Author Archives: Chompsky

https://vimeo.com/568430412

A mesmerising hovering drone time-lapse capturing the rhythms of sheep herding at Yokneam in Israel by photographer Lior Patel. To wit:

Vegetable farmer Michael Morgan, who’s referred to as the “king of cabbage,” and South Africa-born herder Keith Markov have managed the flock since 1985, and today it fluctuates between 1,000 and 1,750 individuals. Each year, the sheep migrate up to seven kilometres from the valley to the outskirts of Ramot Menashe with the help of shepherds Mustafa Tabash, Mahmoud Kaabiyah, Eyal Morgan, and Dan Goldfinger and a few border collies, which you can see circling the edges of the flock and rounding up stragglers.

colossal

Behold: the 2022 Ferrari 296 Gran Turismo Berlinetta – featuring the first in a new series of smaller, more efficient Formula 1 style hybrid powertrains.

The GTB has an 830bhp twin turbo 2992cc V6 with a 164bhp electric motor keeping the turbos spooled up for immediate action.

Yours next year from €269,000 for the ‘base’ model or considerably more for the ultra lightweight Assetto Fiorano ’track package’.

hiconsumption

Kokeshi – arguably, the ancestors of post-WW2 kawaii or ‘cuteness’ culture –  are traditional Japanese  wooden dolls that were first made by craftsmen during the end of the Edo period in the late 1800s. To wit:

The skills needed to craft kokeshi is traditionally passed down through the family line. The sons of kokeshi masters typically become apprentices and learn the craft from their father in their own homes or workshops. However, now that more focus is being put on keeping this ancient art alive, more and more women are learning how to make kokeshi too. This new generation of artists learn everything they need to know under the guidance of a kokeshi master.

mymodernmet

Yes, gas giants have auroras too. But what drives them? To wit:

 To help find out, scientists have sorted through hundreds of infrared images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft for other purposes, trying to find enough aurora images to correlate changes and make movies. Once made, some movies clearly show that Saturnian auroras can change not only with the angle of the Sun, but also as the planet rotates. Furthermore, some auroral changes appear related to waves in Saturn’s magnetosphere likely caused by Saturn’s moons. Pictured here, a false-colored image taken in 2007 shows Saturn in three bands of infrared light. The rings reflect relatively blue sunlight, while the planet itself glows in comparatively low energy red. A band of southern aurora in visible in green. In has recently been found that auroras heat Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Understanding Saturn’s auroras is a path toward a better understanding of Earth’s auroras.

(Image: NASA, Cassini, VIMS Team, U. Arizona, U. Leicester, JPL, ASI)

apod

Behold: the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 4254, aka, Messier 99. To wit:

This recently processed full galaxy portrait stretches over 70,000 light-years across M99. The sharp view is a combination of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared image data from the Hubble Space Telescope. About 50 million light-years distant toward the well-groomed constellation Coma Bernices, the face-on spiral is a member of the nearby Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Also cataloged as NGC 4254, a close encounter with another Virgo cluster member has likely influenced the shape of its well-defined, blue spiral arms.

(Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Janice Lee; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz)

apod

A two hour HD montage of 1540 paintings by Claude Monet – a significant proportion of the artist’s oeuvre assembled by Learn From Masters. To wit:

Over 2,500 such works have been attributed to him. That number is probably much higher “as it is known that Monet destroyed a number of his own works and others have surely been lost over time,” notes the Monet Gallery.

openculture