Wohbanobongu!

1 Year
211 Posts
1,531,918 Hits

Top Men will try to find more amazing stuff.


----
Previous related Wohba links:
First Post
First Month

(Pin) Wheel in the Sky

Yet another super-duper-extra-mega-colossal-high-res Hubble Space Telescope image. This is the highest resolution image (16,000 by 12,000 pixels) of a spiral galaxy ever made by Hubble. This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy was made from 51 different images collected over the last few years - and released today.

Here are the lower-res versions.
Here are the higher-res versions.

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Orion
Milky Way
Andromeda
Whirlpool

Space Film

Top Men wish they had Saturday mornings free on the International Space Station. We would do experiments.

...like making water constrain itself into an amazing thin film by adding... uh... nothing to it. It surprised even the astronaut (Don Pettit) who was messing around with it. New discoveries from accidents. Gotta love it. Here is the story.

Movie 1
Movie 2

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Alka Seltzer in Space
Zero Gravity Research

Superhydrophobicity

"Build a better superhydrophobic polymer, and the world will beat a path to your door"

Top Men want to ride a water-slide made of this stuff.

If Birds Could Draw

At the turn of the twentieth century hand-drawn panoramic maps were an amazing way for people to get a view of their world they could never experience in reality. These maps presented towns and cities from a unique oblique (cool word combination, huh) angle.

The library of congress has a bunch of them online. You can look for your city here.

Here are a few that Top Men enjoyed...

Bangor, Maine, 1875
Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1882
Asheville, North Carolina, 1891
Spokane Washington, 1905

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Aerial Photos before Airplanes

Bioluminescent Water

Well okay, technically it's not the water that's bioluminescent, but the bacteria (bioluminescent dinoflagellates) in it. The effect is the same: Find a bio-bay, go there at night, jump in, move around. Wohba! The water glows all around you - everywhere you stir it up.

There are a few of these bays around the world. The one in Jamaica and the one in Puerto Rico both have high levels of the bacteria creating a stunning effect.

Here are some kayaking photos.
Here are some swimming and pouring photos.
Here are a few movies of the bacteria in action.
Here are instructions on growing your own dinoflagellates.

(Thanks Tim)

Adding Gravity

This little sim could easily be mistaken for a simple billiards table kind of thing. Ah, that is until you find the gravity slider. Adding gravity doesn't just suck all the balls to the bottom - it gives them their own gravity. Which of course turns a simple billiards simulation into a solar system simulation.

Your easy job is to try and get a moon into stable orbit around a planet.

Your nearly impossible job is to try and get a moon into orbit around a planet which in turn orbits a sun.

UPDATE (3/13/06): Link changed. (Thanks Brad.)

Learning to Fly

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Okay so maybe it's not quite so poetic to strap rocket engines on your feet and jump off a balloon. But Top Men are giving a big "Wohba!" to this guy in Finland.

(Click the play button on the media player to start the video - it's called Rocket Bird)

Galaxy Quest

So it's not exactly creating entire universes out of nothing, but crashing galaxies together still makes you feel pretty powerful.

This aptly named Galaxy Crash Applet gives you the power.

And of course, here is a link to their web site for more information.

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Orion
Milky Way
Andromeda
Hubble

Full Steam Ahead

Some hackers prefer steam and steel. Check out this video of the Lococentipede - a steam-powered, radio-controlled marvel. A page of photos and more video is here

Ferrofluid Performance

We can all agree that ferrofluid is strange and wonderful stuff. So what could be better then to do some wierd performance art with it. Sachiko Kodama (et al) does just that. Top Men have picked out the best videos...

Protrude, Flow (2001)
Breathing Chaos (2004)

And here's the index page of his work (in Japanese) in case you want more.

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Magnetic Liquid Weirdness

Big Hare

On occasion, certain animals make Top Men stop and say "wohba!" We can add Herman the 17 pound rabbit to the list. (see the previous links below)

(Via the BBC)

----
Previous related Wohba links:
Watusi
Cuttlefish
Octopus
Aye-aye
Ugly Dog

Ball Droppings

There should be a name for these little time-wasting applications that are somewhere between computer games and computer simulations. Gamulations? Simulames? Gimulames? Sigamulation? Wobamulation?

Whatever you call them, Ball Droppings is a perfect example of them. Balls fall on a blank screen. Draw a barrier and they bounce off of it. And each bounce produces a tone. Draw more barriers and you begin to produce a strangly pleasing cacophony.

There are versions for Windows, Mac, Mobile Phones, and Java. Everything (including instructions) is here.

----
Previous related Wohba links:
World of Sand
Fun with Particles
Symmetry Lab
Soda Constructor