Fr33dom: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

London 2012 Olympics: portraits of Team USA athletes

Photographers were invited to the United States Olympic Committee's media summit in Dallas, Texas, to shoot portraits of Team USA athletes Weightlifter Holley Mangold

Swimmer Michael Phelps stretches while posing for his portrait.

Trampoline gymnast Dakota Earnest

This is perhaps top in list of addictions. And it is wrong to think that only those with troubles and weak mind are the main victims. Anyone can get into drug addiction. We are living in times of high stress. While some stake to drugs to escape the pains of life, other do it just for fun or experimentation. What they don’t realize is that they have already taken the first step to the dark and suffering world of drugs and from where it is going to be very difficult to come out. Drug addiction is on the rise inspire of strict measures taken by the legal authorities all over the world. Drug addiction can lead to sepias health ailments and in extreme case even cause death.

Nicotine

Nicotine addiction too is on the rise in our so called modern world. One mat think it is ok to make a few puffs but little do they know that they are harming not only their own health but also those around them. This is especially bad for the infants and children with parents who smoke. It gets increasingly tough to get past the nicotine addiction and quit smoking. Those addicted to nicotine rely on nicotine gum and nicotine replacement patches to help them in quitting smoking. Nicotine addiction is the chief cause of lung cancer, cancer of the esophagus and the main contributors to heart attacks.

Pornography Abuse

Pornography is a controversial subject as some people might view it negatively while some may claim it is a natural manifestation of human sexuality. But when pornography becomes an addiction it can lead to major problems in relationships and can be very unhealthy for the person. And with the porn material easily accessible on the web, an increasing number of people are getting addicted to Pornography. Pornography abuse can hijack the brain and turn one into a senseless sheep.

Tea Party in Super Slow Motion

A super slow motion video of exploding eggs and smashing glass filmed by the Phantom Flex camera....not your typical tea party. The frame rate was anywhere between 3,200 to 6,900 frames per second. Special thanks to GizmoSlip for providing the Phantom Flex camera. You rock.

Gravity Wave

Lapse of gravity wave action from the Tama, Iowa KCCI-TV webcam on 6 May 2007.

Extreme & Beautiful Weather

Majestic Skies Created by Powerful Storms

Since our last "Mammatus, Lenticular & Other Extreme Clouds" article, the good old Nature kept giving the photographers great opportunities for stunning shots. Problem is, great celestial displays are often followed by some nasty storms... which hardly anybody would want to witness firsthand.

We'll start with a "Clouds Beauty Contest". Most sources are listed directly under the photos, though some original credits remain unknown. We mentioned "Clouds Appreciation Society" as a premier destination for cloud-watchers & photographers before, and it remains the "one-stop" website with more and more spectacular submissions every day. Among the other sources of this article, you will see a few examples out of thousands worthy pictures displayed there.

Cloud "Explosions" - Cumulonimbus cloud formations, building up to powerful storms.

(photos credit: Karen Titchener, Cloud Aprreciation Society)

Lenticular Clouds Gallery

Lenticular clouds, technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction.

(images credit: Valuca)

(images credit: Valuca)

These clouds are formed by so-called "mountain waves" of air created by strong winds forced over high mountains. Then they hang over the mountains like alien "motherships"... Mount Rainier in Washington produces some of the most spectacular lenticulars.

Mega Earthquake and Tsunami

We've briefly touched on this topic in Future Plate Tectonics, yet with another huge wake-up call earthquake (and continuing swarm of smaller quakes) in Japan, we feel we should cover this kind of apocalyptic natural disasters more broadly, as well as raise awareness about horrific conditions for people in North Japan right now.

(a house drifts the ocean after being swept away by tsunami, image via)

Thousands of people are left without shelter and means of transportation in the wake of combined earthquake/tsunami disaster - in freezing cold, with dwindling supplies (many stores display empty shelves, which is quite an unusual sight for Japan). Please keep Northern Japan in your thoughts, and help by donating through a respectable company - Google - at this link.

(images via)

The earthquake in Japan was so strong (the fifth strongest since 1900) that it even sped up the Earth's rotation by 1.6 microseconds, causing a day to get slightly shorter - more info

And the earthquakes continue in this "Ring of Fire" zone. It almost became a non-event to feel 6.0 aftershocks in Japan today... However, remember that a 9.0 earthquake is 1000 times worse than a 6.0 scale earthquake - the Richter Scale is logarithmic.

(images via)

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Stunning Art of Ancient Calendars

Egyptian & Mayan-Aztec Calendars: Incredibly Sophisticated Earliest Works of Art

We are continuing our historical art overview (see for example, our "Mysterious Non-Egyptian Pyramids"), this time going all the way back to the beginning of the recorded history. Around 5,000 BC first calendars made their appearance, and set the standard by which we measure our months and days today.

Regardless of what you think about Mayan Calendar concerning 2012, you have to admit their representation of time flow was simply stunning:

(images via 1, 2)

This is the Aztec Calendar, on display at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City, Mexico: it's a huge basaltic monolith (it weighs 25 tons), Aztec called it Cuauhxicalli Eagle Bowl, but it is universally known as the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone.

"The Mayans see time like a river. The Mayans also see changes in time as differences of tones, frequencies or even octaves, not just a hard measurement of something that never changes."

(images credit: Coppersmith Victor Bono, Olga Utlyakova)

Time Out of Time

One of our readers writes "I have a little replica, it's fantastic. Every year has a "no time" period - days "outside the calendar", to freely celebrate life." Well, actually, there are in total five "Nameless Days" (more info) at the end of every Mayan solar year - so called Wayeb'"Time Out of Time", a period for transition and preparation for the next year. Beside the obvious "free time" aspect, these days were considered sacred and quite mysterious "Days of Awe":

"During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolved. No boundaries prevented the ill-intending deities from causing disasters." For those interested, in 2012 the Wayeb period falls on March 28 - April 1 (source).

1. AUTOMATICALLY POST YOUR TWITTER UPDATES TO FACEBOOK

Cross-posting your boring life makes it seem twice as boring. Choose a venue to crap out your trivial quips and stick to it.

2. POST YOUR BABY'S PHOTO AS YOUR OWN

It doesn't make us think "cute kid," it makes everyone assume you have become immensely fat, lost your hair, etc.

3. POST UPDATES WHILE GETTING MARRIED

Like this guy. Do the smoosh-cake-in-each-other's-faces thing and then post pics. We can wait.

4. PLAY FARMVILLE, MAFIA WARS OR ANY OF THOSE OTHER TIME SUCKS

Nothing shows the world you have no life better than seeing a badge from a virtual Facebook game. And then there's the Farmville-addicted mom who allegedly... Shiver!

Space Shuttle Launch: Viewed From an Airplane

Time Lapse - Caterpillar to Butterfly

This short movie shows parts of the Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) butterfly's life cycle in time lapse. Scenes include larvae moving around on the host plant, larva shedding its final skin to pupate (part of the metamorphosis process), and finally emerging as an adult butterfly.