gil's normal modes

[paleoillustration]

"The Whorl Tooth Sharks of Idaho" opened on June 22 and runs through the end of the year. 

'The exhibit features a wide array of fossils of the 270-million-year-old shark called Helicoprion, along with original artworks by Alaskan artist Ray Troll, life-sized sculptures of the shark bursting through the museum walls by sculptor Gary Staab, original music, a short documentary and much more. There are children’s activities too, so it promises to be fun for the whole family.  The exhibit is a unique combination of science, art, music and humor.’ 

More information and pictures at Ray Troll’s webpage and Idaho Museum of Natural History

[normalmodes]

Wow, this shark rules

[irakalan]

THE KINGS AND THE HANDS

by Maryam Muliaee (tumblr / behance)

[normalmodes]

This is the interior of the Goharshad Mosque, in Mashhad, Iran.

[normalmodes]

I love witch things.  Stuff from the Farber University Archives @Brandeis.

[not-realworldmath]

[realworldmath]

Mathematics of Traffic Flow

We’ve all been in a traffic jam and given at least some passing thought to why traffic is such a problem and what we can do to fix it. (This Seattle-ite even has a website dedicated to his traffic-related musings.) Perhaps not surprisingly then, the mathematical study of traffic is a well established pursuit, dating back to at least the 1920s. However it may surprise some that it remains a very big problem in engineering, with whole research groups being dedicated to modeling and solving traffic flow problems.

Indeed, the study of traffic requires tools from many areas in mathematics, engineering, and physics: partial differential equations and fluid dynamics, statistical mechanics, and queuing theory, to name a few. A brief glance at the Wikipedia page on Traffic Flow will convince anyone of the complexity of the mathematics required to model traffic.

Obviously, traffic is still a problem that we haven’t solved yet. But we can be sure that any major improvement in the design of traffic systems will be the direct result of the hard work of mathematicians and engineers.

[normalmodes]

I had this problem on my last stat mech exam!

[anime-domination]

[normalmodes]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonon dat lattice

[normalmodes]

cucumber news

[normalmodes]

[normalmodes]

When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in the sock. So I stopped wearing socks.

- Albert Einstein.

[natgeofound]

A little boy is dwarfed by a supersized cabbage in Matanuska Valley, Alaska, July 1959. Photograph by Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic

[normalmodes]

nice

[normalmodes]

Valentine by a Telegraph Clerk

O tell me, when along the line From my full heart the message flows, What currents are induced in thine? One click from thee will end my woes. Through many a volt the weber flew, And clicked this answer back to me; I am thy farad staunch and true, Charged to a volt with love for thee. 

- James Clerk Maxwell: theoretical physicist, hopeless romantic, huge nerd. circa 1850.

[normalmodes]

gpoy

[natgeofound]

Three scientists sit inside a fire lit bat cave in Panama, August 1915. Photograph by George Shiras, National Geographic

[normalmodes]

Video: Jai Paul Track 2 Str8 Outta Mumbai

Le fantôme de Jai Paul plâne sur le site de Vibrations......watch video.

Someone made a video for Str8 Outta Mumbai featuring Helen

[natgeofound]

Porters transport a car on long poles across a stream in Nepal, January 1950. Photograph by Volkmar K. Wenztel, National Geographic

[normalmodes]

the car looks anachronistic here, it's the only thing that really dates this scene.

[normalmodes]

capillary action ruining my day no big looks cool though.