Things That Give Me A Million Boners

the-science-llama: Graphene Aerogel— Lightest Solid Material...

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:12:25 -0400

Graphene Aerogel
— Lightest Solid Material Ever Developed

Because aerogels are porous they are ultra-light materials and this one is 100 times lighter than Polystyrene foam cups and can help clean up pollutants like toluene and crude oil (other oils as well) and other compounds like ethanol. Researchers are planning to look at the materials ability for insulating and sound proofing in the future.

Previous records for lightest materials were 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter in 2011, 0.18 mg/cm3 in 2012, and now this material at 0.16 mg/cm3.

Prof. Gao Chao // Polymer Science Engineering at Zhejiang University
Published Feb 18, 2013 // Advanced Materials

nevver: Whatever

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:48:23 -0400

nevver:

Whatever

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no...

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:24:22 -0400

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”

abandonedography: Organ in chapel of abandoned sanitarium high...

Sat, 18 May 2013 14:36:54 -0400

abandonedography:

Organ in chapel of abandoned sanitarium high in the French mountains by odin’s_raven

tastefullyoffensive: owlturdcomix: Every time.

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:12:32 -0400

tastefullyoffensive:

owlturdcomix: Every time.

itscolossal: Pablo S. Herrero and David de la Mano

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:48:32 -0400

itscolossal:

Pablo S. Herrero and David de la Mano

nevver: Still falls the rain

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:24:26 -0400

nevver:

Still falls the rain

nevver: Tighten up

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:36:55 -0400

nevver:

Tighten up

unknowneditors: Pierre-Yves Riveau aka Pez Latest sketchbook...

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:12:32 -0400

unknowneditors:

Pierre-Yves Riveau aka Pez

Latest sketchbook series by French illustrator and graphic designer Pierre-Yves Riveau aka PEZ, based in Nantes.

Unknown Editors | Facebook

cinephilearchive: Due to unprecedented demand, Steven...

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:48:33 -0400

cinephilearchive:

Due to unprecedented demand, Steven Soderbergh has given The San Francisco Film Society permission to release this video that was recorded initially only for archival purposes. The full transcript is also provided. —Steven Soderbergh: The State of Cinema Video & Transcript

“Cinema is under assault,” Steven Soderbergh told an audience in San Francisco over the weekend. He said that the Hollywood studios are to blame and that moviegoers are their accomplices. “Fewer and fewer executives in the industry love movies,” Soderbergh continued, “There’s a total lack of leadership in my opinion, that’s what’s killing cinema.” The director’s remarks came at the San Francisco International Film Festival’s annual State of Cinema Address. It was a sort of Jerry Maguire memo, “Cinema is a specificity of vision. It’s as unique as a fingerprint. If it’s done well, you know exactly who made it,” Steven Soderbergh defined on Saturday, “Is there a difference between cinema and movies? If I ran team America, I’d say fuck ya. Cinema is something that is made, movies are seen.”

Soderbergh said that he needed $5 million to make his upcoming Liberace movie, Behind the Candelabra, which stars Michael Douglas as the famous piano player and Matt Damon as the musician’s lover. Yet he said that the studios needed the movie to gross $70 million to make it work financially. “No one has figured out how to lower the costs of marketing movies…no one,” Soderbergh said. “The thing that mystifies me is in terms of spending, is there anyone in the galaxy that doesn’t know Iron Man 2 is opening that weekend!?” He continued, ”Studios only gamble on openings instead of supporting filmmakers over the long haul. In my opinion, it’s about horses - not races.”

“Executives don’t get punished for making bombs the way filmmakers do,” Soderbergh charged, “So there’s no turnover with people who don’t know their own business.” “I’m spending so much time talking business and sexy math because this is what’s driving everything right now,” Soderbergh said. Yet he also sounded a few optimistic notes. So what would he do differently? “If I were running a studio, I’d get a Shane Carruth, a Barry Jenkins and an Amy Seimetz and ask ‘What do you wanna make?’” Soderbergh said, “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect someone running a multi-billion dollar business to be able to identify talent. I’m wrong a lot, it doesn’t even raise my blood pressure anymore, maybe the audiences are happy, the studios are happy – maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything is just fine,” Soderbergh said at one point near the end of his speech. The room erupted with some chuckles because clearly those in the audience agreed with him that everything isn’t just fine. —The World According to Steven: Insights from Soderbergh

nevver: Meanwhile, back in the States.

Fri, 17 May 2013 07:24:36 -0400

nevver:

Meanwhile, back in the States.

"Whenever you work with someone who you idolize, you realize … he’s just a person trying to make a..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:36:37 -0400

“Whenever you work with someone who you idolize, you realize … he’s just a person trying to make a movie as best he knows how and that doesn’t look so different from other people trying to do the same thing. And he’s wildly smart and brilliant and funny, but it’s moviemaking and there’s something kind of democratic about how difficult it is because everybody — whether you’re Woody Allen or Noah or P.T. Anderson — it’s hard. Making movies is a hard thing and it’s slow. So you can glorify the product, but the process is difficult no matter who you are.”

- Greta Gerwig on working with Woody Allen (via austinkleon)

"You’re a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton made from stardust, what do you have to be scared of?"

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:12:49 -0400

“You’re a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton made from stardust, what do you have to be scared of?”

- ~ Porkbeard (via criminalwisdom)

ashleymater: Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degré, daughter of French...

