It’s been announced!
Archives for category: I must retire to my nerdery
Eric forwarded me this from reddit:
Answers a lot of questions, handy infographics.
by CGP Gray
Related: the Union Flag – three flags in one!
via Best Week Ever
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