Discover the Natural World

A Protected Night Sky Over Flagstaff
Credit and Copyright: Dan & Cindy Duriscoe, FDSC, Lowell Obs., USNO

Explanation: This sky is protected. Yesterday marked the 50 year anniversary of the first lighting ordinance ever enacted, which restricted searchlight advertisements from sweeping the night skies above Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Flagstaff now enjoys the status of being the first International Dark Sky City, and maintains a lighting code that limits lights from polluting this majestic nighttime view. The current dark skies over Flagstaff not only enable local astronomers to decode the universe but allow local sky enthusiasts to see and enjoy a tapestry contemplated previously by every human generation. The above image, pointing just east of north, was taken two weeks ago at 3 am from Fort Valley, only 10 kilometers from central Flagstaff. Visible in the above spectacular panorama are the San Francisco Peaks caped by a lenticular cloud. Far in the distance, the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy arcs diagonally from the lower left to the upper right, highlighted by the constellations of Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus. On the far right, the North America Nebula is visible just under the very bright star Deneb.


This is from NASA's photo of the day archive. Really sweet to just browse:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080416.html

Western Australian Termite Mounds

These are some of the largest, if not the largest structures created by a single species, excluding humans. These termite mounds, made up of generations of termite saliva, feces and dirt, can last up to 300 years. Early settlers used them instead of trees as landmarks because they lasted longer. Many millions of termites can live in a colony like this, all brothers and sisters from a single queen, which can get up to two inches long and live for 30-40 years. Amazing little creatures.

Motherf*cker.

OKAY.

some cool shit, i used to see the termite mounds all the time in AUS

Orchid Mantis

These guys are totally sweet. Orchid Mantids live in tropics, and can be incredibly specific to a certain type of plant they inhabit. As you can see, this one is camouflaged to a specific specie of orchid, and uses its camo to sit and wait in the flower for tasty pollinating bugs to come by. This is a ridiculously cool example of evolution-driven mimicry.

Paradise Found

I ran across these when I was searching for places to see on some planned travels next year. These are from the Plitvice National Park in Croatia. Google Earth can take you to some sweet places.

The Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull:

Heard about this from a book I'm reading right now (The Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls).
 Yes, there is an Indiana Jones movie coming out about a Crystal Skull. But there really are crystal skulls from Mesoamerica. The one pictured above is by far the most magnificent of them. Heres the story:

A girl discovered this on a dig with her father in the 1920's in the Yucutan. The skull, still kept in her families possession, is made from a single piece of flawless quartz crystal, extremely rare itself. The jawbone of the skull separates and can hinge. It is extremely anatomically correct. If you shine light on it from the bottom, the quartz twists the light and projects it out of the eyes. Creepy.

Heres where it gets crazy. In the 1970's, IBM's technicians had a look at it, as they were the foremost world experts on crystal quartz at the time (for computers and clocks). They couldnt find a tool mark on it. Anywhere. Moreover, our technology cannot produce something like this today. The diamond drills we have would likely shatter the skull, especially the jawbone. According to one of the examiners, the skull shouldnt exist. The only scenario for its creation was that it was slowly polished down from a raw block, but even with this technique, carving this skull would have taken over 300 years of dedicated work.

Crystal also has some strange properties. Its thought that since crystal is so hard and permanent, it could be used in the future for a information storing medium. Moreover, ancient stories in the area where it was found say that a ritual using these skulls was somewhat akin to information transferal. An elder would grasp the skull in a ceremony when he was nearing his death, and his younger predecessor would place his hands on the top of the skull. The elder would die, and the younger student would suddenly receive all of the knowledge. Farfetched? Natural electric conducting lines (which also twist photons making the eyes glow) run from the temples to the top of the skull, as discovered by IBM. Craaaaazy....

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

your moms the natural world

Call me weird but I find the paranormal really fascinating. I also love to read psychic Silvia Browne's books. If you believe in it or not I think you should all read Secret's and Mysteries of the World by Silvia Browne. She goes into great dept about the crystal skulls, Easter Island, the Pyramids, crop ciricles, aliens, the Holy Grail, demons, vampires, etc. It's such an awesome book, but you need to read it with an open mind. I truly believe that there is life after death, I believe that aliens helped build the Pyramids, I believe in fairies and all that stuff.

good thread.  + karma

^ huh..
that crystal skull is interesting though.

