dam goats

this is amazing!


not sure where the image originally came from, but according to tywkiwdbi, "They apparently traverse the wall of the dam to lick salt or other minerals from the stonework." despite looking so precariously perched, from a video of the goats, they frolic about on the dam quite easily!

do physicists believe in god?

we are a small sample size, but the physicists of sixty symbols weigh in on the question... do you believe in god?



in addition, we also share our favorite "astronomical feature" in the video.

i havent written too much on my personal (lack of) belief in god on this blog, but here is something i wrote in 2006, if youre interested.

jupiter of holst

here is a musical piece in honor of jupiter remaining so bright in our night sky for a while.

between 1914 and 1916, the british composer gustav holst wrote a seven-movement orchestral suite called The Planets Op.32. here is jupiter:

super scientist to the rescue!

check out this comic from saturday morning breakfast cereal:





superman asks "who do i punch?" hahaha!

wait superman! there's no need for violence! what you need is a super scientist!!

;)

superman had a different idea.

LHC mural

we recently learned about what might happen if one stuck one's hand in the beam of the large hadron collider (LHC), here's something completely different about the LHC.

artist josef kristofoletti just completed a mural of the LHC's ATLAS detector, located above ground at CERN, where the LHC is currently up and running!




the event depicted in the mural is the decay of a Z boson into two muons.

photos of scotland: part 1

here is round one of my favorite photos from my recent trip to scotland. i was amazed at how the landscape changed as rapidly as the weather. luckily, we survived my first time ever driving on the left side of the road and driving from the right-hand side of the car! and we were only harassed by the infamous midges on one occasion.

during our first night in scotland we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast near loch lomond. the common room had an excellent view!


we drove thru the amazingly beautiful glen coe which has jumped up to be one of my favorite places!




i hiked to the top of the highest peak in the UK: ben nevis. the summit isnt terribly far above sea level, at 1,344 meters (4,409 ft), but i was still sore for a solid two days after the climb!


i walked across the path of a waterfall on the way to the top.


unfortunately, thick clouds hung about halfway down the mountain, completely blocking the view. this was one of the last shots i took before the clouds became so thick that i could hear people walking along the rocks before i could see them approaching!


we watched this lovely sunset along the loch until the tiny midges won the battle :( notice the light post that is submerged during high tide...


a peaceful moment with the loch's clear water.


the day after the hike, we drove a lot throughout the highlands. on the way to loch ness, we passed a lake whose name amused me: loch lochy!


we drove along most of loch ness. its incredibly long, narrow and deep! we stopped along its bank to see the remains of urquart castle. see any evidence of nessie in those dark waters?


me neither.

we then crossed the bridge to the isle of skye which was absolutely stunning - when you could see through the weather! part of the magic of scotland is that you dont always get to see its beauty, but when the clouds clear enough to send a beam of light shooting down to some distant patch of land, you feel as though you are witnessing a great secret of time.




and i must not forget one of my most favorite features of scotland: the scotch whisky!


more about the whisky in part 2. for now, you can look at the full set of photos from scotland: part 1.

urania

i'm not sure what this is, but i saw it on fresh photons and think its awesome.

modern stained glass using x-ray images?


for some reason it reminds me of the images of humans suffering that i've seen in churches around the world, but i find this image really interesting, whereas i find a lot of the church images and statues rather creepy.

the north star, polaris

this beautiful artwork shows you how to find the north star using ursa major, the big dipper.


Encyclopédie du livre d’or pour garçons et filles-livre 6 Adaptation américaine
(Editions des deux coqs d’or-1972, Illustrateur: inconnu)

(via fresh photons)

the speedy peregrine falcon

the fastest animal on the planet is the peregrine falcon. it can reach speeds over 320 km/h (200 mph) and experiences up to 10 G's at the bottom of a swoop dive! in this BBC video, they strapped a camera onto a peregrine falcon so we can try to experience this level of speed for ourselves! i was most amazed by the second part, showing the bird's agility, as it speeds through a dense forest!