SUPERNUMERARY RAINBOW

I hope you are looking at the sky now and then because there is a lot of crazy stuff going on up there. The other day i got a picture of another rare rainbow, I got a picture the rare SUPERNUMERARY RAINBOW!!!!!!! It's best to only write it in capital letters.

From a random rainbow science website it is described as follows, and has a historic footnote:

"Occasionally, another beautiful and striking rainbow phenomenon can be observed, consisting of several faint rainbows on the inner side of the primary rainbow, and very rarely also outside the secondary rainbow. They are slightly detached and have pastel color bands that do not fit the usual pattern. They are known as supernumerary rainbows, and it is not possible to explain their existence using classical geometric optics."

"The alternating faint rainbows are caused by interference between rays of light following slightly different paths with slightly varying lengths within the raindrops. Some rays are in phase, reinforcing each other through constructive interference, creating a bright band; others are out of phase by up to half a wavelength, canceling each other out through destructive interference, and creating a gap. Given the different angles of refraction for rays of different colors, the patterns of interference are slightly different for rays of different colors, so each bright band is differentiated in color, creating a miniature rainbow. Supernumary rainbows are clearest when raindrops are small and of similar size. The very existence of supernumary rainbows was historically a first indication of the wave nature of light, and the first explanation was provided by Thomas Young in 1804."

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guy being awesome

This makes me pretty envious

Backward Brain Bike

This makes me REALLY MAD

Denver vs. Rome

Here's a neat overlay of European cities on top of North America and vice versa. It's interesting how many European cities are much farther north than you would expect considering how warm they are. I wonder if it has to do with ocean currents circulating around the north coast of Europe, which is much lower than North Americas north coast.

http://i.imgur.com/36tLh.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/36tLh.jpg

Book Treasures

Here are some super awesome libraries you should try to see during your lifetime. Of course one on this list you have been to....
http://www.boredpanda.com/extraordinary-libraries/

In the Sky

Hey guys i haven't put anything up here in a while but i thought you might like a post on my own blog this time. There are amazing things going on in the sky around here all the time and most of those times i don't have a camera with me or i'm stuck catching a glimpse through a window of something amazing while i'm stuck in a building.

This year a lot of unusual things were going on in the sky and I did have my camera some of those times. So on my blog this week i put up a collection of the more interesting things.

A whole ton of interesting stuff in this piece. Think technology meets social science.



This stuff makes cities taller

fell in love with a girl

By acclamation one of the best videos of the first decade of this century.

ok go

Check this out: 

Now note that it's completely analog, real stuff that happened, and FILMED IN A SINGLE TAKE.  Using a camera on a drone.  And 2300 participants.  Filmed in half speed.  Inspired by classic Busby Berkeley musicals.

Sometimes things are just awesome.

(Shown to me by PB and JC.)

1 by 1

a lump of coal for christmas

A series of incredible aerial photos of coal mines.  I always imagined them being dark dingy down down down.  I wonder where I can learn more about that...  (It looks like 60% of coal mines are still underground but the rest are "open cast" like the one above.  It's so odd to see these big strip mines just happily coexisting with farms and even towns...)

Binary Black Holes

Living in Alaska is not much different than being an interstellar space explorer. Or maybe i'm just an interstellar space explorer who's stuck without a spaceship in Alaska.....

Today i encountered these two dangerous black holes. I needed to pass right between them, but the way was treacherous with unknown forces at play.

The bridge and the log were both covered in ice and frost. The log was a cylinder but the bridge was tilted towards the closer hole, which would be similar to feeling a stronger gravitational pull in that direction.

So i needed to stay outside the Roche Lobes and trace a path right through the Lagrangian Point to make it safely to the other side. The Lagrangian Point is the place between two gravitational bodies where the forces are equal between the two objects, so that anything at that point will not be pulled toward either object.

But i'm not crazy, so first i sent out a space probe. I call my space probe Kona. If Kona slipped on the tilted bridge as if being caught in the gravity of the black hole, and she disappeared, that would be enough data to decide to turn around and go back home.

The good news is her mission was a complete success and we continued deeper into the last frontier

Flat Globe

Here is a great looking alternative to your other online map programs. It's very attractive with lots of place names at various scales, and it's even more detailed than google maps for the areas around my house.

http://www.arcgis.com/apps/HeaderFooter/main/index.html

Cuddle the Cuttlefish

I went to the Utah aquarium the other day where they had a tank full of cuttlefish. I realized after a few minutes the cuttle fish could see me. Once when i pressed my camera up to the glass one of them briefly made a perfect black circle on it's side that was facing my camera lens!

Next time you get the chance to go see some cuttlefish you should do an experiment and maybe write some symbols or letters on little index cards. Hold the cards up against the glass if a fish is nearby and see if it mimics the symbol on the card.