theboogeyman92

[theboogeyman92]

[theboogeyman92]

Meet the most extra male cetacean alive

Ok so you know how sometimes evolution, and particularly sexual selection, leads to some really over-the-top traits in males? Like how male birds of paradise develop ridiculous plumage for mating that makes them more visible to predators and hinders their flying ability? Well, let me introduce you to Mesoplodon layardii, the strap-toothed whale. 

Yes, those are tusks growing out of the male’s lower jaw. Tusks that can grow up to a foot in length, and curve back and over the jaw, eventually preventing the male from opening his jaw by about 50%. 

The tusks aren’t used for feeding (they primarily eat squid, so no teeth necessary), but instead are used for fighting, similar to a narwhal’s tusks. Does it seem practical to partially fuse your jaw shut, severely limiting the variety of prey you can pursue, in order to fight for mates? No. Seems like really bad idea to me. But what do I know? I’m not a strap-toothed whale. 

These whales are super rare to see (they live in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica), so there’s still a lot we don’t know about them. And their weird teeth is only one of the unusual things about them (they also have unusual countershading where they’re darker on the bottom and lighter on the top, unlike pretty much every other animal in the ocean). Anyways, I just found out this whale existed and I was fascinated. Hope you enjoy!

[theboogeyman92]

H. Grönvold, Heads of the Genus Corvus, from the magazine Novitates Zoologicae, volume 33, 1926. England. Via BioDivLib

[theboogeyman92]

Ravens by lindsey kustusch

[theboogeyman92]

[theboogeyman92]

Feng-Huang

I'm back to the game

[theboogeyman92]

[theboogeyman92]

Al fin mi propósito está claro!!!

[theboogeyman92]

Voyager: The Golden Record

It’s the 1970s, and we’re about to send two spacecraft (Voyager 1 & 2) into space. These two spacecraft will eventually leave our solar system and become the most distant man-made objects…ever. How can we leave our mark on them in the case that other spacefarers find them in the distant future?

The Golden Record.

We placed an ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2, a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

The Golden Record Cover

The outward facing cover of the golden record carries instructions in case it is ever found. Detailing to its discoverers how to decipher its meaning.

In the upper left-hand corner is an easily recognized drawing of the phonograph record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it in binary arithmetic is the correct time of one rotation of the record. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in.

The information in the upper right-hand portion of the cover is designed to show how the pictures contained on the record are to be constructed from the recorded signals. The top drawing shows the typical signal that occurs at the start of the picture. The picture is made from this signal, which traces the picture as a series of vertical lines, similar to ordinary television. Immediately below shows how these lines are to be drawn vertically, with staggered “interlace” to give the correct picture rendition. Below that is a drawing of an entire picture raster, showing that there are 52 vertical lines in a complete picture.

Immediately below this is a replica of the first picture on the record to permit the recipients to verify that they are decoding the signals correctly. A circle was used in this picture to ensure that the recipients use the correct ratio of horizontal to vertical height in picture reconstruction.

The drawing in the lower left-hand corner of the cover is the pulsar map previously sent as part of the plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11. It shows the location of the solar system with respect to 14 pulsars, whose precise periods are given.

The drawing containing two circles in the lower right-hand corner is a drawing of the hydrogen atom in its two lowest states, with a connecting line and digit 1 to indicate that the time interval associated with the transition from one state to the other is to be used as the fundamental time scale, both for the time given on the cover and in the decoded pictures.

The Contents

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University and his associates. 

They assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales and other animals. To this, they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.

Listen to some of the sounds of the Golden Record on our Soundcloud page:

Golden Record: Greetings to the Universe

Golden Record: Sounds of Earth

Songs from Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony are included on the golden record. For a complete list of songs, visit: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/

The 115 images included on the record, encoded in analog form, range from mathematical definitions to humans from around the globe. See the images here: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/images/

Making the Golden Record

Many people were instrumental in the design, development and manufacturing of the golden record. 

Blank records were provided by the Pyral S.A. of Creteil, France. CBS Records contracted the JVC Cutting Center in Boulder, CO to cut the lacquer masters which were then sent to the James G. Lee Record Processing center in Gardena, CA to cut and gold plate eight Voyager records.

The record is constructed of gold-plated copper and is 12 inches in diameter. The record’s cover is aluminum and electroplated upon it is an ultra-pure sample of the isotope uranium-238. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.468 billion years.

Learn more about the golden record HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[theboogeyman92]

Amor

Itzel Rovira Álvarez

[theboogeyman92]

Madrugando para llegar a la Colección Nacional de Ornitología. #PorAmorALaCamiseta (en Instituto de Biología, UNAM)

[theboogeyman92]

Pequeñas habitantes de la Facultad. #Rodentia #Sciuridae #Mammalia (en Tlahuizcalpan Facultad De Ciencias)

[theboogeyman92]

Cambio de Planes

El Círculo ⭕!! Me hace falta entrar al Círculo!!

[theboogeyman92]

Martín Pescador a la vista!! #Alcenidae #Ornithology

[theboogeyman92]

Impresionante Lobo Marino cortesía de #NationalGeographic

[theboogeyman92]

Pingüino del Centro de la Tierra.del cuento de Lovecraft "En las Montañas de la Locura" 🐧 Fragmento de "En las montañas de la locura" (1931): La verdad es que por un instante nos atenazó un temor ancestral casi más agudo que el peor de nuestros temores razonados con respecto a aquellos seres. Después llegó un destello de decepción, cuando la forma blanca se desplazó silenciosa hasta un arco lateral sobre nuestra izquierda para unirse a otros dos semejantes que lo habían llamado con voces roncas. Porque era sólo un pingüino, aunque de una especie enorme y desconocida, mayor que el mayor de los pingüinos emperador conocidos, y monstruoso por la combinación de su albinismo con la carencia casi total de ojos. Cuando hubimos seguido al ave hasta el arco y giramos nuestras antorchas sobre el indiferente y distraído grupo de tres, vimos que todos eran albinos y carecían de ojos, y eran de la misma especie desconocida y gigantesca. Su tamaño nos recordó a algunos de los pingüinos arcaicos de las tallas de los Grandes Antiguos, y no nos llevó mucho tiempo concluir que descendían de antepasados comunes, y que sin duda habían sobrevivido por haberse retirado a alguna región más templada, cuya oscuridad perpetua había destruido su pigmentación y les había atrofiado los ojos hasta convertirlos en rendijas inútiles. (en Mount Erebus)

[theboogeyman92]

Un poco de lectura mientras pasa la tormenta... 📖 #JoséEmilioPacheco #Antología