Erik Bjurström wrote an interesting narrative about exploring the underground lake of Ain Hith, Saudi Arabia:
...I began to feel uneasy; if we lost visibility now, our situation would be dangerous. My partner had considerable less diving experience and seemed unaware of the danger. The situation rapidly went from bad to worse. Before I could signal to him to turn back, he started to crawl through the opening making violent kicks with his fins. In an instant all visibility had gone. We were left groping in a milky soup. There was no way of judging direction. Only the rope leading upwards, white in the torch-beam, offered a chance of returning safely...
Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower, June 3, 1902, at 9:20 P.M. This is one of the earliest photographs of lightning in an urban setting In:"Thunder and Lightning", Camille Flammarion, translated by Walter Mostyn Published in 1906
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Photo Library has more amazing weather-related photos (some of the coolest ones are vintage photos). http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/index.html
With Dada's Code M, you can listen to music played from your shoes. From the website:
... the Code M system is integrated into the shoe's heel and tongue. Its memory gives the device the ability to hold up to 100 songs with a six-hour battery life... Another important element in the system is the wirelss headset, which picks up music from the shoes as far away as 30 feet. Consumers will thus be able to hear musical choices while wearing the shoes, as well as after removing them so long as they stay within a 30-foot radius of the shoes.
The technology here is "persistence of vision"...when LEDs move fast enough they can "draw" an image when the wheel spins. That's the basis behind both the MiniPOV and SpokePOV toys that I designed last year.
Nobuki Kawashima, a professor of aeronautical engineering at Kinki University, led the team that created this aircraft powered by ground-based laser.
The aircraft measures 78 cm (30 in.) long, weighs 800 grams (1.8 lbs.), and has wings like a kite. A disc-shaped solar panel attached underneath powers the propeller when struck by a ground-based laser.
A battery powered the aircraft’s propeller at takeoff, but once it reached an altitude of about 50 meters (165 feet) — near the ceiling of the dome — the aircraft switched to laser-powered flight.
Photographer Zoriah, who took these amazing then-and-now pictures of the tsunami in Thailand, said:
As an ex disaster specialist I still have many friends working in the field all over the world and in the year following the Asian Tsunami I kept in close contact with them. Just as I expected I soon began to hear stories of how western money coupled with the tourism industry was rebuilding Thailand in record speed while Sri Lanka was still struggling and Banda Aceh was left only with resources for making baby steps. Slightly ahead of the one year anniversary of the Tsunami I decided to return to Thailand and shoot every image taken the year before from the exact same angle.
A fantastic visual guide of where your tax dollars go (militarily). Artist mibi writes:
Most people are unaware of how much of their taxes fund our military, and those aware are often misinformed. Well here it is. Laid out, easy to read and compare. With data straight from the White House.
