Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger to demonstrate the problems arising from the theory of quantum mechanics when going from a subatomic to a macroscopic system. Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of this experiment.
Can you draw a stickman? Sure you can!
Just try it and see what happens.
Mamihlapinatapai is Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The word is difficult to translate into English. Its meaning is ‘a wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that they both desire but which neither one wants to start.’
Another word is kyoikumama. It’s Japanese and means ‘a mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.’ Here are some words that are almost impossible to translate into English.
A Phoenix man became trapped inside his SUV on Thursday after he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to roll over and strike a utility pole. In the process, the driver rear-ended another vehicle driven by a man named George Lindell, who later described the events in this amazing interview.
Half-hidden in Russia’s Olenya Bay, adjoining an off-limits naval base, lies a secret that was only recently uncovered to its full extent. In the midst of the otherwise picturesque Russian tundra – home to reindeer, polar bears, Arctic foxes, wolverines and moose – giant metal skeletons raise their great mass toward a gray sky, as if asking where they went awry to deserve their fate.
Two years ago Rev. Darrell Best, of Shelbyville, Illinois, USA, converted his 1940s fire truck into a wedding chapel on wheels. The wedding chapel, entitled ‘The Best Man’, allows lovers to tie the knot while they’re on the road and is capable of reaching speeds of 62 mph (99 kmh).
That’s not an aerial landscape photo you see above. It’s a picture of a fortune cookie taken with the help of an electron microscope. Caren Alpert specializes in photographing food and ready meals. From the artist’s website:
What’s in our food? What’s the difference between a bird’s-eye view of a remote vegetable crop and a microscopic swath from a pineapple leaf? How distinct is a pile of table salt from miles and miles of icebergs? Photographs taken with electron microscopes have seized my interest because of their mystery and simultaneous familiarity.
This medium deconstructs, abstracts, and reveals the ordinary in a riveting way. The closer the lens got, the more I saw food – and consumers of food – as part of a larger eco-system. There’s so much rhetoric in our culture around food: food science, food journalism, food history, and food how-to. It is my hope that these photographs might transform our food obsession into a newfound closeness with what nourishes us.
Caren Alpert’s website. Foto: courtesy Caren Alpert
Tommy Edison shows us what it’s like for him as a blind person to use an ATM for the first time. What would you hear if you plugged in headphones at an ATM? How much time does it take to withdraw some cash? Well, for Tommy it takes 11 minutes with a couple major problems.
Commuting to work is rarely a fun exercise, but it’s easier in some places than others. IBM’s annual Commuter Pain survey of 8,042 commuters in 20 cities spells it out: Roadway traffic has largely improved over the past three years, but people around the world say that road traffic is negatively affecting their stress levels now more than ever.
As it stands, commuters in clogged cities like Moscow and Mexico City sometimes get stuck in traffic for hours on end. IBM’s Commuter Pain study calculates the places where getting to work causes the most mental anguish.
Sand dunes are some of the world’s great natural wonders. Formed by winds that sculpt their spectacular shapes, they provide needed coastal protection from ocean waves whipped up in storms. Some of the most spectacular, such as those found in Sossusvlei, Namibia, were formed thousands if not millions of years ago, when there were ancient lakes and seas in areas now inland.
Video shot September 5, 2011 on the north edge of Bastrop State Park near Austin. All but about 100 acres of the 6,000-acre park have been blackened by fire. Firefighters have been battling blazes for 3 days.
From Burning Man 2011: El Pulpo Mechanico – a steampunk octopus.