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11 must see pictures

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:46:39 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Since all my friends know that I love photography I receive tons of forwarded emails with pictures. I rarely share these since most of them are already wide spread but this collection is different.

Needless to say that I didn’t take any of these pictures and that the copyright remains to their original owners, I am just sharing them here for their exceptional quality. So here we go

First Nuclear Bomb test France 1968

Boat in the clear water of Maldives

This is not a boat it is a fountain

Elephant going out of the water

Lions fight

Some birds

Tags: photographs, photography, art, birds

Happy 112th Birthday Henry!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:44:53 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: uk.news.yahoo.com

RAF flypast for 112th birthday

Europe's oldest man is celebrating his 112th birthday with a flypast from the RAF.

Henry Allingham, who is also the last founding member of the RAF, has been invited to a VIP lunch at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to witness the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. It will be followed by a parachute drop.

Eight of Mr Allingham's grandchildren and great grandchildren and their partners have flown from their homes in the US for the occasion.

And later this afternoon, 40 pupils from Cranwell Primary School will present him with a birthday cake on what is the 90th anniversary year of the RAF.

Mr Allingham said: "I'm a lucky guy. I am looking forward to a wonderful day and to seeing the family. I just hope I don't let the side down. People ask me how I've done it, and I just say that I look forward to another tomorrow."

Mr Allingham is just one of three known UK survivors from the First World War.

Tags: birthday, oldest man alive, raf, europe

Sunset on Mars

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 08:51:47 GMT

clipped by: shunyax

Clip Source: www.nasa.gov

Sunset on Mars

On May 19, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th Martian day, or sol.

Sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the Martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long Martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.

Dolphin Submarine

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:27:34 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I want one

Clip Source: fast-world.com

Originally conceived in 1978 by Thomas Rowe the Bionic Dolphin has
been in the making for many years now. Development of the prototype
didn’t even begin until 1988 but eventually in September of 1992 the
Dolphin made its first historic underwater ‘flight’.

Powered by a 400 horsepower small-block V8 (the same standard engine
that powered the 2005 Corvette) the Bionic Dolphin can travel either on the
surface of the water like a boat or completely submerged like a submarine.
While the current models are only single-seaters Rowe has also designed
a two-seat prototype that will serve as the production model.
The Bionic Dolphin was scheduled to go on sale in early 2006 with a price
tag of around $50,000 but looking at the website they still seem to be involved
in the very important safety-testing stages.

Tags: submarines

How deregulation destroyed African agriculture

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:48:29 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And changed Africa into a food importer

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in the meteoric rise in food prices, the more basic problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains

African agriculture is a case study of how doctrinaire economics serving corporate interests can destroy a whole continent’s productive base.

in the 1960s, Africa was not just self-sufficient in food but was actually a net food exporter

Today

almost every country

a net food importer

the explanation was the phasing out of government controls

to which most African countries were subjected as the price for getting IMF and World Bank assistance

reality refused to conform to the doctrinal expectation that the withdrawal of the state would pave the way for the market and private sector to dynamize agriculture

Tags: africa, food, farming

Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:08:08 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

Can human beings rev up their intelligence quotients, or are they stuck with IQs set by their genes at birth? Until recently, nature seemed to be the clear winner over nurture.

But new research, led by Swiss postdoctoral fellows Susanne M. Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl, working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, suggests that at least one aspect of a person's IQ can be improved by training a certain type of memory.

Most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence--crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory.

Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, draws on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts, independent of any previous knowledge or skills, to solve new problems. The research shows that this part of intelligence can be improved through memory training.

Tags: brain, plastic, nature, nurture

Owner of headless pyramid found

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:41:25 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jonathan Wright

Archaeologists have concluded that a badly eroded pyramid south of Cairo was built in the 24th century BC, several hundred years earlier than previously suspected.

Known as the 'Headless Pyramid', archaeologists believe it was constructed during the Fifth Dynasty of Pharaoh Menkauhor, who ruled for eight years more than 4000 years ago.

The identification by Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, could end the long controversy over the structure first described by the German archaeologist Lepsius in the 19th century.

Some archaeologists have associated the pyramid with the Tenth Dynasty Pharaoh Merykare, who ruled about 400 years later

others with the Twelfth Dynasty

But Hawas, whose teams have excavated the lower levels of the pyramid more thoroughly than any previous expeditions, says he is now convinced that the pyramid was that of Menkauhor, who is known from inscriptions to have built one somewhere.

Evangelizing uncontacted tribes

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:08:22 GMT

clipped by: boniface
clipper's remarks: Missionaries say, "We've, inadvertently and intentionally, screwed over most of the indigenous peoples of the world. All we want is a chance at these new recently discovered tribes. We believe we can have the same degree of success with them."

Clip Source: www.worldontheweb.com

New Tribes Mission seeks to establish indigenous churches around the globe, but Venezuela stopped the group’s work among indigenous groups in 2005

It’s hard to understand how providing medical care and literacy is exploitation, especially among indigenous groups where the life expectancy of men and women is lower than average and suicide rates among youth are alarmingly high, but New Tribes and other mission organizations may face increasing opposition as governments like Venezuela’s and Brazil’s restrict outside access to tribes. In the process, those governments seem to be promoting the ideology of the “noble savage” and assuming it’s in the best interests of indigenous people to have no access to the modern world, or to the gospel.

Missionary contact may lead to physical death through foreign illnesses. No missionary contact will certainly lead to spiritual death of the soul.