Le Blogger

Want to know more about Durham, NC? http://www.opendurham.org/about-open-durham

http://allenhsudesign.com/print/10-fun-facts-about-taiwan/

Here's a guide to capturing auroras: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8217618174/auroral-photography-a-guide-to-capturing-the-northern-lights Hurry though! The current solar cycle peaks in 2013!

http://vimeo.com/flatlightfilms/aurora

http://3dimpact.com/gallery_digital.html

This is a real image...very cool. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/24/a-dragon-fight-in-the-heart-of-orion/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BadAstronomyBlog+%28Bad+Astronomy%29

These are nice... http://yowayowacamera.com/

Amazing! Make your own movies or screenshots of the sun. http://helioviewer.org/

Physics in action! Here's an explanation for why the Northern Lights happen ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy) ): ***** Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere (thermosphere), above 80 km (50 miles), from  ionized nitrogen  atoms regaining an electron, and  oxygen  and  nitrogen  atoms returning from an  excited state  to  ground state . They are ionized or  excited  by the collision of  solar wind  particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth's magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule: oxygen  emissions Green or brownish-red, depending on the amount of energy absorbed. nitrogen  emissions Blue or red. Blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized. Red if returning to  ground state  from an  excited state . ***** A site that I checked for forecasts http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast . I didn

Here's an interesting logic puzzle (it is quite well known, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_knowledge_(logic) ). The version below is from Terence Tao's blog. xkcd also has a version ( http://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html ). ***** – The logic puzzle – There is an island upon which a tribe resides. The tribe consists of 1000 people, with various eye colours. Yet, their religion forbids them to know their own eye color, or even to discuss the topic; thus, each resident can (and does) see the eye colors of all other residents, but has no way of discovering his or her own (there are no reflective surfaces). If a tribesperson does discover his or her own eye color, then their religion compels them to commit ritual suicide at noon the following day in the village square for all to witness. All the tribespeople are highly logical and devout, and they all know that each other is also highly logical and devout (and they all know that they all know that each other is highly logical a

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/04/05/ncbi-rofl-before-you-trust-the-five-second-rule-read-this/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverDiscoblog+%28Discoblog%29

Real story from my cousin...cute and funny. ***** Innocence of a 5 year old   One day while I was driving home, my 5-year-old son was sitting in the rear on his  safety seat when the radio program talked about the Buddhism idea of transmigration (輪迴). “What is transmigration, dad?” He asked.  “Transmigration? Uhhh…” I tried to come up with words understandable to him.  “Some people believe that life comes over and over again after death. If you are a good  guy and you do good things, when you die, you will become a baby and be born again  by a mommy. But if you are a bad guy and you do many, many bad things… “.  At this very moment, an ugly and dirty strayed dog happened to pass by our car.  “…you will become a poor animal just like the dog, or like the flea in its body.” I continued  with my finger pointing on the dog.  Then there was a long silence. “Are you OK?” I turned my eyes back on him and was astonished to find that he was weeping.  “Dad, am I too late (to do good things)