At last, a decent explanation of the "leap second" phenomenon onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com At last, a decent explanation of the "leap second" phenomenon

Leap day comes around every four years (give or take a few), but just what is a leap second and why does it happen? This video explains the science behind our lost time.

In this clip, Chief Scientist for Time Services (and cool title-holder) Demetrios Matsakis of the U.S. Naval Observatory, poses an interesting problem: The Earth's rotation is infinitesimally slowing at a rate far too small for us to notice, but not for our increasingly precise clocks. "What do you do," he asks, "if the Earth slows down and you have so many seconds in a day, your clocks are giving you the right answer and the Earth is telling you the wrong answer?" The answer, as explained in the video, is the leap second

The clip is from The Atlantic Tech, and is part of a larger video piece from The Atlantic on where time comes from, which features a whole bunch of cool atomic clocks, and which you can watch here.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com At last, a decent explanation of the "leap second" phenomenon

Xander explains why he's in charge in the Buffy season 10 comics onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Xander explains why he's in charge in the Buffy season 10 comics

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Non-super-powered sidekick no more! When Dark Horse releases Buffy the Vampire: Season 10 #1 in March, it's Xander who will be leading the Scooby Gang — or more accurately, Nicholas Brendon will. The actor has joined the comic's writing team, and we interviewed him to discuss the return of Dracula, Giles' new affinity for boobs, and whether Buffy needs to be killed again.

io9: How did you get involved with the Buffy comics and with Dark Horse?

Brendon: They had always just wanted to work with me because of what an amazing writer I was. [laughs] It's funny, I don't really know how. I think it was at San Diego Comic-Con, because I know [Editor] Scott Allie has worked with other actors on the comics — they've worked with Juliet Landau, and I know they worked with James [Marsters], and I'd heard about that. So I talked with Scott at Comic-Con a couple of years ago and was like "Yeah, dude, I'll do it." It was just kind of one of those things, and I did the Buffy comics writing summit about a year ago and then I got paired up with [current comics writer] Christos Gage and we went to town.

What was the writing summit like?

Brendon: We were all kind of sitting in a circle, and we were there for hours. And then we had this idea for the main plotline through this season. And we were just kind of talking and all these ideas were floating in-between the circle, and they all amalgamated into this pretty amazing story. Watching it come into existence was amazing. I had to stop and be like "Did you guys realize what just happened? We just changed everything." It was neat to just be among all those great writers — Joss included — and see this thing come into being. It's really cool. But I can't talk about it.

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What's it been like to create actual stories for these characters?

Brendon: A lot of it is just ideas that I've had in the past, and we'll be going over the outline or I'll be reading what we've got. It's funny because there's actually some stuff coming up with Xander and Spike. I just saw the drawings of what the covers might be, so I need to talk to Scott because I have a couple of ideas about that. So it's kind of like ideas will just come and I'll say "Hey, how about this?" And then they'll just say — well, actually, I guess I've never been told no yet, so I guess my ideas are decent. Maybe I should pitch killing Buffy. Does that sound good? Just kill her dead.

Well, there's certainly precedent. How easy is it to write for the other characters? I'm assuming you have Xander pretty well down.

Brendon: Well, I'm not sure what you know and what you don't know about the previous comics, but Giles is a kid now, and I just feel he should be talking about boobs more. I just bring a certain immaturity level to this thing. Because the comics are so smart— they've got smarts all over it. Sometimes it just needs to be really immature. Think of me as the Bill Murray of this scenario.

Are you finished with the writing now?

Brendon: No. We finished a main arc and then we start with the new arc in the next week or two.

How many issues are you writing?

Brendon: That's a good question. I don't know. I mean, so far I've done three. But I kind of want to stay involved. I think as long as I want to do it they'll let me. Everyone's gotten sick. I got really sick in Portland a couple weeks ago, then got Christos sick and then Scott got really sick. So that's kind of slowed things down a little bit, because I got people sick — which I'm not proud of.

How much can you say about season 10?

Brendon: Probably nothing. Like if Scott [Allie] were sitting here right now he'd be like "nope." He's very "shut up." I'm shocked he's letting me talk to you right now. I think he must be listening in.

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I know Dracula is coming back, which is always great, since Xander and he have such a complicated relationship.

Brendon: He is. He's wonderful. It goes straight from the Xander/Dracula story to the Xander/Spike stuff which is going to be a lot of fun.

