ESO Alma Telescopes and the Milky Way
Four of the European Southern Observatory’s Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) antennas gaze up at the night sky. Milky Way is visible at left.
Credit: ESO/José Francisco Salgado
(via uraniaproject)
Moscow’s Banksy
A Russian street artist who created a giant pair of spectacles from a streetlamp has been dubbed ‘the Russian Banksy’. The mysterious figure, known only as P183, creates eye-catching works around Moscow. P183 reveals little about himself except that his name is Pavel, he is 28 and that he studied ‘communicative design’
Graphic: Breaking down Facebook’s initial public offering.
So how much Facebook stock will ordinary Facebook users be able to buy? I’d bet the answer is zero.
In Case You Missed It of the Day: Stephen Colbert wasn’t kidding around about regaining control of the SuperPAC he relinquished of to Jon Stewart ahead of announcing his bid to explore a possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina.
On last night’s show, Colbert confronted Stewart, chasing him all the way from The Daily Show to the Colbert Report, eventually taking the SuperPAC back by force.
The reason for his insistence may have been revealed in FEC paperwork [pdf] released today, which shows that Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow — now known as “John Colbert Cougar Super MellenPAC” — managed to raise a whopping $1 million since its inception.
In a supplemental memo, ABTT’s treasurer, Shauna Polk, says she was asked by Colbert to quote him as saying the following:
Yeah! How you like me now, FEC? I’m rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain’t one!
Polk makes a point of noting that she “advised Mr. Colbert against including that quote.”
(Source: partiallycommitted, via wheretheweedstakeroot)
25Jan by Ramy Essam. Ramy Essam, probably the most notable activist musical voice of the Egyptian revolution and the musician responsible for the now eternally famous “Irhal” protest song, has a new album out! And the best part? He has Manshorat available for free download on his website. Above is his video for one of the 23 songs, “25Jan.” Note: The song starts almost a minute in.
I wrote about Essam and other revolutionary musicians like him across North Africa and the Middle East for Guernica last week.
High-powered plasma turns garbage into gas
Recycling is all well and good.But it hardly addresses the real problem we have with our household waste: We throw two-thirds of it in landfills while somehow managing to feel virtuous that we put last night’s empty wine bottle in the recycling bin. Surely we could do better, environmentally and economically.
There is, in fact, value in trash—if you can unlock it. That’s what this facility in northern Oregon is designed to do. Run by a startup called S4 Energy Solutions, it’s the first commercial plant in the US to use plasma gasification to convert municipal household garbage into gas products like hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can in turn be burned as fuel or sold to industry for other applications.
Photo: Kevin Van Aelst
Mitt Romney in commanding lead as Florida polls open
Florida’s Republican voters go to the polls on Tuesday in a high-stakes presidential primary election, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney holding a commanding double-digit lead in polls over rival Newt Gingrich.
Florida is the largest state to hold a presidential primary so far this year and a Romney victory would give him a big boost in the state-by-state battle to decide who will face President Barack Obama in the November election.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. local time. Most of the state is on Eastern Time, except the western Panhandle region, which is on Central Time and where polls will close an hour later.
"Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C.? I’m rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain’t one!"
Stephen Colbert, in a Federal Elections Commission filing for his super PAC. (via officialssay)
Some beautiful classic Swiss design by Kurt Wirth for Swissair – DC7c Seven Seas. From the Flickr of insect54
(via museumofusefulthings)
