Actually Genuinenly Enjoying My Customer Service Job Sometimes

Sand Tufas

You could be forgiven for thinking that the otherworldly rock formations in these pictures come from another planet, or from a sci-fi movie perhaps. But they’re actually called sand tufas and they come from right here on earth.

A tufa is a peculiar form of calcium carbonate, and they’re created when calcium-bearing freshwater springs well up through alkaline lake water (which is rich in carbonates). The carbonate and calcium combine and, over centuries, these elements form unusual spires, towering columns, and strange cauliflower-shaped mounds which can reach heights of up to nine metres (30ft). Tufas can only form underwater, and they’re only exposed when lakes are drained or dry out over many years. Check out this collection of pictures compiled by Bored Panda to see these curious formations for yourself.

Via + image credits

How Introverts Make Friends

- online

- an extrovert found them, liked them, and adopted them

On August 2, 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin is working near the lunar module. The Moon is small compared to some celestial objects, but it’s seemingly vast compared to that speck in the distance. Photo by Dave Scott. 

(NASA)

Hidden Portraits: Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an inventor, engineer, physicist and futurist. He arrived in the U.S. in 1884 and quickly catapulted his career by working with Thomas Edison, creating more than 700 patents and making major breakthroughs in modern alternating current (AC) electricity.

He’s featured in the Art with Watson series, Hidden Portraits. 15 artists teamed up with Watson to discover and illuminate the unknown essence of seven of history’s greatest thinkers using data. 

What Watson thinks: Watson’s analysis of Tesla’s works revealed a new side of the famed inventor – as an artist at heart.

About the artwork: The Artist Inside was inspired by Tesla’s conflicted, dual personas: the scientist and the artist. The mirrored cube represents Tesla’s mind, with the inner electric grid representing his fame as a well-known scientist. The generative art that come alive inside the cube speaks to Tesla’s lesser-known artistic side, uncovered with Watson.

Explore Tesla’s Hidden Portrait ->

NASAs SWIFT has made the largest ever ultraviolet image of the Andromeda Galaxy. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high

js

you wanna see some badass shit from the early 20th century?? The Lumière brothers created the first full color photograph… in fucking 1903! So these dudes dyed potatoes (in red, blue, and green), mashed them down into just pure fuckin’ starch, and used these dyed potato starches as filters to block out/let in certain wavelengths of light. They coated one side of a glass plate with the starches and sensitized the other side with a mixture of gelatin and light sensitive materials (silver nitrate) and loaded these plates in their cameras.. This is a really simple explanation of the process and I may have missed some things A few of my favorite autochrome photos:

storm over the serengeti. photos by nick nichols

Norway

May 1, 1979 – The prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise rolls out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad Cape Canaveral in Florida.