July 12, 2010
A limnic eruption, also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which carbon dioxide (CO2) suddenly erupts from deep lake water, suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising CO2 displaces water. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption. Lakes in which such activity occurs may be known as limnically active lakes or exploding lakes. Limnic means of or pertaining to fresh water.
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July 12, 2010
Cryptozoology [krip-toh-zoh-ol-uh-jee] refers to the pseudo-scientific investigation of animals which are considered to be legendary or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology.
This includes looking for living examples of animals which are extinct, such as dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical support but which appear in myths, legends, or are reported, such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra; and wild animals dramatically outside of their normal geographic ranges, such as so-called phantom cats. The animals they study are often referred to as cryptids.
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July 11, 2010
Specified risk material is tissues of ruminant animals that cannot be inspected and passed for human food because they contain high concentrations of prions (proteinaceous infectious particle, an infectious agent composed primarily of protein), which cause mad cow and other diseases. These tissues include brains, eyes, spinal cord, and other organs, but the exact definition varies by jurisdiction.
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June 30, 2010
White noise is an audio signal that contains all the frequencies audible to the human ear. It is analogous to white light, which contains all the light frequencies visible to the human eye. Pink noise is a signal that is louder at low frequencies and decreases at a constant rate. It is sometimes referred to as flicker noise particularly, when it describes background noise emitted by an electronic device.
Pink noise is used to make music, sound effects, or merely as a pleasant background sound and is reported to sound more like the ocean than white noise (which is often compared to the sound of rainfall or TV static) because of its bias towards lower frequencies. Other colors of noise include: brown, blue, violet, and grey.
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June 29, 2010
In physics, a moiré [mwah-rey] pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes. The term originates from moire, a type of textile, traditionally of silk but now also of cotton or synthetic fiber, with a rippled or ‘watered’ appearance.
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June 29, 2010
A sun dog (scientific name parhelion; also called a mock sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun. Sun dogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright.
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June 29, 2010
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was a British physicist and chemist, most famous for the invention of the incandescent light bulb. Swan received a patent for his device in 1878, about a year before Thomas Edison. His house was the first in the world to be lit by a light bulb.
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June 29, 2010
Baader-Meinhof is the phenomenon where one happens upon some obscure piece of information– often an unfamiliar word or name– and soon afterwards encounters the same subject again, often repeatedly. The phenomenon bears some similarity to synchronicity, which is the experience of having a highly meaningful coincidence… such as having someone telephone you while you are thinking about them. How the phenomenon came to be known as ‘Baader-Meinhof’ is uncertain. It seems likely that some individual learned of the existence of the historic German urban guerrilla group which went by that name, and then heard the name again soon afterwards.
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June 29, 2010
An impossible object (also known as an impossible figure or an undecidable figure) is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is instantly and unconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist.
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June 29, 2010
An effect whereby the perception of positive qualities in one thing or part gives rise to the perception of similar qualities in related things or in the whole. An example of the halo effect would be judging a good-looking person as more intelligent. The term is commonly used in human resources recruitment. It refers to the risk that an interviewer will notice a positive trait in an interviewee and, as a result, will overlook their negative traits.
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June 24, 2010
The locality of Boron, California, produces a most unusual form of Ulexite. Gigantic hunks of this mineral are found in great amounts in the form of fibrous, compact veins. When polished, these specimens become the famous ‘Television Stone’ sold to amateur collectors. The optical effect exhibited by Television Stone is caused by each of its individual fibers acting as fiber-optic cables, transmitting light from one surface to the other. Since all the fibers are parallel and compacted together, any image at one surface is transmitted through each fiber to the other surface. Thus, any text or image at the bottom of a specimen appears as if it is on top.
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