Global Warming Effects On Greenland's Ice

Across Greenland's vast white landscape, small teams of researchers from around the world are searching for clues about the potential effects of global warming on Greenland's ice. They're measuring the movement of glaciers, the density of the snow pack, the thickness of the ice and more, trying to gauge how much will melt and when.

Greenland's Inuit people have been witness to the rapidly changing landscape. The Inuit have countless terms in their language to describe ice in all its varieties, and its disappearance directly affects their lives. 

Associated Press photographer Brennan Linsley recently spent some time on the massive Arctic island, documenting the researchers, the residents, and the varied ice that dominates the landscape.

The midnight sun illuminates an iceberg, among the many shed daily into the sea from the Jakobshavn Glacier, on July 19, 2011 in Ilulissat, Greenland. Greenland is the focus of many researchers trying to determine how much its melting ice may raise sea levels. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) 

Floating ice, left over from broken-up icebergs shed from the Greenland ice sheet, nearly covers the seafront in Ilulissat, Greenland, on July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)  

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Alaska Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station

A few months ago, Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson was invited to the 2011 Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station (APLIS), a temporary camp built out of plywood on Arctic sea ice. Far north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the camp housed a couple dozen members of the British, Canadian, and U.S. navies and employees of the Applied Physics Laboratory.

Jackson spent two days at the camp, watching its residents conduct tests on underwater and under-ice communications and sonar technologies. He kept his camera equipment warm and functional with chemical hand warmers whenever possible. 

Collected here are some chilly images from Jackson's trip to the far north last March. 

The moon rises over Arctic ice near the 2011 Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on March 18, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson) 

Equipment packed for an assignment to the Arctic, arranged on a table in the living room of Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson, in New York, on March 16, 2011. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

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Cool Mentos-Coke-Powered Car

Surely you're hip to the Diet Coke and Mentos phenomenon of a few years ago. When an enterprising duo realized that the hard-coated candies interacted with the soda in an explosive way, an internet meme was instantly born. Over the last couple of years, though, interest in the parlor trick seemed to wane. Until now.

Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the two men who helped kick off the fun in the first place, are back, claiming a new record for the longest distance traveled in a car powered by Diet Coke and Mentos: 239 feet.

After dissecting the video, we believe there's a lot more power in the Diet Coke and Mentos recipe to be had, and there must be a better way to stop so much of the fuel from leaking out instead of providing forward thrust. Duct tape, perhaps?

Source from Autoblog

Best Food For Antioxidants

Although scientists didn't realize their significance until relatively recently, antioxidants are now thought to be important dietary nutrients. So, what are antioxidants, exactly? They're substances in food which prevent damage to your body's cells and tissues caused by free radicals. It's important to keep free radicals in check, as they may contribute to aging, cancer and chronic diseases such as heart disease and Parkinson's disease.

Certain vitamins, such as A, C, and E have antioxidant properties, as do bioflavonoids – free radical-fighting chemicals naturally present in certain plants. In general, fruits and vegetables are great sources of these substances. There are various methods of calculating the antioxidant value of foods, one of which is the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) assay, used by the USDA. Health officials currently recommend consuming about 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units per day.

1. Spices

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Bland food lovers, beware! When measured by weight, spices are the richest source of antioxidants. The type of spice with the greatest antioxidant capacity is cloves, with an exceptional ORAC value of almost 300,000 units. (Note, however, that ORAC value is calculated per 100 grams – please don't try to eat 100 grams of cloves just for the antioxidants!) Other especially antioxidant-rich spices include oregano, rosemary, turmeric, thyme, cinnamon, sage and vanilla.

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9 Tallest Mountains In Solar System

Mount Everest, at 29,029 feet tall (5.5 miles), is the tallest mountain on earth. But, not known to many, Hawaii's Mauna Kea is actually much more taller than Everest, which is actually 33,465 feet tall, although only 13,796 of which are above sea level. 

If we look beyond our planet earth, there are lots and lots of taller mountains compare to Everest and Mauna Kea. Following are the tallest mountains in various worlds of the Solar System. Heights are given base to peak.

9. Arsia Mons, Mars > 9 km (5,6 mi)

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Arsia Mons is 270 miles (approximately 435 kilometres) in diameter, almost 12 miles high (more than 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) higher than the surrounding plains), and the summit caldera is 72 miles (approximately 110 km) wide. It experiences atmospheric pressure lower than 107 pascals at the summit. Except for Olympus Mons, it is the biggest volcano in volume. Arsia Mons has 30 times the volume of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the largest volcano on the Earth.

