Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: one of the most spectacular shots yet of red sprite lightning. To wit:

Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionised air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionised balls. The featured image was taken earlier this year from Las Campanas observatory in Chile over the Andes Mountains in Argentina. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Let’s look a little closer, shall we?

Previously: No Sprite Is Safe

(Image: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

apod

The work of Russian ’xeno-urbanist’ Vadim Soloviev, who sez of the last one:

..recently, all of Moscow was covered in snow. And the giant ultra-foxes dozed peacefully in the courtyards of their so beloved “round houses”. But now it’s spring. This means that foxes will soon go away from the city, from civilization, to equip their summer ultra-burrows.

thisisnthappiness

Behold: an epic one-off Lego model of the Land Rover Defender 110 Camel Trophy by master block-builder Manuel Nascimento, complete with roll cage, bull bars, winch, tow hitches, snorkel, roof rack, fuel canisters, working lights, blinkers, and a deployable rooftop tent.

The build won him “Best in Show” at the 2017 Paredes de Coura LEGO Fan Weekend in Portugal.

In fairness.

coolmaterial

Behold: the 1991 Isdera Imperator 108i, built by designer Eberhard Schulz when Mercedes rejected his supercar concept, the rotters.

Thirty of these coupes were built between 1984 and 1993. Beneath the sci-fi-looking wedge-shaped bodywork, a 5 litre Mercedes V8 mated to a ZF five-speed gearbox accelerates to 100km/h in five seconds and on to a top speed of 283km/h.

Yours at this month’s Bonhams Monte Carlo auction for between €500,000 and €700,000.

uncrate

Look at him there: happier times, with the whole world looking up to him

Mmf.

To wit:

A spacesuit floated away from the International Space Station 15 years ago, but no investigation was conducted. Everyone knew that it was pushed by the space station crew. Dubbed Suitsat-1, [but also known as Mr. Smith, Ivan Ivanovich, RadioSkaf, Radio Sputnik and AMSAT-OSCAR 54], the unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit filled mostly with old clothes was fitted with a faint radio transmitter and released to orbit the Earth. The suit circled the Earth twice before its radio signal became unexpectedly weak. Suitsat-1 continued to orbit every 90 minutes until it burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere after a few weeks. Pictured, the lifeless spacesuit was photographed in 2006 just as it drifted away from space station.

(Image: ISS Expedition 12 Crew, NASA)

apod