WOW 
Sunday, 30. September 2007
Moon for Sale
After 40 years, man is preparing to return to the Moon. But this time the astronauts won't just land on the Moon - they plan to stay.From his office in Nevada, Dennis Hope has spawned a multi-million dollar business selling lunar real estate.
But scientists believe the real prize is trapped in the Moon's rocks. It contains large deposits of an extremely rare gas called Helium-3. Could Helium-3 be mined and used as a new source of almost inexhaustible, clean and pollution-free energy on Earth? Whoever succeeds in transporting Helium-3 back to Earth could solve the world's energy crisis.
Who will win what has been dubbed the second Moon race? And should we be exploiting the Moon's valuable resources at all?
More @ BBC.
Saturday, 29. September 2007
International Polar Year
The International Polar Year is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.
IPY, organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), is actually the fourth polar year, following those in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, IPY 2007-8 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009 and will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics. It is also an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate, follow, and get involved with, cutting edge science in real-time.
The International Polar Year - developed in order to contain a wide array of information for the public, media, educators, scientists, artists, tourists, and more.
See also photos from International Polar Year group on Flickr.
Muscle Tech Olympia Weekend
Joe Weider’s 2007 Olympia Weekend takes place in Las Vegas from September 27-30, 2007. The weekend features several events, including the fitness expo, martial arts tournaments, strength competitions, fitness challenges, bikini contests and of course, the Ms. Olympia and Mr. Olympia contests.Thousands of bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts from around the globe will be gathering in Las Vegas for the weekend’s events.
So if you have time at 6:30 p.m. PDT, there is a Live Olympia Webcast, first the Webcast Pre-Show and the Live Event 7:00 p.m. PDT - Figure Finals and Mr. Olympia Finals.
If you missed a show then check it out the webcast replays from the prejudging to the finals.
Here for example: Fitness, Figure, Ms. Olympia Prejudging Replay.
Friday, 28. September 2007
Listening to Northern Lights
Ongoing to my post 'Aurora Season Begins' a few days ago (scroll down) I found this amazing video:When solar flares hit the Earth's magnetic field, the skies at both poles can light up with auroras. The particles also create very low frequency electromagnetic waves, a type of natural radio that can be picked up around the globe. Every year sound recordist Steve McGreevy heads north where the reception is best and points his receiver at the sky.
Thursday, 27. September 2007
Democratic Voice of Burma
Have you ever heard of the 'Democratic Voice of Burma'? Go there and be appalled.The Democratic Voice of Burma (or DVB) is a non-profit media organization based in Oslo, Norway. Run by Burmese expatriates, it makes radio and television broadcasts aimed at providing uncensored news and information about Burma (Myanmar), the country's military regime, and its political opposition.
Our mission is:
- to provide accurate and unbiased news to the people of Burma,
to promote understanding and cooperation amongst the various ethnic and
religious groups of Burma,
to encourage and sustain independent public opinion and enable social and
political debate
to impart the ideals of democracy and human rights to the people of Burma.
They have some amazing photos of the ongoing anti-government protests. And of course news and information you don't see in the news!
See also Photos by ABC News: Buddhist Monks' 'Robed Revolution'.
UPDATE: 23.30 Uhr
Burma's bloggers are using the internet to beat censorship, and tell the world what is happening under the military junta's veil of secrecy. Source: BBC
I hope this Front-Blogger will survive: Burma blogger Ko Htike.
They [the government] can see that people are looking at my site... that means they are scared so they are trying to manipulate me, to use people power...
May peace and freedom find its place in Myanmar!
Alex Trochut - Type & Illustration
Alex Trochut, a freelance graphic designer from Barcelona, Spain, loves type, and he also loves illustration!From an interview by Speak Up:
You have a lovely series of "spaghetti" lettering that takes the form of shoelaces, pens, pencils, straws. How did you arrive at this twisty style? Is it just too fun to resist doing it in all these variations?
AT: I'm always looking for funny ways of writing and finding different ways to say things with letters, in the case of the Lorem Ipsum series, it was just an experiment at the beginning, a type exercise around tubular elements, then these could be many things so, yes, I just couldn't resist to do series of five examples of "lorem ipsum dolor sit amet."
Read more: Alex Trochut - From Barcelona with Love (with many good links!)
Alex is also the grandson of Joan Trochut, a typographer and creator of the SuperVeloz - a modular typographic and ornament system built in the 40s.
Check it out.
Wednesday, 26. September 2007
We're All a Bunch of Monkeys
You might want to close your office door, if you have one, before you listen to this ...
Originally it is a slam poem Ernest Cline. Here is the text: Dance Monkeys Dance.
Spoken word by Mr. Cline, with animation added by Paulo Ang is here.
Tuesday, 25. September 2007
Count to 31 on One Hand
I remember well, at school I always loved to play with the binary numeral system. Unlike the decimal system, only two digits - 0, 1 - suffice to represent a number in the binary system. Do you know how to use binary to count to 31 on one hand? You'll pick it up quickly!Found @ GlassGiant
Instructions
Each digit is assigned a value equal to a power of 2. The pinky is 20, or 1. The ring finger is 21, or 2. The middle finger is 22, or 4. The index finger is 23, or 8. And the thumb is 24, or 16. This method of counting is called binary, which is the way computers count.
