If Earth Had Rings
First off, they would be really pretty to look at. They would also dominate the sky in both night and day at exactly the same place as they would never rise nor set. And at night you would see the Earth’s shadow swing across the rings, like in the 4th photo here.
However, life would be very different on Earth if this were the case. Nocturnal animals would have a hard time being nocturnal, as the light reflecting from the rings would illuminate the night.
Because we are closer to the Sun than Saturn is, the rings would be more rocky than ice, making them less bright but still pretty bright. In fact, you would see far less stars at night (living anywhere other than the equator or the arctic circle) because of the light pollution and not to mention ruin most meteor showers because of that.
During the day the rings would block sunlight in certain regions of the planet creating wild weather cycles and effecting plant life as well. So basically, they would be definitely pretty to look at but they would also make a whole lot of things screwy.
Illustrations by Ron Miller // io9
— Click the photos for captions
Day 1 at the farm. This, I suspect, is an alpaca — as its relatively small stature (in comparison to the common domesticated llama) appears to indicate. And I found it! Can you? Where’s
WaldoAlpaca?As today’s look-and-find ought to be fairly easy, I’m offering a slightly tougher challenge: how many goats are pictured here?
It begins… the hunt for alpaca… or something. I’ve created a new blog because every day I’m on the farm, I will be checking on my pal Alpaca — why? Because he’s there. Or perhaps he’s a she… or not an alpaca at all… and whatever it is, it’s not alone… the plot thickens. Anyway follow this blog for alpaca-finding shenanigans! You know you want to.
IT LOOKS LIKE THEY DID IN PAINT WTF
I know the BBC has a small budget but really
I think it’s lovely, and ties into reason 4583 that Classic Who will always hold a special place in my heart: look at the way they approach visual effects. Reach for the stars, do whatever it takes to tell the most brilliant story possible… but just the important things. If duct tape and bubble wrap will do the job, brilliant! And leave sly winks to your audience, minor glaring imperfections, like a child making baubles out of popsicle sticks for mother’s day: “look what I made for you, this is all I could afford on my allowance. Love, your kid.”
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[ pen + after ] www.adrfabrika.info](http://24.media.tumblr.com/9e527c725c971d7b0ccfc0ed6a2b0501/tumblr_mmvnouIV8W1s5ttogo1_400.gif)
Andrew Wyeth - Adrift (1982)
— Things aren’t looking so good for the graduating class of 2013. Perhaps now is a better time than ever to consider avoiding “work,” finding your purpose, making glorious mistakes, and living the creative rather than the safe life. (via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
Numbers stations are mysterious shortwave radio channels of indiscernible origin that exist in countries all across the world and have been reported since World War 1. They are identifiable by the unusual contents of their broadcasts: seemingly random sequences of numbers, words, letters, tunes, and Morse code, usually spoken by artificially generated voices of women and children.
The most common theory regarding the purpose of these bizarre stations is that they’re used by governments the world over to secretly transmit encrypted commands and messages to spies. That said, even though numbers stations have been discovered all over the globe and in any number of different languages, no government has ever officially acknowledged their existence. While the espionage theory is a logical one, with no official confirmation of their purpose the jury is still out.
One particularly odd station, UVB-76, has existed since the late 1970s and has broadcast a simple, repetitive buzzing tone 24 hours a day ever since. On very rare occasions, however, listeners have reported a Russian voice interrupting the buzz to read out sequences of numbers and words, always in a consistent format — this happened once in 1997, once in 2002, once in 2006, 56 times in 2010, and 14 in 2011. As with all numbers stations, its true purpose is and will probably remain unknown, but the increase in frequency of whatever it’s doing is certainly odd.
You can listen to well over 100 recordings of numbers stations for free on archive.org but be forewarned that they’re all kind of, well, eerie. They feel like something you shouldn’t be listening to, which stands to reason since apparently you’re not supposed to know they exist.
I got a lot of fun out of scanning my old shortwave for these things… it’s about time I stopped putting off repairing it I think.
(Source: horrorfixxx, via spaceplasma)
“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”— Homer, The Iliad (via nuclearharvest)
Brad Pitt to Rose Byrne in Troy (2004). Remember the movie that was about American imperialism and choreographed pectorals?
Tumblr you disappoint me. Again.
(Source: ciinemas)
