Thursday 30 January 2014

National flags made with foods that are popular in that country

National flags made with foods that are popular in that country

These images of different countries’ flags formed with indigenous cuisine were created by the ad agency in promotion of the Sydney International Food Festival.
Here is each food flag, followed by an image of the actual design for comparison…

Australia — Meat pie, sauce

Flags of Food - 02
Flag - Australia

Brazil — Banana leaf, limes, pineapple, passion fruit

Flags of Food - 03
Flag - Brazil

China — Dragonfruit, star fruit

Flags of Food - 04
Flag - China

France — Blue cheese, brie, grapes

Flags of Food - 05
Flag - France

Greece — Kalamata olives, feta cheese

Flags of Food - 06
Flag - Greece

India — Curry, rice, papadum wafer

Flags of Food - 07
Flag - India

Indonesia — Curry, rice

Flags of Food - 08
Flag - Indonesia

Italy — Basil, pasta, tomatoes

Flags of Food - 01
Flag - Italy

Japan — Tuna, rice

Flags of Food - 09
Flag - Japan

Lebanon — Lavash, fattoush, herb sprig

Flags of Food - 10
Flag - Lebanon

South Korea — Kimbap, sauces

Flags of Food - 11
Flag - South Korea

Spain — Chorizo, rice

Flags of Food - 12
Flag - Spain

Switzerland — Charcuterie, emmental

Flags of Food - 13
Flag - Switzerland

Thailand — Sweet chili sauce, coconut, blue swimmer crab

Flags of Food - 14
Flag - Thailand

Turkey — Turkish delight

Flags of Food - 15
Flag - Turkey

United Kingdom — Scone, cream, jam

Flags of Food - 16
Flag - United Kingdom

United States — Hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, cheese

Flags of Food - 17
Flag - United States

Vietnam — Rambutan, lychee, starfruit.

Flags of Food - 19
Flag - Vietnam
(via Visual News)

Wednesday 29 January 2014

A Fun, Little Mind-Trick For Déjà Vu

A Fun, Little Mind-Trick For Déjà Vu

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You know that déjà vu sensation?
When you experience something that you’re convinced has somehow happened before? Maybe from a dream, another life, or a chemical imbalance in your brain?
Whenever I experience déjà vu, I pretend it means I was just given the chance to go back and re-live the event. Somehow, I’ve gone back in time so I can do better the second time around. That split-second deja-vu is the fleeting notion that this occurring.
This is a very empowering exercise. If you were given a second chance, wouldn’t you work that much harder, be that much more daring, and be that much better of a person?
You might be thinking, “Well Jordan, that’s pretty far-fetched so why entertain the thought?” But feasibility is not the point of mind exercises like this. The point is if you can get yourself to buy into this metaphor strongly enough, you now have a powerful tool for elevating yourself to a higher state at any given time.
When you’ve mastered getting into this mental state when you’ve had a déjà vu, what would stop you from applying the same mental process in another situation?
Then you can take this to the next level. Live your entire life like it’s your second chance.
Will you do it right this time? ;)

Tuesday 28 January 2014

This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave

This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave


This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave water sound science
This is What Happens When You Run Water Through a 24hz Sine Wave water sound science
What!? How is this even possible? Because science, my friends. Brusspup’s latest video explores what happens when a stream of water is exposed to an audio speaker producing a loud 24hz sine wave. If I understand correctly the camera frame rate has been adjusted to the match the vibration of the air (so, 24fps) thus creating … magic zigzagging water. Or something. Here’s a little more detail:
Run the rubber hose down past the speaker so that the hose touches the speaker. Leave about 1 or 2 inches of the hose hanging past the bottom of the speaker. Secure the hose to the speaker with tape or whatever works best for you. The goal is to make sure the hose is touching the actual speaker so that when the speaker produces sound (vibrates) it will vibrate the hose.
Set up your camera and switch it to 24 fps. The higher the shutter speed the better the results. But also keep in the mind that the higher your shutter speed, the more light you need. Run an audio cable from your computer to the speaker. Set your tone generating software to 24hz and hit play. Turn on the water. Now look through the camera and watch the magic begin. If you want the water to look like it’s moving backward set the frequency to 23hz. If you want to look like it’s moving forward in slow motion set it to 25hz.

Monday 27 January 2014

5 Real Planets Way Weirder Than Anything in Science Fiction

5 Real Planets Way Weirder Than Anything in Science Fiction

Movies and TV often present us with strange, alien worlds, and those worlds are often "themed" -- like a planet that's just a giant forest, or a vast snow desert, or full of Nazis. Obviously, that's not how planets work. Everybody knows the only "theme" a real planet can have is unbridled, awestruck terror. Like so ...

