[RD]

On second thoughts the jammed-in possom picture doesn’t look right:


photoshop_tart_transplant.jpg (32.42 kB . 500x284 - viewed 7265 times)

the jam tarts are too neatly arranged: still in one layer and all the right way up.
It should be jammy chaos in the box if a rat-sized creature was stuck in there for a few hours.

The possom is uniformly less sharp than the rest of the scene, so possibly inserted by photoshop,
 (also its hind foot is very poorly defined).
 
Then entrance hole doesn’t look big enough even for a starvin’ possom to get in.
Would it even be possible to close the box with a creature that big in it ?

If bloated that could be due to it being an ex-possom.

[ PS the tart shown below looks like it has been cut-out and pasted-in ]

[Geezer]

If bloated that could be due to it being an ex-possom.

Maybe it's just playing possum.
 
(Cor! Wot's that orrible pong?)

[neilep]

NASA Observes Antimatter Streaming from Thunderstorms on Earth


6a00d8341bf7f753ef0168e92f2b7b970c-500wi.jpg (19.98 kB . 464x261 - viewed 9284 times)             

"We see gamma-ray bursts, one of the most distant phenomena we know about in the Universe, we see bursts from soft gamma-ray repeaters in our galaxy, flashes of gamma rays from solar flares, our solar neighborhood -- and now we're also seeing gamma rays from thunderstorms right here on Earth,"  said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at Nasa.

In 2011, the Fermi space telescope accidentally spotted thunderstorms on Earth producing beams of antimatter. Such storms have long been known to give rise to fleeting sparks of light called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. But results from the Fermi telescope show they also give out streams of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons.

It deepens a mystery about terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs -- sparks of light that are estimated to occur 500 times a day in thunderstorms on Earth. They are a complex interplay of light and matter whose origin is poorly understood.

Thunderstorms are known to create tremendously high electric fields -- evidenced by lightning strikes. Electrons in storm regions are accelerated by the fields, reaching speeds near that of light and emitting high-energy light rays -- gamma rays -- as they are deflected by atoms and molecules they encounter.
These flashes are intense -- for a thousandth of a second, they can produce as many charged particles from one flash as are passing through the entire Earth's atmosphere from all other processes.

The Fermi space telescope is designed to capture gamma rays from all corners of the cosmos, and sports specific detectors for short bursts of gamma rays that both distant objects and TGFs can produce.

"One of the great things about the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor is that it detects flashes of gamma rays all across the cosmic scale," explained Julie McEnery.

[CliffordK]

I saw this clock today that I liked.
I don't know if the clock is real or not.


Deskarati Clock

The image apparently is the Large Hadron Collider seen here.

[RD]

an even geekier timepiece ...



[ if you haven't guessed the display is in binary ]

[CliffordK]

[ if you haven't guessed the display is in binary ]

Where are the DIP switches?

[francinefegles]

We see gamma-ray bursts, one of the most distant phenomena we know about in the Universe, we see bursts from soft gamma-ray repeaters in our galaxy, flashes of gamma rays from solar flares, our solar neighborhood -- and now we're also seeing gamma rays from thunderstorms right here on Earth,"  said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at Nasa.

[CliffordK]

We see gamma-ray bursts, one of the most distant phenomena we know about in the Universe, we see bursts from soft gamma-ray repeaters in our galaxy, flashes of gamma rays from solar flares, our solar neighborhood -- and now we're also seeing gamma rays from thunderstorms right here on Earth,"  said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at Nasa.

Antimatter (Positrons), and their gamma decomposition products have already been detected from terrestrial thunderstorms.

[neilep]

Curiosity to Earth: Look! Me on Mars
(Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)


1st-pia16027-43.jpg (114.88 kB . 557x408 - viewed 9353 times)

Taking a great picture of yourself is never easy - even if you're a pioneering robot sophisticated enough to explore Mars for signs of alien life.