If you want to convert from a hand tally to a regular number, simply add the values of all the extended digits to determine the number. In other words, if no digits were extended (a fist), the value would be zero. If only the thumb and pinky were extended, the value would be 24 + 20, or 16 + 1 or 17.
If you want to convert from a regular number to a hand tally, it's not much more complicated. Make a fist (value=0). If the number is 16 or larger, extend your thumb and subtract 16 from your number. Otherwise, continue using your original number. If your new number is 8 or bigger, extend your index finger and subtract 8 from the newest number. Continue using this method until your number is 0.
For example, if the number you want is 19, start with a closed fist. Then:
- Extend your thumb and subtract 16 from 19, leaving 3.
- Three is less than 8, so leave your index finger alone.
- Three is less than 4, so leave your middle finger alone.
- Extend your ring finger and subtract 2 from 3, leaving 1.
- Extend your pinkie finger and subtract 1 from 1, leaving 0.
If you do it right, you will always end up with 0. If you make a mistake, go back and try again.
... then I go to office and do my daily work.
With that ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a fruitful day ahead.
Monday, 24. September 2007
Aurora Season Begins
Yesterday, autumn has arrived and that means it's time to watch out for Northern Lights.
Here are some enjoyable links to live cameras and galleries to see the Northern Lights without leaving home!
The Aurora Live by NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology).
With Live Cam, Image and Video Archive.
September 2007 Aurora Gallery by SpaceWeather.
Right now beautifull Aurora on Alaska cam.
Northern Lights appear when ejected matter from the sun collides with particles in our atmosphere. These light up and illuminate the sky. This is mostly seen in a small area around the poles of the earth. Porjus in Sweden lies exactly in that small area.
Northern Lights Village: Porjus
From Lapland, Sweden: Northern Light Live Camera, last days Aurora movies recorded cam1 | cam 2 | cam 3.
Also from Sweden: Latest picture from the Kiruna All-Sky camera. This page refreshes every minute.
Some timelaps aurora clips by Museum of Time. COOL!
From Norway 'Northern Lights': What are northern lights? Nature's own fireworks!. Explore the site, there is also Auroral Mythology, Aurora in Arts and huge galleries from the past yeras.
More coming up, so stay tuned ...
Science Sites:
The plots on this page show the current extent and position of the auroral oval at each pole, extrapolated from measurements taken during the most recent polar pass of the NOAA POES satellite.
Auroral Activity Extrapolated from NOAA POES
What do we mean by "event"? For us an "event" is a substorm, the largest of the auroral disturbances which usually occurs in the hours around midnight. The energy for these disturbances is stored in the earth's magnetic tail and how much energy is stored can be estimated from the size of the polar cap - the area poleward of the auroral oval.
Real Time Auroral Oval
Today Forecast: Auroral activity will be moderate. Weather permitting, moderate displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to as far south as Talkeetna and visible low on the horizon as far south as Bethel, Soldotna and southeast Alaska.
Aurora Forecast
From the Exploratorium comes the Aurora tutorial: Auroras - Paintings in the Sky.
Sunday, 23. September 2007
Are We Changing Planet Earth? & Can We Save Planet Earth?
The global warming documentary "Are We Changing Planet Earth?" was released on May 2006 on the BBC and The Discovery Channel as the first of a 2 part series, the other entitled "Can We Save Planet Earth?", first broadcast on June 2006. The documentary is presented by Sir David Attenborough as he discusses the science and implications of climate change. See also: Sir David Attenborough - Naturalist.Attenborough had confessed to previously being sceptical about the belief that climate change is predominantly caused by humans. But now, he argued, the evidence of it was too overwhelming to ignore. He became sure of it when he saw graphs provided by climatologists that demonstrated the link between increasing temperatures and the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, with the growth in population and industrialisation: "I was absolutely convinced this was no part of a normal climatic oscillation which the Earth has been going through and that it was something else." (see article @ The Times)
"This is our planet: planet Earth. It contains an astonishing variety of landscapes and climates. Since life began, around 4,000 million years ago, it has gone through extraordinary changes in its climate and in the species that live on it. But now it seems that our planet is being transformed — not by natural events, but by the actions of one species: mankind."
– David Attenborough's opening narration
"In the past, we didn't understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it: individually and collectively; nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe."
– David Attenborough, in closing
Saturday, 22. September 2007
Christopher Menjou Underwater Photography
Tube Dwelling Anemone
Christopher Menjou Underwater Photography
Bijou!
Anne Frank Tree
Anne Frank Tree - An Interactive Monument.
Available in 6 languages, choose yours at the upper left corner ...
Grow Island & Golf Drive
 | One of the things that makes the Grow genre of games so much fun to play is the little animated rewards you get when you get parts of the puzzle complete, and of course the animated ending when you finally figure out the whole sequence. |
| Playing golf during prehistoric times! You have to fire the ball with a catapult! Use arrows to set angle and move to the ball, mouse to set power and shoot. Golf Drive |
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