punenthusiast @structuralpanic - Tumblr Blog

hey, just wanted to let you guys know i’ll be on pretty indefinite hiatus. i’ve barely been even checking tumblr the last few months, posting or reblogging, so i think it’s time to make it official. i’m not deleting or anything, but yeah, i’m basically moving on for now

subtitlebuoy

Wind speed 4.0 m/s. Sea temp: 28.3 °C, air temp: 27.4 °C. #timhortons

yourheartisbeating

Seljalandsfoss

earthstory

You can really see how this is one waterfall that crosses an old sea cliff

naturalsciencesbelgium

“I never crawled out of a cave that fast!”

Our colleague Sophie Verheyden is a fanatic speleologist. Quite an advantage when you are a geologist studying speleothems, like stalagmites and stalactites. One of her major discoveries was last year, when she could date stalagmite constructions (containing traces of fire) far into the cave of Bruniquel (Southwestern France) as being 176,500 years old. That indicated that early Neanderthals, well before Homo sapiens, knew how to use fire to circulate in enclosed spaces far from daylight. Just watch this cool documentary.

First footprints

“Speleology is so fascinating”, Sophie says. She remembers exploring a cave in Italy. “We had to dive through a siphon, a section that is flooded to the ceiling, and climb a 50 meter high waterfall, before we could explore a dozen side galleries. I was walking through the very fine, untouched sand… Looking back, I saw my own footprints, and realized I was the first EVER in that place. You feel mighty and humble at the same time. In one of the other galleries, closer to the river, we discovered a bear ‘nest’, not far from the skulls and bones that had already been found in the main gallery. So, there must have been an entrance nearby, but until now we haven’t found it.”

Crawl!

Speleology is not without danger. “In Mexico I was measuring a cave with an underground river. After a rainstorm the water had risen 50 meters: the calm lake on the cave bottom had turned into a wild underground river. After a week, we could re-enter the cave, but we were still wary of the roaring waters. We constantly listened to the sound of the river. Suddenly, the noise was getting louder, the water was rising! I never crawled out of a cave that fast!”

(Pictures: First two by Saskia Vanderstichelen/VUB in the Grottes de Han, Belgium. The third by Michel Soulier/SSAC during the exploration of the Bruniquel cave, France)

gabrieldreyfuss

Guy who likes music

ethereal-insight-deactivated201

Is he an alien

butangel420

This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen

agingerwithaseoul

Dog in a Small Korean Town Follows Street View Photographer, Photobombs Each And Every Photo

Too cute

The Washington Bee, Washington DC, November 8, 1902

hematitehearts

Azurite

Tsumeb Mine, Otjikoto Region, Tsumeb, Namibia

melrows

This is Kjell Lindgren. He’s a NASA astronaut who just got back from 5 months on the International Space Station. There are two reasons why this picture is hilarious:

His wife is flawless and makes bad space puns to make him do household chores.

I have that shirt. Thousands of people have that shirt. That shirt is available at Target. Which means actual astronaut Kjell Lindgren, with his wardrobe already full of NASA-issued and logo-emblazoned clothes, was at Target, saw a NASA shirt, and was like, “Yes, I am buying this because this is what I want to spend my actual astronaut salary on.”

tl;dr NASA employs a bunch of fucking nerds