Meteor over South America

This video footage of a meteor lighting up the night sky happened in Gauteng, South Africa, on November 21, 2009.

From South Africa’s Eye Witness News:

People in Gauteng saw the bright light at around 11pm on Saturday night, heading towards the north of Pretoria.

“We saw this big green ball of fire. it kind of came out of the sky, out of the blue,” one resident said.

“There was sudden
flash. Like an orange stripe in the sky, followed by a very bright
explosion where the sky lit up as if it was daytime,” another
explained.

Astronomers and scientists are still trying to find out where the meteor landed.

This month in space.

MSN offers fresh perspectives on the Crab Nebula, Milky Way and more in a slide show with this months top space photography. Needless to say, some of these shots are out of this world ;)

View the full slide show: link

100 Days in Glacier National Park

Chris Peterson went to Montana’s Glacier National Park for 100 days starting in May. Every day he took at least one  photograph and posted it on his blog. The finished product is amazing. The pictures and descriptions are beautiful. Take 5 minutes out of your day to get lost in these photographs.

More information: link

Tattoos to save the world

How far would you go to help save an endangered animal? How about getting it tattooed on you?

That’s exactly what hundreds of volunteers signed up for last weekend at ExtInked, where people came from far and wide to have one of Britain’s most endangered species tattooed on their body, making them a life long ambassador for that species. Each volunteer filled out an application explaining why they deserved to be the canvas for their chosen flora or fauna. Of the many hundred that applied, only one hundred were chosen for the honor.

Tattoos tend to be a natural conversation starter and this seems like a more modern and “hip” way to spread the word.

More information: link

Wolfram|Alpha

Have you ever given up working on a math problem because you couldn’t figure out the next step? Wolfram|Alpha can guide you step by step through the process of solving many mathematical problems, from solving a simple quadratic equation to taking the integral of a complex function.

This looks like it could be fun!

More information: link

James Corbett

Australian artist James Corbett began sculpting old car parts in 1999 while managing a car recycling business in Brisbane. Eighteen months later, he closed the shop and turned pro. Corbett never bends the parts, but uses the existing shapes to create (comparatively) realistic forms.

More information: link

(500) Years of Magic.

Magic, 1400s-1950s is a new, large, big, expensive “coffee table” book outlining the history of magic. With nearly 700 pages in this beautiful looking book, there are sure to be some head turning pages.

“Magic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement.. Long before science fiction, virtual realities, video games and the internet, the craft of magic was the most powerful fantasy world man had ever known.. This book celebrates more than 500 years of the dazzling visual culture of the world s greatest magicians. Featuring over 1,000 rarely seen vintage posters, photographs, handbills, and engravings in one 650-page volume, it traces the history of magic as a performing art from the 1400s to the 1950s. Combining sensational images with lucid and incisive text, Magic explores the evolution of the magician s craft, from medieval street performers to the brilliant stage magicians who gave rise to cinematic special effects; from the 19th century s Golden Age of Magic to groundbreaking daredevils like Houdini and the early 20th century’ vaudevillians.”

If you are a magician, fan of magic, or know anyone that is a fan, you’ve just found the perfect holiday gift. Authors Mike Caveney and Jim Steinmeyer, along with contributor Ricky Jay, are all professional magicians, scholars and historians of the first rank. This is a serious work, as well as a gigantic love letter to the 500+ ‘golden years’ of magic.

More information: link

Otherworldly Landscapes

The seven giants of the Urals, Ural Mountains: Komi Republic, Russia

“In the northern Urals, where these leave behind vegetation to become velvety hills that blend into the horizon, seven giants majestically rise. Seven stone colossi that, in the middle of nowhere, seem to have made a stop in their journey to contemplate the scenery from the top of a high plateau. With heights varying from 30 to 42 meters, these seven moais, that nature has molded during more than 200 million years, form one of the most impressive and magic geological legacies on the planet.”

More photos and information: link

Love is in the air

“As humans we take many things for granted. One is surely the ability to walk, crawl, or even, after a little too much to drink, drag ourselves over to a lovely member of the opposite sex. Plants have no such luxury. For much of the long history of green life on land, plants had to be near each other, touching almost, to mate.”

National Geographic has a surprisingly non-erotic history and photo gallery all about plant reproduction and pollen. Although most of us simply think of pollen as the yellow stuff on our car or that cloud in the air that is making us sneeze, when magnified it can be quite interesting.

“In the 300,000 pollen-bearing plant species on Earth, there are 300,000 different forms of pollen. The great variety in colors, shapes, and textures of the grains has evolved in accordance with each plant’s biological particulars. Beetle-pollinated plants tend to have smooth, sticky pollen, the better to adhere to the lumbering beetles’ backs. Plants pollinated by fast-moving bees or flies may have spiny pollen that lodges easily between the insects’ hairs. Plants pollinated by bigger animals, such as bats, sometimes have bigger pollen, though not always — perhaps not even most of the time. In the details of pollen’s variety, more remains to be explained than is understood.”

View the photo gallery: link
Read the article: link

Otherworldly Landscapes

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

On the Philippine island of Bohol, nearly 1,300 grass-covered, limestone mounds called the Chocolate Hills dot an area of approximately 20 square miles. The mounds range from 100 to 400 feet high. In the dry season, the hills look like giant chocolate chips. Legend says they were formed by a defecating giant buffalo given food poisoning by vengeful local farmers, but scientific evidence suggests that they were created either by limestone weathering or volcanic debris.

source: msn