Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011
"Kamen rider" A hero of a TV program in Japan
Eyes appear to sway.
Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere
Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011
"Kamen rider" A hero of a TV program in Japan
Eyes appear to sway.
Fluorite - Annabel Lee mine, Harris Creek Sub-District, Illinois - Kentucky Fluorspar District, Hardin Co., Illinois, USA
Very pretty light purple, with pale yellowish centers, highly translucent lustrous cubic crystals of fluorite to 3.0 cm on edge aesthetically covering a 8.0 x 5.0 x 3.2 cm matrix. With the aide of a 10x loupe I can find two chipped crystal corners, one at far right, one at lower left. These are difficult to see with the naked eye. For an Illinois fluorite, this is as damage-free as they get. Very fine quality.
"Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their mummification. This practice reportedly took place almost exclusively in northern Japan around the Yamagata Prefecture. It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only between 16 and 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date. The practice is not advocated or practised today by any Buddhist sect."
Image of Tethys and Titan taken in green visible light on July 14th 2011 at a distance of about 3.2 million kilometers from Titan. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
"In this new image from the Cassini Imaging Team Saturn’s moon Titan looks a little out of focus compared to the sharp, cratered surface of Tethys, seen in the foreground. But that’s only because Titan’s hazy atmosphere makes the moon look blurry. Titan’s current atmosphere is thought to resemble Earth’s early atmosphere, so we could be looking at an analog of early Earth."
Two-dimensional representation of gravitational waves generated by two neutron stars surrounding each other. Credit: NASA
"Colliding neutron stars and black holes, supernova events, rotating neutron stars and other cataclysmic cosmic events… Einstein predicted they would all have something in common – oscillations in the fabric of space-time. This summer European scientists have joined forces to prove Einstein was right and capture evidence of the existence of gravitational waves."