You know, there's an Angel and Faith comic, so I don't see any reason why they can't have Xander and Dracula as a spin-off comic.

Brendon: Right? That would actually be enjoyable.

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What have you thought about the previous season 8 and 9 comics? How do you think they compare to the show?

Brendon: Oh, it's so different. I mean, before this [gig] I hadn't been reading the comics. I missed Xander too much, you know? It was kind of like it's Xander but it's not. It looks like me but it's not. So when I first picked it up, Spike was on a giant bug ship, and I was like "Whaaat?" Because that was completely weird.

Writing comics is completely different than the TV show, because you have much more freedom to try stuff. And I think Joss has said the comics are its own entity, like if we were ever to do a Buffy movie it wouldn't necessarily be based on the comics. You can just get so much more fantastical on comics. You have the ideas and then you just draw them. It's really epic. It's a lot more fantasy based.

And Xander and Dawn are now in a relationship, which was weird for me, but I just had to say okay, well, this is the way comics are and this comic is. I just kind of jumped on board with that.

Speaking of Dawn, how do you feel about Xander hooking up with her in the comics?

Brendon: Well honestly, when I first found out, I was weirded out. When I think of Dawn I think of Michelle [Trachtenberg], who was like 13 or 14 when she came on the show. So I always thought of her that way, and then about two or three years ago I saw a spread in FHM magazine and she's grown up. And at that point I'm totally down with Xander and Dawn. I'm down.

Do you ever see Michelle Trachtenberg? Has this your comics-dating ever come up in conversation?

Brendon: I haven't seen her since we started comic dating, but when I do see her she'll know right away. I won't hide it. I'll sneak up behind her.

At this point pretty much the entire Buffy cast has died and been resurrected. Do you think Xander should get his damn eye back?

Brendon: No. No.

Really?

Brendon: Yeah, 'cause he looks great in comic book form. Actually, it would be a cool thing to talk to Scott about, for a potential story where I have the opportunity to get my eye back, but I don't want it back. I don't want to erase the past. Me personally — that's not Xander speaking, because all he wants to do is erase the past.

The Buffy comics are well known for their utterly gorgeous Jo Chen covers. How do you feel about looking so ridiculously sexy on these things?

Brendon: Well, when you're as sexy as I am, you get used to it. I'll wake up in the morning and brush my teeth, you know, shave, and I'm like "God, Nick, you are ridiculously sexy." And then I think, "You know, these comics aren't doing me any justice."

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Xander explains why he's in charge in the Buffy season 10 comics

The final Iain Banks book will be published next February onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The final Iain Banks book will be published next February

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Sadly, it's not a novel — but it's still pretty exciting to have one last glimpse inside the mind of the legendary author. A collection of Banks' poetry, co-written by The Night Sessions author Ken MacLeod and edited by MacLeod, will be published on Feb. 16, 2015, which would have been Banks' 61st birthday.

Talking to the Guardian in his final ever interview, Banks revealed that his novel A Song of Stone had started life as a poem, and he had already published "bits here and there" of poetry:

Poems top and tail the story in Use of Weapons for example... The poems are a part of the desperate urge to get things that were supposed to be long-term projects out the way. I'm going to see if I can get a book of poetry published before I kick the bucket. I've got about 50 I'm proud of.

I've been trying to convince Ken MacLeod that he should come in with me on this as I've always loved Ken's poetry. That, and it gives me cover. It stops the book being what it really is, which is a bit of a vanity project."

So it sounds as though among these 50 poems, there will be some story fragments that could have turned into novels, if Banks had lived, judging from the reference to "things that were supposed to be long-term projects."

Separately, actor/comedian Simon Pegg came out with a tribute to Banks this month:

Whenever I am asked about a favourite book, I immediately think of The Wasp Factory. Iain Banks' beguiling novel is a funny, terrifying, beautiful piece of writing; a story told through the complex, compartmentalised thoughts of a calmly amoral, occasionally homicidal child, no more guilty of insanity than the questionable authority figures that surround this fractured youth. The Wasp Factory has stayed with me since the first of several reads and haunts me still, buried in my brain like maggots, the images appearing in my mind's eye like so many burning sheep on the horizon.

If I had only read this one book of Iain's and not devoured and enjoyed much of his other work, he would still be one of my all-time favourite authors.

