POTRTP: Picture Of The Random Time Period
Enjoy!
The small, bright crescent is Venus, and the large, dim crescent is the moon. The picture was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD on October 30, 2006 and was taken in Budapest, Hungary.
- Original Post -
(Which includes a larger pic, to click on to get an even larger pic!)
We’ve said it before, and we’ll probably say it again; the future is now.
Two doctors at the Texas Heart Institute removed a dying man’s heart… To save his life. They didn’t put in a new heart, or even a Jarvic valve - they put in a small turbine engine that replaces the heart completely. It also leaves the man without a heartbeat or pulse!
After the jump, there’s an intriguing video documentary on the research process, as well as pictures of the first human recipient.
This is an internal view of the first recipients chest showing the heart replacement device already "installed".
This is a, presumably human heart, and presumably that of the patient in the article.
And this is the turbine-based device that replaced the patient’s heart!
- Original Article on DesignTaxi -
Yes, there really is a new game coming out in "early 2012" for the venerable Atari 2600 video game system.
Actually, new games aren’t really uncommon on the forums, but this one was recently featured on Retro Thing, so I owed them the link!
This particular game is a sequel to the massively popular A2600 game from the 70’s, Adventure!
I now present, Epic Adventure for the A2600!
This is the "legend" of the game characters (this was a common thing back in the day)!
One of the, presumably early, game screens - it’s very reminiscent of the original Adventure!
And here is the requisite picture of the inevitable (for those who knew the original game) maze scene!
How awesome is this?
Transcripts of every show from Star Trek, The Original Series!
That’s all three seasons, PLUS the animated series!
I found these while verifying that I correctly remembered Spock’s comment to Bones just after he went blind in "Operation: Annhilate!" (The quote was "An equitable trade…", and yes, I had remembered it correctly).
Now I want to watch the shows again…
This shows only season one (though all three seasons AND the animated series are covered). It shows the title, production order, and original air date. Click on the title and you will be taken to the transcript.
Here’s an out-take from Space Seed (the episode where Khan first appeared) to give you an idea of what the transcripts look like.
- Star Trek: The Original Series Transcripts -
The New York Public Library has collected 40,000 stereoglyphs (double-picture photos that were so popular through the early 1900s) and added an app to let you create your won StereoGram (moving 3D image) or Anaglyph (Red-Blue glasses image)!
There’s even a gallery to view the conversions done by others (some of whom will NEVER do this work for a living, or at least not successfully!)
Check it out, it’s very, very cool!
This is an example of a stereoglyph - two images taken from slightly different viewpoints (If you can do the cross-your-eyes thing to see those dot-stereograms, it works for these too, you just need to be fairly close or enlarge the image)
This is an anaglyph - an image viewable in 3d by using those red-blue glasses.
And this is a stereogram - two images alternated (in an ani-gif in this case) to give the 3d feel. Note that I think this was a HORRIBLE choice for the site to use to demonstrate! See below for a better one.
I think this is a much better example of the 3d feel a stereogram can give than the one above. Just like using the old stereoglyph viewers, some images were great, some okay, and some really not well suited for 3d.
- Stereogranimator App on New York Public Library Site -
I just noticed that I’ve only done about 8 posts since AUGUST. We weren’t OFFICIALLY dead, but we might as well have been.
It’s time for a change.
86Words is coming back from the dead…
WeeeeEEEeeeeerrrrreeeeeee… BaaaaAAAAaaaacccCCCCckkkk……
The picture says it all - more pictures (and info) at the original story!
Luckily, the whole tree wouldn’t fit into the portal or it would just fall straight through!
- Full Article on BoingBoing -
After a lengthy meeting with the 86Words Fear Containment Unit, we’ve been authorized to publish this post, but please read with caution!
Naegleria Fowleri is an amoeba that lives in warm-water areas worldwide. It enters through the nose and travels via the olfactory nerve to the brain.
Which it eats.
Yes, killing the victim.
The number of deaths by this organism appears to be increasing, and two recent cases in Louisiana came from tap water!
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun)
As this picture (from the CDC website) shows, the organism is more precisely an amoeboflagellate - note the "tail", but the article refers to it only as an amoeba.
- Full Article on TheDailyBeast.com -
Every step we take toward a more sustainable, more natural, more ecologically friendly way of life seems to involve doing something biologically rather than mechanically (or non-biologically chemically).
The latest example uses biologically-based materials to generate energy in the form of a battery - it even uses living things (termites) for it’s basic principles!
The demonstrator is using an enzyme (a bio-chemical) to convert "paper" (wood) into a power-cell strong enough to run a small fan. One more step toward fully bio-engineering our environment!
I have a dear friend and regular reader of my blog who prefers not to be credited for his Internet finds (let’s call him Ethwick).
This time, my dear readers, he found GOLD!
THIS is what geekdomhood is all about. I’ll let the article speak for itself!
(With massive points/props to "Ethwick").
If you get nothing else from this article, get this: the BBC is recovering missing episodes of Dr. Who from the early sixties by reconstructing them from signals bounced off of something that is twenty-five freaking light years away (give or take).
- Original Article on the BBC -