San Francisco's Dreams

San Francisco's Dreams

Photo Credit : Darvin Atkeson
LiquidMoonlight.com

"San Franciscans conclude their nightly dreams under a light blanket of fog as the city slowly begins to show signs of life. Dawn breaks on the foothills of the East Bay in a brilliant red glow that unsuccessfully challenges the international orange of the bridge. As the skies begin to lighten the early morning sky, the Moon and Venus slowly rise over the city by the bay. The glow of lights that run across the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge illuminate the fog adding a soft orange glow to the hues of purple and blue and add a special reflection to the water hundreds of feet below. In the far distance the city lights twinkle in the hazy fog and the lights of the Bay Bridge are strong across the water like golden pearls. Sutro Tower to the south hums and glows with electromagnetic waves of energy as the morning news broadcasts traffic and weather reports to the city's many early risers. The promise that a new day brings starts anew. A chance to make the world a slightly better place. Are we still dreaming? "

Camera Nikon D300
Lens Nikkor DX 17-55mm
Focal Length 22mm
Shutter Speed 8 sec
Aperture f/2.8
ISO 200

http://500px.com/photo/5143809

Vampire Dracula

"Vampire" Skeleton Unearthed

Photograph by Nikolay Doychinov, AFP/Getty Images

The discovery of a 700-year-old skeleton in Bulgaria—seen at the country's National Museum of History in June—offers evidence that the fear of vampires is far older than Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The "vampire" was found entombed among church ruins in the Black Sea town of Sozopol (map) earlier in the month. The skeleton had been stabbed in the chest with an iron rod (upper right), which was in the tomb next to the body.

In addition, the skeleton's teeth had been pulled. Scholars believe the rod and tooth-pulling were techniques villagers used to prevent dead men from turning into vampires.

The vampire obsession dates back millennia in countries across Europe.

"In graves thousands of years old, skeletons have been found staked, tied up, buried facedown, decapitated ... all well-attested ways of preempting the [attacks] of wandering corpses," wrote former National Geographic historian Mark Collins Jenkins in his book Vampire Forensics.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/best-news-pictures-2012-most-popular/

NASA’s Cassini Probe Photographed Giant Hurricane on Saturn in Detail

If you’re into science or astronomy at all you’re probably familiar with the Great Red Spot on the surface of Jupiter. That Great Red Spot is a massive storm on the surface of Jupiter.

What you may not know is that Saturn has something similar occurring on its surface that has been dubbed the Great White Spots. Those spots create a hexagon pattern in the clouds at the North Pole of Saturn.

The spacecraft Cassini was able to take some very interesting images of the Great White Spots on the surface of Saturn when the planet was tilted just right for light to illuminate the clouds perfectly. In the images, scientists discovered a giant hurricane in the center of the hexagon. Interestingly, the scientists believe that this massive hurricane could’ve been there for years and gone unnoticed until now.

The storms that rage in Saturn’s Great White Spots show up sporadically and can last for months. The storms are strong enough to change the weather on the entire planet. The photograph you see here was taken in 2010 and while the storms look small, they actually span about 7000 km across.

The image taken by Cassini were able to image each pixel at only 14 km across giving an impressive view of the storms dynamic. Scientists estimate the winds inside the storm were over 400 km/h.

Hala from Hawaii

This is Hala fruit from Hawaii.

The fruit of the hala tree only grows on the female tree. It can be eaten when it turned brought yellow. It was used throughout Polynesia as a food during times of famine. The round fruit is a cluster of seed pods. As it ripens, the fruit breaks apart into single seeds called keys. A new hala tree will sprout from these seeds."

These are such fascinating trees. They are easy to spot in Hawaii, often growing along salty coastlines, and while there are several endemic species here, this is also one of the canoe plants that the Polynesians chose to bring with them to the islands. They are dioecious, meaning there are male trees and there are female trees. The male trees produce white clusters of flowers and the females have the large cones of seeds on them (sometimes confused as “pineapple trees”). Every part of this tree is useful. The leaves are used often in weaving. The male flowers are fragrant and the pollen is thought to be an aphrodesiac. The ariel roots are very phallic in appearance. They are an alterative, used as a blood cleanser. They are also diaphoretic and diuretic. The large female “cone” fruit are used to tonify chi. They are adaptogenic and can be used for low energy, sluggish digestion, hangovers, etc. The medicine of this tree is said to strengthen mind and spirit. Another strong mana plant, these trees have a solid place in Polynesian culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandanus_tectorius

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hawaii?Plants.hala

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7957972@N06/1344746589/

Super Moon

Super Full Moon over Espejo.

The Super Perigee Moon rises over the horizon of Espejo, an small Village of Cordoba Countryside in Andalusia, Spain.

Copyright: Juan A. Bafalliu (Bonobo) 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calle_l_8/9121407276/

Longest Day...

Today is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. 

The June solstice is here once again, marking the longest daylight period of the year and the start of astronomical summer in Earth’s northern hemisphere.

At 5:04 UTC (1:04 a.m. EDT) on June 21, the sun can be seen straight overhead along the Tropic of Cancer, while the North Pole reaches its maximum annual tilt toward the sun. As the planet rotates on its axis, areas within the Arctic Circle see the sun circle through the sky for 24 hours.

Of course, in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere we don’t see the sun up for 24 hours, but there’s still plenty of daylight to enjoy. Most places in the continental U.S. see the sun above the horizon for 14 to 16 hours on the summer solstice – the exact amount depends on your latitude.

On the summer solstice, areas of the Northern Hemisphere outside the tropics see the longest daylight period of the year and the midday sun is at its highest point in the sky.
In Washington, D.C., the sun is above the horizon for 14 hours and 54 minutes, climbing 74.5º above the horizon at solar noon (1:10 p.m.). The higher your latitude, the longer you’ll see the sun above the horizon – however, this also means the sun will appear lower in the sky.

In the table of world cities below, we see that in more northern locations, the sun is up longer on the summer solstice, but shines from a lower angle at midday. Compare Washington and London, for example: The sun in London (if not masked behind clouds), is up nearly two hours longer than in Washington. However, at midday it’s only as high in the sky as Washingtonians see it in mid-April.

Why can’t we say that the sun is at its highest point in the sky everywhere north of the equator? The reason is that in the tropics (locations within 23.5º latitude of the equator), the midday sun can appear toward either the northern or southern horizon depending on the time of year . Along the equator, the noontime sun is at its highest point – zenith – on the equinoxes, while on the solstices, the sun actually takes its lowest path in the sky.

Interestingly, the June solstice sun appears higher in the sky at solar noon in cities like Washington, New York, or Minneapolis than it does on the equator. As we see in the first table above, equatorial Singapore only sees the sun rise 67.9º above the horizon on the summer solstice, while the sun in Minneapolis appears at a slightly higher 68.5º above the horizon at midday


Read More : 

http://goo.gl/OacHc

That's some DVD!!

How to fit 1,000 terabytes on a DVD

A new technique has been developed that will allow a single DVD to store around 10.6 years of high definition video. Using nanotechnology, the breakthrough will increase the storage capacity of a DVD from a measly 4.7 gigabytes to 1,000 terabytes.

Read more: http://bit.ly/13SOSXc