Top image: Cover art for Banks' The Quarry. [via Iain-Banks.net]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com The final Iain Banks book will be published next February

Scientists now know why this mysterious rock suddenly appeared on Mars onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Scientists now know why this mysterious rock suddenly appeared on Mars

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When a rock suddenly appeared in front of the Opportunity rover on Mars last month, scientists were puzzled. Now, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab say they've solved the mystery.

Back in January when the rock — which scientists helpfully described as "about the size of a jelly doughnut" — was first spotted, a number of different options for how it got there were thrown around including that the rover itself had done it, a meteorite strike, and aliens (except not, because it wasn't).

So, who was the culprit? Opportunity itself it turns out. The rover rolled over a larger rock, first breaking it, and then kicking a fragment — Pinnacle Island, as the rock eventually became known — over with its wheel to land right in front of the camera at just the right moment.

Scientists figured it out by following a time-honored detective's trick — they followed the tracks. "Once we moved Opportunity a short distance, after inspecting Pinnacle Island, we could see directly uphill an overturned rock that has the same unusual appearance," Opportunity chief Investigator Ray Arvidson explained in a statement. "We drove over it. We can see the track. That's where Pinnacle Island came from."

Image: NASA/ JPL

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Scientists now know why this mysterious rock suddenly appeared on Mars

What would Google, Apple, and Facebook look like if they built cities? onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What would Google, Apple, and Facebook look like if they built cities?

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Large technology corporations like Google, Facebook and Apple already have employee populations that rival those of some small towns. So what would it look if they actually did become their own towns?

Alfred Twu of First Cultural Industries created these imagined cityscapes to show what it would like if tech companies were to build up small cities and surrounding infrastructure to house their entire workforces on-site — and just what life might look like inside of them.

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Twu also posted some ground-level shots of what the imagined cities might look like, including these of the iTown:

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And this one of the Google HQ skyline:

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Images: Alfred Twu / First Cultural Industries

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com What would Google, Apple, and Facebook look like if they built cities?

Finally a 3D CG cartoon movie worth a damn: Chip 'n Dale, Rescue Rangers onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Finally a 3D CG cartoon movie worth a damn: Chip 'n Dale, Rescue Rangers

We've suffered through two Garfields, three godawful Alvin & the Chipmunks flicks, Yogi Bear, and other horrible 3D CG movie remakes of classic cartoons. But the whole irritating phenomenon may be redeemed by this news that Disney is making a new Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers movie.

Most kids of the late '80s probably remember the show fondly, as part of a shockingly good block of Disney animation which also included DuckTales, TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck. Rescue Rangers had Chip and Dale — excuse me, Chip 'n Dale — running a detective agency for small animals, with help from their hotheaded Australian mouse adventurer Monterey Jack, and Gadget, the team's pilot, mechanic, inventor, and genius.

The Hollywood Reporter says that commercial director Robert Rugen is writing the script, which isn't exactly inspiring, but the movie will be produced by Mandeville Films, the company that also made the last Muppets movie for Disney, so here's hoping they can bring some of that magic to Rangers.

Even if it sucks, though, I know a few people that are going to be seeing it no matter what.

[Via First Showing]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Finally a 3D CG cartoon movie worth a damn: Chip 'n Dale, Rescue Rangers

Physicist proposes a thermodynamic explanation for the origins of life onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Physicist proposes a thermodynamic explanation for the origins of life

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A 31-year-old researcher from MIT believes he's figured out the basic physics behind the origin and evolution of life in the universe, a provocative new theory of life that borrows heavily from 19th century science.

According to physicist Jeremy England, the origin and evolution of life are processes driven by the fundamental laws of nature — namely the Second Law of Thermodynamics. He's come up with a formula showing how a group of atoms, when driven by an external source of energy (like the sun) and when surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), can sometimes restructure itself as a way to dissipate increasing rates of energy.

"You start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get a plant," England was quoted in Quanta Magazine.

