Basically it is a result of static electricity created by friction as materials of dissimilar material strike against each other. In this case titanium/nickel blades moving through the air and dust. It occurs on the ground as well, but you don’t usually see it as much unless the aircraft is landing or taking off. The most common time is when fuel is being pumped. When large tankers are being fueled they must be grounded to prevent static electricity from discharging and creating explosions.
The incredibly lifelike scenes are actually huge works of art, painted on the side of perfectly intact buildings.
Even that woman peering into the ruin above is not real. The paintings, which have fooled many, were created by John Pugh, who specialises in trompe l’oeil — or ‘trick of the eye’ — art.
I could not help smiling for this whole clip. It’s just great. Wow.
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.
An article in today’s Boston Globe described an intense standoff between President Obama and a housefly that thought it could be a whitehousefly…
During a White House television interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, the president tried shooing the fly away, saying, “Hey! Get out of here.”
Harwood offered, “That’s the most persistent fly I’ve ever seen.”
Obama paused for a moment, seeming to study the fly’s flight path, and then he suddenly slapped his right hand down on his left. The fly had bugged its last commander in chief.
“Nice!” Harwood said to the sounds of a few claps in the background.
The look of concentration is priceless. Also, I think that fly took up about $1,000 of presidential time.
President Barack Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a family visit to the Oval Office May 8, 2009. The youngster wanted to see if the President’s haircut felt like his own. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Someone pointed out an amusing Google maps anomaly to me today involving two places near and dear to my heart. Here’s the result of a search for “chinese restaurant st. john’s road cambridge:”
Trinity Street Chinese Restaurant in Cambridge, MA?
This may be very confusing for those who live near Harvard square — the restaurant doesn’t exist. But note the phone number… +44 1223 358281. That’s a UK country code. Turns out Google maps is confusing the St. John’s St., Cambridge above with this St. John’s St., Cambridge:
National Geographic has an incredible photogallery about the most complete mammoth ever found: “A near-perfect frozen mammoth resurfaces after 40,000 years, bearing clues to a great vanished species.”
A Nenets boy tentatively examines Lyuba outside Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard, Siberia.
