Clipmarks |

Outstanding Nudes

Mon, 05 May 2008 12:15:12 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Please see site for credits. It takes a while to load but there are hundreds pf astounding images.

Clip Source: xupacabras.weblog.com.pt

Fotos de Laurence Demaison

Tags: photography, nudes

Gephyrophobiacs: look away now

Mon, 05 May 2008 15:17:10 GMT

clipped by: alanocu
clipper's remarks: Just when you think you’ve seen every type of bridge possible.......

You may need to scroll over to the right of the clip window to see the images....coolio design...!

Also a video at the source: http://deputy-dog.com/2008/05/05/gephyrophobiacs-look-away-now/

Clip Source: deputy-dog.com

just when you think you’ve seen every type of bridge possible.

this is the sky bridge in langkawi, malaysia, a stunning cable-stayed bridge which actually curves around the single support column from which it’s suspended, 687 metres above sea level. completed in october 2004, the structure relies on an 87 metre high support column to hold the weight of the deck, this weight distributed through 8 load balancing cables attached to its head.

whilst the upsides are incredible views and a testament to engineering brilliance, the downside for gephyrophobiacs is that you’re seemingly placing all your trust in a single, relatively thin lattice tower which also happens to be standing at an angle. of course this is essential for the bridge to stay upright (a quality i always look for in a bridge) but visually it couldn’t be more frightening.

all in all, a unique feat of engineering.

sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Tags: bridges, malaysia, architecture, design

Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:18:55 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

HABITS are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation.

So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

Tags: habits, change, brain

Could Jupiter wreck the solar system?

Sun, 04 May 2008 12:13:24 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: "So what's the likelihood Mercury could crash into the Earth? If it did, the asteroid that most likely wiped out the dinosaurs will seem like a drop in the ocean compared with a planet 4880 km in diameter slamming into us. There will be very little left after this wrecking ball impact.

But here's the kicker: There is only a 1% chance that these gravitational instabilities of the inner Solar System are likely to cause any kind of chaos before the Sun turns into a Red Giant and swallows Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars in 7 billion years time. So, no need to look out for death-wish Mercury quite yet… there's a very low chance that any of this will happen. But some good news for Mars; the researchers have also found that if the chaos does ensue, the Red Planet may be flung out of the Solar System, possibly escaping our expanding Sun. So, let's get those Mars colonies started! Well, within the next few billions of years anyhow…"

Good stuff for the next science-fiction movie

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Could Jupiter Wreck the Solar System?

Happily orbiting the Sun, the eight planets (plus Pluto and other minor planets) appear to have a high degree of long-term gravitational stability. But Jupiter has a huge gravitational influence over its siblings, especially the smaller planets.

The huge gravitational pull of Jupiter seems to be bullying Mercury into an increasingly eccentric death-orbit, possibly flinging the cosmic lightweight into the path of Venus. To make things worse, there might be dire consequences for Earth…

The researchers

Jacques Laskar

Konstantin Batygin

and Gregory Laughlin

formulate four possible scenarios as to what may happen as Mercury gets disturbed:

Mercury will crash into the Sun
Mercury will be ejected from the solar system altogether
Mercury will crash into Venus
Mercury will crash into Earth

The last option is obviously the worst case scenario for us, but all will be bad news for Mercury, the small planet's fate appears to be sealed.

Tags: science, space, astronomy

Where America's River Dissolves into the Sea

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:07:28 GMT

clipped by: alanocu
clipper's remarks: The exhibit Birdfoot: Where America's River Dissolves into the Sea, is on view at CLUI Los Angeles until May 18, 2008. It was presented using the CLUI's "photoscape" presentation method, a series of photographs and text presented sequentially as a looping digital "slideshow," 35 minutes long. The soundscape, a suitably ambient meandering music, was a recording made by Chas Smith, called "Endless Mardi Gras,"

The article at the source is really interesting: http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/lotl/v31/index.html

Clip Source: www.clui.org

The Birdfoot - the end of the Mississippi River
USGS satellite image

Contrary to popular belief, the Mississippi River does not stop at New Orleans. Downstream there is another hundred miles of river, flowing between parallel levee walls, until the levees stop and the river splays out into the Gulf, and ends.

This is the forgotten, ignoble end of the river that drains nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states.

The end of the road at the end of the river.

The last road downstream on the Mississippi turns to dirt, and ends at a concrete pad where oil tanks once stood, before being damaged by Katrina.

The concrete pedestrian pathway is the main street through the mostly abandoned buildings of Pilottown,

In Pilottown

Artificial islands constructed to counteract land loss in the Birdfoot.

