bookpatrol:

The Libraries of Chinguetti 

It was once known as seventh holy city of Islam. It was also called the “City of Libraries” and home to the cultural elite of West Africa. Now Chinguetti is in the process of being swallowed up in its entirety by the desert and will disappear in a few generations.

Less than ten libraries and thousands of rare books remain including important Islamic manuscripts on religion, science and literature.

I hope an army of conservators and preservationists are on their way.

More at Messy Nessy Chic: The Lost Desert Libraries of Chinguetti 

There’s no bounty hunter like a LEGO bounty hunter. The Dented Helmet user CGS1 built a LEGO minifig version of Boba Fett for his 6-year-old son. It’s still not quite finished – the arms and blaster are incomplete – but the costume already looks impressive. Just like the minifig! Here are a few details about the costume:

I approached the components of this project as if they were actual Lego elements. In doing so, I created the jetpack to be removable as it appears in the actual minifigure as well as the range finder stalk. The entire costume is built from scratch using photo references and scans I took myself. The costume is built primarily out of sintra with pink insulation foam used to carve the helmet dome and a small amount of plastazote foam used on the tips and base of the jetpack rockets. Torso and leg graphics are printed on adhesive vinyl while a custom green was used to colour match the helmet and jetpack.

And information on how he crafted the helmet:

All elements of this costume were approached the same way – photos, measurements, 2D drawings, scale, proportions. I used Adobe illustrator to hash out linear drawings of the helmet. Once I had the correct size of the dome, I was able to start. After a couple failed attempts at creating the dome with plastazote foam (making wedges to form the dome) I decided to carve it the old fashion way and simply used pink insulation foam from Home depot. Once I completed the dome, I began building the helmet using the antenna mount as my anchor point. I used a heat gun to shape and form the sintra, and glued layers to create the details throughout the helmet. After a few revisions ( the dark green concave section wasn’t deep enough and I had to redo it) the helmet was ready for bondo glazing putty. I use this to fill the seams and rough spots in order to achieve a seamless plastic molded look, much like a Lego minifigure.

Read more about the build at The Dented Helmet.

via Geyser of Awesome

After scrapping all of its planned test launches earlier this month, NASA will today attempt to release its Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) from the edge of space. The rocket-powered, flying saucer–shaped landing vehicle will then return to Earth on a dramatic path through Hawaii's skies. Watch it live, here!

Read more...

Maki shows how straws work with this fun comic. via science.org

Getting back to basics today. Lately I’ve been focusing solely on science news stories and neglecting some of the cool basic science of our everyday lives. I decided to start with atmospheric pressure because it influences so much without us ever realizing it.

We don’t normally think of air as having any weight, but it does. The weight of our atmosphere is 14.7 pounds per square inch. We don’t feel that weight because our bodies are generally in equillibrium with the outside (more on this a little later). But the buddy we didn’t know we had is always looking for a difference in pressure to exert some force. Over the next couple of comics I’ll touch upon some other pressure-related phenomena, but for today you get drinking straws!

The misconception is that, when you drink through a straw, you’re sucking liquid through the straw and into your mouth. What’s really happening is that you’re creating a difference of air pressure inside your mouth, which is equalized by liquid flowing in. It all goes back to breathing, where your diaphragm (a muscle stretched across your rib cage) contracts, increasing the volume of your chest cavity, and the void is filled by air rushing into your lungs.

“Maki, in the comic you said that you can’t drink from a sealed container. Then what is this?”

Pouches like this still work because the container itself is deformed by the surrounding air pressure pushing on it, and subsequently pushing the liquid out. But we’ll talk more about the crushing power of our own atmosphere in another comic.

Read more

Each Saturday Morning here at Adafruit is Saturday Morning Cartoons! Be sure to check our cartoon and animated posts both nostalgic and new that inspire makers of all ages! You’ll find how-tos for young makers, approaches to learning about science and engineering, and all sorts of comic strip and animated Saturday Morning fun! Be sure to check out our Adafruit products featuring comic book art while you’re at it!

foodnun:

heartscale:

check out these cute sponges

I wanna eat it

fuckyeahcyber-punk:

cybernetics era by yenda-net

thisparadiseishell:

RADICAL

lichgem:

-No phone, no internet, no TV. Go completely off the map. Your only connection to the outside world should be people you can walk or drive to. You must only read newspapers, because radios and TVs are luxury items now.  If you want to hear back about a job you applied for you will just have to visit in person. Family and friends who live out of state? You’ll just have to wait until they visit to hear their voices.

