Pillars of Creation: Womb of Stars

NASA has released an image this week to commemorate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 100,000 orbit. This nebula, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 10, is about 170,000 light-years away.

“The image reveals dramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head ‘pillars of creation,’ and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation. The region is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud that is an incubator for the birth of new stars. The high-energy radiation blazing out from clusters of hot young stars is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away. Another young cluster may be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas. In this approximately 100-light-year-wide fantasy-like landscape, dark towers of dust rise above a glowing wall of gases on the surface of the molecular cloud. The seahorse-shaped pillar at lower, right is approximately 20 light-years long, roughly four times the distance between our sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. The region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing star-formation regions and their evolution. Dwarf galaxies like the Large Magellanic Cloud are considered to be the primitive building blocks of larger galaxies.”

You might also want to check out the The First Universe of Galaxies Map.

The Sims 3: Official Trailer Released

It’s coming in 2009 but people around the world are already hyped about The Sims 3. The official EA site has just released a new video trailer yesterday and it’s better than ever. Step outside the the box and limitations of the old Sims and get ready for a whole new Sims world. Watch out for the guy with make-up, I have a feeling that he would be one of the main characters in the upcoming game. Check out the all-new screenshots, blogs from the developers, cool stuff, and more from The Sims 3 Team. And yes, the annoying jogger still runs past your house every morning.

Who’s Mad? The Crowd or the Monkey?

The latest work from the Grickle animation series by cartoonist Graham Annable is “Zoo.” It highlights one simple theme; “Does the cage keep the madness in or the MADNESS out?“

As a cartoonist living in Oregon, Annable is the creator of the Grickle and Further Grickle graphic novels. He also contributes and is the editor of the Hickee comic series from Alternative comics.

Be sure to also check out his graphic novels here.

Midnight in Paris by Van Cleef & Arpels

Pick the stars from the sky and wear the universe at your wrist. Oh isn’t that romantic? Reading time with the stars under the Paris constellation can now be done through the Midnight in Paris timepiece. It represents the map of stars under the Parisian sky. The mechanical movement is unique, its extreme complexity linking the concept of time to that of the Cosmos as a dazzling homage to that other mysterious and fascinating world.

The Midnight in Paris timepiece recreates the map of the celestial dome. This is done by a rotating disk made of aventurine glass. The mechanism of this jewel-like timepiece is visible thanks to a sapphire glass case back that is protected by a pink gold moveable flap. On the back of the timepiece, the disk surrounding the calendar is set with real meteorite stone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Case
Dimensions: Ø 42 mm. Rose gold. Scratch-proof sapphire crystal. Water resistant 3 ATM (20m)

Dial
Rotating blue aventurine glass disc. Polished and brushed hands. Signature Van Cleef & Arpels.

Strap and buckle
Alligator. Rose gold folding clasp with integrated security system mechanism

Movement
Swiss mechanical movement exclusively developed for Van Cleef & Arpels on a Jaeger-LeCoultre Basis. 28,800 alternations / hour. Autonomy 40 hours. 24 jewels

Price
48,000 euros

Under Chaos: Don’t Mess With Cows

If you liked the oddly hipnotic Dancing Animals in love by Ben Meinhardt, you would probably like this one. Under Chaos is created by Vancouver Film School student Michelle Clement through the VFS Classical Animation program. It features a Winnie the Pooh-like cow who can makes ice-cream out of its body and it turned into a blood bath milk bath when a huge group of children were asking for ice-cream.

P.S. If you have a dirty mind you would probably think of something dirty at the end of the clip.

Mars Soil for Asparagus but not Strawberries

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander discovered that a sample of Martian dirt contained several soluble minerals, including potassium, magnesium and chloride. This means the soil in Mars may have enough nutrients to grow plants. Asparagus would grow happily in it, scientists say.

BBC reports: “We basically have found what appears to be the requirements for nutrients to support life,” said Phoenix’s wet chemistry lab lead, Sam Kounaves of Tufts University. “This is the type of soil you’d probably have in your backyard. You might be able to grow asparagus pretty well, but probably not strawberries.”