Thursday, March 29, 2007

About Face



So this is borderline Wohba material, but Top Men found it intriguing trying to discern what features make a face recognizable as male or female.

The teeming masses of course are not expected to delve so deeply - they'll simply be entertained by the fun of it.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tide Ice



What do you get when you mix bitter cold temperature, a bay of pack ice, an incoming tide, and a nutty Newfoundlander in shorts?

You get this video of an ice tide that extrudes mounds of ice along the beach.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Vehicular Pinball
Enceladus
Fun With Liquid Nitrogen

Monday, March 26, 2007

Pavement Amazement



That's not real water. That's not a real drain. That's not even a real hose.

Julian Beever has been on Wohba previously. But here are a few more of his sidewalk artworks that we haven't drawn to your attention. (Pun intended.)

(All of his work is here.)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Trompe Loeil
Chalk Up Another One
Sidewalk Chalk Art

Friday, March 23, 2007

You Say Tornado...



Nothing screams "It's spring!" better than a boatload of tornadoes.
Here is a video with a boatload of tornados. Enjoy.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Night Tornado
Twister

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Insane Climbing Man



No matter how hard we try, Top Women can't seem to find any Insane Women doing the likes of what the men do in our Insane series. (The teeming masses will have to draw their own conclusions as to why that may be.)

So for now we're left with showing you this Spiderman wannabe as he demonstrates how truly insane some men can be!

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Previous related Wohba links:
Insane Skiing Man
Insane Surfing Man
Insane Flying Man
Insane Rocket Man

Tree Men



Top Women like caves. Top Men like trees. The life, the texture, the science, the symbolism, the sustenance, the possibilities, the bicycle.

Here are some trees that have lost their simple goal of reaching skyward - still amazing, but now bent and twisted to the will of man.

And for further reading on Arborsculpture try here. For just more amazing trees go here.

(And, yes, Top Men like caves, too. And, yes, Top Women like trees, too. And, no, Top Men do not like the lab painted pink.)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Silk Land

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Cave Women



Top Women recently went on a caving expedition in Missouri and are still coming down from the awe of viewing 75,000,000 year old stalactites and stalagmites.

And since we also love old Christopher Reeve Superman movies, we thought we'd share these views of what has proven to be the largest crystals on earth in Crystal Cave of the Giants in Chihuahua, Mexico!

Almost as amazing as the crystals is the grueling ambient environment the photographer had to endure to take these shots; a steam bath of 100% humidity and temperatures of 150 degrees Farenheit caused from magma miles below venting up through faults into the area of the cavern.

(And although we hate to admit it, Top Men share our passion for the magnificent views hiding beneath the surface and so we thank Top Men for sharing!)

(Photo credits, Richard D. Fisher)

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Homopolar Motor



There is nothing Top Men like better then reducing a design down to simple basics. (Well actually, snorkeling in Maui might give "reducing a design down to simple basics" a run for its money.)

Here is about as simple a motor as you can get - the old homopolar motor. Battery, magnet, and copper wire - combined to amaze even the dullest of the teeming masses.

Feel free to visit here for a few more details.

(Thanks Jonathan!)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Hexahexaflexagon

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Sand Blasting



Top Men now provide a brief reprieve from all the heavy math and outer space discussions...

... with this movie of blowing stuff up in slow motion - backwards.

(It's what real men do to the beautiful sand sculpture work posted by Top Women a couple months ago.)


UPDATE (3/15/07):
Top Women have duly noted the destructive and sadly competitive nature of Top Men once again and have found it necessary to pause from our seclusion of in depth research and study to respond and note that the lab will be painted pink this weekend.

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Previous related Wohba links:
Sand Sculpting
In Depth Charge
Sand Expressions

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

π-retic



Well Pi Day is upon us once again, and although Top Men don't participate in the fever-pitched excitement of the true faithful, we can still bring some π-related links to the attention of the teeming masses.

- If you don't really understand that pi is nothing more than the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle then check out this graphic animation.

- If you want to know pi to four million decimal places than check here.

- If you want to search for your birthday in the first 200 million digits of pi then you want to go here.

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Previous related Wohba links:
One Big Pi

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Buzzing Victoria



MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) has provided boatloads of high resolution images of Mars. Now the imaging teams have assembled a couple of detailed fly-over movies for our enjoyment. The best is this movie - a up-close perusal of Victoria crater - with a cameo appearance by the Mars rover Opportunity.

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Previous related Wohba links:
HiRISE Gazes On Opportunity
Behold Victoria

Monday, March 12, 2007

STEREO Pair



NASA's STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft (A and B) are performing some rather intricate lunar maneuvers in order to creatively leave Earth behind. In the process, STEREO B was positioned just right to catch this movie of a solar eclipse - but from a unique vantage point that will be hard to duplicate.

And for our second STEREO treat try this movie that STEREO A shot of comet McNaught. These are likely some of the most beautiful and detailed image sequences ever captured of a comet this close to the sun. (The bright vertical streaks are Venus and Mercury over-saturating the sensitive camera.)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Sun We Need To Talk

Friday, March 09, 2007

The Fountains of Io



Our little old solar system is getting downright paparazzied. There are spacecraft flying all over the place.

The New Horizons spacecraft (zipping past Jupiter on its way to Pluto) took this rather incredible snapshot of Jupiter's moon Io. There are no less than three actively spewing volcanoes in the shot. the most dramatic is Tvashtar with its 180 mile high plume near Io's north pole. But a beautiful symmetrical fountain can be seen gushing from the Prometheus volcano at the left edge. And at the bottom, just inside the shadow, is a plume that catches the setting sun.