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11/27/12

The biggest creche on earth King Penguins


Yet this scene shows an extraordinary community at work - thousands of king penguins instinctively herding their recently born young into giant huddles to stop them freezing to death.
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Birds of a feather... Thousands of penguins form striking pattern in this picture taken 2,000ft above South Georgia
Parental instinct takes over in the inhospitable climate of the South Atlantic and the furry brown chicks are made to crowd together to retain their body warmth in the equivalent of bird creches - visible as brown swathes on our photo.

The picture was taken 2,000ft above the shoreline of South Georgia, a British territory close to the Falklands, by a helicopter crew from the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship HMS Endurance.
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Crazy chicks: A closer view reveals newborn king penguins being corralled by their elders
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Modern art? The contrast between young and old penguins looks like an abstract
Authorities impose the minimum flying height restrictions to protect more than 25,000 birds living in the colony.

Taking into account wind chill, the temperature was -15C on the island when the shot was taken in December.

It's no wonder the penguins are so careful with their young.

The chicks cannot regulate their body temperature and the parents care for them round the clock for the first three weeks.

They then put the chicks in one of the creches, returning every two or three days with food.
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Chilly habitat: From even higher up, the landscape around the penguins becomes visible


10 Most Captivating Deserts


Here are 10 of the most Captivating and Bretahtaking Deserts!  From the Sahara, the worlds largest to the Farafra in Egypt and even the Taklamakan, a desert covered with snowfall!



Taklamakan (Central Asia): a desert covered with snowfall

Captivating Deserts

 
Taklamakan is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world, ranking 15th in size in a ranking of the world's largest non-polar deserts. It covers an area of 270,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi) of the Tarim Basin, 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long and 400 kilometres (250 mi) wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edges by two branches of the Silk Road as travelers sought to avoid the arid wasteland.

In 2008, China's biggest desert experienced its biggest snowfall and lowest temperature after 11 consecutive days of snow. Snow is rare in the desert that covered 337,600 square kilometers, never before had the whole desert been covered.

Lençóis Maranhenses (Brazil): a ‘desert' with lagoons

Captivating Deserts

 
It seems incredible, but in a country that keeps around 30% of the fresh water and shelters the largest rain forest in the world, we can find a “desert”. Located in the State of Maranhão, on the north shore of Brazil, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is an area of about 300 square kilometers (155,000 ha) of blinding white dunes and deep blue lagoons, forming one of the most beautiful and unique places in the world. The dunes invade the continent over 50km (31 miles) from the cost, creating a landscape that reminds a white bed sheet, when seen from above.

But you may ask: -Lagoons?? You told me it was a desert… Yes, what defers this region from a desert is the amount of rain that drops over the dunes, creating ponds of crystal clear water on the depression between dunes. Despite its desert-like appearance, Lençóis Maranhenses records an annual rainfall of 1,600mm (i.e. 62.9 inches), 300 times more than in the Sahara. During the period of drought, the lagoons evaporate and become completely dried. After the rainy season, the lagoons are home of many species of fish, turtles and clams. The mystery in this story lies in the fact that when the lagoons fill up, life comes back, as if they had never left the place. One of the hypotheses to explain the phenomenon is that the eggs of the fish and crabs are maintained alive in the sand, exploding when rain comes back.

Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia): the world's largest salt desert

Captivating Deserts

 
The Salar is one of the iconic images of Bolivia, a massive salt desert in the middle of the Altiplano. It is an expansive, virtually flat desert that reflects the sun in such a way as to create a mirror effect with the sky. There are several lakes in the desert with strange colours from the mineral deposits in the region.

Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States. It is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, from which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.



Farafra (Egypt): the white desert

Captivating Deserts

A main geographic attraction of Farafra is its White Desert (known as 'Sahara el Beyda,' with the word 'sahara' meaning a desert). The White Desert of Egypt is located 45 km (30 miles) north of Farafra. The desert has a white, cream color (it is truly white, in clear contrast with the yellow deserts elsewhere) and has massive chalk rock formations that have been created as a result of occasional sandstorms in the area.