Looking upstream from the Head of Passes, where the Mississippi splits into the three main channels

The battered marina at Port Eads

The bar pilots station

,Birdfoot: Where America's River Dissolves into the Sea

Tags: mississippi, photoscape

Liesegang Rings

Sun, 04 May 2008 22:51:33 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: irna.lautre.net

These shapes are in fact well known by the geologists: they are "Liesegang rings" or "bandings", rings or bands made by diffusion and precipitation of various metallic elements (usually iron, but it can also be manganese, aluminium...), transported by water diffusing accross a porous stone. One of the most reknown instance of these "Liesegang bandings" are the famous colored sandstones of Petra in Jordania:

but they are found quite frequently in other sandstones all over the world:

Clip Source: irna.lautre.net

Tags: geology, rocks

Birds can 'see' the Earth's magnetic field

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:59:25 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

It has been debated for nearly four decades but no one has yet been able to prove it is chemically possible. Now good evidence suggests that birds can actually "see" the lines of the Earth's magnetic field.

Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois, proposed forty years ago that some animals – including migratory birds – must have molecules in their eyes or brains which respond to magnetism.

The problem has been that no one has been able to find a chemical sensitive enough to be influenced by Earth's weak geomagnetic field.

Now Peter Hore and colleagues at the University of Oxford have found one.

Cryptochromes are a class of light-sensitive proteins found in plants and animals

A few years ago, Henrik Mouritsen of the University of Oldenburg in Germany showed that they were present in the retinal neurons of migratory garden warblers, and that these cells were active at dusk, when the warblers were performing magnetic orientation.

Tags: biology, bird's navigation, perception

Ancient Chaiten Volcano Erupts after 10,000 Years

Sun, 04 May 2008 03:28:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: news.aol.com

The Chaiten volcano spewed light ash on a nearly deserted village Saturday, two days after its first eruption in thousands of years

Just six miles away, the volcano belched fat smoke plumes that at times rose as high as 12 miles into the air, the government's Emergency Bureau said.

Winds carried the ash to other towns in the region and across the Andes mountains to Argentina, where two airlines suspended flights due to poor visibility.

The Chaiten volcano has "probably been dormant for about 9,000 or 10,000 years but that's not unusual," said Charles Stern, a professor of volcanology at the University of Colorado who specializes in Andes volcanoes.

"This could be the end of our town,"

"We have worked an entire life here and now all we could do was to put a few things in a bag and depart, leaving everything behind."

10 Incredible Old Magazine Covers

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:13:20 GMT

clipped by: WebWolf Hosting

Clip Source: www.oddee.com

10 Incredible Old Magazine Covers

Cosmopolitan (1942)

Future President Gerald Ford, in his younger days as a male model

Time (May 7 - 1945)

Cover on Hitler's death

Scientific American (1906)

"Panama Canal Plan approved by Pres. Roosevelt"

Radio Electronics (1949)

Featuring the "Radio Hat", a two tube battery operated radio.

Modern Mechanix (1936)

Featuring what could be the first Jet ski

Life (1959)

To get this photo for the November 9, 1959, cover, the great portraitist Philippe Halsman needed Marilyn Monroe to jump 200 times.

Sports Illustrated (1954)

First Issue

Cosmopolitan (1897)

College Humor Magazine (1925)

College Humor was a popular humor magazine from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Now the name is more famous for the website CollegeHumor.com

Time (1984)

Featuring Bill Gates for the first time

Has the heaviest element been found?

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:29:36 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Could a superheavy element – heavier than anything previously found in nature or made in the lab – exist naturally in the rocks of Earth? A team of physicists says they have detected a few exceptionally massive atoms – which they say could be element 122 – in a solution prepared from natural minerals. But other scientists are highly sceptical of the claim.

The heaviest element known to occur in nature is uranium, which contains only 92 protons, putting it 30 places below the putative new element in the periodic table. In the laboratory, physicists have managed to create elements up to 118, but they are all highly unstable.

Amnon Marinov of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem led a team that analysed a purified solution of thorium (element 90) by running it through a mass spectrometer, which can measure the mass of individual atoms. The thorium should have an atomic mass close to 232 (including neutrons), but the team saw a handful of counts with a much greater mass – just over 292.

Tags: atom, earth

A Dead Man's Eyes Hold the Key to His Age

Sun, 04 May 2008 15:30:50 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Proteins in the eye offer a new means of identifying corpses.

After the 2004 tsunami smashed into South Asia, thousands of the dead awaited identification for weeks and even months. The more time passed, the harder it became to identify the victims, let alone determine their age.

