Archives: Science & Technology
Bowie’s “Space Oddity” as Sung from Space in the ISS 10
I have watched this over and over and over now. I love Bowie, especially this song, to being with. Then the slight edits to the song and adding in space – real space as the International Space Station orbits the earth – and you have one helluva remake of “Space Oddity.” More…
Awesome Video Features Stop-Start Motion Made with ATOMS! “A Boy and His Atom” 4
Yes, atoms. What you see in the video is 100 million times bigger than actual size. The actual device used in the lab that handles and moves the atoms is at -268° Centigrade (-450° Fahrenheit), which helps keep the atoms from moving around. FYI… 0° Kelvin, which is “Absolute Zero” – the point where everything, including molecular levels, freezes – is -273.15°C and -450.67°F. So they are very nearly at Absolute Zero. Remember, normally atoms they’re busy little buggers – always in motion. More…
What happens when you wring a washcloth in space? It may not be what you think. 6
Watching what life is like in zero-gravity in the International Space Station has always fascinated me as it does most people. I’ve seen liquids float around in little balls, the astronauts eat food floating in the air, and several other interesting things. So when I started to watch this video, I thought I knew what would happen, but figured it would be cool to watch just the same. Boy, was I surprised. It didn’t do anything like what I thought would happen. More…
Science is Awesome | Video 2
I love science. Always have and always will. Here is a cool video showing the more interesting side of chemistry. More…
German Solar Power Beats Nuclear Hands Down When Comparing TWh 10
This image that came across Facebook prompted me to do a bit of exploring. Just so you know right away, this graphic is not entirely correct, but close. LOL… one thing I definitely found was depending upon the site the information on energy production, consumption, waste, etc. varies enormously depending upon the website’s affiliation to what power source. I expected some favoritism, but found many creative ways for a website to promote it’s energy source with statistics. Funny how each energy source seems to be the best…. More…
The most phenomenal close-up photos of the sun… Absolutely breathtaking!! 2
These are definitely the most amazing, phenomenal photos of the sun I have ever seen! Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York is an amateur astrophotography who captures amazing photographs of the sun through a telescope in his backyard. He uses special filters that allow the photos to be captured without destroying his camera or his eyes. More…
Amazing Footage of Russian Meteorite as It Explodes Upon Impact | Video Photos 17
A 10-ton meteor streaked at supersonic speed over Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday, setting off blasts that injured hundreds of people possibly upwards to over a thousand. Many locals feared they were being bombed. Watch this first video below. I would think the exact same thing. The explosion shakes the ground. You can hear glass shattering all around the man taking the video. Car alarms go off all around. Then you see the people in the street panicking and running for cover. More…
Have some fun with Google Tricks 4
Here are all kinds of fun little things you can do with Google, most of which I didn’t know existed. More…
Beware of Email “Urgent notice about your electronic payments” 10
Hopefully more and more people are catching on, but please, do NOT believe emails like this. This email and it’s linked site is a scam, and they are hoping I will bite so they can phish my account and information. Since I don’t have a business account, then obviously (for me) this is a scam. More…
My Christmas Present to Myself: A Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 10.1 21
Yup, finally broke down and bought a tablet. I decided to when I saw an ad that it was $100 off at a store I’d rather not mention. Why? Because I don’t like “that store” at all, but $50 less than anywhere else had it priced on sale was enough to make me tolerate going inside “that place.” No, it wasn’t Walmart. It’s one of those big box electronic stores, but all they care about is up-selling, not really helping the person get what they want and caring about what their needs are. But since I know quite a bit more than the average buyer, it’s easy for me to tell the obnoxious employee to go…. away. The nice ones I may chat with, though, if I’m in a geekie mood.
Absolutely Ghastly Ways to Die… If You’re An Arthropod (a bug) 7
FYI… IzaakMak, you may want to skip this one.
An entertaining and informative article from Scientific American. Here are a few of the more horrifying ways a beetle can kick the bug-et (oh, ouch) or agonizing arthropod annihilations. After seeing these photos and reading the deathly demise of a dragonfly done in by another dastardly demon (hey, I’m trying…), I don’t feel quite so bad when I accidentally step on a crunchy creepy-crawly now. At least it’s quicker and much less painful than some of these ways….
The Parting Shot for October 31, 2012 8
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Bat embryos.
This image is very appropriate for Halloween night’s parting shot.
Click on this image to view in full size. It’s pretty cool!
Credit: Dorit Hockman Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience
Dorit Hockman impressed the judges in the 2012 Graduate School of Life Sciences Image Competition
with this collection of black mastiff bat embryos.
Each shows a more advanced stage of development, with noticeably longer wings and larger ears.
