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

Quantum Computing

The massive amount of processing power generated by computer manufacturers has not yet been able to quench our thirst for speed and computing capacity. In 1947, American computer engineer Howard Aikensaid that just six electronic digital computers would satisfy the computing needs of the United States. Others have made similar errant predictions about the amount of computing power that would support our growing technological needs. Of course, Aiken didn't count on the large amounts of data generated by scientific research, the proliferation of personal computers or the emergence of the Internet, which have only fueled our need for more, more and more computing power.

Will we ever have the amount of computing power we need or want? If, asMoore's Law states, the number of transistors on a microprocessorcontinues to double every 18 months, the year 2020 or 2030 will find the circuits on a microprocessor measured on an atomic scale. And the logical next step will be to create quantum computers, which will harness the power of atoms and molecules to perform memory and processing tasks. Quantum computers have the potential to perform certain calculations significantly faster than any silicon-based computer.

Scientists have already built basic quantum computers that can perform certain calculations; but a practical quantum computer is still years away. In this article, you'll learn what a quantum computer is and just what it'll be used for in the next era of computing.

You don't have to go back too far to find the origins of quantum computing. While computers have been around for the majority of the 20th century, quantum computing was first theorized less than 30 years ago, by a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory. Paul Benioff is credited with first applying quantum theory to computers in 1981. Benioff theorized about creating a quantum Turing machine. Most digital computers, like the one you are using to read this article, are based on the Turing Theory. 

Black Hole!!!

Study explains decades of black hole observations

A new study by astronomers at NASA, Johns Hopkins University and Rochester Institute of Technology confirms long-held suspicions about how stellar-mass black holes produce their highest-energy light.

"We're accurately representing the real object and calculating the light an astronomer would actually see," says Scott Noble, associate research scientist in RIT's Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. "This is a first-of-a-kind calculation where we actually carry out all the pieces together. We start with the equations we expect the system to follow, and we solve those full equations on a supercomputer. That gives us the data with which we can then make the predictions of the X-ray spectrum."

Lead researcher Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, says the study looks at one of the most extreme physical environments in the universe: "Our work traces the complex motions, particle interactions and turbulent magnetic fields in billion-degree gas on the threshold of a black hole."

By analyzing a supercomputer simulation of gas flowing into a black hole, the team finds they can reproduce a range of important X-ray features long observed in active black holes.
"We've predicted and come to the same evidence that the observers have," Noble says. "This is very encouraging because it says we actually understand what's going on. If we made all the correct steps and we saw a totally different answer, we'd have to rethink what our model is."
Gas falling toward a black hole initially orbits around it and then accumulates into a flattened disk. The gas stored in this disk gradually spirals inward and becomes compressed and heated as it nears the center. Ultimately reaching temperatures up to 20 million degrees Fahrenheit (12 million C)—some 2,000 times hotter than the sun's surface—the gas shines brightly in low-energy, or soft, X-rays.
For more than 40 years, however, observations show that black holes also produce considerable amounts of "hard" X-rays, light with energy 10 to hundreds of times greater than soft X-rays. This higher-energy light implies the presence of correspondingly hotter gas, with temperatures reaching billions of degrees.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-decades-black-hole.html

Infinity Pool!!!

Infinity pool in Marina Bay Sands Skypark, Singapore

Infinity pool in Marina Bay Sands Skypark was opened in 2010 in Singapore. The 1115 ft (340 m) long pool belongs to a 2,560 rooms hotel and is one of the biggest and most impressive in the world.

The Infinity pool’s construction is indeed amazing: it embraces three buildings. It looks like the water spills over the edge. However, it is being pumped back into this gorgeous pool, which is 55 storeys up.

Architect Moshe Safdiehas designed the Marina Sands resort. Legendary Diana Ross sang during the hotel’s opening night. The whole Skypark complex attracts thousands of visitors each day.

Credit : John Luo

Disguise Master...

National Geographic

Photo of the Day

Eastern Screech Owl, Georgia

Photograph by Graham McGeorge

Masters of disguise. The eastern screech owl is seen here doing what they do best. You better have a sharp eye to spot these little birds of prey. Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia, U.S.A.

http://goo.gl/KYDRA

Mimic Octopus - The Great....

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 Description & Behavior

This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia on the bottom of a muddy river mouth. For the next 2 years, scientists filmed nine different mimic octopuses, Thaumoctopus mimicus (Norman & Hochberg, 2005), impersonating sea snakes, lionfish, and flatfish—a strategy used to avoid predators. Mimic octopuses reach about 60 cm in length and are typically brown and white striped.

