Alcohol may never look the same again.
This is what champagne looks like through a microscope. About twenty-five years ago, Michael Davidson, a scientist at Florida State University, started putting alcoholic beverages under his microscope and taking beautiful pictures of what he saw. The results are lovely, especially after a few shots…
Continue reading… “Microscopic views of Alcoholic Drinks”
Heidemarie Schwermer, a 69-year-old woman from Germany, gave up using money 15 years ago and says she’s been much happier ever since.
Heidemarie’s incredible story began 22 years ago, when she, a middle-aged secondary school teacher emerging from a difficult marriage, took her two children and moved to the city of Dortmund, in Germany’s Ruhr area. One of the first things she noticed was the large number of homeless people, and this shocked her so much that she decided to actually do something about it. She had always believed the homeless didn’t need actual money to be accepted back into society, only a chance to empower themselves by making themselves useful, so she opened a Tauschring (swap shop), called “Gib und Nimm” (Give and Take)…
Continue reading… “Happy 69 Year Old Lady Has Not Used Money For 15 Years”
Solar Power is now a viable reality in India.
While the passage of time makes solar cost competitive for many Americans right now, the question of cost competitiveness is not a simple one for solar. It depends on location, installation costs, and what kind of power solar is competing against. In Africa, solar has already become cheaper than kerosene in many locations. And now Renewable Energy News reports that solar is becoming cheaper than diesel generators in India as French-company Solardirect has bid to supply the energy grid with solar power at a rate cheaper than the average for diesel generators…
Continue reading… “Solar Power becomes cheaper than diesel generators in India”
Google Zeitgeist is a massive trending tool that displays the most popular search queries. So it is no surprise that at the end of 2011 we have been presented with a Google Zeitgeist 2011 recap video. Take a look and see if some of your search queries are included…
Continue reading… “Google Zeitgeist 2011: How the world searched”
“The Importance of DNS” is a humorous short educational animation about the history and importance of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), the system responsible for translating numerical IP addresses into human-friendly domain names like www.impactlab.com
Continue reading… “The Importance of DNS”
Historian Toby Lester, In a book soon to be published, says Leonardo DaVinci used to travel with a small notebook hanging from his belt, and “whenever something caught his eye,” he would make a note, or begin “sketching furiously.”
Continue reading… “Leonardo da Vinci’s to do list”
The Erector set is one of the most popular toys of all timcenture.
If you haven’t started your Christmas shopping yet, you only have one week left. With only a week left in the shopping season shoppers are beginning to feel the pressure of the holidays. I haven’t even begun to start my shopping and will probably wait until a couple of days before Christmas to get it done. I have done some browsing online when I get a chance. The gift selections we have these days are crazy!
Continue reading… “Infographic of the top 50 Christmas toys of the past 100 years”
The very start of a very big bang.
Allegedly, this is a photograph of the beginning of a nuclear detonation. It was taken in 1952 during the Tumbler-Snapper tests in Nevada. At this point, the fireball is about sixty-six feet across. How was the photographer able to get a shutter speed fast enough to do it?
Continue reading… “1 Millisecond into a Nuclear Explosion”
When will the spill stop?
Things just keep getting worse for Chevron. First, a deepwater drilling mishap off the coast of Brazil last month caused thousands of barrels of oil to spill into the Atlantic, which only after some dodging did Chevron take responsibility for, followed by Brazil’s petroleum agency deciding to suspend the company’s drilling rights altogether. And then there are the fines which could end up costing Chevron close to $100 million. But lo, it get’s worst yet. Today, the oil giant admitted that the situation is far from resolved as many had assumed. That’s right, the leak continues, and Chevron’s not sure when it can be stopped…
Continue reading… “Chevron admits oil leak in Brazil hasn’t stopped”
What American Dream?
There are many in America who don’t like or trust cities, primarily because they harbor a disproportionate number of Democratic voters. They don’t like investments in transit, either, preferring the privacy and freedom of the car. But whether they like it or not, America is changing…
Continue reading… “Young people are giving up on the American Dream of a house in the suburbs”
Local geography CAN be interesting.
Atlas Obscura had a great success earlier this year with Obscura Day, a project to get people all over involved in their local geography and interesting places. It was so successful that they are now forming The Obscura Society, a club in which people not only explore places, but share their experiences with others.
Born of the success of Obscura Day, this real-world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura will be seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us, all year round – and we could not be more excited about it…
It’s official. It’s in.
Pantone, official arbiter of the visible spectrum, has declared its selection for next year’s color—a statement of both insane arbitrariness, and great weight in the world of things. So what’ll it be? You’re lookin’ at it!
The above hue is Tangerine Tango (also referred to as “red”), which, as The Color of 2012, must grace one object in your possession, lest you feel like a peasant. It’s… kind of boring? Maybe it’s seeing it on a piece of fabric instead of a shiny computer or vibrant iPhone case, but it’s not really doing much for me here. But Pantone disagrees, duh…
Continue reading… “Official Color of 2012”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.