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:48:22 -0400

ashleymater:

Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degré, daughter of French wildlife photographers Alain Degré and Sylvie Robert, was born in Namibia. During her childhood she befriended many wild animals, including a 28-year old elephant called Abu and a leopard nicknamed J&B. She was embraced by the Bushmen and the Himba tribespeople of the Kalahari, who taught her how to survive on roots and berries, as well as how to speak their language.

Learn more

xombiedirge: Soundwave by Laurent Durieux Voltron by Tom...

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:24:45 -0400

Soundwave by Laurent Durieux

Voltron by Tom Whalen

xombiedirge:

Soundwave by Laurent Durieux

Voltron by Tom Whalen / Website / Tumblr

Available from Acid Free Gallery at Wizard World ComiCon Philadelphia, May 30th - June 2nd 2013. Edition details and variant editions to be announced and online sales will begin after the con HERE.

Train Announcements : The New Yorker

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:36:40 -0400

Train Announcements : The New Yorker:

louobedlam:

“Attention, passengers: we have a very full train today so please don’t block the doors. We will be moving shortly.

Attention, passengers: we cannot move the train unless you keep out of the way of the closing doors. Stand clear.

Will the passenger holding the train doors open in the second-to-last car please step on or off the train so that we can continue.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a passenger holding the doors of the train open, and we cannot move until the woman he is speaking to either gathers her suitcases and steps off the train with him, or convinces him that it is really over and he should just let her go. We apologize for the delay.

Attention, passengers: this is your conductor speaking. The train is being delayed while the woman with the suitcases tells the man holding the doors that she just wants to go back to Chicago and try and remember who she used to be before he convinced her to give up on her dreams to watch him follow through on his. She makes a fair point so we will be delayed until the gentleman holding the doors accepts that it’s time to move on…”

nevver: Please Saint Anthony

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:47:20 -0400

nevver:

Please Saint Anthony

obsessedbooknerd: temperatebreeze: poptech: And the highest...

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:12:25 -0400

obsessedbooknerd:

temperatebreeze:

poptech:

And the highest paid public employee in your state is…

I hate everything.

this is irritating.

we-are-star-stuff: Who says North is up? Upside Down maps (also...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:48:31 -0400

we-are-star-stuff:

Who says North is up?

Upside Down maps (also known as South-Up or Reversed maps) offer a completely different perspective of the world we live in.

Technically speaking, even referring to the earth with words like “up” or “down” or comparing places with words “above” or “below” is flawed, considering that the earth is a spherical body (it’s actually slightly “fatter” at the equator) and flying through 3 dimensional space with no reference of up or down. However, the issue of “up” and “down” does become an issue when viewing the surface of the earth projected onto a flat piece of paper (a map). And the effect of the orientation of a map is more significant than you might realize.

As all maps require orientation for reference, the issue of how to layout the map orientation is as old as maps themselves. As map orientation is completely arbitrary, it is not surprising that they differed throughout time periods and regions.

The convention of North-up is usually attributed to the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy (90-168 AD). Justifications for his north-up approach vary. In the middle ages, East was often placed at top. This is the origin of the term “The Orient” to refer to East Asia. During the age of exploration, European cartographers again followed the north-up convention…perhaps because the North Star was their fixed reference point for navigation, or because they wanted (subconsciously or otherwise) to ensure Europe’s claim at the top of the world.

In modern times, reversed maps are made as a learning device or to illustrate Northern Hemisphere bias. Different from simply turning a north-up map upside down, a reversed map has the text oriented to be read with south up.

The famous “Blue Marble” photograph of the Earth taken from on board Apollo 17 was originally oriented with the south pole at the top, with the island of Madagascar visible just left of center, and the continent of Africa at its right. However, the image was turned upside-down to fit the traditional view.

While the orientation of a map might seem harmless, it can have a significant effect on one’s perception of the world, and the relative importance of the different place in it.

In speech, we often refer to places being “above” or “below” others. Think of how you would say you’re about to travel to the state or country to your north or south (to go “down” to Kentucky from Indiana, or “up” to Canada from the US). Without even mentioning geography, ask any grade school student whether Mexico is “above” or “below” the United States. We’re all familiar with the “land down under”. As we often correlate importance to relative height (think how a citizens of a country will fly their flag higher than all other flags), the north-up convention reinforces the idea that northern bodies are more important than their southern neighbors. Suddenly, traveling “down” to the South might have an inference much deeper than geographic location.

After looking at the map more closely, you may realize that the South-Up orientation may change your perception of the relative status of different places. For example, South America suddenly looks to have more prominence, and Africa and the Middle East completely dwarf Europe. Likewise, tucking Northern Europe, Canada, and Russia away at the bottom of the map, subconsciously takes away their status.

To summarize, unconditionally accepting the north-up map convention without at least appreciating the effect stands at odds with viewing all people and places within the world equally. x x

the-science-llama: Acoustic Levitation Using sound waves to...

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:24:18 -0400

the-science-llama:

Acoustic Levitation

Using sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing pharmaceutical drugs and drying them in mid-air. Why do this? This is useful because most of the drugs on the market are either amorphous or crystalline and the crystalline form doesn’t get absorbed by the body completely. So levitating the solution allows the drug to be made into an amorphous state (by evaporation) because if it were to touch any surface it would simply crystallize. They call this “containerless processing”.

The frequencies used are just above the audible range at about 22 kilohertz and when the two speakers are aligned they create two sets of sound waves, perfectly interfering with each other creating a phenomenon known as a standing wave. This allows the objects to levitate in areas within the waves known as nodes as the acoustic pressure is enough to cancel the force of gravity.

Video Source - Argonne National Laboratory
— More Epic Science Gifs