Monthly Archives: April 2016

Cosplay Pictures to Enjoy

Cosplayers and their excellent cosplay to enjoy!  (luckily my cosplay flashdrive with some 20k pics on it survived the washer and dryer…)

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Cute Dog Pictures for Your Monday Blues!

Enjoy the cute dogs to start your week!

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Cosplay Pictures for the Weekend

Cosplayers and cosplay to enjoy!

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Vehicles – If You could only choose one…

Which of the following would you pick if you could only have one?

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Mysterious giant sphere unearthed in forest divides opinion

Suad Keserovic cleans a stone ball in Podubravlje village 
Suad Keserovic cleans a stone ball in Podubravlje village  CREDIT: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC

This round rock could be the oldest stone sphere made by human hands, says Bosnian archaeologist Semir Osmanagic.

Discovered in a forest near the Bosnian town Zavidovici, the ball has a radius of between four and five feet, and an “extremely high” iron content.

Dr Osmanagic believes the sphere proves the existence of an advanced lost civilisation dating back more than 1,500 years ago.

Suad Keserovic cleans a stone ball 
CREDIT: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC

According to his fellow researcher Dr. Sam Osmanagich, the region used to have many more of the spheres well into the 20th century. Many were apparently destroyed in the 1970s due to rumours there was gold hidden in the middle of them.

Dr Osmanagic, known as “the Bosnian Indiana Jones,” hit headlines in 2005 when he claimed that a cluster of hills in  Bosnia’s Visoko Valley was in fact the site of ancient pyramids linked by a network of underground tunnels.

While his claims were mocked by some, the Bosnian government gave financial backing enabling excavations to be carried out in the region. Nedzad Brankovic, Bosnian Prime Minister at the time: “We were told the world was laughing at us … but there is no government in the world that should stay quiet on things which are positive.”

Suad Keserovic poses as he measures a stone ball 
CREDIT: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC /SUAD KESEROVIC CLEANS A STONE BALL I

Anthony Harding, the president of the European Association of Archaeologists, described the Visoko excavation as “a total absurdity”, saying: “There is some genuine archaeology on the hill and I’m told it’s medieval, possibly Bronze Age or Roman. But the speculation that there could be a 12,000-year-old structure beneath is a complete fantasy and anyone with basic knowledge of archaeology or history should recognise that.”

In 2016, critics are once again lining up to poke holes in Dr Osmanagic’s rather grand claims. Discussing the Zavidovici spehere, Mandy Edwards of the University of Manchester’s School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences told MailOnline the rock may not be man-made at all, and have been formed by the “precipitation of natural mineral cement within the spaces between sediment grains” – a process known as concretion.

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Cosplay Pictures for Your Saturday!

Cosplayers and cosplay to enjoy!

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Mars meteorite 1st look at Red Planet’s ancient crust

Sawn surface of the Mars meteorite NWA 7533 showing both light and dark clasts in grey matrix.

Sawn surface of the Mars meteorite NWA 7533 showing both light and dark clasts in grey matrix. (Luc Labenne)

A meteorite found last year in the Sahara Desert is likely the first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust, a new study reports.

The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet’s ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said.

“We finally have a sample of the Martian highlands, that portion of Mars that holds all the secrets to Mars’ birth and early development,” lead author Munir Humayun of Florida State University told SPACE.com via email. [Photos: Amazing Meteorites from Mars]

“It’s the part of Mars’ history where the oceans and atmosphere developed, and where life would have developed if it ever did on Mars,” Humayun added. “I will liken this to opening a treasure chest — it may take a while before we find the best treasures, but treasures aplenty lurk in this meteorite.”

Humayun and his colleagues subjected NWA (short for northwest Africa, where the rock was found) 7533 to a series of analyses. The researchers determined the meteorite’s age, for example, by determining that crystals within it called zircons formed about 4.4 billion years ago.

“This date is about 100 million years after the first dust condensed in the solar system,” Humayun said in a statement. “We now know that Mars had a crust within the first 100 million years of the start of planet-building, and that Mars’ crust formed concurrently with the oldest crusts on Earth and the moon.”