In the wake of a similar catastrophe, however, a new technique may help us learn victims' ages by analyzing the crystalline proteins in their eyes. The proteins form in the lens of the eye during the first two years of life, remaining unchanged thereafter. For anyone born in the last six decades, moreover, the lens proteins carry a radioactive marker—a special signature reflecting the pattern of nuclear bomb tests starting in 1955 and declining at an exponential rate since 1963.

Tags: biotechnology, health, eye

US researchers have built a proto-prototype nano assembler

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:21:16 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.nanowerk.com

(Nanowerk News) The first real steps towards building a microscopic device that can construct nano machines have been taken by US researchers. Writing in the peer-reviewed publication, International Journal of Nanomanufacturing from Inderscience Publishers, researchers describe an early prototype for a nanoassembler.

In his 1986 book, The Engines of Creation, K Eric Drexler set down the long-term aim of nanotechnology - to create an assembler, a microscopic device, a robot, that could construct yet smaller devices from individual atoms and molecules.

Gorman and his colleagues at NIST have taken a novel approach to building a nanoassembler and reveal details in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Nanomanufacturing. "Our demonstration is still a work in progress," says Gorman, "you might describe it as a 'proto-prototype' for a nanoassembler."

it should be possible to have multiple nanoassemblers working simultaneously to manufacture next generation nanoelectronics.

Tags: nanotechnology, nanoassemblers

The Truth Will Out - The Planet is Cooling

Sun, 04 May 2008 23:58:43 GMT

clipped by: pkronfield
clipper's remarks: Global warming wackos are now running for cover as fact after fact comes in that the climate is significantly cooling.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

A notable story of recent months should have been the evidence pouring in from all sides to cast doubts on the idea that the world is inexorably heating up. The proponents of man-made global warming have become so rattled by how the forecasts of their computer models are being contradicted by the data that some are rushing to modify the thesis.

(NOAA) issued a statement that snow cover in January on the Eurasian land mass had been the most extensive ever recorded

Tracking satellite data for the tropical troposphere, it showed March temperatures plunging to one of their lowest points in 30 years.

ice-cover around the Bering Strait and Alaska that month was at its highest level ever recorded. (At the same time Antarctic sea ice-cover was also at its highest-ever level, 30 per cent above normal).

In view of what is now at stake, such quasi-religious incantations masquerading as science are something we can no longer afford. We should get back to proper science before it is too late.

Tags: loony left, global warming

Scotland, Beltane Fire Festival brings Summer closer

Sun, 04 May 2008 12:33:15 GMT

clipped by: syncopath

Clip Source: www.edinburghguide.com

Beltane - Interview with a Drummer

With its heady brew of drums, fire, theatre and pagan ritual on the top of Calton Hill, the Beltane Fire Festival, celebrating the arrival of Summer, is one of the most exuberant events in Edinburgh's calendar. But what's it all about?

What's your name?

Please just refer to me as a Drummer. Beltane is bigger than any individual, so we prefer to be called by our character names in publicity.

How did you get involved with Beltane and what's the festival mean for you?

Like many of the participants, I first got involved as a spectator. I heard a vague rumour about an amazing festival on Calton Hill so I wandered up with a drum and a few friends to check it out. I caught a bit of the procession and then hooked up with some other drummers and when I stopped it was dawn and I hadn't yet touched the alcohol in my bag. The sheer energy of the event, even on the periphery, blew me away and I knew that I had to get more involved.

Clip Source: www.indymedia.org.uk

Clip Source: www.edinphoto.org.uk

Clip Source: www.indymedia.org.uk

Tags: gaelic, celtic, pagan, may queen, fertile green man

Stained Glass

Sun, 04 May 2008 08:40:17 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.stainedglassmuseum.com

References to stained glass in England date from the 7th century, and by the 12th century it had become a sophisticated art form.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Technical details

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Large late 12th-c. window in Canterbury Cathedral with recently restored early 13th-c. glass showing details of metal supporting frame

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Window in Canterbury Cathedral showing the pot metal and painted glass, lead H-sectioned cames, modern steel rods and copper wire attachments

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

European panel, 1564, with typical painted details, extensive silver stain, Cousin's rose on the face, and flashed ruby glass with abraded white motif

History

A perfume flask from 100 BCE-200 CE

The Portland Vase, a rare example of Roman flashed glass

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Stained glass in the Nasir al-Mulk mosque in Shiraz, Iran

Medieval

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Clip Source: www.stainedglassmuseum.com

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Destruction and continuation

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Revival