Mimic octopuses have been observed shifting between impersonations as it crosses the ocean floor to return to its burrow.

Scientists speculate that additional mimic species will be found in muddy river and estuary bottoms in the tropics as these areas are typically unexplored.

All octopus species are highly intelligent and change the color and texture of their skin for camouflage to avoid predators. Until the mimic octopus was discovered, however, the remarkable ability to impersonate another animal had never been observed.

Norman and fellow researchers, Julian Finn of the University of Tasmania in Australia and Tom Tregenza of the University of Leeds in England, describe the mimic octopus in the September 7th issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

Although mimicry is a common survival strategy in nature, certain flies assume the black and yellow stripes of bees as a warning to potential predators, the mimic octopus is the first known species to take on the characteristics of multiple species. The creatures they mimic include:

» Sole fish: This flat, poisonous fish is imitated by the mimic octopus by building up speed through jet propulsion as it draws all of its arms together into a leaf-shaped wedge as it undulates in the manner of a swimming flat fish.

» Lion fish: To mimic the lion fish, the octopus hovers above the ocean floor with its arms spread wide, trailing from its body to take on the appearance of the lion fish's poisonous fins.

» Sea snakes: The mimic octopus changes color taking on the yellow and black bands of the toxic sea snake as it waves 2 arms in opposite directions in the motion of two sea snakes.

Scientists believe this creature may also impersonate sand anemones, stingrays, mantis shrimp and even jellyfish.

This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator. For example, scientists observed that when the octopus was attacked by territorial damselfishes, it mimicked the banded sea snake, a known predator of damselfishes.

World Range & Habitat

 OBIS Distribution map

Indo-pacific (Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia), muddy estuary bottoms in the tropics.

Feeding Behavior (Ecology)

Because mimic octopuses, Thaumoctopus mimicus, are found in muddy river bottoms and estuaries, its diet most likely consists of small crustaceans and fish.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2013 June 8 

Messier Craters in Stereo 

Credit: Apollo 11, NASA; Stereo Image by Patrick Vantuyne

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130608.html

Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier, from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by an extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by the impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

New sulfur-based battery is safer, cheaper, more powerful than lithium-ion

Scientists at the DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have struck the battery mother lode: They’ve created an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery that is cheaper, less flammable, and has four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries. Beyond the obvious gains from a four-fold increase in energy density, these sulfur-based batteries could play a key role in electric vehicles and airplanes, where the flammability of lithium-ion batteries is a serious concern.

We have known about the potential of lithium-sulfur batteries for decades. Theoretically, sulfur-lithium battery chemistry can have an energy density (watt-hours per gram) that is 10 times that of conventional lithium-ion batteries. In small-scale testing, sulfur-lithium has been shown to have an energy density that is four times that of lithium-ion. Another advantage is that sulfur cathode is a lot cheaper than the lithium-based cathode normally used in a lithium-ion battery. Sulfur, by virtue of being a byproduct of petroleum processing, is almost free.

The problem with conventional lithium-sulfur battery chemistry, though, is that the liquid electrolyte — which is present in just about every commercial battery chemistry — essentially burns through the sulfur cathode, resulting in a battery that’s only good for a few charge-discharge cycles. The scientists at ORNL have solved this problem in two ways: They’ve developed a new, more-rugged sulfur-based material for the cathode — and they’ve also introduced a solid electrolyte, further reducing the wear and tear on the cathode. This new cathode material, fashioned out of lithium polysulfidophosphates, has a massive capacity of 1,200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge/discharge cycles; a lithium-ion cathode, on the other hand, has a capacity of just 140-170 mAh/g.

The world’s fastest computer, Titan, is also situated at ORNL

Combined with the solid electrolyte, and after factoring in lithium-sulfur’s lower voltage, the ORNL battery has four times the energy density of the lithium-ion battery in your smartphone. In other words, if your current smartphone battery gets you eight hours of use, a lithium-sulfur battery should get you 32 hours.

Beyond its increased power density, the use of a solid electrolyte instead of flammable liquid electrolyte should significantly reduce the chance of combustion. This is good news for Boeing, which recently had its fleet of 787 Dreamliners grounded due to some on-board battery fires, and for electric vehicle makers.

Moving forward, ORNL’s new battery is still in the demonstration stage, but the team has filed for a patent. It’s easy to get bogged down by the seemingly never-ending stream of go-nowhere battery advances, but this one, by virtue of its efficacy, frugality, and relatively simple chemistry, really could come to market in the next few years. Maybe the Department of Energy’s plea for a 5x improvement in chemical batteries within five years will actually come to pass.

What ur Email says about U...............

