Moonrise
The moon glows orange as it rises over the shore of Calatagan, Batangas. I was focused on the sunset in the opposite direction and I was very much surprised to see this sight behind me. I hope I caught it while it was still lower on the horizon but I definitely can’t complain!
Photographed by: Paolo Nacpil
flower
exposed to radiation from Fukushima nuclear facility JapanThis creeps me out like woah
i knew i saw this pic somewhere else first! the source i saw it on doesn’t say if this daisy is actually from japan or not, but it explains the mutation that causes this kind of appearance——it’s called “fasciation”, and is a fairly normal mutation caused by “hormonal, genetic, bacterial, fungal, viral, and environmental” elements. wiki does say that exposure to chemicals can trigger this mutation, i wish that the OP would’ve put a source link more clearly in this post cause i have my doubts that this is actually a result of the fukushima disaster——-
example of the same mutation:
Thanks for that, I was actually skeptical. For some reason, whatever it is, it creeps me the fuck out. They should sell these flowers. I’d buy one just so I could sit across the room and glare at it.
Let’s hear it for skepticism.
I visited Japan in November 2011 for the exclusive purpose of urban exploration on Hashima Island. The island, completely abandoned since 1974, sits in the southwest coast of Japan in the East China Sea. Only a few people have been able to access the island for the purposes of urban exploration photography. We were fortunate to be the only people to ever get 8 hours of uninterrupted access to the island.
“Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima or Gunkanshima (軍艦島; meaning Battleship Island), is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself.
The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island’s most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it.” ~wikipedia
Maggie Koerth-Baker has written a chemistry and combustion rundown of ammonium nitrate, the chemical believed to be behind the devastating blast yesterday in West, TX: “Ammonium nitrate fertilizer isn’t really a dangerous explosive (most of the time)”.
Ammonium nitrate, a primary ingredient in synthetic fertilizers, isn’t itself very explosive. Accidents involving it are actually pretty rare, although incidents like the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing in 1995 have given it quite a reputation. However, like anything, it’s the dose that makes the poison.
When it burns, it creates its own oxygen, which can lead to a runaway fire. In those runaway fires, the chemical can bind together from pellets into a massive plug, allowing it to trap huge amounts of hot gases beneath the weight of burning material. You can guess what happens when hot gases build up with no place to go.
More details at Boing Boing. Stay strong, West, TX.
