I neglected to post this a couple of days ago. @Astro_Wheels tweets from 173 miles above and, as you can see, has an amazing vantage point to capture awesome images of our planet and its systems.
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interesting
My Name Is Earl
Updated – What Is It?
Do you know what this thing is? (click to biggify) 5 points to the first person that knows. **Nice work, Merry! It is indeed an oarfish; a species I didn’t know existed until recently. There are many legends about sea serpents and other beasts; I wonder if the oarfish helped contribute to the myths....
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It’s 2010, Where’s My Flying Car? Here You Go.
While it might make headlines as a flying car, to me it seems more like a plane that can also drive on roads. The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Mass., says it plans to deliver its car-plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2011. It recently cleared a major hurdle when the...
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Ten Russian Agents Plead Guilty and Are to Be Removed from the United States
Ten individuals pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to conspiring to serve as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation within the United States and will be immediately expelled from the United States, the Justice Department announced today. The United States has agreed to transfer these individuals to the custody of the Russian Federation....
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Illusion Squared
This is a fairly popular illusion, but I thought I’d share it in case you hadn’t seen it. Looking at that, tell me which square is darker — the one labeled A or the one labeled B. Answer below the fold.
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Poor Fly
Today’s cutting-edge research brings you this: The male fruit fly has a penis that resembles a medieval weapon, dotted with hooks and spines. Are those barbs there to remove rival sperm, or pierce the female’s genital tract to allow sperm a shortcut, or something else? There was one way to find out: lasers. Scientists...
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If Only He’d Use His Power For Good
Ever wondered what you get when you take an 11-year-old, give him Microsoft Paint, and 4 years? Now you don’t have to wonder anymore: When you set out to create a 2.3×2.5 meter image, you usually do it in a good image editor/drawing program. But a 15-year-old YouTube user named scorpiongold did it in...
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Today’s Ridiculous Feat of Engineering Brought To You By
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of course. Where else? (BBC)The Burj Khalifa was revealed to be 828m (2,716ft) high, far taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. For comparison, the Empire State Building’s roof is only 1,250 feet tall which puts Khalifa easily twice as high. It certainly is a remarkable feat of architecture...
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Once In A Blue Moon
How often is “once in a Blue Moon”, exactly? Anytime there’s a second full Moon in a month is a Blue Moon, which occurs about once every 2-1/2 to 3 years. Or, is it the third full moon of a season, which contains four? (h/t Nemski) I’d prefer to not know how often a...
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Time Killer
This image is incredible. It’s an 18GB panoramic photo of Prague. This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That’s 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it’s printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at...
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