Alex Cunningham

My awesom MICROBLOG.

[alexcunn]

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[knotty-et-al]

Knotty's art of today [2023/08/07]

[art-of-mathematics]

Some art I drew during the recent days...

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

At a low density, crowds of people can behave like a fluid, which has led to numerous hydrodynamically-based crowd models. At higher densities, though, crowds are more like a soft solid, and researchers are adapting models developed for granular materials like sand to describe these crowds. In granular materials, these models help scientists identify how vibrations move through the complex network of grains and what circumstances might cause sudden reorganizations. In a large crowd, this could tell scientists the difference between the innocuous shuffle at a rock concert and the trigger for a deadly stampede. Getting real-world data for comparison is tough – obviously, it’s unethical to intentionally cause a crowd to panic – so thus far the models remain relatively untested. (Image credit: M. Lebrun; research credit: A. Bottinelli and J. Silverberg)

[mapsontheweb]

A map that shows where you would end up if you dig straight down.

[cosmicdustpw]

Space clouds over Florida by astronaut Nick Hauge by zuraken

★☆★ SPACE ★☆★

[hi-i-think-knowledge-is-power]

14/09/2019

:)

[earthstory]

epiclava_ Moving, flowing and cooling EpicLava! #epic#lava#lavaflow#pahoehoe#kilauea#volcano#bigisland#hawaii#epiclava

[space-wallpapers]

Orion Arising (desktop/laptop) Click the image to download the correct size for your desktop or laptop in high resolution

[skunkbear]

This is one slice of an incredible high resolution, enhanced color image of Pluto, recently released by NASA. You can see the full, larger version here. 

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

[alexcunn]

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[burgerwizard-deactivated2015091]

[fyeahastropics]

APOD is 20 Years Old Today

(via APOD; Image Credit & Copyright: Apologies to: Vermeer’s Astronomer and Geographer; Image Pixelation: Rob Stevenson )

Welcome to the vicennial year of the Astronomy Picture of the Day! Perhaps a source of web consistency for some, APOD is still here. As during each of the 20 years of selecting images, writing text, and editing the APOD web pages, the occasionally industrious Robert Nemiroff (left) and frequently persistent Jerry Bonnell (right) are pictured above plotting to highlight yet another unsuspecting image of our cosmos. Although the featured image may appear similar to the whimsical Vermeer composite that ran on APOD’s fifth anniversary, a perceptive eye might catch that it has been digitally re-pixelated using many of the over 5,000 APOD images that have appeared over APOD’s tenure. (Can you find any notable APOD images?) Once again, we at APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our readership for continued interest, support, and many gracious communications. If you consider yourself a fan of APOD, you might want to consider joining the Friends of APOD.

[spacettf]

Comet 67P on 7 June 2015 – NavCam

This single frame Rosetta navigation camera image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on 7 June 2015 from a distance of 203 km from the comet centre. The image has a resolution of 17.3 m/pixel and measures 17.8 km across. The original image and more information is available on the blog: CometWatch 7 June Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence. The user is allowed to reproduce, distribute, adapt, translate and publicly perform this publication, without explicit permission, provided that the content is accompanied by an acknowledgement that the source is credited as 'ESA - European Space Agency’, a direct link to the licence text is provided and that it is clearly indicated if changes were made to the original content. Adaptation/translation/derivatives must be distributed under the same licence terms as this publication. The user must not give any suggestion that ESA necessarily endorses the modifications that you have made. No warranties are given. The licence may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from ESA. To view a copy of this licence, please visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo

[prepaidafrica]

#MamaBiashara - Archetype of the Dynamic Informal Market Economy of Africa

Mama Biashara’s business activities may perhaps be more driven by livelihood need and few alternatives but she’s not sitting around looking for a handout either. Pillar of the informal markets that supply fresh food and the solid rock that keeps homesteads running, children fed and schooled, Mama Biashara is an archetype of the informal economy that contributes so much to the national GDPs yet goes unremarked.

Under a new category “Mama Biashara“, we would like to celebrate the endurance, the survival and the commitment that these Mamas, Nanas and Mummies demonstrate every single day, across the continent. Add it to your RSS feed or bookmark it, as we’ll be filling the pipe with more stories about her as we go on.

You can also follow the hashtage #MamaBiashara on Twitter

[allthedaysordained]

Il Capo (Excerpt) - Yuri Ancarani

‘Italian artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani captures the otherworldly landscape of Carrara’s marble quarries in the Apuan Alps, Northwest Italy, as Il Capo (The Chief) guides his men through the extraction process.’

[sagansense]

Dr Carolyn Porco is one of the world’s leading planetary scientists and was part of the Voyager-1 imaging team. She helped Carl Sagan set up Voyager’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” portrait of Earth when the probe had reached beyond Neptune in 1990. Here, she reflects on what it means to see the veteran craft finally make the leap to interstellar space.

“It is a momentous occasion. We know now with certainty that the Voyager spacecraft, launched 36 years ago to spend the 1980s touring the outer solar system, has finally slipped beyond the protective magnetic bubble created by our Sun and into the nothingness of interstellar space. Such an event happens for the first time in human history only once. And as reported in a publication today in the journal Science, it happened last summer.

Voyager was a mission of mythic proportions, with all the elements of Homeric legend, and I was unspeakably fortunate to have been a part of it. I was young then, right out of graduate school, and somehow found myself a member of the imaging team and hitching a ride on the greatest journey of scientific exploration humanity had ever undertaken.

It was a defining experience of my young career.

Those early memories of wide-eyed wonder at being among the first humans ever to see, in vivid detail, the planetary systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and the sense of privilege and pride at being a participant in such a profoundly meaningful, history-making enterprise, have never left me. I’ve said ever since, I lead a charmed existence and my connection to Voyager was the opening act.

Even today - especially today - as we celebrate our new official status as interstellar explorers, I feel as though that intrepid little vehicle is carrying a bit of me and you along with it, as it begins its never-ending travels across the galaxy and among the stars. And because of it, we, the inhabitants of Earth, have finally arrived at eternity’s door.”

Today, Carolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging team on the Cassini mission at Saturn. You can follow her on Twitter at @carolynporco. She also writes on her Captain’s Log blog, which you can find at CICLOPS, the official website of the Cassini imaging team.

Source: BBC News; Image: Penny4NASA

[mindblowingscience]

These 17 Women Changed The Face Of Physics

Click through to read the rest.

[boobsbellyandbutt-deactivated20]

Hedy Lamarr’s frequency modulating technology wasn’t for hiding messages from the nazis. It was to be used in guidance systems for the first homing torpedoes.

The US Navy didn’t take her seriously because she was a pretty young Hollywood starlet and refused to adopt her technology during the war.

However, the technology was adopted and adapted and is still in use today. We now see it in things like cellular technology, guidance systems and many other applications.

She also helped invent several other minor things as well, was an acclaimed actress and incredibly beautiful. Sadly, her beauty was what kept her from being taken seriously as an intellectual.