Artificial Right Arm, Europe, 1850-1910 (via jayparkinsonmd, laughingsquid)
The stuff of nightmares.
The Julia set is a fractal equation that produces a series of rather pleasing spirals. Designer Marc Newson took that fractal shape and designed a necklace of 2,000 diamonds and sapphires that took jewelry craftsmen 1,500 hours to put together. (Neatorama via freshphotons & nerdfighterly)
I love Marc Newsom and I love this necklace.
Japan’s Ice Aquarium Displays Fish Frozen In Mid-Swim (via mattlehrer)
I’ve always wondered if fish really freeze mid-swim in the winter (or is there water under the ice?). Wonder no longer, I guess.
I’d love to be at this aquarium when they turn off the freezers and the fish slowly come back to ‘life’ one little fin at a time.
An open letter to all people and organizations working to combat global warming
From 1Sky’s Board of Directors. (I learned about the organization when I went on a retreat with Michael Silberman (@silbatron) in 2008).
A very sophisticated, thoughtful post; the comments are particularly interesting.
As we find ourselves surrounded by the tatters of the climate debate in the U.S. Congress, it seems fitting to take a moment to step back and ponder where we go from here. While the blogosphere is buzzing with assignments of blame for the failure of the Senate to act, we are much more concerned about how we move forward with urgency and clarity of purpose. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury to pack our bags and go home as the Senate did only moments ago. We just staggered through the hottest six months in recorded history worldwide. People everywhere are being impacted by the damage we have done through decades of carbon loading, and it is clear that our ailing planet will not sit idly by as our political leaders have done. […]
A few points I found compelling:
Our president is leading a deeply divided country and Congress, and while he undoubtedly “gets it” when it comes to the imperative to take action, he was surrounded by strategists who doubted the wisdom or the feasibility of winning on this issue. We simply never made a strong enough public case to change their minds, and as a result we did not get the leadership demonstrated by the White House in the health-care and regulatory-reform debates.
[…]
During the course of the last three years, as organizations adopted an empahsis on the clean energy economy, we saw our opponents make steady headway in their ongoing and deliberate disinformation campaign to suggest that there is credible debate about the science of global warming. We left the science-of-global-warming flank largely undefended, and we are paying the price as polls suggest decreases in the percentage of Americans who are convinced that global warming is an urgent problem that we must address. We have to reclaim the debate on the science, clearly and with conviction, before it is too late. At the same time, we have to redouble our efforts to explain and demonstrate why an investment in a clean energy economy is critical to our future. We need to make real federal investments in energy research and development to help drive down the price of alternatives.
[…]
Companies wield the dominant influence on U.S. politics, and controlled the debate on energy reform. Coal, oil, gas, agriculture, and utility-company lobbyists are literally swarming Capitol Hill.
Say hello to your future overlords…
Scientists discover animal that lives forever
Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They’re now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. “We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion,” says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.
Think you’re so hot? I’d like to see you living forever in this! Not so ‘immortal’ now, are you? Stupid jellyfish.
(Story via startmeup, @ranajune,theanimalblog:soupsoup:)
Am I losing my mind or does this image look like it’s very slowly pulsing? Like a gentle wave emerging from the center?
Need to get away from this desk…!
“Photographer Kirk Crippens created this image of the speck of light that persists after the television is turned off. After a lot of trial and error, Crippens was able to catch the speck in the middle of the frame, at at magnification of about 5x, on an RCA solid-state black-and-white television.
When the TV is on, electrons firing at its phosphor-coated screen cause the screen to emit light, creating the image. Electromagnets guide the beam and direct it to scan repeatedly across the screen. When the set is shut down, the electromagnets deactivate and the remnant beam from the electron gun defaults momentarily to the center of the screen before dying out—but not always in the same spot, as Crippens discovered. The blue and yellow colors here result from electrons exciting the two types of phosphor common in older TVs.” Via.
“Scientists recently discovered a rare, solitary type of bee that makes tiny nests by plastering together flower petals.” Via somethingchanged & Kottke.
Oh, no, this doesn’t scare the living shit out of me or anything. I’m sure it won’t achieve sentience and just, like, kill us all out of disdain for human inefficiency. Right? Right.
But then WHY DO THEY KEEP IT IN A CAGE?????
(via rafimama)
I’m with you, but I bet they were really cute when they were babies.
New Eco-Friendly Cigarettes Kill Destructive Human Beings Over Time
RICHMOND, VA—Executives at Philip Morris USA this week unveiled Marlboro Earth, a new eco-friendly cigarette that gradually eliminates the causes of global warming and environmental destruction at their source.
“By killing off the No. 1 threat to the environment, new Marlboro Earths will have a long-term effect on the overall health of our planet,” Philip Morris spokesperson Janet Weiss said. “If everyone in America does their part and joins our new green-smoking movement, then together we can eradicate man’s destructive practices once and for all.”
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The Great American Cooking Project