Unseen Titanic

In recent years explorers like James Cameron and Paul-Henry Nargeolet have brought back increasingly vivid pictures of the wreck. Yet we’ve mainly glimpsed the site as though through a keyhole, our view limited by the dreck suspended in the water and the ambit of a submersible’s lights. Never have we been able to grasp the relationships between all the disparate pieces of wreckage. Never have we taken the full measure of what’s down there.

Until now. In a tricked-out trailer on a back lot of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), William Lange stands over a blown-up sonar survey map of the Titanic site—a meticulously stitched-together mosaic that has taken months to construct. At first look the ghostly image resembles the surface of the moon, with innumerable striations in the seabed, as well as craters caused by boulders dropped over millennia from melting icebergs.

I love the National Geographic Society.

#meanwhile

Intel will end support for Oregon Boy Scouts over Scouts’ policy on gays

Boy Scouts in Oregon have few benefactors more generous than Intel, which has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs over the past few years.

It’s not that Intel has a particular affinity for Scouting; its employees do. By volunteering as scoutmasters and in other roles, they trigger a $10 corporate donation for each hour spent helping a troop.

And with close to 17,000 employees in the state, those hours — and dollars — really add up. In 2010 alone they came to $180,000, according to the Intel Foundation’s most recent tax filings.

The donations, though, are now drying up.

A “lightning rod for controversy” indeed.

#corporatedollars #LGBT

OTL: LSU-Bama fans, the last time they met

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2012, and around the world, but mostly in the South, thousands of people Garrison Stamp and Brian Downing don’t know (and more every minute!) are watching a video of some guy in an Alabama hat and some passed-out guy in an LSU T-shirt, wondering who they are and what the hell they were thinking. But Stamp and Downing are blissfully oblivious to all of that. They’re still anonymous. They’re 700 miles apart from each other, each enjoying a quiet morning in his respective suburban home.

Stamp, an 18-year-old college student on the final day of winter break, is packing up and looking forward to getting back to LSU, back to another semester of rooting for the Tigers. Downing, a 32-year-old new father with a job that keeps him on the road more than he’d like, is playing with his adorable 4-month-old son and talking with his wife about what they need at Target.

As each moment passes, more people are laughing at these guys. More people are disgusted or amazed. More (perhaps even you, dear reader) are judging them one way or another. On message boards, a debate is under way about whether Downing committed a vulgar, drunken prank or a sex crime. Blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages are awash in speculation. Stamp is rumored to be dead.

Settle in, it’s a long painful article.

#football

Colorburst 250 - a Kodak Instant Camera with Electronic Flash

#photos

The snowman winter horror scene is now complete!

Ingredients:

• Styrofoam plank and balls
• Green twist ties
• Toothpicks colored orange
• Leaf stems
• Black magic marker
• Glue

#photos #crafts #christmas

Walking Dead Episode 6: Hounded

Merle leads a group of Woodbury scouts through the woods to hunt down Michonne. They find a dismembered walker body arranged into a warning: “Go back.” One of the men, Garguilo, cringes at the spectacle. Merle threatens him, then insists on calling him “Neil.”

Michonne ambushes the men, killing two. As she escapes, Merle shoots her in the leg.

The reason Michonne hung back and didn’t help Glenn and Maggie is because she didn’t know who Glenn and Maggie were. Even if she did know them, she wasn’t in top form. She’d already killed all but one of Merle’s scouts, took a bullet graze and battled off zombies. She needed to recover and regroup.

For Merle, his likable-ness came up a notch this episode. The “Neil” conversation was good. However, leaving Michonne to get bit in the red zone was a bad idea. He was haggard and beat for sure, probably wasn’t up for pursuit. But.. The choice to tell the Governor that Michonne was dead will fuck him later.

#tv #thewalkingdead

angeline writes:

Yoda. Designed by Kawahata Fumiaki.

Origami Yoda by Kawahata Fumiaki

Saw this link and thought you would like it!

#geekystuff #starwars

Nice day for a bike ride. Should’ve worn my gloves though, 50 degrees is a bit chilly on my fingers.

#photos #bikes

This is the Way to the Moon

#literature #moon

It may not look like it from the photo above but she does.

In related Walking Dead news, why did Glenn dig a grave for Carol so soon?

Rule of thumb: during zombacolypse don’t count out your “family” in less than 24 hours if there’s no body. I understand they lost a third of their group and he’s distraught, but c’mon.

And if Lori is the one calling Rick on that black phone, I’m gonna punch the writers.

More on Season 3’s Episode 5 Say the Word…

#tv #thewalkingdead