The Biggest Crop Circle Ever: The Reality Show
“Almost 60 acres. 530 x 450 meters in size. Created in an evening of August, 2009, at the province of Zeeland, Netherlands, it’s the biggest “crop circle” ever created. And with a twist.
Everything was recorded in video, as this was definitely a very human creation. To be more exact, a creation of 60 humans captured in its process from concept to realization by the cameras of the reality TV show “Try Before You Die”.
The culprits are the members of XL D-Sign team, which has been creating fantastic formations for more than ten years – many of which are promoted as “mysterious” to this day. This latest one, the biggest one to date, was properly named project Atlas, and aimed not only to break the size record but also depict “a message of both the beauty and vulnerability of man”.
The gigantic formation can be interpreted in several ways, from the metamorphosis of a butterfly, to the Vitruvian Man, to Mothman and perhaps even chakras. All part of a human symbology, with a human message, created by humans to humans, surpassing in size every crop circle ever created.”
Read more at Forgetomori (thanks, DG)
Da Vinci’s Huge Horse Statue Proven Feasible
“‘Il Cavallo,’ the huge equine statue Leonardo Da Vinci never got to make, wasn’t plagued by technical problems as was widely believed, a new multidisciplinary research has revealed.
On the contrary, Da Vinci’s plan for the largest equestrian statue in the world was a perfectly feasible project which, if completed, would have probably been his greatest legacy, more than ”The Last Supper” or any other work.
Commissioned in 1482 by Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, in honor of his father Francesco, the massive bronze horse took Leonardo 17 years of research, but was never completed.
Indeed, when the full-scale clay model was finally ready to be cast in a single operation in 1499, all the needed bronze was used to make cannons for an imminent war against the King of France.
The molds were lost and the clay model was reduced to rubble by the invading French soldiers.
Although Leonardo never stopped mourning the ‘horse-that-never-was,’ engineers have always believed the daring plan to make the largest single-pouring cast ever would have failed because of technical problems.”
Read more at Discovery News (thanks, ReliegiousMarie)
Brain development infographic winner
Click image to enlarge
This cartoon by Dwayne Godwin, a professor of neurobiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Jorge Cham, the former researcher and cartoonist who created PhD Comics, has won first place in the informational graphics category of the 2009 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
Via Neurophilosophy
John Bramblitt – the blind painter
Most artists would be upset if their vision started to go. John Bramblitt was the opposite – he saw it as a challenge and used art as an outlet for his feelings. He paints with his fingers and feels the shapes using “slick paint” – a medium that dries very quickly so he can feel the shapes.
His art is truly incredible, the images are powerful and striking and considering his condition looking at them is quite moving. This small documentary is featured on his site along with his artwork – do check it out.
Makeup Girl Is A Living, Breathing Painting
“Looks like a real nice late 19th century painting, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s a real girl wearing body-paint, and standing against a painted background.
‘Makeup Girl‘ is a very clever advertisement spotted, and photographed by Peter Kun Frary, in front of a MAC cosmetics shop, in Hawaii. The girl is a really well painted model, posing against a painted background. Now, you might think she’s naked, but she is wearing strips of cloth in all the right places.”
Read more at Oddity Central (thanks, Eliza)
Volcano Chaser Braves Eruptions For Stunning Pictures
“Most people would think themselves unlucky if they passed a volcano as it erupted, but this counts as a good day at the office for one photographer.
Martin Rietze is part of a select group of volcano-chasers who seek out the exploding phenomena, and braves huge electric storms and boiling lava to get the perfect shots.
The 45-year-old travels around the world’s volcano hotspots, from Costa Rica to Italy, in his pursuit of Earth’s greatest fiery spectacle.”
Read more at the Daily Mail (thanks, KirstyJ)
New Telescope Captures Dazzling Image of Orion Nebula
“You’ve undoubtedly seen the smudge of the Orion Nebula hanging just below his belt thousands of times, but the most beautiful image yet of the celestial body was just released Wednesday.
The European Southern Observatory’s new VISTA telescope’s enormous field of view allows it to image the entire nebula at once. It’s been designed to capture near-infrared light. The longer wavelengths of light in that part of the spectrum allow rays to pass through dusty space without being scattering.
The Orion Nebula is located about 1,350 light-years from Earth. The cloud of gas and dust is a nursery for young stars. The red blobs in the features near the center of the image are young, growing stars that are hidden by dust in visible light.
VISTA was just placed into service late last year, so we can expect many more beautiful near-infrared images as it conducts its survey of the sky.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks SonOfSam)
Software photo-doctor fixes up bad photos
“It may seem crude to reduce aesthetics to number crunching, but software can now manipulate an amateur’s photographs to make them more pleasing to the eye.
Algorithms score a photo’s aesthetics using simple composition rules widely used to guide budding photographers. The image is then automatically cropped, or parts of it moved and resized, to boost its score.
Developed by Daniel Cohen-Or and Lior Wolf at Tel-Aviv University, Israel, with colleagues at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, the software identifies the key features of an image based on their colour and shape. The positioning of those elements is used to judge a photo, then tweaked to improve it, says Wolf (see video).”
Read more at New Scientist
Identity Exhibition
“Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives
26 November 2009 – 06 April 2010
What influences or determines our sense of who we are? What makes one person distinct from another? How does science inform human identity? This major new exhibition explores the tension between the way we view ourselves and how others see us.
Explore the subject of genetic testing. How curious are you about the information in your DNA?
Nine individual stories introduce eight distinct rooms. One room begins with the story of scientist Alec Jeffreys’ invention of DNA fingerprinting 25 years ago, the diaries of Samuel Pepys introduce another, while self-portraiture is explored through the work of the Jewish artist Claude Cahun, who despite being sentenced to death for acts of resistance, survived the Nazi occupation of Jersey.
Find out more about Clive Wearing, whose diaries are featured in the Samuel Pepys room
Other subjects tackled include twins, phrenology and brain imaging, gender and sexuality, race and prejudice, and acting and improvisation.
This exhibition is free. ‘Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives’ is part of The Identity Project.”
Read more at Wellcome Collection (Thanks James)
Bertrand Russell – (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970)
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, advocate for social reform, and pacifist.
Russell was an influential philosopher and commentator. He led the British “revolt against Idealism”, was a founder of analytic philosophy and (with Alfred North Whitehead) wrote Principia Mathematica. His works have had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics and analytic philosophy. He was a prominent anti-war activist, championing free trade between nations and anti-imperialism.
Russell was imprisoned for his pacifist activism during World War I, campaigned against Adolf Hitler, for nuclear disarmament, criticised Soviet totalitarianism and the USA war in Vietnam.
In 1950, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”.
The above painting by Derren is available on the art site.
Bertrand Russell – wikipedia.
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