Magical Science in Action
"Todays magic is tomorrow's science"... as we always say here at ThinkGeek. Now you can get a bit of magic for yourself with this amazing Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand.
This battery powered wand features a mini Van de Graaff generator inside. Push a button on the handle and the static charge built up in the wand causes the included 3D mylar shapes to levitate at your command. You can also do some cool tricks causing the shapes to jump back and forth from your hand to the wand. Not quite Harry Potter... but hey, we do our best for you.
Recent short-term gains in Arctic ice coverage indicate nothing about the eventual state of the Arctic. Answers to the long-term status of the region lie in the realm of a scientific branch known as paleoclimatology. What does it tell us?
The Earth is currently in the geologic epoch known as the Holocene. This began nearly 12,000 years ago when the last ice age (more precisely, the Weichsal glacial) ended. Temperatures warmed, glaciers began to retreat, and the Arctic began to melt. This began what is called an interglacial: a warmer period between glaciation.
We tend to think of the poles as immutable, but geologically speaking, permanent polar ice is a rare phenomenon, comprising less than 10% of history. Icecaps form briefly between interglacials, only to melt as the next one begins -- this time around will be no different.
So we know the Arctic will eventually be open water. The only question is how it will affect us.
The language the media uses to describe Arctic melting is usually emotionally loaded. Filled with terms such as "concern", "desperate", even "dying" and "doomed", one would think a living organism was being described. Experts are always quoted as "warning" us, rather than simply speaking -- classic propaganda techniques.
Even the scientists themselves have an emotional stake in the argument. After all, when you've spent your entire career studying Arctic ice, the possibility of it vanishing is understandably horrifying. But what about the rest of us? Will Arctic melting be good or bad?
Let's look at the scorecard.
The Gaeltacht regions are the official regions in Ireland defined as where Irish is the spoken language of the communities. The Gaeltacht covers some of the most beautiful scenery in the country, and somehow encompasses the spirit and the atmosphere of the people who live there. Below are 10 amazing photos of the Gaeltacht regions that I’ve picked from Flickr.
New Yorkers are always in a hurry, never worrying about what is going on under their feet, or the amount of information that pulses not just above their heads but also below their feets.
From cable, telecoms, and subway lines this image should put it all into perspective for you:
Twenty years ago, Douglas Prasher was one of the driving forces behind research that earned a Nobel Prize in chemistry this week. But today, he's just driving.
Prasher, 57, works as a courtesy shuttle operator at a Huntsville, Ala., Toyota dealership. While his former colleagues will fly to Stockholm in December to accept the Nobel Prize and a $1.4 million check, the former Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist will be earning $10 an hour while trying to put two of his children through college.
"It's a cutthroat world out there," Prasher said during a phone interview yesterday.
Despite his contributions to the groundbreaking research, a Nobel Prize can only be shared among three peopleCrammed together in their unwieldy aircraft and utterly dependent on one another, the bomber crews of the Second World War forged friendships that often only death could break.
Which is why Pilot Officer Reg Wilson never forgot the night more than 60 years ago when he lost two friends in the night skies over Germany.
The bear - named Voytek - was adopted in the Middle East by Polish troops in 1943, becoming much more than a mascot.
The large animal even helped their armed forces to carry ammunition at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
Voytek - known as the Soldier Bear - later lived near Hutton in the Borders and ended his days at Edinburgh Zoo.
Nice story.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Nothing on the radio. Not a word in the newspaper. Not even a picture to prove it.
But 60 years later, it remains one of the most fabled events in Charleston's history.
"It was known only to those of us who saw it, and through word-of-mouth later on," said Neil Boggs, a Clay County native and retired NBC correspondent.
Nobody talked about it on the record for years, he said. "Tens of thousands of people saw it. They knew it was done by one of them, for one of them, and they joined in a conspiracy of silence."