Atacama (Chile): the flourished desert

Captivating Deserts

The Atacama Desert occupies the largest amount of the Chilean territory located north of the 29th parallel. The area located on the coast between Arica and Antofagasta appears in the Guinness Book of World Records as the driest place in the world. Nevertheless, to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the desert becomes kinder towards living beings. The coastal mists, "camanchacas", are more abundant south of Antofagasta and bring the humidity necessary for the maintenance of the coastal scenic vegetation. Many plants survive mainly because of the "camanchaca", and the harsh savings of water, in normal dry years, that causes them to delay important functions such as growth, to favor survival and reproduction. (Link)


Namib (Namibia): the only desert with elephants

Captivating Deserts

 
South of Africa lies the Namib desert. which is less vast than the Sahara but just as impressive. It forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park with neighbouring Angola. The Sossusvlei sand dunes are the highest in the world, some towering at 300m high and if you are lucky enough, you can stumble across desert elephants-the Namib is the only desert in the world to have elephants. Apparently the oldest desert in the world, myriad species of plants and animals can only be found here. The Namib has fascinated geologists for years but it remains very little understood to this day. Off the coast, strong southerly winds with fogs and strong currents cause sailors to lose their way; the north coast has been named 'Skeleton Coast' due to the amount of shipwrecks found there, some of which can be found as much as 50m inland, as the desert slowly takes over the ocean as it moves westwards.


Simpson Desert (Australia): the red sand desert

Captivating Deserts

 
Australia is home to four large deserts, popularized by Mad Max: Sturt's Stoney Desert, Tanami Desert, the Great Victoria Desert and the Simpson Desert, which is also known as 'The Big Red' due to the presence of dunes of red sand. The Simpson Desert is an erg which contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes. These north-south oriented dunes are static, held in position by vegetation. They vary in height from 3 metres in the west to around 30 metres on the eastern side. The most famous dune, Nappanerica, or, more popularly, Big Red (named by Simpson Desert traveller Dennis Bartell), is 40 metres in height.


The Black Desert (Egypt): the desert with black stones
Captivating Deserts

Located 100km northeast of the White desert, the Black Desert is a region of volcano-shaped mountains with large quantities of small black stones. The stones lie out across the orange-brown ground, so that it is not quite as black as many people may hope for. Especially after visiting the White Desert, which has formations that are really white, many will imagine a desert as dramatic as this. Climbing one of the many soft peeks, the view from the top is really nice, with similar peeks continuing on into the haze. The Black Desert is uninhabited. (Link)


Antarctica: world's driest and wettest desert

Captivating Deserts

 
Antarctica is a land of extremes. It's not inhabited year round by humans because it's simply too freezing cold. In 1983 scientists recorded extreme cold temperatures as low as -129 Fahrenheit. It's also the wettest place on Earth, but simultaneously the driest. The reason it's the “wettest” is not because of rainfall; since Antarctica is covered by 98% ice, it's technically very wet. However since it's also the aforementioned coldest place in the world, it gets very little precipitation – less than 2 inches a year. Which makes Antarctica a desert. A brutally cold ice desert with a massive trench full of even more…ice. Three for the price of one!

Sahara (North Africa): world's largest desert

Captivating Deserts

 
The Sahara, with a size of 8.6 million km², is the world's largest desert, covering large parts of North Africa. Around 4 million people live there. Its maximum length is 4,800 km, running from west to east, and up to 1,200 km from north to south. Sahara covers most of Mauritania, Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali, and touches Morocco and Tunisia.

Sahara is very dry but there is an annual rainfall in most regions, although just a few dozen millimetres.

11/23/12

Green USB power pack from the wall


It’s time for another new angle on the USB power-packing accessory universe, this time with one that stays in the wall socket and conserves energy. You plug this little nubbin in to the power socket, wait for it to pop up like a turkey, and grab some power. This accessory stops taking power from the socket once it’s charged up, allowing that power then to filter through its two USB ports to your smart devices.
Other than the power collecting abilities, this device isn’t all that unique. With the pop-out action, this device becomes indispensable. I’d certainly like to have a handful of these for heading out to a tech convention or even sitting around the apartment – wouldn’t you?
Designer: Joey Lu
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Laser beams keeping crosswalks safe


There’s a lot to be said about taking a perfectly simple aesthetic gesture and turning it into a guide for the public. In this case it’s a couple of laser beams stopping humans or vehicles from crossing paths at the same time. This design by HOJOON Lim goes by the name Guardian and will bring a perfect stop to a crash that could have been near you.
Designer: HOJOON Lim