This incomplete self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on 6 August, is a mosaic of eight images snapped by the rover's navigation cameras. Other on-board cameras will help capture rock textures, the chemical make-up of minerals and sweeping colour panoramas.

At the centre is the deck of the 1-tonne, SUV-sized rover, while top left shows its rear. The two wheels in the bottom left are on its right side, although the rover is staying put for now as it checks that its instruments are working properly and examines its surroundings . When it does start roving, it will begin the 6.5-kilometre journey to Aeolis Mons, a 5-kilometre-high mound thought to preserve a layered history of water on the Red Planet. This will be key to piecing together whether life existed or still exists there.

Bits of Martian gravel are visible on the deck, kicked up during the rover's dramatic arrival. Curiosity was lowered to the Martian surface on cords unspooled from the hovering Sky Crane unit - a nail-biting autonomous manoeuvre.

The rover is designed to explore for a minimum of two years, beaming back images as it goes. The colour image below, courtesy of its mast cameras, reveals a taste of what is to come on the road to Aeolis Mons: a gravelly surface that eventually gives way to a dark dune field.

SOURCE/CREDIT http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/08/curiosity-to-earth-look-me-on.html

[neilep]

Nodosaur Footprint Found at Goddard Space Flight Center


6a0105371bb32c970b0176175b7c38970c-750wi.jpg (114.79 kB . 703x529 - viewed 9361 times)

Photographer: Rebecca Roth, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Summary Author: Jim Foster; Karl B. Hille, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Approximately 110 million years ago, a tank-sized dinosaur known as a Nodosaur was munching leaves on what is now the campus of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Shown above at top is a single footprint (about 12 in or 30 cm across) from this behemoth’s back left foot discovered by local dinosaur tracker extraordinaire, Ray Stanford. Nodosaurs roamed over Maryland in the middle of the Cretaceous Period, occasionally leaving behind imprints in mud of their four-toed feet. These quadrupedal herbivores were well armed with knobby protrusions to help ward off the toothy meat eaters that had a taste for the soft flesh beneath their spiky nodes. It's quite an odd juxtaposition: while NASA astronomers at Goddard look skyward toward star systems millions of light years away, at their feet are footprints of creatures that lumbered across the lowlands millions of years ago.

[neilep]

Pileus Cloud Over Northern Georgia


cloud.jpg (103.5 kB . 600x450 - viewed 9162 times)

Photographer: Thomas Faber
Summary Author: Thomas Faber

This photo shows a building cumulonimbus cloud just north of Alpharetta, Georgia on the afternoon of July 12, 2012. The thunderstorm is displaying a prominent pileus cloud above it -- the smooth cloud with the fuzzy edges. Pileus clouds are accessory type clouds that form when a layer of humid air is pushed upward by strong updrafts in growing storms. This prominent pileus developed very quickly. When I first saw it, about a minute before this photo was taken, it exhibited only a single layer. But over the next minute or two, several additional layers became obvious. Note the faint iridescence about the lower left portion of the pileus cloud. A less conspicuous pileus is also visible just above the tree canopy at far left. Photo taken at 5:04 p.m.

[neilep]

Tasting the rainbow: The ants whose multi-coloured
abdomens show exactly what they've been eating

The saying 'you are what you eat' is true for these insects as stunning pictures show their abdomens changing colour as they sip on sugar drops.
Father of three Mohamed Babu set up the photographs after his wife, Shameem, showed him some ants had turned white after drinking spilt milk.
He gave the creatures the brightly coloured sugar drops and watched as their transparent stomachs matched the food they were eating.


ants-3-600x445.jpg (56.14 kB . 600x445 - viewed 9316 times)

A good palette: Some of the ants even wandered from one colour to another, creating new combinations in their stomachs