-Never eat red meat. That’s for rich people only. 

-Anemia, scurvy, and malnutrition are very noble.

-Never buy ice cream. Joy is for rich people. You are condemned to an existence devoid of pleasure until you die or become not-poor.

-Never have nice clothes, but also if you show up looking as poor as you are, how dare you?

-Never accept gifts in the form of nice material possessions, or this will be held as proof that you’re secretly a drug dealing crime lord faking poorness to get pity money. Therefore, ask your relatives only for cans of beans and wood for the campfire on which to cook them. (Stoves and fridges are luxuries, after all. You will be doing lots of campfire cooking and only eating nonperishable food.)

-Never talk about being poor, that is incredibly rude and people will think you’re trying to manipulate them, even if you’re speaking in a matter-of-fact way about your life to your friends and non-poor people passing through happened to overhear you. Clearly you are being poor AT them, and that’s unforgivable.

-Suffer in silence. Never cry, except but a single crystalline tear on your cheek as you die. You might have asked for help, but that is not the AMERICAN way, damn it. Better to die in a quiet, dark place with your lone tear for company, than ask for help.

-Just stop being poor. Have you thought of that? 

-Never be poor to begin with, better yet. Just track down the Wishmaster and wish to have never been born.

thetrekkiehasthephonebox:

And that’s the story of how Nichelle Nichols stuck with Star Trek after the first season.

whoa

darkgob:

blorgblorgblorg:

a handy guide

Meow.

get your own food, you’re not fooling anyone

theinterioredge:

Renovation Opens Up a London Apartment

In Clerkenwell, an architect re-imagines a space to bring out the “dramatic geometry” of its concrete ceiling.

See more here.

how did they make a fucking concrete ceiling still seem homey?  WITCHCRAFT.

bunnyfood:

(via tastefullyoffensive:osbaston)

fireferretfuzzies:

mistressmary:

behold the descendant of the mighty wolf

#Mako (via elventhespian)

tastefullyoffensive:

Sasha vs. Q-tips [symphonicotter]

mirkokosmos:

wow.. o_O

mirkokosmos:

Police Hovercraft

combeferret:

thetimesinbetween:

4gifs:

Tiger vs. Dustbuster

THIS TIGER IS FRIGHTENED OF A DUSTBUSTER I’M CRY

THATS THE EXACT SAME BODY LANGUAGE AND REACTION A LITTLE HOUSE CAT WOULD HAVE I LOVE KITTIES SO MUCH

awwww-cute:

I went to take a picture of a deer. It sneezed

all-good-usernames-are-taken:

the-awesome-adventurer:

fucking snitch

Why were they even following a moose

they were high

super ironic

Flyssa Sword with Scabbard

• Dated: circa 1900
• Place of Origin: Algeria

The sword has a slightly curved blade, decorated for the entire length with brass inlays depicting geometrical motifs. The back surface is decorated en suite. It has a brass hilt with iron base, engraved, while the pommel is shaped as a animal head. The wooden scabbard is richly sculpted with geometrical motifs.

Source: Copyright © 2014 Czerny’s International Auction House S.R.L.

nocturnecity:

geoffrox:

Aliens (1986) 

god yes

Masterful storyteller Bart De Dobbelaer shares another otherworldly scene with us in this mysterious diorama. As much as I enjoy Bart’s episodic stories, the lack of backstory here is somewhat nice as well, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks for themselves.

Built for Classic-Castle’s seed part challenge, Brother Steven brings us this gorgeous little scene of study and meditation. Can you spot the seed part?

The Spring collection from the then hugely famous Paul Poiret was published by the French magazine “Art et Decoration” in an article called L’Art de la Robe (The Art of Dress). The collection significantly included these photographs by a young and then unknown Edward Steichen whose models posed in a more naturalistic style – a break away from the traditional clothes mannequin.

espanolbot:

mrdappersden:

I Don’t Understand Young People And They Scare Me: I Just Want To Live In The Past Forever

Ah, the long awaited sequel to “Get Off My Lawn!” and “That’s Not Music, That’s Just Noise”.

frenums:

:)