The Lamp

the-science-llama: rhamphotheca: Nanostructures Make Viper...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:49:02 -0400

rhamphotheca:

Nanostructures Make Viper Skin Ultra-Black and Stealthy

by Laura Poppick

From even a short distance, this West African Gaboon viper looks just like a pile of dead leaves. New research shows that the highly-camouflaged snake owes its elusiveness to nanostructures in its black scales.

The velvety-black patches on this snake’s back are so dark and absorb so much light, they look like gaps in the snake’s body. This illusion allows the lurkers to dissolve into leaf litter as they wait for prey on the rainforest floor.

To determine what makes these scales appear so black, a team of German scientists examined the snake’s skin under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and found differences in the nanostructures of dark and pale scales that explain the high contrast, the team reports today in Scientific Reports…

(read more: Wired Science) (photo: Guido Westhoff)

Just wanted to include these from NatGeo
They zoom in on the scales with a scanning electron microscope and the structures essentially trap light and prevent it from reflecting away.

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Fri, 24 May 2013 14:47:03 -0400

221spooky: she didnt break the fourth wall she motherfucking...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:45:17 -0400

221spooky:

she didnt break the fourth wall she motherfucking punched a hole in it

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Fri, 24 May 2013 14:43:41 -0400

"You tried to change, didn’t you? Closed your mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less..."

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:38:47 -0400

“You tried to change, didn’t you? Closed your mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less volatile, less awake…You can’t make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that.”

- Warsan Shire (via h-o-r-n-g-r-y)

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Fri, 24 May 2013 14:38:33 -0400

skankazoidd: atheistangel: Because chemicals hurt you (and...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:17:17 -0400

skankazoidd:

atheistangel:

Because chemicals hurt you (and your pets) insides.

Add orange peels (or any citrus peel) to a quart of white vinegar in a closed container and let it set for two weeks. Then you just strain it, add water to the solution until it’s about 50/50 and put it a seal-able bottle. It works great on floors, tiles, fixtures, kitchen and bath, etc. It’s antibacterial, smells good and it’s tough on dirt and grease. Best of all, there are no harmful chemicals

And cheap. Yeah, I like the cheap part. And not having to worry about buying from corporations whose ethics are questionable. Yes, this will come in handy.

pylade: i’m gonna

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:16:08 -0400

pylade:

i’m gonna

me: i'm gonna write

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:13:27 -0400

me: i'm gonna write
me:
me:
word document:
me:
me: slides out of chair
me: slides onto floor
me: cries

gingerblivet: straddling-the-atmosphere: onceuponabopper: thetimetravelersguidetothegalaxy: witty...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:12:48 -0400

gingerblivet:

straddling-the-atmosphere:

onceuponabopper:

thetimetravelersguidetothegalaxy:

wittywallflower:

Writing is weird.

One minute you are telling a story.

The next minute you are researching the average amount of snowfall Edinburgh gets.

or how to kill someone with a piece of barbed wire and a tomato

Or how much force it takes to dent a human skull with a can of Pepsi.

what the hell are you guys writing?

Porn.

"When was super depressed, I wasn’t working—I was always too depressed. Hemingway did his best work..."

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:11:07 -0400

“

When was super depressed, I wasn’t working—I was always too depressed. Hemingway did his best work when he didn’t drink, then he drank himself to death and blew his head off with a shotgun. Someone asked John Cheever, “What’d you learn from Hemingway?” and he said “I learned not to blow my head off with a shotgun.” I remember going to the Michigan poetry festival, meeting Etheridge Knight there and Robert Creeley. Creeley was so drunk—he was reading and he only had one eye, of course, and had to hold his book like two inches from his face using his one good eye. But you look at somebody like George Saunders—I think he’s the best short story writer in English alive—that’s somebody who tries very hard to live a sane, alert life.

You’re present when you’re not drinking a fifth of Jack Daniel’s every day. It’s probably better for your writing career, you know? I think being tortured as a virtue is a kind of antiquated sense of what it is to be an artist.

”

- In an interview with The Fix, Mary Karr debunks the toxic mythology that it is necessary to be damaged in order to be creative. My own vehement defiance to that mythology is what led me to choose Ray Bradbury – the ultimate epitome of creating from joy rather than suffering – as the subject of my contribution to The New York Times’ The Lives They Lived.

Pair with Karr on why writers write.

(via explore-blog)

deceptiboobies: “no” i whisper as i hear footsteps approaching my room

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:38:11 -0400

deceptiboobies:

“no” i whisper as i hear footsteps approaching my room

Fantasy novelist: Alright, time to create my fantasy world. Great thing about this genre is that I can make it anything I want. Could be based on any culture in any place from any time. Could be a mix of places and times, or something newly invented by me. Yup, there is literally nothing out of bounds here.

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:32:59 -0400

Fantasy novelist: Alright, time to create my fantasy world. Great thing about this genre is that I can make it anything I want. Could be based on any culture in any place from any time. Could be a mix of places and times, or something newly invented by me. Yup, there is literally nothing out of bounds here.
Fantasy novelist: I'm gonna go with medieval England.

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Fri, 24 May 2013 00:18:16 -0400

lunac7: Lovely Leto…

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:07:07 -0400

lunac7:

Lovely Leto…

caterinasforzas: “You talked to one of my lieutenants. He has,...

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:05:21 -0400

caterinasforzas:

“You talked to one of my lieutenants. He has, over the years, played the role repeatedly and with great conviction. More often than not, he’s done so to protect my identity. Other times, it was because I suspected a potential client might.. struggle with my gender. As if men had a monopoly on murder.”

#let me explain to you how genius the deconstruction of Irene Adler is #because in making her a conscious manipulation; an artful and purposeful creation by moriarty in order to ensnare sherlock #they have destroyed The Woman; the one individual who eclipsed the whole of her sex and at whose feet Sherlock fell #they’ve taken the goddess down off her pillar and revealed the woman in the fridge was a doll all along #Irene Adler is only a story; can only ever be a story; because there is no Woman #only women #and they are villains as well as heroines and they are clever even when they make mistakes and they can hold the world together whether to take advantage of it or to save it for the people they love but there is no Woman #there never could be #and Sherlock had to learn that #elementary #the best goddamn show #your favs could never

They are her gay dads. For serious. It’s awesome. Also so much hugging in this episode

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:21:19 -0400

They are her gay dads. For serious. It’s awesome.

Also so much hugging in this episode

Oh my god HANNIBAL THE HAND OB THE SHOULDER THE CONFRONTATION

Thu, 23 May 2013 23:11:04 -0400

Oh my god HANNIBAL

THE HAND OB THE SHOULDER

THE CONFRONTATION

Well that was an intense opening on Hannibal

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:30:35 -0400

Well that was an intense opening on Hannibal

Basically God built a series of tests and when you’ve done all...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:12:02 -0400

Basically God built a series of tests and when you’ve done all three, you can slam the gates.