Here's how Natalie Wolchover describes his work:

At the heart of England's idea is the second law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of increasing entropy or the "arrow of time." Hot things cool down, gas diffuses through air, eggs scramble but never spontaneously unscramble; in short, energy tends to disperse or spread out as time progresses. Entropy is a measure of this tendency, quantifying how dispersed the energy is among the particles in a system, and how diffuse those particles are throughout space. It increases as a simple matter of probability: There are more ways for energy to be spread out than for it to be concentrated. Thus, as particles in a system move around and interact, they will, through sheer chance, tend to adopt configurations in which the energy is spread out. Eventually, the system arrives at a state of maximum entropy called "thermodynamic equilibrium," in which energy is uniformly distributed. A cup of coffee and the room it sits in become the same temperature, for example. As long as the cup and the room are left alone, this process is irreversible. The coffee never spontaneously heats up again because the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against so much of the room's energy randomly concentrating in its atoms.

Although entropy must increase over time in an isolated or "closed" system, an "open" system can keep its entropy low — that is, divide energy unevenly among its atoms — by greatly increasing the entropy of its surroundings. In his influential 1944 monograph "What Is Life?" the eminent quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger argued that this is what living things must do. A plant, for example, absorbs extremely energetic sunlight, uses it to build sugars, and ejects infrared light, a much less concentrated form of energy. The overall entropy of the universe increases during photosynthesis as the sunlight dissipates, even as the plant prevents itself from decaying by maintaining an orderly internal structure...

...[England] derived a generalization of the second law of thermodynamics that holds for systems of particles with certain characteristics: The systems are strongly driven by an external energy source such as an electromagnetic wave, and they can dump heat into a surrounding bath. This class of systems includes all living things. England then determined how such systems tend to evolve over time as they increase their irreversibility. "We can show very simply from the formula that the more likely evolutionary outcomes are going to be the ones that absorbed and dissipated more energy from the environment's external drives on the way to getting there," he said. The finding makes intuitive sense: Particles tend to dissipate more energy when they resonate with a driving force, or move in the direction it is pushing them, and they are more likely to move in that direction than any other at any given moment.

Super interesting! Yet another indication that we live in a very biophilic universe. It also reminds me of Alex Wissner-Gross's Maximum Causal Entropy Production Principle — the notion that intelligent behavior in general spontaneously emerges from an agent's effort to ensure its freedom of action in the future.

Top image: A system of particles confined inside a viscous fluid in which the turquoise particles are driven by an oscillating force. Over time (from left to right), the force triggers the formation of more bonds among the particles. Jeremy England.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Physicist proposes a thermodynamic explanation for the origins of life

Pendelton Ward's 16-Page Manual on How to Draw Finn and Jake Correctly onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pendelton Ward's 16-Page Manual on How to Draw Finn and Jake Correctly

Adventure Time's characters have deceptively simple, pliable bodies, but Pendleton Ward's guide to drawing Finn and Jake reveals some very specific rules for how the boy and dog adventurers should look.

It's especially interesting to see what rules for Finn and Jake's appearances are kept deliberately loose (the number of fingers, the proportions of Finn's face-hole, the placement of elbows) and where the rules are stricter to maintain a sense of character and style (Finn's teeth, the actual curve of the elbow). Of course, now you can doodle deliberately incorrect Finns for fun.

How to Draw Adventure Time by Fred Seibert

Over on Frederator Studios founder Fred Seibert's Scribd account, you can check out a number of Frederator-related goodies, including a number of Adventure Time storyboards and the original pitch for Ward's Bravest Warriors:

"Bravest Warriors" Pitch by Fred Seibert

[via Super Punch]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Pendelton Ward's 16-Page Manual on How to Draw Finn and Jake Correctly

There is such thing as an anti-greenhouse effect onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com There is such thing as an anti-greenhouse effect

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As we all face the long, miserable slide into a post-apocalyptic world due to the greenhouse effect, isn't it comforting to know that there is such a thing as the anti-greenhouse effect? Of course, it only exists on other planets, but there is a way we can bring it to Earth.

So, we're coming out of a long winter that proves, in one way or another, that we've murdered ourselves and our children by trashing our environment. It's too late for us.

Or is it? If we look elsewhere in the galaxy, if we look, for example, to Titan, we might get a little hope. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has a greenhouse effect going on, too, but despite this, it's cooler than it should be. How does it cool itself down? Titan has got its own anti-greenhouse effect happening, because molecules that are good at trapping one kind of energy are sometimes terrible at trapping other kinds.

Titan has a lot of organic matter floating around in its upper atmosphere. This organic matter soaks up the sun coming in, creating a layer of heat well away from the lower atmosphere of the moon. What heat gets through to the moon heats up the surface of Titan, which then radiates infrared energy back up. Although the organic molecules trap higher-energy waves, they let infrared energy slip through, keeping the heat out, and also letting the heat out.

