Astronauts captured this unusual view of a Perseid meteor descending into Earth's atmosphere in August 2011.
Source: Looking Down on a Shooting Star
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Leave it to the French to drive Citroën 2CV-based jeeps across the Sahara [Road Trips]
A 600 cc, two-cylinder 2CV kitted out with sheet steel panels bolted together and called the Baby-Brousse is less ridiculous than it sounds. Leaving behind their humble origins as French peasant cars, these little Citroëns rode in 1973 from Paris to Abidjan, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, to shame all future Paris–Dakar wannabes. More »
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The True Marvels of Engineering (and Techno-Gibberish) [Video]
If you think you are up to date on your techno-gibberish, then get ready for a whole new level with this video. The narrator did this warm-up presentation on the first take and kept a straight face while doing it. Even better, play this for your friends and watch their eyes quickly glaze over…
From YouTube: Several years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. We were getting ready to tape our first introduction video, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This man should have won an academy for his stellar performance. Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down, this became the biggest talk in the industry, vs our new product which we were introducing. I think you will enjoy this once in a lifetime performance from this gentleman.
Source: The True Marvels of Engineering (and Techno-Gibberish) [Video]
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Earth’s two moons
There's a big difference between the side of the Moon we can see, and the side we can't. Although it seems pretty pockmarked to the layperson, 'our' side of the Moon is actually the smooth half. On the dark side, there's huge mountain ranges and much bigger craters.
There are lots of theories that seek to explain this disparity. The newest: Earth once had two moons. And the smaller of the pair eventually crashed into it's larger sibling on the side that faces away from Earth. From the BBC:
Dr Martin Jutzi from the University of Bern, Switzerland, is one of the authors of the paper. He explained: 'When we look at the current theory there is no real reason why there was only one moon.
After spending millions of years 'stuck', the smaller moon embarked on a collision course with its big sister, slowly crashing into it at a velocity of less than three kilometres per second - slower than the speed of sound in rocks.
... In a commentary, Dr Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US, suggests that while the new study 'demonstrates plausibility rather than proof', the authors 'raise the legitimate possibility that after the giant impact our Earth perhaps fleetingly possessed more than one moon'.
In other words, this isn't so much a proven thing, as the scientific equivalent of a plot bunny. The researchers hope to inspire studies that would either prove them wrong, or lend credence to their ideas. This could end up being the start of something big. Or it could eventually be regarded with about as much respect as the suggestion, 'What if Moon were cookie?' We'll have to wait to find out.
Source: Earth’s two moons
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)