8. Mauna Kea, Earth = 10,2 km (6,3 mi)

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Mauna Kea (Hawaii) has an altitude of 4,205 meters (2,6 mi) - much lower than Mount Everest. However, Mauna Kea is an island and if the distance from the bottom of the nearby ocean floor to the peak of the island is measured, then Mauna Kea is taller than Mount Everest.  Mauna Kea is over 10 km (6,2 mi) tall compared to 8.848 m (5,5 mi) for Mount Everest - making it the Earth's tallest mountain. 

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How Blind People Play Football

Pepsi is funding amazing ideas that refresh the world. Åkestam Holst and Society 46 created The Sound of Football to give visually impaired people a better football experience and maybe, in the future, create new aides that enable you to see with sound.

As a first test, we arranged a football match between a team of visually impaired players and a team of former professional footballers. We wanted to see how they would perform under equal conditions – in a match where no one can see. How it works: We used tracking technology, the same used at the latest FIFA World Cup. Through the system we can get the position of each player in real time on the football pitch. This information is then fed into an iPhone located on each player’s head and converted into binaural 3D sound. We created sounds for things important on the pitch like the nearest players, the ball and the goals. Through headphones each player can hear what is happening and get a sense of distance between things. And the sensors in the iPhone allow players to locate where the sounds come from when they move their head.

Source from I Believe In Adv

How Much Internet World Weight?

Did you know that the our Internet world weighs about 50 grams?

It's an entertaining look at the concept of data actually possessing some weight, although we can't really measure the weight of an individual data point, when taken altogether we get something to the effect of something that does weigh something. Got that?

Anyhow, the strawberry looks great...

Source from IT World

Spectacular Volcano Lightning Phenomena

It's common to see intense lightning during the eruption of a volcano. Scientists have long puzzled over why sand grains and other small particles can build up electrical charges as they collide with one another, sometimes to the point of discharging lightning in dust storms or plumes of volcanic ash. 

The scientists now believe that volcanoes can produce two kinds of lightning during an eruption. The first type, which has been understood for some time, occurs in the volcano's smoke plume a few minutes after the eruption ends. In this case, highly energized hot air and gases clash with the cool atmosphere, creating the sort of organized, branched lightning found in a thunderstorm.

The second kind of lightning, which the authors called a newly identified explosive phase, came as a surprise, as magma, ash and rocks spewed carrying great electrical charge, they created continuous, chaotic sparks near the mouth of the volcano.

Not all volcanic eruptions produce lightning, but the new equipment might be used to track the ones that do particularly those in remote regions. Often used to detect forest fires, the equipment picks up radiowaves caused by lightning. Researchers can then work backward to pinpoint the time and place of the lightning.

These photos are from volcanoes from all over the world.

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Microscopic Images Of Alcoholic Drinks

All of these impressive photos of alcoholic beverages under a microscope uncover the elements that make up some of our preferred tipples. Similar to photos of snowflakes, each and every beverage is unique, while observed below when zoomed about 1,000 times under a high tech lab microscope.

What you can see in the magnified pictures are the crystalised carbohydrates that have become sugars and glucose. Each image was created by using a pipette of each particular drink and squeezing a drop onto a slide. Then the droplets are allowed to dry out and the slide is placed under the microscope and a picture taken.

It will take approximately 4 weeks for the alcohol to dry up entirely in the airtight container, and the complete procedure may take around 3 months.

Vodka and tonic

Whiskey

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Gemasolar Solar Thermal Power Plant

The new Gemasolar Power Plant near Seville in southern Spain is the world's first solar plant to have the capacity to generate electricity even at night. More than 2650 concentrically arranged mirrors spread across 185 hectares of rural land concentrate solar energy towards a centrally located molten nitrate salt tank. As the rays converge, they super-heat the salt to over 900 degree C, causing water around the tank to boil and drive steam turbines. 

In addition, any superfluous heat generated during the day is stored within the liquefied salt. It acts like a giant thermal battery for driving the turbines at night and during overcast days up to 15 hours at a time with no sunlight. But Seville, being one of the sunniest areas in Europe, this doesn't happen very often.

The Gemasolar Power Plant near Seville in southern Spain consists of an incredible 2,650 panels spread across 185 hectares of rural land. The mirrors - known as heliostats - focus 95 per cent of the sun's radiation onto a giant receiver at the centre of the plant.

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