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[clearscience]

The reason small changes in a logarithm (like MMS scale) mean big changes in what the logarithm is applied to (like actual earthquake magnitude), is because logarithms count what are called orders of magnitude. A plain-English way to say this is that logarithms tell you how many zeros a number has.

Things in the hundreds have 2 zeros.  Things in the millions have 6 zeros. You see how it goes. For this reason, a logarithmic scale can be used to talk about huge ranges, such as the size of the solar system compared to the size of an atom (which is about 23 orders of magnitude in difference).

Logarithms also have properties that we humans often perceive as beauty.

[distant-traveller]

First moments of a solar flare in different wavelengths of light

On Feb. 24, 2014, the sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:49 p.m. EST. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which keeps a constant watch on the sun, captured images of the event. These SDO images from 7:25 p.m. EST on Feb. 24 show the first moments of this X-class flare in different wavelengths of light — seen as the bright spot that appears on the left limb of the sun. Hot solar material can be seen hovering above the active region in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation, appearing as giant flashes of light in the SDO images. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

Image credit: NASA/SDO

[teiohthedark]

I still believe in something that isn't there. How can I become like you?

[teiohthedark]

Break your gun on a stump!!! Feels like knife!!

[artchipel]

Monica Boyle (b.1962, Scotland/Ireland)

Scotland-born Ireland-based artist Monica Boyle was able to pursue her interest in painting when Dublin Institute of Technology initiated a Visual Arts Degree programme on the remote Sherkin Island in 2002. This was the perfect location to explore her interest in West Cork’s island communities. All of her work in this exhibition focuses on the neighbouring island, Heir.

In this series of work I have incorporated photographic images within the painted surface. On a literal and physical level they depict the interior of Heir Island - its paths, roads, inlets and, most of all, its houses. On an emotional level the paintings convey something of my deepening relationship with the island and the people who live there.

[more Monica Boyle | artist found at iamjapanese]

[vovat]

[polygondotcom]

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc review: deadly combination

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc mixes murder and play perfectly.

Equal parts social sim, murder mystery and courtroom thriller, Danganronpa kept me enthralled with concepts that felt fresh and familiar all at once. It pieces together a devilishly good story with characters that feel like individuals and mixed mechanics that play well together. Though built on violence, Danganronpa isn’t strangled by its dark nature.

Danganronpa stars Makoto Naegi, a high school student preparing for his first day at Hope’s Peak Academy — a school that only takes the best and brightest. At least, that’s what they think, right up until Makoto and company are trapped in the school and forced to participate in a killing game. In order to escape, one must murder a fellow student without being discovered. Get caught and you’ll be “punished” with death; get away with it, and everyone else is punished.

(Link to the full review)

[thenewenlightenmentage]

Meteorite smashes into moon in largest lunar impact ever recorded

Rock travelling at 61,000 kph punched a crater 40 metres wide and produced a flash that could be seen from Earth

Astronomers have captured the moment a lump of rock slammed into the moon with so much force that the bright flash could be seen from Earth with the naked eye.

The 400kg (63st) meteorite, travelling at 61,000 km/h (40,000 mph), punched a fresh crater on the moon’s surface some 40 metres wide in what is thought to be the largest lunar impact ever recorded.

Continue Reading

[polygondotcom]

How Samus got her groove on for Metroid the musical

Metroid’s Samus Aran isn’t much for talking, but a fan-made musical has her singing her heart out for a debut more than two years in the making.

"Metroid: Fight For Love" is a collaboration from musician and songwriter Brent “brentalfloss” Black and animator Oscar “Osuka” Diaz. The five-minute video sees the iconic heroine setting off for adventure, but with a heavy heart.

Black, already known within the gaming community for his “With Lyrics" musical parody series, created the original script for "Fight For Love" in 2011. It started at the behest of fans begging for a “Metroid with Lyrics” parody. To Black, the game’s universe didn’t feel conducive to parody songs.