Scientist Dr Babu, mixed the sugar drops with edible colours red, green, blue and yellow and placed them in his garden to attract the insects.
By placing them on a paraffin base the drops kept their shape when touched by the ants.
The 53-year-old discovered the ants preferred lighter colours such as yellow and green.
He said: 'The idea for the photograph came to me after my wife showed me some ants that turned white sipping the spilled milk drops on our kitchen counter.
'I shot the photo in my garden to take advantage of the natural lighting and set a paraffin sheet with coloured sugar drops near some ants.
'Even though I could get enough of a crowd within a few minutes, it required several retakes to have a shot up to my satisfaction.'


ants-2-600x451.jpg (75.51 kB . 600x451 - viewed 9264 times)


ants-1-600x449.jpg (55.37 kB . 600x449 - viewed 9208 times)

Ring of colour: An ant's transparent abdomen shows the colour of the food they have eaten


Dr Babu, from Mysore, in South India said:  'As the ant's abdomen is semi-transparent, the ants gain the colours as they sip the liquid.
'The secret is the paraffin base, which prevents the drops collapsing when the ants touch them.
'I really toiled to get a photo. The crowd always used to become unmanageable within a few minutes and while I managed my camera with my right hand, my left hand was busy removing the extra ants.
'Once I lost the chance, I could only repeat it the next day.' he explained.
'Curiously, the ants preferred light colours, yellow and green. 
'The darker green and blue drops had no takers, till there was no space around the preferred yellow and green drops.
'So I put larger drops of yellow and green, and smaller red and blue, to get maximum saturation around all the colours.'

Eating their greens: The ants seemed to prefer lighter colours such as greens and yellow to darker blues

SOURCE : DAILY MAIL

[RD]

Unseasonal but impressive ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snowflake_300um_LTSEM,_13368.jpg

[CliffordK]

Unseasonal but impressive ...
Snowflake_300um_LTSEM%2C_13368.jpg[/img]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snowflake_300um_LTSEM,_13368.jpg

I think this is the source for the snowflake photo, although I don't see that exact one.
http://emu.arsusda.gov/snowsite/default.html

Anyway, there are quite a few interesting snowflakes.

[neilep]

High Speed Liquid and Bubble Photographs by Heinz Maier

Words By By Christopher on October 27, 2011


bubbles.jpg (96.24 kB . 806x686 - viewed 9565 times)

It never ceases to amaze me: just when I think I’ve seen every possible permutation of an artform or technique—be it figurative sculpture, stop motion animation, or in this case, high speed photography—somebody comes along and manages to do something radically different. German photographer Heinz Maier says that he began taking photographs less than a year ago in late 2010. He claims to not know what direction he’s heading in just yet, right now he’s experimenting with macro photography, mostly insects, animals, and these delicate high speed water droplets. Personally, I think he’s found a great direction. There are so many things happening here to make these photographs simply outstanding: the lighting, the colors, the occasional use of symmetry in the reflection of water, let alone the skill of knowing how to use the camera itself. It’s hard to believe these aren’t digital. See much more of his work here.

   
By Christopher on October 27, 2011

SOURCE : COLOSSAL

[neilep]

NANO RACER !


418689_466485993372417_1137992727_n.jpg (39.77 kB . 500x376 - viewed 9415 times)

This is a picture of a nano-racecar made in 4 minutes using a 3D printer.

To put it in perspective, the size of this race car is about twice the width of human hair.



SOURCE: http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/03/13/nano-race-car-printed-in-3d-video/

[CliffordK]

Neil,

I would imagine your car would have pretty good fuel efficiency. 
But, here in the USA, Horsepower is King....   
Any estimates of the total power output?

[neilep]

Neil,

I would imagine your car would have pretty good fuel efficiency. 
But, here in the USA, Horsepower is King....   
Any estimates of the total power output?

Yes Cliff...about 0.000000000000006 seahorsepower !!  []

[neilep]

CHECK THIS OUT !!!


386039_397659863633986_270382810_n.jpg (125 kB . 498x700 - viewed 9469 times)

Don't ask me what it is cos I dunno !!

[peppercorn]

Unusual atmospheric effect...

P1732_08-09-12 - Copy_676x507.jpg (44.37 kB . 676x507 - viewed 10695 times)