Metousiosis

The beauty of a dying star. Below is an image of the Hourglass Nebula acquired by the Hubble Telescope back in 1995 after the outer layers of the star were ejected – consisting of gaseous nitrogen (red), hydrogen (green) and oxygen (blue) – and the core became a decaying white dwarf. The nebula is part of the constellation Musca, which is about 8,000 light-years from Earth.

Via NASA, click through to embiggen.

According to a first in kind study of smear campaigns out of Michigan State University, via Science Daily:

The research by Spee Kosloff and colleagues suggests people are most likely to accept such falsehoods, both consciously and unconsciously, when subtle clues remind them of ways in which Obama is different from them, whether because of race, social class or other ideological differences.

These judgments, Kosloff argues, are irrational. He also suggests they are fueled by an “irresponsible” media culture that allows political pundits and “talking heads” to perpetuate the lies.

“Careless or biased media outlets are largely responsible for the propagation of these falsehoods, which catch on like wildfire,” said Kosloff, visiting assistant professor of psychology. “And then social differences can motivate acceptance of these lies.”

A Pew Research Center poll in August 2010 found that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim — up from 11 percent in March 2009 — even though he’s a practicing Christian. Kosloff noted that the poll was conducted before Obama’s recent comments supporting the right for Muslims to build a mosque near New York’s Ground Zero.

As part of a long history of hacks at MIT, this year The Doctor is paying the campus a visit as evidenced by this sighting of the TARDIS atop the infinite corridor.

Ludwig Fichte solved a Rubik’s Cube during freefall in less than 32 seconds in what has been deemed ‘freefall speedcubing’ and represents a remarkable union of geek and extreme sports.

Via Newser.

The following is a video of a rare ‘fire tornado’ that was captured in the Brazilian state of San Paolo, where severe drought and strong dry winds created the phenomenon. Via the Telegraph.

That video reminds me of the following ‘fire vortex’ that was created by Nate Smith at the Crucible’s 2009 Fire Arts Festival.

Luc Viatour captured this exceptional shot of Moon jellyfish in the Pairi Daiza aquarium in Belgium.

Words is an interesting video montage from Everynone, in Collaboration with WNYC’s Radiolab & NPR; let me know if you figure it out.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory recently released this stunning image of the Sun’s corona and the associated magnetic field lines. Click through for additional details.

- Via The Universe Today -

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Futurama recently had a hilarious segment that addressed the lack of a few transitional fossils and featured an appearance by the beloved Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Click here for the rest of the scene.

The FSM, you know is the one true God . . .

A nice time lapse of the Perseids meteor shower from Friday the 13th, 2010.  !Volume Warning!

Mandelbrots often make me ponder of what M.C. Escher would have created if he had use of current computer technology.  I would speculate that the following would be more in line with his artistic perspective than a fractal.

Director Hömpörgő explains just how much computer processing power the 1:25 min project took {Via BB}:

I wanted to go further too, but at the end part a single frame took 18 minutes to render, and the whole 1:27 minute video needed 12 days nonstop rendering. I felt that’s more than enough at the time. It was just my first experiment with Mandelbulb 3D, a freeware program, I’m not a film director or something…

It can really matter where you insert your exclamation point . . .

\\+= Via GaS =+//

The sunset over Boston Harbor looks stunning from the vantage point of the sunset cruise boat. . . That’s Bunker Hill in the direct distance; click to enlarge.

Time Warp looks at the interaction between Dr MegaVolt and his Tesla Coil using high speed photography and then proceeds to electrify some materials. [embedding was sadly disabled]