It’s Been a Great Day of Discovery 4
Surfing the internet
I was planning on working on one of my sites today, but never got around to it because I was checking out some awesome programs and apps I found on the internet. It all started out when I was checking the “Clicks” on my stat page. I watch all stats like a hawk and I want, and like, to know what links or images people are clicking on.
You may have already heard and used this online program I found, but it’s new to me and good enough to share. What that gophoto link took me to is an online program that is phenomenal!!! But let me back up just a bit.
The Parting Shot for August 31, 2012 Reply
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In honor of the Blue Moon we had tonight.
A blue moon is when there are two full moons in one month. More info available at Wikipedia
Photo/image credit: Unknown.
Curiosity Rover: Martian solar day 2 | Interactive 360 degree panoramic view 2
This is awesome! Photography taken by the Mars Rover, Curiosity, in a 360 degree panoramic view. Photography by Andres Bodrov. Taken at 14:23 on 14/08/2012.
Simply click and drag to go right, left, up, down, at an angle, whatever which way you want to view. Going down will also allow you a great view of the rover itself. Best to view in the FULL SCREEN (top left of the interactive screen below). The interactive movement is quick, so be careful how far you drag your mouse. You may also use your up/down, right/left keys to view – which is a bit easier and more controlled.
The Parting Shot for August 8, 2012 5
What a capture!!!!
Photo credit: Unknown
Photos from Mars, and Video of the Curiosity’s Landing 4
This certainly is not the first probe or rover to be sent to Mars, but for some reason, it seems like it to me. Perhaps it is due to the very intricate landing – which went off without a hitch, or perhaps it is simply due to the internet these days. Information and photos are available worldwide the very moment they are uploaded. I believe – with me, anyway – it is a combination of both. I have been completely enthralled with Curiosity and look forward to years of data sent back to earth.
Aussie Builds Hoverbike | Commute like the Jetsons 8
Ah, yes. Remember the cartoon The Jetsons? The intro shows the family zipping around in their carlike aircraft just the same as we do now in cars, trucks, motorcycles and other types of road transportation. I never imagined that a flight craft would be invented within my lifetime that was small enough and fast enough to be considered as a means of directly from your home to the parking lot at work, or the grocery, or the gym…. And I mean a type of flying “vehicle” that does not need a runway to take off or land, nor require a large amount of space to land (i.e. the blades on a helicopter). Additionally, a creation that also does not necessitate a pilot’s license which costs thousands of dollars of schooling – not to mention having to log enough flight hours to keep a license valid.
The Parting Shot for July 5, 2012 9
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Lost: Wormhole
Do NOT attempt capture because you’ll totally screw with the space/time continuum, bro.
Credit: Unknown
The Dog Particle 11
Some more cheesy humor about the CERN’s recent discovery of the Higgs boson, aka “The God Particle.”
Woof!
The Higgs boson walks into a church… 6
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. It’s a “groaner” alright.
The Higgs boson walks into a church. The priest says we don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here. The Higgs boson says but without me how can you have mass?
Symphony of Science Mash-Up Video in Honor of the God Particle Discovery Reply
Here is a great video mash-up created by the Symphony of Science in honor of the recent announcement today of the discovery of the Higgs boson, otherwise known as the God Particle.
“I think we have it,” said Rolf-Dieter Heuer, the director general of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research located in Geneva, Switzerland. The agency is home to the Large Hadron Collider, the immense particle accelerator that produced the new data by colliding protons. The findings were announced by two separate teams. Dr. Heuer called the discovery “a historic milestone.”
Mister Rogers Remixed | Garden of Your Mind | PBS Digital Studios 7
Mister Rogers remixed by Symphony of Science’s John D. Boswell for PBS Digital Studios. This is actually an excellent remix and video. Never in my life ever imagined Mister Rogers in a remix, but hey, with today’s technology anything is possible.
The inspiration for the video, as explained by PBS on their YouTube page:
Having Problems with Flash Videos Working in Mozilla Firefox? 15
Recently, Adobe Flash Player updated to a new Flash Player 11 version… and Firefox Ver. 13.0.1 just did not seem to like it. I read through a lot of forums which was a lot of opinions of “why this” and “they don’t like that”… basically, internet politics and propriety bullshit.
I just want the damn flash videos to be able to play in Firefox (i.e. YouTube and other flash-formatted videos). I do use Chrome, but I’m a two-browser person, so I use Chrome for some of my internet sites and functions, and I use Firefox for others. Motley News and Photos is a Firefox function as are all the blogs I subscribe to. And the ONLY time I use IE is at work because our reservation system was built by some idiot developers who created it to only work in the back end (admin) in Internet Explorer. Sorry Mac and Linux users, this company (cough cough SignUp4) decided to develop proprietary only.
