Sci Fi Jungle

Spooky Spider

I snapped this Daddy Longlegs at the Greenway linear park in Alpharetta.  Eeek!

Huge Monster Insect

The hubster went to meet me for lunch the other day and look what he found sitting on the roof of his car - this preying mantis was like 5 inches tall and 2-3 inches long.  He named it "Ginormicus" and took a picture before chasing it off the car with a piece of paper.

They eat insects so I am happy they are out there chomping up the mosquitos.  Natural composter!

HD Broadcast of Earth from the ISS Coming - UrtheCast

UrtheCast, a Calgary-based company, is set to operate and launch the world's very first live streaming high definition broadcast of Earth. Two HD cameras will be installed aboard the International Space Station.

via www.digitaljournal.com

What a cool idea - this company UrtheCast (pronounced EarthCase) is going to mount 2 HD cameras onto the ISS and broadcast HD quality video of Earth from space.

Designed to be a kind of cross between Google Earth and YouTube, I can see how cool this will be. Supposedly you will be able to zoom into global events and then watch them real time. It will be streamed over the internet.  I wonder what they will do for sounds.  Probably won't need speaker stands for this.

I am ready to paint "Hi There" on my roof!

Just Some Rain and Lightning

We has some major storms come through last night.  The lightning was almost contstant.  I took a litte video for your pleasure.  Mostly just some nice rain and thunder sounds with one or two flashes.   There was a tornado watch and hail reported locally, but we were unscathed here in John's Creek GA. 

By the way, today I learned that the French word for computers is ordinateurs.

 

Beautiful Aurora Borealis Video

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

This is an incredible stop action video of the aurora borealis.  Here is some information from the Vimeo page for the video:

I spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years. Here are some details from the Vimeo page for the video:

Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun.

Big thanks to the guys over at dynamicperception.com for their amazing all-in-one motion control dolly.

More info on tesophotography.com

Music is Gladiator soundtrack "Now we are free"

David Suzuki on Anti Science Republicans

David Suzuki: Politicians who reject science are not fit to lead | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

This is a good article by scientist David Suzuki. He starts out explaining how the pro-science United States furthered his academic career, but then busts into the current crop of anti-science Republicans and the damage they do.

The danger in anti-science politicians comes not only from their legislative powers, but also their effect on the public psyche.

An example of how this can be seen is the statistic that "80 percent of Canadians believe in the science behind climate change, compared to only 58 percent of U.S. citizens."

Great article. Now, can we please vote out these "dinosaur-and-people-lived-together" idiots out of office? Quick before they try to cut your Medicare part D plan.

Happy International Observe the Moon Night

More than 278 moon-watching events in 40 countries are planned for the International Observe the Moon Night event on Saturday (Sept. 18

via www.foxnews.com

photo courtesy Wikipedia

It's International Observe the Moon Night - so get out there and take a look.  The moon regulates our tides, our body cycles, and probably will increase your natural testosterone.  Just kidding about that one folks!  LOL.  It won't make you into a lunatic at least and its the easiest thing to see in the night sky. 

Crevices, Wrinkles, and Voids in Time

There are tiny crevices, wrinkles and voids in time. Down at the smallest of scales, smaller even than molecules, smaller than atoms, we get to a place called the quantum foam. This is where wormholes exist. Tiny tunnels or shortcuts through space and time constantly form, disappear, and reform within this quantum world. And they actually link two separate places and two different times.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

All I have to say is this is some heavy duty sh*t. I read about half this article before my brain got tired, but I will finish it tomorrow when I have more mental energy.

I am still reeling over the idea of crevices, wrinkles, and voids in time.

Stephen Hawking is bad ass. I hope he is wrong about aliens being a threat to us, though.  (Hope springs eternal.)

I think the crevices, wrinkles, and voids in time probably explain why I feel so much deja vu and then get confused. Maybe not, but its a pretty wild idea. If you walk into one of these nano-wormholes and it hits a brain cell there goes whatever you were thinking about.

If there is a way to travel through time, I think it might not be such a good idea to actually do it.  I recommend we slap an exit alarm on "now "and lets try to be like Buddha and live in the moment.

NASA Infrared Image Shows Cosmic "Rosebud"

A new infrared image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows a cosmic rosebud blossoming with new stars. The stars, called the Berkeley 59 cluster, are the blue dots to the right of the image center. They are ripening out of the dust cloud from which they formed, and at just a few million years old, are young on stellar time scales.

via www.sciencedaily.com

Here's your totally cool NASA image for the day. Just beautiful.  I find looking at images from the WISE project, and Hubble telescope to be so so inspiring.  The seemingly randomness of space comes over like beautiful art.

Of course they use just the most spectacular images to show the public.  The boring ones that look like "space eczema" don't make the cut to get published to the web site.

What Color are Your Dinosaur Feathers?

A. huxleyi had black and gray body plumage, the team’s investigations suggest. And while the long feathers on the front and side of the creature’s crest were gray, those sprouting from the top and back of its head were reddish-brown. Along with reddish-brown spots on its head and neck, A. huxleyi sported white racing stripes on its legs and its winglike forelimbs.

via www.wired.com

Scientists have mapped out the color scheme of the feathers on dinosaur Anchiornis huxleyi. From the picture it looks a bit like Woody Woodpecker crossed with your worst scary nightmare. Cool!  I wonder if this is what the myth of the dragon came from?  Add some smoke from an electronic cigarette to the model and imagine its a dragon.