Atomic Rainbow

Here are some pictures of an atomic bomb exploding in space, at night.  In SPACE, at NIGHT! This is light from nuclear reactions, but not the kind that happen inside our sun.

Time Lapse Awesomeness - pt 1

I love to think about how differently we would see the universe if our sense of time were significantly altered. There are a number of illegal ways of doing this, but one legal way of experiencing an altered sense of time is through time-lapse photography.

Here are some awesome time-lapse videos by this guy Henry Jun Wah Lee:

Extinct American Mammals

The idea of introducing wild lions, elephants, and camels to north and south america was first put forward by Paul Martin of the University of Arizona. Pretty wild! He is a proponent of this idea or "re-wilding" because relatives of these animals once roamed all across the americas, but went extinct around 11,000 years ago. Curiously, this was around the time that humans came on the scene.

Straight to the waaay cool stuff though. Here are some pictures and short descriptions of the crazy variety of giant mammals (megafauna) that once called the americas their home.

Starting off with more familiar animals, the Dire Wolf, Canis dirus. This was the largest known member of the canine family, averaging around 5 ft in length.

Moving from dogs to cats, the American Lion, Panthero leo atrox, was the largest known member of the cat family. They averaged around

The Crow

What makes humans special and different from other animals? Is it our ability to use tools? Maybe not, because other primates can use tools too, and so can birds!!! Crows can not only recognize human faces, they can use tools! Here is a crow using a stick to do something crazy:

But it gets better.

Apollo 11 Slow-Motion Launch Video

This is a slow motion video of the apollo 11 launch, closeup on the engines. Be sure to have the volume turned on because the accompanying description rules.


Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

Awesome!!!

Also, everyone has probably seen the apollo 11 moon-walk videos a bunch, but the later apollo missions had two things apollo 11 didn't have... better video equipment and a ROVER:


Apollo 16 LRV Grand Prix HD from Doug Ellison on Vimeo.

via @nauticalgrandpa via kottke.org

The Grand Canyon Rules, pt 1

Recently I went to the grand canyon, which is one of the top five most amazing sights I imagine I will ever see in my life. Here is a picture of me at the north rim:

Me, Mind Being Melted.

At the visitors center, on the side of an awesome miniature model of the canyon, there is this amazing quote from geologist Clarence Dutton (1841-1912) that sums up quite well how I feel when standing on the edge of the canyon:

Dimension means nothing to the senses, and all we are left with is a troubled sense of immensity

The Toxies

Since I will someday, within the next few decades, finally reach adulthood, I have been giving a lot of thought to my personal brand. So far this has mainly consisted of coming up with an extremely long list of band names. Most recent addition:

butt nachos

I have also been giving a lot of thought to never-before-seen-on-earth-until-the-dawn-of-the-industrial-revolution-but-mainly-since-world-war-II chemicals, that inevitably find their ways into the environment and into our bodies. Also concerned with this topic is a California-based (of course) group called CHANGE, who also seem to understand the importance of branding: