Native Spider Orchid
by Benjamin Sloan
Found this specimen wild in the un-maintained bushland on the south side of Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia.
via flickr.com
Spinning World !
"Looking north as the ISS passed southeast over North America on the night of October 18, this video offers a great perspective of our planet as a globe spinning in space ! We also get an awesome view of the aurora borealis, quite a few US cities, some lightning flashing in clouds over the southeastern states... and a bit of airglow as well. What a tour !" "Here's another sequence from the same flyover, showing a southeast-facing view :
Multiple still images taken by the Expedition 29 crew were combined to make these videos.
The International Space Station will mark its 11th anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2011. As of August 2011 there have been 135 launches to the space station since the launch of the first module, Zarya, on Nov. 20, 1998. The space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a U.S. football field (including the end zones) and weighs 861,804 pounds."
via news.discovery.com
Spinning Wheel
What goes up must come down
spinning wheel got to go round
Talking about your troubles it's a crying sin
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel spin
Spinning wheel, spinning all alone
Talking about your troubles and you, you never learn
Ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel turn Did you find a directing sign
on the straight and narrow highway?
Would you mind a reflecting sign
Just let it shine within your mind
And show you the colours that are real Someone is waiting just for you
spinning wheel is spinning true
Drop all your troubles, by the river side
Catch a painted pony
On the spinning wheel ride Someone is waiting just for you
spinning wheel is spinning true
Drop all your troubles, by the river side
Ride a painted pony
Let the spinning wheel fly
Ant-imation
via nickvt.posterous.com
Molecular Expressions : The Birthstone Collection - Opal
"A popular gem for many centuries, the fiery, brilliant opal is considered a mineraloid because, unlike other mineral gems, it does not have a truly crystalline structure. Nonetheless, opal does possess a highly complex structure. Random chains composed of silicon and oxygen are packed into tiny spheres, which are irregular in size, concentration, and arrangement in most opals. Only opals with a perfectly aligned grid of silica spheres will exhibit a characteristic play of color, which results from the diffraction of light passing through the gem. The size of the spheres determines the wavelengths diffracted and, therefore, the colors seen by an observer. The brilliance of diffracted colors is determined by the regularity of the grid.
Opal is also one of the few gemstones that is sedimentary in origin. Millions of years ago, sandy sediments along the shorelines of ancient seas released silica into a solution that filled cracks in rocks, layers in clay, and even some fossils. As the silica solidified, some of it was transformed into opal, which still contains 6 to 10 percent water, a remnant of that ancient sea."
via micro.magnet.fsu.edu
Acorn Weevil - Curculio sp.
"The acorn weevil, Curculio, is one of the weevils that infest hardwood nuts. These weevils attack both red and white oaks and are found wherever the hosts grow. These live adult weevils were found in a large grove of Butternut, Shagbark Hickories and Oak trees at the original site of the Native American burial mounds at Winfield, IL USA.
Acorn weevils have snouts with small, saw-like teeth at the very end. There are two types, or genera: the long-snouted acorn weevils (genus Curculio) and the short-snouted ones (genus Conotrachelus). The longsnouted acorn weevil's snout may be equal to or greater than the length of its body. These specimens are, of course, the long-snouted variety.
Adults of both genera feed on acorns, but only the long snouted weevils can drill into the shells to feed and lay eggs inside the nutmeat. The tip of the snouth is actually a miniature saw, and the weevil places the tip against the shell, circling endlessly around the pivot point until the shell is pierced. Females place eggs inside the nut using a long ovipositor that descends from the abdomen..."
via cirrusimage.com