There are theories that this kind of thing might work on Earth. All we need is to get a lot of organic molecules in our upper atmosphere. The best way to do this -is instigating nuclear winter. Okay, so it's not the best option, but what else are you going to do, bike to work?

Image: Cassini Imaging Team, Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

[Via Analytical Solutions for the Anti-greenhouse Effect,Titan: Greenhouse and Anti-greenhouse.]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com There is such thing as an anti-greenhouse effect

Rosetta, a comet-hunting spacecraft, just woke up onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Rosetta, a comet-hunting spacecraft, just woke up

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After 31 months of hibernation while hurtling through deep space, ESA's comet-exploring spacecraft Rosetta woke up — and it sent us a message.

Rosetta, which runs on solar power, went into sleep mode over 2 years ago, when its orbit pushed it well outside proximity to the sun. With people from all over the world watching, ESA planned to re-awaken it today, when it got a little closer to the sun (well, relatively at least — it's still over 673 million km away).

Finally, at 18:18 GMT, Rosetta pinged us with this:

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That spike that you see is the signal that ESA received, and the evidence that, after it's long hibernation, Rosetta has woken up and is ready to start exploring comets.

Of course, it still has another 9 million kilometers to travel and several rounds of health checks (to ensure that everything remains operational) before it can do so. But, researchers expect it to start delivering long-range photos by May, and by August, it should have reached comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where scientists eventually plan to attempt to land it.

Top Image: ESA-C.Carreau; Second Image: ESA

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Rosetta, a comet-hunting spacecraft, just woke up

Here are the new word abbreviations spread by people on Twitter onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Here are the new word abbreviations spread by people on Twitter

Researchers at Dartmouth have analyzed over 180 million tweets from 900,000 users in the United States — and they've come up with a list of the new abbreviated words that spread on Twitter.

But, hey, 140 characters, that's not so many. Maybe we're just shortening our words to avoid hitting our character limit? Not so much, NPR's All Tech Considered reports. The average tweet using abbreviated words comes in at just under 90 characters. And, while the origins of some words are pretty obvi, some are much less so:

When searching for the East Coast equivalent of the word "hella" (you know, "a lot"), which likely stems from "helluva" or "hellacious" and is associated with the West Coast, Reddy says her team expected to see appearances of "wicked" or "mad." Instead, they found the phrase "od" or "odee" used in the same way. "Just like you'd say, 'Oh, it's hella great, people would say, 'It's odee great,' " Reddy explains.

She thinks "OD" or "odee" might be a shortened form of "overdose"; others think it might be a clipping of "overdoing." Search for "odee" on Twitter and you'll see these types of tweets: "My chest pump this morning was Odee crazy! Found this new 30 minute workout ... " or "My hairs getting odee long."

Here are the new words they've come up with so far, via NPR:

adorb (adorable)

adorbs (adorable)

alc (alcohol)

awk (awkward)

awks (awkward)

choreo (choreography)

collab (collaboration)

cray (crazy)

craycray (crazy)

defs (definitely)

delish (delicious)

fams (family)

gorg (gorgeous)

hilar (hilarious)

hilars (hilarious)

jelly (jealous)

jellz (jealous)

liq (liquor)

merch (merchandise)

milli (million)

obvi (obvious or obviously)

perf (perfect)

presh (precious)

pregs (pregnant)

probs (probably)

Are there any that they should add to the list? Let us know now in the comments.

Image: William Perugini / Shutterstock

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Here are the new word abbreviations spread by people on Twitter

Our brain can process and identify images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds. onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Our brain can process and identify images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds.

Our brain can process and identify images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds. That's much faster than the 100 milliseconds suggested by previous studies. This rapid-fire processing helps us direct our eyes — which can shift gaze three times per second — to the next visual target.

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[ Gif: Christine Daniloff/MIT ]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Our brain can process and identify images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds.

A scale for the size of the universe, from quarks to quasars onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A scale for the size of the universe, from quarks to quasars

Imagining the smallest of the small and the largest of the large in the universe can be a mind-bendingly difficult task. This awesome interactive graphic, that let's you slide from an infinitesimally tiny strange quark all the way out to the gigantic Eridanus Supervoid hanging around near the ragged edges of our observable universe, makes it much easier, though.

