Tag Archive for 'interesting'

The helicopter of the ancients

While watching a History channel special, I saw a glimpse of an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph that looked very much like a modern helicopter. A quick search for “ancient egyptian helicopter” (what else?) brought up this page explaining the phenomenon. Apparently, while there is an image that looks surprisingly like a helicopter (alongside one that looks like a tank and another that looks like a UFO, submarine, or really fat jet plane), it’s really just a coincidental overly of hieroglyphs from different eras. In other words, the stone in question has been engraved and re-engraved at least a couple times over the centuries. Pretty strange coincidence, though.

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Cutting edge indeed

I’ve got nothing to write about, so watch this vid and tell me how the heck they did this.

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I’ve heard it’s a couple of contortionists, but I’m just not seeing it.

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Get your swimsuit ready

Google Maps: Swim to Paris

This is what Google Maps will tell you to do if you ask it for directions from Seattle to Paris. Those folks at Google have quite the sense of humor, don’t they?

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Awesomeness is…

…being able to see the love of your life every day. Hey, I’m serious. And mushy. Serioushy… You know it’s too late when you’re making up words.

When space hexagons attack

What’s the one thing you least expect to find at the north pole of a gas giant? Well, I don’t know about you, but a giant rotating hexagonal cloud probably tops my list. Just recently, NASA’s Cassini probe took pictures of the formation, which is over Saturn’s northern pole, using an infrared camera, since the pole is currently too dark for visual images. More info on it at NASA’s website.

The most interesting aspect of this cloud, as you can see from pictures on the mission page linked above, is the fact that it’s a hexagon. Clouds don’t generally form into shapes like that, even at the poles. For instance, around Saturn’s southern pole, clouds form into swirls and other generally round shapes. So you can imagine how confused the experts have been looking at the pictures sent back by Cassini. However, it’s apparently possible to make such shapes by spinning things at certain speeds.

However, the excitement doesn’t stop with the cloud. No, instead of accepting that this is a freak natural event, some people have decided that NASA does know why the hexagon is there, and that they’re covering it up (for whatever strange reason). Not only that, but the hexagon is populated by aliens, who are using its powers to influence evil on Earth (what else are six-sided shapes good for?). I’m serious. People actually think this. If I could find more links, I’d put them up, but I think all the conspiracy sites have blocked me for being too rational. It’s a conspiracy!

Anyways, scientists are hoping to get actual visual images of the hexagon in a couple years, once Saturn’s north pole begins moving back into the sunlight. It’s definitely something taking a better look at.

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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States