Devil's Swimming Pool
One interesting thing is the Devil's Swimming Pool at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. In either September or December you can swim right up to the edge of the falls and look over without being swept away. apparently it's surrounded by rocks and so it's a lagoon sort of thing; why it only works in september and december though, I would like to know.
I wonder how many people had to fall in the water and plunge to their imminent death before they discovered it.
(this is going to sound cliched, but I want to check it out sometime before I die..)
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aww.. epic fail. here are the links

Devil's Swimming Pool:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5nlu4IBN8&feature=related

Victoria Falls in general:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=v46ZzeD2UQI&feature=related

crystal skull is insanely sweet

Blue Planet: The Deep

This is a BBC production that just was released, made by the same group that did Planet Earth. Narrated by David Attenborough, so you know its good. This is one of the coolest episodes:



I'm trying to find part 3, if you come across it, post it!

That swimming pool is insane! What an experience it must be.

Nice thread Rowen!

i was in flagstaff over the summer, and you can see the night sky so well.  I guess its like starwatching/ astromony headquartes cause their were giant telescopes and such on the hill overlooking the city.  Just thought i would share

great thread rowne, +karma



you got any more?

Heres one, The Bimini Road.




(Outline of all of the uncovered stones)




Discovered in 1968 off the coast of Bimini, one of the Bermuda islands, this feature has been claimed to be anything from a road to Atlantis, to a natural geological feature, or the remains of an ancient coastal Caribbean civilization. One of the most interesting ideas I've heard was that it was a dry dock for Chinese sailors in the 1400's for part of a treasure ship expedition that circumnavigated the globe and beat Columbus to the punch by 70 years.

Whatever the origin, the 'road' is a collection of rocks about 15 feet underwater. The stones are squarish in shape and appear in apparently regular rows. Recent excavations have shown that there is a second level of stones beneath the top layer, which baffles some geologists. Also strange are some heart shaped rocks, that all have holes through the center. Its been hypothesized that these could be anchor's for boats, and that the road was once an ancient dock or wall from an undiscovered civilization. Seeming to support this theory is that 2000-4000 years ago, sea levels were 6 feet lower, and the stones would align with Bimini's natural coastline.

The Blue Hole, Belize:




Its just that. A hole in the ocean that leads down for thousands of feet. Much of the geology of Central America is of natural continental rocks inter spaced with channels of limestone, which can be eroded quite easily. Caves and wells are common in the Yucutan, and entire cultures (like the Maya) have survived off the subterranean water system. This is what happens when a well is engulfed by the sea. Its off the coast of Belize, quite a popular dive site as you can imagine. There are columns and sunken stalagmites in vast chambers underneath.

sick thread

I saw this on the history channel or something a few years ago. I think they said there were apparently 7 around the world and that some people think that aliens made them. Idk about all that but its none the less amazing that it exists.

This picture graced the walls of my room for years. It had some portland times article or something along side it. That comet is hale-bopp, It's like the only comet I have ever seen and it was awesome and so is mount hood. Not as cool as rowens stuff but that photo has always had a special place in my heart.

Something else I thought was cool but don't have any pictures is that the too deepest spots on earth(puerto rico trench and marianas trench) are on other sides of each other and both have "triangles" around them where planes and ships have been mysteriously lost. I saw a show on the history channel claiming that there may be a wormhole in the earth. I don't know how much science backs that theory but it was still very interesting. It also said their may be a white hole(opposite of black hole) in the earth and that it created the ocean floor by spewing matter out which was originally sucked in by a black hole. Like I said I don't think this has a lot of validity but at least it sounds a lot cooler.

So as a bump and an aside, does anyone know of a good site like tv-links that lets you watch TV shows? I'm itchin for more Blue Planet...

tehparadox.com

if you want to take the time, to DL stuff, you can find just about anything, way better quality that Tv links too.

Blue Planet is awesome!! I get them off of DC++, try that out.

Filesharing on government computers = no-no while I'm at work. Thanks though, too bad my connection at home is so terrible.

yeah.............. i could see that becoming a problem, haha

but it is way safer than peer to peer sharing, all the links are either rapid share, or megaupload.

Galaxies Gone Wild

These are new imaged from the Hubble Space Telescope, released today by NASA. They show brilliant galaxies colliding as never before seen in such detail. Too fuckin cool. Theres also a high res image (60mb!) here for even clearer res:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/16/image/a/warn/