This is so cool I had to share- OMG Space. I just love things that really put the vastness of space and the unfathomable sizes of objects like the sun (which is literally a tiny spec compared to some stars) into a perspective/scale that our feeble human brains can comprehend. OMG Space does just that. Start at the top and just scroll. And scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll until you get to Mercury. Then you realize “holy shit, I’m only at the first planet!” Then keep doing that. Resist the urge to just click on the planet at the bottom. The point isn’t getting to each planet, it’s the vast space between. If you’re not utterly amazed by that sense of scale and size, then you must not have a pulse. Seriously.
(Via Yewknee)
Today’s ridiculous headlines
December 15, 2011
For some reason there have been several hilarious/ridiculous headlines popping up around my various internet haunts today. So I decided to just post them together here, for you clicking pleasure.
Two of them were on New Scientist:
“Mystery of the male ostrich’s erection solved.”
“Selectively bred fruit flies who can survive Titan’s harsh conditions after a diet of vodka rain.”
(Apparently they changed that last one… but that’s how it showed up in my reader initially, I promise.)
“Man Arrested After Attacking People At Toys R Us With Lightsaber”
“Wonder Woman and She-Hulk give themselves breast exams in Mozambique.”
And this one is just cute:
“Baby Seal Enters House, Sleeps on Couch”
You’re welcome.
It’s turkey week: a weird video and some myth debunking
November 23, 2011
Before I remove myself from the interwebs for a few days to be with the fam, I thought I’d debunk one of the most pervasive turkey myths out there: that turkey contains more tryptophan than other foods and that it makes you sleepy. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Turkey contains about the same amount of tryptophan as other meats and some veggies. What makes you feel sleepy after a big holiday meal is what makes you sleepy anytime you eat way too much- food coma. There are some slightly differing opinions out there as to what causes the proverbial food coma, but it is not the tryptophan in turkey that directly causes sleepiness after holiday meals. It is simply the fact that you probably ate way too much in one sitting, and probably had some wine to go along with it. For more info see this article from Snopes, this article from NPR, and this article from Live Science.
I’ll leave you with this bit of complete and total absurdity from an Indian gameshow. That should hold you over till next week when I eventually resume posting. Have a great Thanksgiving!
A picture is worth a thousand words
August 20, 2009
Between work at Vandy and the Scene being sold to South Comm, I simply don’t have the energy nor the willpower/brainpower to write here this week like I usually do. So I must thank Yewknee for linking to this amazing website called Them Thangs today, where I discovered this absolutely wonderful image. (Warning: some of that blog is NSFW.) A picture is truly worth a thousand words.
Cincinnati has real superheroes/NASA images/Effing Hail
April 30, 2009
This has got to be one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Cincinnati has a group of real-life superheroes. These dudes/dudettes walk around in a mask and cape, just looking for people who need help. They carry tazers, pepper spray, and handcuffs. I don’t really know what to say about this… I guess it’s good, but as the CNN video says, they could face lawsuits if they taze/pepper spray/citizens’ arrest the wrong person. File this one under WTF?!?!? Via io9 and CNN.com.
I just discovered that the White House has a flickr. You’ll find it has a nice variety of fun photos and serious ones from inside meetings/briefings/etc… Most of them are by the official White House photographer Pete Souza.
Speaking of photography, I just stumbled across this amazing archive of NASA images. All of the images are considered public domain and free for any kind of usage. They also have some great video clips. You could spend hours and probably even days going through this massive archive. We’re talking basically every image NASA has ever released. Each photo has a cool flash application which allows your mouse wheel to zoom in and out on the photo.
WARNING: THIS GAME COULD CONSUME YOUR ENTIRE DAY IF YOU’RE NOT CAREFUL!
I present to you- Effing Hail. This flash game is perfect for weather nerds like myself. The goal is to move your mouse around to control where the updraft is located, and the updraft lifts the hailstones over and over until they get so huge they fall and crush the buildings below. Simply destroy/crush as many buildings as possible. Via Kottke.org.
I know I’ve been rather dry on music-related posts these past few days but tomorrow I promise to include more!
Weekend shows/models take a tumble
February 20, 2009
This image links to a Huffington Post article about not one, but two model mishaps during Herve Ledger by Max Azria’s Fall 2009 fashion show in NYC’s Bryant Park on Sunday. It has a slideshow with several images from Getty capturing each moment of the falls. Some images slightly NSFW.
What to do this weekend?
Tonight- Cage the Elephant/Autovaughn @ Mercy Lounge… meh.
Saturday- THE ONLY THING HAPPENING IS MY BAND TIGERS CON QUESO WITH WE WERE THE STATES, BETTY RATS, AND COUNTRY DEATH @ SPRINGWATER. COME.
Sunday- Those Darlins @ the Basement
Sci-Fi geek-out alert: Stargate Universe is officially in the pre-production stage. Most of the cast is nailed down, the biggest name arguably being Robert Carlyle. More at my new favorite geek blog, iO9.
Why is science important? There’s a website dedicated to having people explain it in their own way. I like to put it simply, science IS EVERYTHING.
Last night at band practice our bass player/beard contributor Josh told me about this ridiculous ska song called “Jesus is my friend.” Today he sent me the video. I had to post it. WTF?
Foxes… dinosaurs… robots.
February 19, 2009
Science first today. Then we’ll get to the funny stuff.
In some really depressing news, the Space Shuttle Mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time may be in serious jeopardy. That satellite collision last week, which you’ve undoubtedly heard about by now, was in the same general orbit level of Hubble, and the debris from the collision significantly increases the likelihood of a debris strike during the servicing mission to unacceptable odds. NASA estimates that the chance for a debris impact will be about 1 in 185, which is over their threshold of 1 in 200. Even a tiny piece of metal the size of a pea or even smaller could do serious damage to an astronaut’s space suit during a spacewalk, and since there were 5 spacewalks planned to service Hubble, well… you can see where this is going. The good news is, they’re pretty sure the International Space Station is not at much risk for impact from the debris, because its orbit is much lower than that of satellites. It’s just beyond the outer edges of earth’s atmosphere, which means there are just enough air molecules floating around to put a slight drag on any space junk at that orbit level, thus said space junk burns up relatively faster than junk at higher orbits. Thus, low earth orbit stays comparatively clear of debris.
Space.com reports on how the discovery of alien life could impact society. According to the article, a panel of scientists sponsored by the SETI Institute and the NASA Astrobiology Institute recently met over 3 days to discuss this and come up with a basic outline of what impacts they thought such discovery could have on human society.
Very good news for Hummer-haters (myself included!): The Tennessean reports that GM has announced that it will discontinue or sell the Hummer brand by March 31st. Let’s hope it’s the former, not the latter. In my opinion, there is no greater symbol of the wasteful and inefficient extravangance that helped get us into this economic shitstorm than the Hummer. Good riddance!
Remember my post about the movie Coraline from a week or two ago? At the time I was unclear as to the extent of They Might Be Giants’ contribution to the soundtrack. Well, turns out that 28-second jingle that plays through one of the TV trailers is it. Stereogum reports that they did some other material for the movie that got canned, because in the end it turned out not to be “dark” enough.
Dinosaurs fucking robots. Via iO9.
Foxes jumping on a trampoline. Via Yewknee.
Need I say anything else?
James Iha, Bun E. Carlos, Taylor Hansen, and Adam Schlesinger
February 18, 2009
They formed a band. It’s called Tinted Windows. I need not post anything else today. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this (especially the terrible name), and you don’t need to read anything else as you do the same. This is easily the biggest WTF?!?! of the year so far, other than this image:
steve cross loves music and science 