11/20/12

Spectacular Star Explosion Aftershock Revealed in Photo


Voice Memo With Benefits

 
Vmo is quite a clever way of combining Voice Memos with QR Codes and Smartphones. Basically its a way to mark and capture data, be it voice or visual, and then revisit it at a later date. Essentially this means, if you are in class and taking notes, you may also want to record the lecture, so you tab and the recording using a supplied QR Code Sticker (that nestles sweetly in an allocated space in the smaprtphone jacket), scanning the code and readily accessing it later. The video below explains it all.
The designers explain, “The market strategy is to set a range of Vmo sticker prices depending on the file size (i.e. length of voice recording). In a nutshell, we actually sell the web space bit by bit, which store the info or voice on the net. Cloud service plays the main role behind the scene. We view cloud service as a potential market. Focus on realizing users’ dreams and let them “taste” vocal memories wherever they are, whenever they want by means of cloud service connection. Vmo is not merely an amazing product design but a whole new cloud service design strategy.”
USE:
  • Step 1: Write the info on the Vmo.
  • Step 2: Stick Vmo on your stuff.
  • Step 3: Record the voice and scan the code.
Advisor: Prof. Ching-Hsing Luo
Designers: Sheng-Hung Lee & Chan Wai Yeh
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Herbed Windows


Herbow is a rain shelter and a window herb garden. A very unique and unconventional combination, but one that works! Given the way counties like Japan have been upping their efforts in going green by growing creepers and other such plants on their building’s external walls, to lower internal temperatures and conserving electricity, these kind of gardens suit the urban landscape perfectly.
Herbow is a window planter ‘tray’ that enables people to grow small crops outside their windows while shielding their interior space from the rain. By swinging Herbow upwards, it becomes a window shelter that blocks the harsh sunlight and the rain. At the same time, the plants are watered and grow naturally. An eave has been designed to extend over the shelter to stop water falling through the gap between Herbow and the window frame. Holes on two sides of Herbow allow for drainage of excess water.
Herbow is a 2012 red dot award: design concept winner.
Designers: Hsu Hao-Po, Chang Yu-Hui & Chang Chung-Wei
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Backup Power Portable


I consider apps as a necessary evil, I need them to be productive and at the same time they drain my iPhone at the most unexpected times. A power backup or portable recharger has become a compulsion for people like me. However design sensibilities often keep me away from dodgy chargers that juice up the iPhone and iPod but at the cost of ugly looks. When I spied the clever Plug Battery Charger, I was totally tickled by its take on the plug! Sweet!
Designer: Logo’s [ Available @ YD Store for $26 ]
Plug Battery Charger by Logo’s is available at the YD Store for $26.

11/19/12

Mouse Dioramas - The Miniature Humans



Latest Additions

 ( 16 Votes )
Some find them creepy, some keep them as pets, some call them pets while a few make art out of them! Any guesses who I might be referring to? Take a hint from the nursery rhyme 'Three Blind Mice'. How many of you know about taxidermy? Some of you maybe. But how many of you love it? Not many huh!
Wait until I change your mind, with these pictures below!
Mouse dioramas eating sandwich



mouse dioramas rowing a boat

mouse dioramas mice sunbathing

mouse dioramas couple on a bridge

Heard of the movie called 'Dinner for Schmucks'? If yes,you might as well be fascinated by the elaborate mouse dioramas and so called "mousterpieces" made especially for the movie by the not so famous Chiodo Brothers. One of the main characters, Barry is a crazy taxidermist and he creates little scenes with all the mice he 'stuffs'. Stuffs is not the correct word and I bet there's a more technical term they use. But we will go with 'stuffs' for now.
mouse dioramas couple on a date

mouse dioramas couple cycling

mouse dioramas couple in bed

Dioramas are often made by hobbyists as a part of related hobbies such as military figure modeling,miniature figuree modeling or aircraft modeling.
  
mouse dioramas couple in a parachute

mouse dioramas juggling fireballs

mouse dioramas couple on a merry-go-round

Mouse dioramas employ the ancient art of of Anthropomorphic taxidermy where stuffed animals are dressed as people or displayed as if engaged in human activities.A bizarre Victorian hobby that transforms dead mice into miniature humans is now getting its revival in various art classes in the U.S.

mouse dioramas couple having breakfast

 mouse dioramas boy flying away in the wind

mouse dioramas finger ring statue

Taxidermists may practice professionally for museums or as businesses catering to hunters and fishermen.To practice mice taxidermy one must be very well acquainted with anatomy,sculpture,painting and tanning.Stitching their teeny tiny dresses and other accessories is absoultely relevant to this hobby as it gives them human like appearance.
mouse dioramas interview

 mouse diorama cafe puerto rico

mouse diorama masterchef

mouse diorama pretty lady with flowers

Mouse dioramas are a work of most delicately handled mice and creativity. Full of life they seem like, don’t they? It will serve as an ideal hobby for artistic people who’d like to extend their reach beyond the conventional portrait making. It is although not suggested for the faint hearted.

mouse dioramas happily married after

 mouse diorama holy father

mouse dioramas wizards in magical land

mouse dioramas playing guitar