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.