Mantis Shrimp Amazing Beautiful

Stomatopod crustaceans (mantis shrimps) possess an incredibly complex visual system, comprised of compound eyes that contain more types of photoreceptors than in any other known animal. The mantis shrimp eye’s optical arsenal includes monocular range finding capability, 12-channel colour vision, 2 channel linear polarization detection, and, in some species, the ability to detect and analyze circularly polarized light. Underlying this unparalleled array of functional capabilities is a structural diversification of a basic photoreceptive unit common to all compound eyes the ommatidium. In the following, the mantis shrimps visual prowess is described in the context of the design variations and the distribution of its ommatidia.

Mantis Shrimps shows the eye of the scaly-tailed mantis, Lysiosquilla scabricauda. It consists of upper and lower (dorsal and ventral) hemispheres separated by a narrow central band. A close examination of the eye’s surface reveals that each region consists of closely-spaced parallel rows of facets tiny ones in the hemispheres and much larger ones in the band. The hemispheres have many rows of facets but the band has only six. Looking beneath the surface reveals that each facet is the tip of an elongate structural unit, known as an ommatidium. All ommatidia are optically sensitive devices, but those in the band are the most complex, most functional, and most interesting.

The various ommatidia share certain general structural features. In particular, each ommatidium
consists of the following three sections, from top to bottom: (i) the cornea (ii) the crystalline cone (a hexagonal converging lens), and (iii) the rhabdom (rod). The rhabdom is a transparent light sensor/guide consisting of 8 photoreceptor cells a short cell (R8) sitting atop 7 long cells (R1, R2, …, R7) that are fused along a central axis. Each cell has numerous interdigitating, coplanar, finger-like constructs (microvilli) containing light-sensitive molecules. At the bottom of each rhabdom there is a conduit (axon) that conveys electrical signals to neurons. Within the framework of these general similarities, the various ommatidia have internal structural differences that give them quite different light-sensing functionalities. These will now be described.

Each ommatidium in the hemispheres is long and thin, with a rhabdom consisting of a short R8 cell on top of a ring of R1-R7 cells. There are two sets of microvilli distributed over the 8 cells. One set consists of parallel planes of coplanar microvilli, while the other set is similarly distributed in planes that are perpendicular to those of the first set. The R8 cell has both sets, but the other R1-R7 cells have one set each. This may have significance, as discussed below.

When non-polarized sunlight enters the earth’s atmosphere it interacts with atmospheric molecules and is scattered (preferentially in the blue end of the spectrum) in all directions. When viewed at an angle of 90o to the incident beam, the scattered light appears linearly polarized, meaning that the electric vector of the light wave is along a line that is perpendicular to both the incident beam and the line of sight. The sky is therefore full of linearly polarized light. Many animal species (e.g. bees, locusts) have developed an ability to use this ambient polarization to navigate even when the sun is obscured.

 The parallel planes of coplanar microvilli is suggestive of sensitivity to linear polarization. The aligned light-sensitive molecules of the microvilli will sense linear polarization by oscillating only in response to electric vectors vibrating parallel to the molecule’s vibration axis. Perpendicular planes of microvilli should therefore detect light with perpendicular planes of polarization. In the R8 cell the presence of the two sets of perpendicular planes likely has a “null” effect a linearly polarized wave enters the cell, splits into two perpendicular components oscillating parallel to each plane, and the two components recombine on exit to regenerate the original linearly polarized ray. As if nothing had happened.

The two sets of planes thereby destroy linear polarization sensitivity (LPS). However, it is not clear what happens next in the R1-R7 cells. Since each of these cells has only one set of parallel microvillar planes, it all depends on what the the receiver of the seven independent signals does with them. It could either merge them to destroy LPS or use them to advantage. Which of these actually happens is still not known. 

The long axes of the ommatidia in the first few rows adjacent to the midband are skewed slightly
inwards relative to the optical axes of the ommatidia in the midband, which are perpendicular to the cornea. The ommatidia in the more distant rows have axes nearly parallel to the midband axes. It has been suggested that the intersections of these skewed optical axes from opposite sides of the midband, and hence intersections of the visual fields of these ommatidia, give rise to a monocular range-finding and speed-measuring capability. Experiments have shown that stomatopods have both monocular and binocular range-finding capability, the former being short-range and the latter longrange. Most of the ommatidia in the hemispheres, however, are parallel to each other as well as to the ommatidia in the midband, and therefore sample nearly the same narrow visual fields. No wonder mantis shrimps are constantly moving their eyes they have “tunnel vision”.

Why Mantis Shrimp is my new Favourite animal?????