pickledginger

Reassurance of the Ancients

pickledginger Dec 20, 2012 15:48

Doomsday? Not quite yet. The Mayan calendar has plenty of years left before it reaches its expiry date. (Shame about those dinosaurs, though. Sorry, Quetzalcoatl, old buddy old pal.) But, hey, don't let that spoil your Apocalypse parties ( Read more... )

mayan calendar, apocalypse not now, 21 december 2012

Water in Winter

pickledginger Dec 16, 2012 19:55

Water on pond ice, Slovakia, viewed through a polarized filter. (USRA's 16 December 2012 Earth Science Picture of the Day)

Doing the wave: Fractures in delicate new ice echo the ripples of the adjacent water. (One of several keen 13 December 2012 daily-stroll photos by LJ user

( Read more... )

waves, nature, water, snow, sculptures, ice flowers, art, ice, frost flowers, photos

Good stuff; good prices; good cause

pickledginger Dec 15, 2012 21:08

One of my LJ friends is in a rough spot:

( Read more... )

holidays, shopping, signal boost, cool stuff, help needed

Meteor shower!

pickledginger Dec 12, 2012 23:59

The Geminid meteor shower* is under way, peaking tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night. Might be hitting 120/hour, says SpaceWeather.com, which has a nice photo up already, plus links, good links ( Read more... )

geminids, meteors, sky watching, space weather

MoMath opens Dec.15 in Manhattan

pickledginger Dec 10, 2012 10:03

The new Museum of Mathematics -- "MoMath" -- aims to revive the fun and wonder of math, and show that it doesn't end with arithmetic ( Read more... )

got maths?, museums, got science?, fun

Superstorm Bopha

pickledginger Dec 05, 2012 14:55

A striking image shot 2 December, from the ISS, shows Typhoon Bopha, aka Pablo, bearing down on the Philippines.

In Atlantic cyclone terms, the megastorm would have been classified as a Category 5 storm when it smashed into the island group yesterday.

This entry is cross-posted from www.dreamwidth.org, where there are

( Read more... )

superstorms, typhoon bopha, cyclones, climate, weather

Coming soon - and close

pickledginger Nov 22, 2012 23:48

In mid-February, a space rock whose elliptical orbit apparently has been bringing it through our neck of the solar system every 366 days will be swinging by again -- but this time, closer.

The object in question -- 2012 DA14 -- was first spotted as it passed us early this year, and its orbit was calculated in May, according to NASA's Jet ( Read more... )

neos, asteroids, phas, coming around again, geosynchronous orbit, 2012 da14

The one true chocolate

pickledginger Nov 17, 2012 12:28

The delicate but highly prized "criollo" variant of the cacao plant had been thought lost forever. Most of the world's chocolate is produced from the beans of the hardier and more prolific "forastero" plant, the Mother Nature Network reports, while the high-end chocolates -- about 10% of the total -- come from a criollo-forastero hybrid known as ( Read more... )

cacao, madagascar, forastero, amelonado, flora, criollo, chocolate, trinitario, not extinct

Everybunny needs somebunny sometime

pickledginger Nov 11, 2012 15:36

Hi, all: One of the best friends I've never met,

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bunny love, hurricane sandy, fundraising

Honouring our veterans, and our committments

pickledginger Nov 11, 2012 15:13

"The day this nation
can't afford to take care
of her veterans
is the day this nation
should quit creating them."

-- Richard Eubank, national commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), speaking last year against the $4.5 billion in cuts to health programs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs proposed by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R- ( Read more... )