#5. The Light-Eater Planet

Try to imagine hell as a planet. Some of you probably thought of an ominous, red, glowing rock with temperatures hot enough to melt a Terminator, while others thought of a giant black ball of death where light literally goes to die. Congratulations: Collectively, you've all just imagined the distant giant known as TrES-2b.
Orbiting a star in Draco, the constellation of the dragon (little known fact: most of space was named by John Carpenter), TrES-2b is the darkest planet humans have ever discovered. How dark are we talking about here? It absorbs (or "feasts on," if you will) 99 percent of the sunlight that reaches it, making it darker than coal, black acrylic paint, or your ex's cold, unforgiving heart. And it's not likely to ever go hungry, because the planet is located only 3 million miles from its star.
So TrES-2b absorbs almost all light that comes its way, and the only broken sections in the sea of black are Earth-size spots of burning death. The unholy temperatures have made it impossible for clouds to form on TrES-2b, which some researchers think might contribute to the planet's pitch-black appearance. But that wouldn't completely explain the planet's appetite for sunlight. Theories abound: It might be due to the lack of any real atmosphere, or it might be the fault of light-absorbing particles like vaporized sodium or gaseous titanium oxide floating around the planet. Personally, we think it's because the loose tectonic plates of the planet's surface have literally been tainted black after millennia of sliding about on a solid core of ultra-dense hate.

#4. The Planet Traveling Through the Eye of Sauron

The "Eye of Sauron" is the magnificently geeky nickname given to a young star called Fomalhaut and the space debris surrounding it, which, when put together, totally look like a gigantic eye in outer space ...
Unblinking ...
Eternal ...
Watching you shower through the lens of infinity ...
But that's all stupid anthropomorphization. Why rely on that, when the true facts are even more existentially terrifying? For example: The debris field is a gigantic disk of rocks and ice roughly twice as wide as the entire solar system. That's the scale we're dealing with here -- and you think your whole day is ruined when the Starbucks girl doesn't get your latte right. Located 25 light-years away from Earth, Fomalhaut b is a Jupiter-size celestial body orbiting the star in the center of Sauron's eye. Since it is but a seagull in the most majestic celestial garbage dump, it's highly probable that the planet is eternally plowing into space junk, resulting in a cosmic fireworks display of burning rocks and exploding ice.
It gets worse when you consider that Fomalhaut b might be going through this cruel cycle only because another planet pushed it out of a closer orbit around the star, dooming it to a life of perpetual destruction. 

#3. The Evaporating Planet

KIC 12557548 b is a planet slowly being tortured to death by its own star. All right, maybe that's a bit overwrought. Let's find a less dramatic way to phrase it: Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet that's literally evaporating from existence before our eyes as it leaves a dusty comet trail behind it like the bloody drag marks of a murder victim desperately crawling for help that will never come. There. Much more scientifically accurate.
The planet orbits its star every 16 hours, meaning that KIC 12557548 b's surface temperatures are too hot for rocks, minerals, and even that guy who wears shorts in the dead of winter to exist. But that's not enough: The universe apparently took a look at the dying KIC 12557548 b and its melting mountains and rivers of magma and decided that it just hasn't suffered enough. KIC 12557548 b also displays planet-wide volcanic eruptions so powerful that they shoot ash into space. There, the ash is evaporated by cosmic radiation, because nothing escapes KIC 12557548 b.
But enough about KIC 12557548 b. Let's talk about you: special, beautiful you ...
... and all the horrible things that would happen to you if you set foot on KIC 12557548 b.
First, you'd see a massive, bright star that took up half of the sky. But the time for marveling at a sky of fire is over, because you're struggling to breathe in an atmosphere of 90 percent powdered rock. Then, if the numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions didn't immediately do you in (of course they would -- you'd be dead in nanoseconds, but for the purposes of this narrative you get to live for several horrible, clawing minutes), you would be swept up into space and evaporated with the other 100,000 tons of mass that disappear off the planet every second.

#2. The Planet Getting Hit by Drive-Bys

Kepler-36b is a small, rocky planet about 1.5 times the size of Earth. For eons, it has been the subject of constant abuse by its big brother Kepler-36c, a Neptune-like gas giant. The two planets circle a star in the Cygnus constellation more closely than any other planetary system we know about. This unfortunately means that once in a while they get close enough for the larger globe to cause some serious damage to the smaller one. When the two Keplers move into perfect alignment, the larger 36c basically executes a drive-by on 36b, only instead of bullets, it uses its massive gravitational force to turn its rocky sibling into earthquake central, triggering volcanic devastation all across its surface.
Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
The worst part is that 36b doesn't even have one shaky moment to recover between these attacks. By the time volcanoes finish erupting all over the planet, 36c is back in the neighborhood, stinking of cheap hooch and wrecking up the place again. It happens every 97 days, like clockwork.

#1. The Planet Where Glass Rains Sideways at 4,000 mph

HD 189773b's outward appearance is deceptive. At first glance, it's probably the closest to Earth's distinctly habitable look that you'll find: another plain old blue ball, no rings or flames or unyielding blackness. It looks like it might even have clouds or sentient alien life forms that haven't yet discovered what irredeemable assholes we are. 
Getty Images/Photodisc/Getty Images
Unfortunately, HD 189773b is a bit of a cosmic exploration cocktease. Far from habitable, HD 189773b is a planet where it literally rains shards of glass.
HD 189773b has a large amount of silicate particles in its atmosphere that happen to scatter blue light. This blue coloring is made all the more prominent when temperatures on the planet (roughly the same ones as those inside a volcano) condense the silicate particles into glass and fling them down and sideways at speeds up to 4,000 mph. Yep: a global glass tornado.