Web Nuggets: Strange Days

Here are some of the stranger stories that I have seen floating around the web.

Mars rover captures beam of light on Mars

(via huffingtonpost.com)


Deer in a UFO's headlight


from WLOX:
" JACKSON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
They were caught on camera the night of February 16. Mysterious lights that appeared in the sky over the 150 acres that Rainer and Edith Shattles call home in the Cumbest Bluff area of Jackson County. Were they a phenomenon that's simple to explain, or something else?
The Shattles never tire of looking at the strange images caught by their trail cameras on that clear winter night.
"We have unusual things happen around here that happen, but it's usually associated with our grandchildren. But this case, we didn't know what it was," Edith recalled. "I was looking for a nice buck to be showing up on the trail camera actually."
The timeline of the pictures is clear. At 7:24pm, deer appear and all is normal. At 7:29, a dim light appears. At 7:35, it gets brighter. Then at 7:53, a weird shape appears on the camera.  The deer are lit up brightly, but how? The cameras are infrared and don't emit light. At 7:56, another sharper light appears, then it gets much closer, seemingly focused on the deer. It looks like headlights, but well off the ground and there is no road. It then flies away. (read the rest)

NASA's plans on the End of Days 

(Via Disinfo.com)

7 cursed objects

7) The Dybbuk Box

In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is an evil spirit. Supposedly, a Holocaust survivor accidentally summoned the demon while using a homemade Ouija board, but managed to trap it inside the wine cabinet. Kevin Mannis bought the box at an estate sale in 2001, and immediately started having nightmares about an evil hag — as did friends who stayed with him. Mannis gave the box to his mother, who suffered a stroke on the same day. The box's later owners have also claimed the dybbuk has appeared in their nightmares as well. The last owner was Jason Haxton, Director of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine, who not only had nightmares but developed a strange skin disease and began coughing up blood. At that point, Haxton contacted his local Rabbis, sealed the Dybbuk back in the box, and then hid it from the world. Thanks, dude!

(via IO9.com)

Are these fairies?  (Via Huffingtonpost.com)
" A British professor is getting a swarm of attention for a series of photos depicting tiny creatures that he suggests look like fairies." (read the rest)

Web Nuggets Five

I really enjoy the idea of zeppelin travel, though I have never actually been in one.  It seems slow and relaxing.  So, while I daydream about floating around the world, here is Web Nuggets Number Five for you: 

An Airship the Size of a Football Field Could Revolutionize Travel - Smithsonianmag.com

"A new fuel-efficient airship, capable of carrying up to 50 tons, can stay aloft for weeks and can land just about anywhere"

(credit: Chris Baldwin)

Super resolution atom by atom laser machining - Kurzweilai.net 
"Australian researchers have discovered how to use laser light to pick apart a substance atom by atom, allowing for creating new nanoscale diamond devices."  

30 Cult Movies that Absolutely Everybody Must See - i09.com

Golden Age Comics from the Digital Comic Museum - OpenCulture.com
The Digital Comic Museum offers free access to hundreds of pre-1959 comic books, uploaded by users who often offer historical research and commentary alongside high-quality scans.

The site’s moderators and administrators are particularly careful to avoid posting non-public-domain comics (a complicated designation, as described in this forum thread). The resulting archive is devoid of many familiar comic-book characters, like those from Marvel, D.C., or Disney.

On the other hand, because of this restriction, the archive offers an interesting window into the themes of lesser-known comics in the Golden Age—romance, Westerns, combat, crime, supernatural and horror. The covers of the romance comics are great examples of popular art.

“A human being is part of the whole called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. “ (Albert Einstein, 1954)

Web Nuggets 4

How Ancient Alexandria Became an Intellectual Center - Wired Science

"They had to start from scratch. Alexandria was a brand-new city with a population consisting most of soldiers and sailors of the Ptolemies’ armed forces, bureaucrats and clerks of their administration, and the mixed bag of traders, businessmen, craftsman [sic], swindlers, and whatnot, who see opportunity in, as it were, a fresh playing field. Intellectuals had to be blandished into coming to a place that to all outward appearances was a cultural wasteland."  

Can't find a time machine to go back to Ancient Alexandria?  Looking for something closer to home to read?  Check out openlibrary.org 

Gravitational Waves and Inflation explained by PHD comics.  

 (via I09)

A few posts on Art.  

The Guardian had an article titled "The 10 Greatest works of art ever".  Pretty tough list to put together.  Though I do enjoy this one:

(Chauvet Cave Paintins (c 30,000 years ago)

BoingBoing.net had this great picture of some London Street Art. 

(photo: Jason Weisberger)

Huffington Post had an article on 'The Gorgeous History of Tattoos, From 1900 to Present". 

"The mind is an endless train weaving its way through the landscape of reality.

But who made the train tracks and where is the conductor?”

From the book ‘Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes, and the Quest for Transcendence’ by Clifford A. Pickover

Web Nuggets 3

New Sensor Paves Way for Night Vision Contact Lenses.
"Contact lenses sharpen our blurry vision,  and free us from the hassle of pushing sliding glasses back up our noses. But the future of contacts is nigh: Researchers have created a super-thin infrared sensor that could lead to the development of night vision contact lenses." 
(via Grahamhancock.com)

Five Reasons you Should Watch Adventure Time
"If you haven’t been watching Pendleton Ward’s cult animation Adventure Time already, here are some reasons why you should start "
(via reddit)

Map of Coffee Chains across America (and Canada) 
(via boingboing.net)

Web Nuggets 2

Just some stuff around the web that I have had kicking around:

Check out the Ulysses comic that these guys are creating at ulyssesseen.com

“The Reign of the Penitents”

More illustrations of classic works.  Check out Dali's 100 Illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy at lockportstreetgallery.  (via open culture)

How the world will end in one chart:

You can actually read it at the washington post.

Science!

In two studies in the January 24 issue of Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University used advanced imaging techniques to provide a window into how the brain makes memories. These insights into the molecular basis of memory were made possible by a technological tour de force never before achieved in animals: a mouse model developed at Einstein in which molecules crucial to making memories were given fluorescent "tags" so they could be observed traveling in real time in living brain cells.  (read the rest here)

In the take it with a 'grain of salt, category.  Scientists claim that Quantum Theory proves consciousness moves to another universe at death.

Words I should follow:
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."  - Jack London

Web Nuggets 1

Some of the interesting articles I have bumped up against while surfing the information superhighway...

Ruins of Bustling Port Unearthed at Egypt’s Giza Pyramids- livescience.com

“The remains of a bustling port and barracks for sailors or military troops have been discovered near the Giza Pyramids. They were in use while the pyramids were being built about 4,500 years ago.”
(found via grahamhancock.com)

NASA to Make Water on the Moon and Oxygen on Mars - Discovery.com

“NASA is planning missions to demonstrate how to make water on the moon and oxygen on Mars.”
(via grahamhancock.com)

20 Year Old Hunter S. Thompson’s Superb Advice on How to Find Your Purpose and Live a Meaningful Life - Brainpickings.org

“It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it.”

(via disinfo.com)

A New Scientific Model That Defines Alien Intelligence - IO9.com

“Should we ever detect an extraterrestrial civilization, or any kind of alien life for that matter, it's a safe bet they'll look very different from us. They'll also probably think in a way that's completely foreign to what we're used to. Here's how experts believe we might be able to predict what the minds of aliens will be like."