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Last week in the California desert, a $2.2 billion solar plant opened that creates electricity by harnessing solar energy. Rather than using traditional solar panels, this facility has hundreds of mirror-like reflectors that shoot the sunlight at a tower filled with water in the center of the mirror arrays.

That water inside the tower is turned into superheated steam by the 1000°F temperatures to turn a steam generator, making electricity. Researchers working on the project said that they expected the heat could result in some dead birds. What they didn’t expect was how many birds would be killed by the massive solar death ray. Unfortunately, dozens of birds with singed and charred feathers have already been recovered at the site.

The birds don’t even have to land on the tower; simply flying through the solar beam will kill them. Researchers are currently conducting a study to determine how to reduce the threat to local avian populations. Until the research is complete, Big Bird should maintain his distance.

[via WSJ]

Killing Tumblr one “I can’t” at a time. 

Now this Bubba actually took the time to make a proper window for his truck!

I love this baking idea! I've seen berries and fruit slices baked inside cakes, but never entire pears. Deanna Segrave-Daly made this cake with Meyer lemons, a variety of that plant that is increasingly popular with chefs in America. She made her batter with Greek yogurt, a whole vanilla bean and whole wheat pastry flour.

She poached 3 Bosc pears in sugar water. Maybe she did this to keep the pears moist, which I expect would be a problem when baking pears inside a cake. Segrave-Daly sliced the bottoms off the pears so that they could stand upright in the baking pan, then poured the batter in.

-via Tasteologie

spittlebug:

murky

By now it's hard to tell what's true when it comes to reports about the infrastructural failings at the Olympics in Sochi. But what we've got here, folks, appears to be security footage of a cat falling through the ceiling of the Adler Arena Skating Center. Oh my.

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I'm not saying I would make a ship shape liked a penis, but when you have such modular ship design I'm sure the community will come up with all sorts of creative things. Though it's going to be hard to top the ship below. Add enough alternating thrusters and you could maybe build a ship that hurtles through space like a deadly Ferris wheel. I want to try, anyway.

Make sure to keep watching the trailer past the ship design. The coolest part is how detailed all of those modules are once you zoom in, from engine rooms to prisons. The gifs on the Kickstarter page sold me. And apparently in your space smuggling you can get pet cats and llamas. And all this set to chill 80's music. Yeah, Galactic Princess seems pretty cool.

This "Spaceship Survival Sandbox" has finally put up its hinted at Kickstarter and is on Steam Greenlight.

Definitive

Our colleagues over at Town Hall have an enlightening video up this weekend which provides a look inside the inner workings of some progressive protesters. A reporter asks a number of them whether or not the Tea Party is racist. The answers are a rapid series of unanimous nods and enthusiastic answers in the affirmative. […]

View the video »

This Lil X-Men feline’s Adamantium claws get in the way.

Previously on [GAS]: X-Men Origins: Cyclops Cat

[Kaipotainment | Via]