The team also found high concentrations of normally rare elements such as nickel, osmium and iridium in NWA 7533, indicating that the rock formed in a region that was pummeled by chondritic meteors, which are relatively enriched in these materials.

Further, after measuring the abundances of certain elements within the meteorite, Humayun and his team were able to calculate a thickness for the Red Planet’s crust.

“The amount of melting on Mars was low, sufficient to accumulate a 50-kilometer-thickness [31 miles] crust, but Mars evidently escaped the giant impact-style melting that affected the Earth and moon,” Humayun told SPACE.com. (Most scientists think the moon formed from material blasted into space when a planet-size body crashed into Earth more than 4 billion years ago.)

“This is the first reliable geochemical estimate of the thickness of Mars’ crust, and it agrees with geophysical estimates from gravity and topography,” he added.

Though researchers believe ancient Mars was relatively warm and wet, the team found no hydrous silicate minerals — which form in the presence of liquid water — within NWA 7533. Scientists will likely unearth more such puzzling details as they study the meteorite further, Humayun said.

“I expect more surprises as we dig deeper into our Martian treasure chest — some we will understand, and others may continue to befuddle us for a while to come,” he said.

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Cosplay Pictures for Your Weekend

Cosplayers and cosplay for your enjoyment!

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Cute Dogs for Your Monday Blues – Returns!

After posting thousands of dog pictures I literally ran out.  After some homework, here are some fresh dog pictures to cheer up your Monday!

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3 steps to safely wearing colored contacts

colored_contact_lens_istock

If you’re the type who’s always on the hunt for a fun, new way to experiment with your look, colored contacts can offer a dramatic change.

The eye trend has been popping up among celebrities like Selena Gomez, who chose to switch up her natural dark brown color for a blueish grey hue at this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. But is wearing colored contacts safe, especially given all of the contact lens horror stories that have been circulating lately? We got the experts to weigh in on how you can pull them off—without hurting your eyes.

Go to a professional

The real trouble with color contacts starts when you look outside your eye doctor for your colored contacts, Dr. Steven Shanbom, an ophthalmologist in Berkley, Michigan tells Health. “You should be considering your colored contact a medical device, not a toy.” And yes, even if you don’t normally wear corrective lenses, you still need a professional fitting.

What could go wrong?

“If you have a contact that is too tight or the curvature it too short, it can stick and hold up the eye and slowly cause an abrasion or irritation,” Dr. Shanbom said. “That’s a spot for bacteria to come in and cause an infection.”

Related: 9 Worst Eye Health Mistakes You’re Making

Use a lens from a reputable brand

While it is possible to order colored contacts online or pick them up at certain convenience stores, Shanbom warned that any brand that doesn’t require a valid prescription shouldn’t be trusted.

“If you see an eye care professional to be fitted, you are going to get a safe product,” he explained.

The problem with these unverified brands is that they are made to be one-size-fits-all, but all corneas are not equal. Just like your feet require the correct shoe size, your eyeball needs a lens that fits. By wearing contacts that don’t correctly fit your eye you run the risk of irritation, infection, and even blindness if you get an infection that gets out of control.

Luckily, many name brands are jumping on the color changing bandwagon if you have a valid prescription. Options range from ACUVES 1-Day Define lens (for as low as $65 for a month’s supply), which subtly brightens your eyes natural color with colored enhancements, to Alcon AIR OPTIX COLORS ($80 for a three-month supply, airoptixcolors.com), which allows you to chose between 9 color options for daily wear up to 30 days.

Take good care of them

Just like prescription lenses, you’re not off the hook once you’ve gotten fitted by a pro and purchased from a reputable brand. It is still up to you to properly care for your contacts.

Depending on how they’re labeled, the lens should be always be discarded after a certain amount of time and replaced with a fresh lens. And you should never be cleaning your lenses with anything other than cleans hands and a sterile solution.

Related: 18 Signs You’re Having a Migraine

“That’s the same whether you have a colored contact or a clear lens,” Shanbom said.

The good news is that if you follow these precautions, it’s relatively safe to wear colored contacts for cosmetic sake. According to Shanbom, “if you wear them properly, I don’t see where it’s a undue risk to want to change your eye color.”

This article originally appeared on Health.com.

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