flickering pictures

Check out this simple and fascinating primer on how to visualize ten dimensions by Rob Bryanton, author of Imagining the Tenth Dimension. Every so often — and it doesn’t happen often — I’m just really glad we have physicists.
(Apologies if this video loads slowly — Bryanton’s site got Boing-Boinged and doesn’t seem to be […]

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When I was a kid, comic books always had those little ads for mail-order venus flytraps, with promises that they’d keep your home bug-free by crushing the life out of unsuspecting houseflies with their razor-sharp fangs and super-corrosive digestive juices. When my mom finally got me one, I was a little disappointed — no […]

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Yes, it’s a rock. But a lot of people want it. Here’s why.
The creatively named island of Rockall sits just northwest of Ireland and south of Iceland in the Atlantic Ocean, and unless you to listen to BBC shipping forecasts, it’s a safe bet you’ve never heard of it. At about 83 […]

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A tiny island chain, isolated and all but forgotten off the coast of Yemen, is home to one of the most fascinating and unique ecosystems on Earth. It also looks like something Lewis Carroll might have dreamed up after way, way too much absinthe.
I have to go there.
From the New York Times:
Some 250 million […]

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While watching the two-hour Mythbusters “Supersize Special” yesterday, I saw the Discovery Channel’s “The World is Just Awesome” commercial for the very first time. It’s the most adorable thing I’ve seen on TV in a while, featuring the all the regular Discovery Channel personalities and all the quirkiness, silliness and little-boy wonder that a […]

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Space elevator: a proposed megastructure designed to transport material from a celestial body’s surface into space as a way of non-rocket spacelaunch.
Picture a super-strong ribbon thinner than a sheet of paper, one metre wide and long enough to wrap two and a half times around the world. Now picture it extending into space, the […]

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We don’t know what it was, what it was made of, or how much mass it held. It didn’t act like a supernova and wasn’t even in a galaxy, as far as we can tell. All we’re sure of is that it radiated a light spectrum we’ve never seen before, was really far […]

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Thanks for putting up with two days of slow posting — we got back to town yesterday after two glorious days and nights of fine dining and rural relaxation, and I’m still so full of good food that I can hardly move, let alone write.
If you’re not far from southern Quebec and are looking to […]

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For many adventurous young Canadians, the cross-country drive is a quintessential part of the list labeled “things to do before I die” — and almost a citizenship requirement in some circles. But we’ve got nothing on these guys.
The ButterflyBus leaves London’s Victoria Coach Station around 10:00 a.m., and fifteen days later reaches its ultimate […]

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Vanishing Point features photos and essays by Canada’s urban explorers, who trek through everything from Montreal’s sewers and Toronto’s underground tunnels to a decommissioned Niagara Falls power station and the Hamilton drains.

There’s no way this is legal, and there are about a million things I’d rather be doing on a Sunday afternoon than spelunking in […]

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