The intricate creations of master balloon artist Matsuyoshi Matsumoto.
Previously: Natural Rubber
Author Archives: Chompsky
German educational design studio Kurzgesagt applies its trademark balanced analysis to the upcoming EU elections. To wit:
Being a citizen of the European Union means that many aspects of our lives are regulated by a weird entity. It feels like a huge bureaucracy is making decisions over our heads. How democratic is the EU really and does your vote actually affect anything?
Previously: Just The Vaxx
The dancing lights of the Aurora Australis captured in time-lapse by Martin Heck, who had to mount his cameras inside special housings so the wouldn’t seize up when nighttime air temperature dropped to -70°C.
Not quite.
Actually, an ice halo photographed over Dublin, Ohio, in 2009. To wit:
The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms. Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc lies parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are quite unusual to see.
(Image:Todd Sladoje)
The Daytona Dong Sarong Jeado Swim Brief (€35.80+P&P).
It’s the denim-print Speedo you’ve been waiting for.
Square Wave
at
A dubiously described but pleasing to look at ‘five dimensional’ sculpture inspired by mathematics and the Fibonacci sequence.
Conceived by artist Ivan Black and Atellani, the Square Wave consists of 21 precisely bent metal rods and assumes various shapes and patterns depending on how it is held and the amount of kinetic energy applied to it.
Intended as a stress relief toy and possibly also a means of opening a portal to Hell or something.
How To Vote
at
David W. Higgins tweets:
I’ve made a handy guide for anyone unsure how to vote in the European and local elections.
In fairness.
Behold: RS Puppis (or RS Pup) a Cepheid variable star ten times the size and 15,000 times the brightness of our old Sol. It’s around 6500 light years away, and the brightness of RS Pup is one of the reasons we know that. To wit:
As RS Pup pulsates over a period of about 40 days, its regular changes in brightness are also seen along its surrounding nebula delayed in time, effectively a light echo. Using measurements of the time delay and angular size of the nebula, the known speed of light allows astronomers to geometrically determine the distance to RS Pup to be 6,500 light-years, with a remarkably small error of plus or minus 90 light-years. An impressive achievement for stellar astronomy, the echo-measured distance also more accurately establishes the true brightness of RS Pup, and by extension other Cepheid stars, improving the knowledge of distances to galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
(Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com))
A rather excellent Stranger Things tie-in from LEGO – a 2,287-piece kit featuring the Byers’ house, Hopper’s police cruiser and 8 minifigs including the Demogorgon.
Due for release next month and yours for around €180.