Shock waves coming from Eyjafjallajökull! Pyroclastics! Awesome! …Maybe I should study abroad in Iceland instead of NZ.
This one has some beautiful shots of lava being ejected high into the air, but I’d rather have the actual ambient audio…
Shock waves coming from Eyjafjallajökull! Pyroclastics! Awesome! …Maybe I should study abroad in Iceland instead of NZ.
This one has some beautiful shots of lava being ejected high into the air, but I’d rather have the actual ambient audio…
Up early for calculus test. No idea how I did. To the Grove to pick up shoes and buy a replacement plate for one that cracked in the microwave (???). Home, prelab, exhausted and really want to skip lab, especially since it’s going to be a long one.
update: Well, lab got a little exciting when our professor almost killed us.
worked out, got the rest of the stuff I need to make easter baskets. picked up susan for her happy hour at lola’s and had their awesome empanadas. went to ethan’s (very first) stand up and he killed it! the whole show was pretty great overall. afterwards, renee, terry, doug and I went to canter’s for cake and fries.
Google has a great animated logo in honor of the scientist – check it out! A single frame:
Dr. Jörg C. Gerlach has developed a stem cell-powered gun that sprays skin onto burn victims like an airbrush, and cuts the time of treatment from weeks down to ninety minutes.
via io9
click to embiggen
An annular eclipse occurs when the moon, slightly more distant from Earth than on average, moves directly between Earth and the sun, thus appearing slightly smaller to observers’ eyes; the effect is a bright ring, or annulus of sunlight, around the silhouette of the moon.
Time-lapse video and more info over at NASA.gov.
via io9
click for more info
How did this algal bloom suddenly appear in the lake?
The effect of the torrential rain over the over the vast area of recently burnt alpine forest was to wash ash and soil rich in nitrogen and other nutrients into the Gippsland Lakes. Counter intuitively, the rain and floods also increased salinity in the Lakes as the higher water level facilitated greater mixing with seawater at Lakes Entrance.
[...]
…what you’re seeing here is a second generation of algae (Noctiluca Scintillans) which grew by eating the first generation of algae (Synechococcus), which itself bloomed by feeding on the runoff from the floods, which had been filled with nutrients from wildfires. Basically, this event was two years and two disasters in the making – and it was also completely harmless. The glowing algae are not toxic, and did not wind up choking off other life forms in the lakes.
via io9.com
by justin majeczky
read about it over at scientific american
jeff wanted to write a song today and asked for history topics. I pointed him to this issue of Hark! A Vagrant:

and he produced this delightful song.
update: io9 article about Rosalind and how she was basically cheated out of the recognition she deserved.
alien life on our planet! (sort of!) and more here.
focus reaches temperatures over 3500°!
eric: have you ever heard of lake agassiz?
eric: it’s a lake that was formed in the middle of the US from glacier runoff
kara: no. oh it’s big. was big.
eric: larger than all the great lakes combined!
kara: are you reading something about it?
eric: just the wikipedia
eric: it’s interesting b/c apparently it just kept getting bigger and bigger as the glacier receded
kara: nowhere to drain?
eric: until eventually an opening into the ocean opened up
eric: and it all drained *at once*
kara: yikes – 1-3 meters rise in sea level!
kara: that’s INSANE!
eric: …meanwhile, in the bible…
kara: heh
kara: how did you come across this
eric: i was reading about biblical history
eric: abrahamic religions & so on
eric: i mean… theoretically if the timing on that is there they think it is, it accounts not only for the flood myths across various religions but also global cooling and the genesis of urban life & agriculture which led to monotheism in the first place
kara: …it’s weird that this is making me hot right?
eric: =D