Thursday, May 5, 2011

Incredibly, impossibly beautiful time lapse video


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I’ve been posting a lot of time lapse videos lately, and they’re so amazing I keep thinking they can’t possibly get any more beautiful.
I keep thinking wrong.
"El Cielo de Canarias" (Canary Sky) is simply, unbelievably breathtaking.
Wow. I mean, wow. Daniel López is a gifted photographer. While looking at his photographs, my jaw literally dropped. They are that extraordinary.
Many years ago I visited La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, for a meeting. In the distance we could sometimes see the very top of Mt. Teide, seen in this video, poking over the clouds. It was so unearthly and captivating, and López has captured that feeling here. This video has everything! The fluid motion of the clouds, a double rainbow (yes, yes, I know), a corona around the Sun (not the Sun’s atmosphere, but a lovely optical effect from water droplets in the clouds), standing-wavelenticular clouds, even a Green Flash! Watch the stars as they wheel across the view; can you spot the Pleiades, the Andromeda Galaxy?
As many of these videos as I have seen, I’m still looking forward to more from Sr. López. This one is absolutely stunning.

Former Senator Wants to Mine The Moon


Posted by samzenpus  

from the dig-that-moon dept.
MarkWhittington writes"Harrison Schmitt, Apollo Moonwalker, geologist, and former United States Senator, recently presented a plan to solve the world's long term energy problems by developing fusion power fueled with helium-3 mined from the Moon. He presented this plan in a speech at Williston Basin Petroleum Conference."

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Pandora gets a case of the giggles, now offers comedy stations

By Brad Molen  posted May 4th 2011 4:23AM

Pandora is letting its hair loose, expanding beyond the realm of music-based radio stations into the world of comedy. Thestreaming music service will offer more than 10,000 clips from over 700 comedians, and will be loaded and ready to go sometime today. If you're already familiar with the service, this brand-new genre will work the same exact way as any other Pandora station: create new radio stations based on your favorite comedians and you can still give the thumb up or down for those tracks you feel strongly enough about. The press release is no laughing matter, but it's available for your reading pleasure after the break.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Nielsen estimates show first drop in TV ownership in 20 years, Mayans nod approvingly

By Richard Lawler  posted May 3rd 2011 2:52PM

The Nielsen Company has announced that its estimated number of TV households for 2012 is dropping to 114.7 million (96.7 percent), down from 115.9 million (98.9 percent) the year before which is the first time it's gone down in two decades. While some will say this marks the end of theTV era as we've known it, there are a couple of factors to take into account, starting with how the numbers are gathered -- Nielsen only counts TVs that are capable of tuning into at least one channel. If you've cut the cord and gone all internet / Blu-ray / DVD without putting up an antenna or never upgraded for digital broadcasts (as some rural or low-income homes have not) then your TV doesn't count. After reviewing the numbers and watching Apocalypto twice we still can't tell if this means it's already over for linear TV or if it's more of a temporary bump due to an uncertain economy like it was in 1992. Of course, the fact that we rented the movie on iTunes may be telling.