(Link to the full story)

[thenewenlightenmentage]

Einstein’s lost theory uncovered

Physicist explored the idea of a steady-state Universe in 1931.

A manuscript that lay unnoticed by scientists for decades has revealed that Albert Einstein once dabbled with an alternative to the Big Bang theory, proposing instead that the Universe expanded steadily and eternally. The recently uncovered work, written in 1931, is reminiscent of a theory championed by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle nearly 20 years later. Einstein soon abandoned the idea, but the manuscript reveals his continued hesitance to accept that the Universe was created during a single explosive event.

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[discoverynews]

Could Black Holes Give Birth to ‘Planck Stars’?

Black holes are vexing objects. Not only do they defy our everyday understanding about how the Universe should work, they confound even the most complex mathematical models. Science writers describe them as “gravitational behemoths” that warp spacetime so much that even light cannot escape the surrounding boundary, known as the “event horizon.” But what lies inside? Well, that doesn’t matter, we argue, everyday physics does not apply once you cross the event horizon.

The horribly unsatisfactory explanation has been battered in recent months when a serious physics confrontation entered the public arena. What goes on inside a black hole’s event horizon has actually caused a theoretical conflagration and now, two theoretical physicists have proposed a new idea that may marry quantum mechanics with gravity, extinguishing the tricky “firewall” and finding a solution to the “information paradox.”

Enter the “Planck Star.” It’s weird….

[thenewenlightenmentage]

Is the Universe a Simulation?

IN Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” the protagonist, a writer, burns a manuscript in a moment of despair, only to find out later from the Devil that “manuscripts don’t burn.” While you might appreciate this romantic sentiment, there is of course no reason to think that it is true. Nikolai Gogol apparently burned the second volume of “Dead Souls,” and it has been lost forever. Likewise, if Bulgakov had burned his manuscript, we would have never known “Master and Margarita.” No other author would have written the same novel.

But there is one area of human endeavor that comes close to exemplifying the maxim “manuscripts don’t burn.” That area is mathematics. If Pythagoras had not lived, or if his work had been destroyed, someone else eventually would have discovered the same Pythagorean theorem. Moreover, this theorem means the same thing to everyone today as it meant 2,500 years ago, and will mean the same thing to everyone a thousand years from now — no matter what advances occur in technology or what new evidence emerges. Mathematical knowledge is unlike any other knowledge. Its truths are objective, necessary and timeless.

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[utcjonesobservatory]

A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is the small, incredibly dense remnant of much more massive star. A teaspoon of matter from a neutron star weighs as much as Mount Everest. Check out this cool video from NASA Astrophysics.

[thedemon-hauntedworld]

Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion How do planets form? To help find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked to take a detailed look at one of the more interesting of all astronomical nebulae, the Great Nebula in Orion. The Orion nebula, visible with the unaided eye near the belt in the constellation of Orion, is an immense nearby starbirth region and probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Insets to the above mosaic show numerous proplyds, many of which are stellar nurseries likely harboring planetary systems in formation. Some proplyds glow as close disks surrounding bright stars light up, while other proplyds contain disks further from their host star, contain cooler dust, and hence appear as dark silhouettes against brighter gas. Studying this dust, in particular, is giving insight for how planets are forming. Many proplyd images also show arcs that are shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as our Sun.

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (STScI/ESA), the HST Orion Treasury Project Team, & L. Ricci (ESO)

[teiohthedark]

Your winter fantasy is in the dreams of another, Because i dont even exist. I wish you were here. I wish you were here. I wish you were here.

[teiohthedark]

The length of your hair, The colour, The eyes, Your eyebrows, The way your purse slung to your side, Even the way you stood. The glasses, And how they sat on That same nose, I bet you had her smile. I brooded, And snuck into your eyes, You looked at me, And my heart melted, When i realized It wasnt you at all.

[teiohthedark]

I sat at a local bar alone... And didnt care to meet anyone specifically. Then i saw you. You looked like her...