It's a beautiful universe after all
Both via badastronomy, first we have some high resolution pictures from the MRO (mars Reconaissance Orbiter):
Yes that's the opportunity rover, the little robot sent to mars more than two years ago. Both images here were scaled down by me before putting them up here, click them to get to a website with higher resolution pictures.
Next is an amazing composite picture of saturn. You really really have to go to the linked page to get the full resolution image. This is not CG, this is an actual picture (well, mosaic of several):
Amusing misread
My reading comprehension skills aren't always up to snuf. Today, for instance, I misread the following line from a BBC news article:
"Another shaven-headed monk knelt by the Dalai Lama's chair,"
as
"Another seven-headed monk knelt by the Dalai Lama's chair,"
I think my version is funnier tho, but it caught me offguard for a moment :)
Boxcat
It seems that cats cannot think outside the box. Wherever ours find one they will try to curl up in it. Whether the actual size of the box makes this physically possible is irrelevant. Boxes are there to be curled up in!
Considering how cute they look trying to fit their entire bodies into a box roughly the size of a CD drive, I can only applaud this behavior.
Yes, they really thought that through....
Scientists amuse me.
I find it interesting how people who are so smart can overlook the most obvious things. Take this research for instance.
I'll sumarize it for you: Scientists found a hormone they say would help surpress phobias. They tested it on people with arachnaphobia or social phobia, giving half the hormone and another half a placebo. They then introduced these people to what they fear: the arachnophobes got spiders and the other group had to make a speech in public.
So far so good.
So what's the problem? Well .... here's what the hormone actually does:
Cortisol impairs the retrieval of memories, so the principle the researchers were looking into was whether giving a dose of the hormone before people were exposed to a spider - or their own personal phobia trigger - would help.
So .... the way to be more relaxed giving a speech in public is not being able to remember it then?
Rocks and Lights
I had some fun today taking pictures. It's amazing yo ucan do with a few pieces from a geology sample set (which we bought on the vesuvius in italy last year), a pair of bike lights (one red and one blueish-white) and a candle.
The results can be seen here. No editing was done on those pictures except for a bit of sharpening.
It's been too long since I hiked
Note to self: When going to foresty swampland on a hot and humid evening to take pictures of the sunset in the middle of mosquito season, BRING PROTECTION AGAINST MOSQUITOES!
I know these things, why can I only ever remember them abroad?
CtS Dictionary: Corollary
Corollary (cor?ol?lary)
Pronunciation: 'kor-&-"ler-E
Function: noun
1: A corollary is the statement "Everything is gone." when it follows the statement "Ooh, look: pixies."