Saturday, June 30, 2012
World’s famous leaders
An excellent series of photos. You can see what famous politicians and dictators looked like in their youth and what they became when they grew up. Tony Blair George W. Bush Fidel Castro |
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Inspiring Book & Paper Sculptures
A Fun Time With Knowledge. This book sculpture features very detailed skeleton sculptures and old school music player, but what made this sculpture really special is the fact that nobody knows who created it – the artwork was delivered to a library or certain event secretly. (Image Source:chrisdonia)
Plant of Appreciation. Another secretly delivered book sculpture with aggressive details. Next to the tree sits a paper egg lined with gold and quoted parts from the poem "A Trace of Wings" by Edwin Morgan. (Image Source: chrisdonia)
Teabreak. A sculpture with beauty and elegance crafted in. It was found at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with the tag, reading "To @edbookfest 'A gift' This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas… & festivals. XX" Really mysterious, huh? (Image Source: chrisdonia)
Dairy Nets & Soda. You can't deny that this sculpture is epic. Brian Dettmer takes a thick book and transformed it into an extremely impressive book sculpture, and what's unbelievable is, he didn't add anything extra to form the sculpture! (Image Source: Brian Dettmer)
Roads And Paths Photography
It's hard to imagine that something we see and use on a daily basis can exude so much beauty in photography. The scenic paths we hike on and explore, the roads we take to get to work and to travel across and beyond the boundaries of the country.
The Scenic Path (Image Credit: Cichutko)
Curve (Image Credit: Roger Arleryd)
Drunk N Tunnel (Image Credit:Jerry Berry)
Road to Nowhere… (Image Credit: Petra Oldeman)
Glamourous Earth..
Mount Gower at Lord Howe Island, NSW. Blue Mountains. Kanangra Walls, New South Wales. |
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Big Bang Didn't Need God to Start Universe
The Big Bang Didn't Need God to Start Universe, Researchers Say
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 24 June 2012 Time: 01:36 AM ET
This graphic shows a timeline of the universe based on the Big Bang theory and inflation models. CREDIT: NASA/WMAP |
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Our universe could have popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago without any divine help whatsoever, researchers say.
That may run counter to our instincts, which recoil at the thought of something coming from nothing. But we shouldn't necessarily trust our instincts, for they were honed to help us survive on the African savannah 150,000 years ago, not understand the inner workings of the universe.
Instead, scientists say, we should trust the laws of physics.
"The Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there," said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. "With the laws of physics, you can get universes."
Filippenko spoke here Saturday (June 23) at the SETICon 2 conference, during a panel discussion called "Did the Big Bang Require a Divine Spark?" [Images: Peering Back to the Big Bang]
Quantum fluctuations
In the very weird world of quantum mechanics, which describes action on a subatomic scale, random fluctuations can produce matter and energy out of nothingness. And this can lead to very big things indeed, researchers say.
"Quantum mechanical fluctuations can produce the cosmos," said panelist Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the non-profit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute. "If you would just, in this room, just twist time and space the right way, you might create an entirely new universe. It's not clear you could get into that universe, but you would create it."
"So it could be that this universe is merely the science fair project of a kid in another universe," Shostak added. "I don't know how that affects your theological leanings, but it is something to consider."
Filippenko stressed that such statements are not attacks on the existence of God. Saying the Big Bang — a massive expansion 13.7 billion years ago that blew space up like a gigantic balloon — could have occurred without God is a far cry from saying that God doesn't exist, he said.
"I don't think you can use science to either prove or disprove the existence of God," Filippenko said.
The origin of the laws of physics
If we're after the ultimate origin of everything, however, invoking the laws of physics doesn't quite do the trick. It may get us one step closer, but it doesn't take us all the way, Filippenko said.
"The question, then, is, 'Why are there laws of physics?'" he said. "And you could say, 'Well, that required a divine creator, who created these laws of physics and the spark that led from the laws of physics to these universes, maybe more than one.'"
But that answer just continues to kick the can down the road, because you still need to explain where the divine creator came from. The process leads to a never-ending chain that always leaves you short of the ultimate answer, Filippenko said.