Made by brothers Cary and Michael Huang, the graphic takes objects of a familiar size — a person, a sunflower, an extinct T-Rex, the Eiffel Tower — and lets you use them as a scale to measure objects of a far less familiar size (a DNA molecule, a x-ray wavelength, Polaris, a dwarf galaxy, and Minecraft's world, for instance). By either zooming in or out in from a familiarly sized object in powers of ten (riffing on the visuals from this famous "Powers of 10" video), the very large and the very small suddenly seem a lot more graspable.

The scrolling graphic, which is all kinds of fun, can be found here, or just watch the video below.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A scale for the size of the universe, from quarks to quasars

A map that shows the most popular movie set in each U.S. state onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A map that shows the most popular movie set in each U.S. state

What's the most popular movie set in your home state? This map has the answer.

Created by reddit user Jakubisko, the map uses ratings culled from IMDb to pick the most popular movie set in each state. It's an interesting look at where the movies we love make their fictional homes — and also highlights the fact that some states have a lot more movies to choose from than others. Montana's Lonesome Dove, for instance, could also be in the running for most popular TV show in the state, as it was actually a made-for TV miniseries that aired in the late '80s.

What if you're not in the states, though? Not to worry, reddit's VictorVan still might have you covered with these maps of the top-rated films in countries in Europe and the Americas. Taking both VictorVan and Jakubisko's maps together, we can also answer which U.S. state holds the title of most popular movie setting in the country — it's Maine, with Stephen King's The Shawshank Redemption.

Top image: Jakubisko

Bottom two images: VictorVan

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com A map that shows the most popular movie set in each U.S. state

Archaeologists in China say they've discovered the world's oldest decimal calculator. onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Archaeologists in China say they've discovered the world's oldest decimal calculator.

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Archaeologists in China say they've discovered the world's oldest decimal calculator. Dating back 2,300 years, it consists of 2,500 bamboo strips inscribed with 65 ancient symbols. The multiplication matrix was used to calculate the surface area of land, crop yields, and taxes.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Archaeologists in China say they've discovered the world's oldest decimal calculator.

Ancient Roman funeral masks made from wax were freakishly lifelike onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Ancient Roman funeral masks made from wax were freakishly lifelike

Ancient Roman funeral processions were led by professional mourners who wore masks of the recently deceased's ancestors. But because the masks were made from wax, none survived. Recently, a group of archaeologists created their own wax masks using their own faces, and the results were stunning.

The researchers, who study at Cornell University, recently presented their work at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Called imagines maiorum, the masks were made from beeswax — a very expensive substance at the time. The researchers say the choice of material was a way to express power, social distinction, or worldliness. But it also produced lifelike qualities, often serving as an effective stand-in for human body parts.

But as Megan Gannon reports in LiveScience, this medium has its limitations:

As the experimenters can attest, wax is a rather sensitive and unstable material. The mockup masks, which were made with a modern recreation of ancient beeswax, have been sitting inside a protected display case at Cornell. But even after a short time, the surface of the skin appears to have tiny pits and holes, Jarriel said. In Roman times, the masks would have been constantly discolored and degraded by candle flames and smoke as well as the occasional handling during funeral processions and the copying process. (New households forged by marriage needed their own sets of ancestor masks.) "They were constantly transformed and probably never looked pristine, and I think probably in the end more like zombies than anything else," Annetta Alexandridis, an associate professor of art history at Cornell University, told LiveScience.

Read the entire article at LiveScience.

Image: Drew Fulton.

Related: This death mask just sold for $260,000. Can you guess whose it is?

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Ancient Roman funeral masks made from wax were freakishly lifelike

Watch Dubai's insane, record-setting New Year's Eve fireworks show onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Watch Dubai's insane, record-setting New Year's Eve fireworks show

2013 ended with a bang in Dubai —not a metaphorical one, but a very real one, as the wealthy city ushered in the new year by launching over 500,000 fireworks. The six-minute extravaganza set the world record for the biggest fireworks display, according to Guinness, triumphing over the previous record holder by, oh, about 420,000.

The above video is of Dubai's entire event, which involves some lovely singing and fountain shows, amidst some long breaks of people standing around; the fireworks begin ay 28:35 (literally and metaphorically).

[Via Laughing Squid]

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Watch Dubai's insane, record-setting New Year's Eve fireworks show