Happy Thanksgiving!

Nasa has announced their thanksgiving menu at the International Space Station. The menu included irradiated smoked turkey, thermostabilized yams and freeze-dried green beans. The food all sound familiar but hard to imagine how it looks. 

story via nasa, Nasa's skylab meal system photo via tested

Mechanical Principles (1930) by Ralph Steiner [4min selection]

4min selection of a larger work by Ralph Steiner. It is beautiful illustration of basic mechanical principles from 1930's.



Favorite movements: @ 1:16 - counter mechanism @ 2:55 - normal gears, but cut to engage on diagonals @ 3:37 - SQUARE GEARS! @ 3:41 - variable speed transfer @ 3:46 - rotary to linear action with a 4 tooth cog

A Bling Planet

A recent discovery of a small planet 4,000 light years away, or around an eighth of the way toward the center of the Milky Way from the Earth. Because of the density of the planet and largely consists of carbon, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline. So a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond!! Hooray!!

Image via cosmosmagazine

Water Bears in space

In 2007, microscopic animals commonly known as water bears became the first animal to survive exposure to space. It prevailed over sub-zero temperatures, unrelenting solar winds and an oxygen-deprived space vacuum. Read more here

Tardigrades are microscopic animals commonly known as water bears

Photo via bbc

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

Greatness needs no explanation!
Book covers by Eyke Volkmer
Title: Arthur C. Clarke

via butdoesitfloat

Under-Dressed Penguin

This strange looking penguin has been discovered recently on the island of South Georgia near Antarctica. Due to the mutation, the peguin has an appearance of all-black outfitted instead of the usual tuxedoed.

photo via Andrew Evans of the National Geographic

read more story here

 

Love

Brain map: image from bibliodyssey

The other day a friend of mine told me that he is love. How cute is that? The feeling of being in love is actually a chemical reaction in the brain. The decision we made are not driven by a conscious thought. The conscious mind dictates you what are you going to do and who are you going to be with. The brain produce phenylethylamine or PEA that believed to make you feel high. Along with the chemical call oxytocin and endorphins. Oxytocin helps create a feeling of enduring love while endorphins, literally means morphine, make you feel clam and relaxed. All these would last for 18 months to 4 years. So when you husband or wife of 20 years tells you that he or she feels exactly the same way he felt when he first met you. You know that's a lie. haha