The origin of the laws of physics remains a mystery for now, he added, one that we may never be able to solve.
"The 'divine spark' was whatever produced the laws of physics," Filippenko said. "And I don't know what produced that divine spark. So let's just leave it at the laws of physics."
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+
Eye of a Tornado
These images were made by storm Chaser Mike Hollingshead in Bradshaw, Nebraska, on June 20, 2011. |
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
AMAZING SALT MINE IN POLAND
Deep underground in Poland lies something remarkable but little
known outside Eastern Europe. For centuries, miners have extracted salt
there, but left behind things quite startling and unique. Take a look at the
most unusual salt mine in the world.
known outside Eastern Europe. For centuries, miners have extracted salt
there, but left behind things quite startling and unique. Take a look at the
most unusual salt mine in the world.
From the outside, Wieliczka Salt Mine doesn't look extraordinary.
It looks extremely well kept for a place that hasn't minded any salt for
over ten years but apart from that it looks ordinary. However, over two
hundred meters below ground it holds an astonishing secret. This is the salt
mine that became an art gallery, cathedral and underground
lake.
It looks extremely well kept for a place that hasn't minded any salt for
over ten years but apart from that it looks ordinary. However, over two
hundred meters below ground it holds an astonishing secret. This is the salt
mine that became an art gallery, cathedral and underground
lake.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Walk on Tightrope Across the Niagara Falls
Daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls, taking steady, measured steps Friday night for 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of the roaring falls separating the U.S. and Canada. Afterward, he said he accomplished the feat through "a lot of praying, that's for sure. But, you know, it's all about the concentration, the focus, and the training." The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted. Other daredevils have wire-walked over the Niagara River but farther downstream and not since 1896.
"This is what dreams are made of, people," Wallenda said shortly after he began walking the wire.
He took steady, measured steps amid the rushing mist over the falls as an estimated crowd of 125,000 people on the Canadian side and 4,000 on the American side watched. Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud.
ABC televised the walk and insisted Wallenda use a tether to keep him from falling in the river. Wallenda said he agreed because he wasn't willing to lose the chance and needed ABC's sponsorship to help offset some of the $1.3 million cost of the spectacle.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Vietnam’s Colossal Cave
Located in central Vietnam's rugged Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Hang Son Doong might be the world's largest subterranean cavern. Expedition members enter through Hang En, a mile-long portal that tunnels into the lost world, hidden beneath a ring of mountains. The cave was carved out by the Rao Thuong River, which dwindles to a series of ponds during the dry months of April, May and October. At 2.5 miles long and 300ft wide, much of Hang Son Doong's colossal caverns are still being explored. (Carsten Peter/National Geographic Stock)
Hang Son Doong is 300ft wide and nearly 800ft tall -- room enough for an entire New York City block of 40-storey buildings. There are longer caves (the Mammoth Cave system in the United States) and deeper caves (Krubera-Voronja, the "crow's cave", in the western Caucasus Mountains of Georgia), but none compare to the overall size of this enormous subterranean passage.
A second skylight in Hang Son Doong, caused by a roof collapse long ago, reveals a jungle of hundred-foot-tall trees, lianas and burning nettles. An explorer climbs to the surface, while hikers struggle through the dense vegetation below.
A giant cave column swagged in flowstone towers over explorers swimming through the depths of Hang Ken, one of 20 new caves discovered in 2010. This cave, along with Hang Son Doong, is part of a network of more than 150 caves, many still not surveyed, in the Annamite Mountains near the Laos border.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Petrol vs Diesel Car: And the Economies of Scale
Petrol vs Diesel: And the Economies of Scale
Case - 1
With the prices of petrol skyrocketing, car buyers seem to be lining up to book diesel variants as they are highly economical and easy on the pocket compared to their gasoline counterparts. Well, that is only if you discount everything else and consider the running cost. We at ZigWheels take a look at the bigger picture and bring it down to simple numbers to find the cost-effective option between petrol and diesel fueled variant