hiphopfightsback:

“One Time”

(Source: purplebuddhaproject)

we-are-star-stuff:

If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn

Our planet is lucky enough to have a large moon orbiting not too far away, which makes for very pretty moonlit nights. But for spectacular skies it might almost be worth trading in our moon for a ring like Saturn’s.

In fact, the earth did once have a ring - as part of the formation of our moon, ironically enough. When the planet Thea crashed into the earth, a titanic amount of material was blown into space. This went into orbit around the earth, forming a ring until it all eventually coalesced into our present-day satellite. This only happened because the material was orbiting outside of earth’s Roche limit.

In 1848, the French mathematician Edouard Roche calculated that if a large satellite were to approach too closely to a planet, it would be torn apart by the planet’s gravitational forces. This happens because the gravitational attraction of a planet on a moon is not equal. The planet pulls more on the side of the moon closest to it and less on the side further away. If the moon gets too close, this unequal pull can become great enough to tear the moon apart. Every planet has what is called a Roche limit.

Some astronomers believe that Saturn’s rings are material that was unable to form into a moon because it lies within the planet’s Roche limit. The gravitational pull of Saturn prevents particles from clumping together to form a moon. Another idea popular among scientists suggests that during the time when Saturn was first forming, it had one or more moons just outside its Roche limit. The bigger a planet is, the more gravity it has. And the more gravity it has, the bigger its Roche limit is. So as Saturn grew larger, its Roche limit grew, too. The limit soon moved past the inner moons and these moons soon broke apart. The remnants of the destroyed moons eventually formed the magnificent rings we see today. There may still be large pieces of these ancient moons within the rings. They would be much smaller than their ancestors but a thousand times larger than a typical ring particle. Another theory suggests that a few hundred million years ago - at a time when the early ancestors of the dinosaurs were roaming Earth - Saturn may have had no rings at all. The rings formed when one or more small moons wandered too close to Saturn. When they got within the Roche limit, Saturn’s gravity ripped them apart. After millions of years of bumping against one another, the pieces of moon were ground into the tiny particles that form the rings today.

If we had rings in the same proportion to our planet that Saturn’s are to it, it is pretty easy to figure out what they would like like from different places on the earth. From the equator the rings would be passing directly overhead. Since you’d be looking in the same plane as the rings, all you would see is a bright line arching from horizon to horizon. Here is what the rings might look like from Quito, Ecuador:

If we travel just a little further north to Guatemala, the rings begin to spread across the sky. The earthlight illuminating the dark side of the moon is many times brighter than we are accustomed to, due to the increased sunlight being reflected from the rings.

From Washington, DC (at 38° latitude), the rings begin to sink below the horizon, though they would still be an awe-inspiring sight as they dominate the sky both day and night.

At the Arctic Circle, the rings barely reach above the horizon. Seen here from Nome, Alaska, the brilliant rings illuminate the barren landscape scarcely more than a full moon would. Unlike the sun or moon, however, the rings neither rise nor set… they are always visible, day or night, always in exactly the same place.

(via kawaii-spooky-stupid)

did-you-kno:

Source

sourcedumal:

rigelandsirius:

closet-racists like to claim that they’d be totally fine and dandy with traditionally white characters being portrayed by actors of color whilst they’re casually dismissing the prevalence of white-washing in hollywood. hate to break it to you, but that is NOT the typical response that actors of color receive, and if you can’t acknowledge that, then you’re only adding to the problem.

remember that time hunger games fans flipped their shit because rue, who IS actually black in the books, was rightfully cast as black in the film? apparently their rose-colored white-is-default glasses made their eyes gloss over that tidbit of info. (let’s not even get wholeheartedly into the fact that katniss was described as having olive skin and jet black hair but her casting call specifically asked for only white actresses…because non-whites could never be expected to have dark hair and tan skin amirite?!)

remember that time people actually boycotted thor because idris elba was in it? http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/16/racists-thor-idris-ebla-racism/

remember that time donald glover got hoards of letters calling him the n-word because there were rumors about him possibly being the new spiderman?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgko-xReFSs

or that time the film adaptation of avatar: the last airbender (a show with OBVIOUS asian inspiration) was almost an entirely caucasian cast except for the “bad guy”, who, in the cartoon is actually light-skinned?                                      http://io9.com/5111680/avatar-casting-makes-fans-see-white

or remember that time all those fans said it was wrong to have angel coulby play the role of gwen in merlin because it wasn’t era-appropriate. because, ya know, being era-appropriate in a made-up story about magic is srs bsns.

so that’s why i don’t give a shit if you think i’m “overreacting” about jj abrams having a white actor play khan noonien singh. i’m not that surprised by it, since actors of color are routinely dismissed, but i still reserve the right to be pissed.

Remember that time when executives said that they wouldn’t fund a movie because it didn’t have enough white people in it?

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_e3UYOiNEhW03rcVTpcB2e15IMg

Remember the time when executives said that they wouldn’t allow a show with a majority POC cast because “Black people don’t see themselves in the future?” despite Geordi, Uhura, Sisko, Tuvok, Tyr, Zoe and so many other BLACK sci fi characters existing as past precedent?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/07/12/black-people-dont-see-themselves-in-the-future/

Remember when it took 20 years to get a movie about Black people out because distributors BLATANTLY REFUSED TO PUT IN THE WORK TO PROPERLY ADVERTISE A BLACK MOVIE?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/george-lucas-hollywood-di_n_1197227.html

Remember when writers had  Batman choose a French/African representative in a comic book and people FLIPPED THEIR SHIT because how dare he choose a Black Muslim to represent FRANCE!!!!

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/12/27/bats-in-their-belfry-dc-comics-new-muslim-hero-angers-islamophobes/

But we’re overreacting when we say we’re tired of the bullshit that is systemically entrenched in damn near every form of media…..

Oh, ok…. 

proera:

The Era.

(Source: purplebuddhaproject)

therootnews:

Be inspired by one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s lesser known quotes.

Read—> http://ow.ly/l4kID

jellybeanjeunet:

sleezysays:

NASA recently released imagery showing the deforestation of America  …in just 34 years.

We are killing the Earth

Forever reblog.

(via uglyyandalone)

soundcloud.com/rapperOHM

rapperOHM.bandcamp.com

(Source: kinks3, via kawaii-spooky-stupid)

endilletante:

“Sahara” de Sylvio Acatos. Photographies de Maximilien Bergmann. Editions Silva, Zurich, 1969.

Femme de Bardaï.

soundcloud.com/rapperOHM

rapperOHM.bandcamp.com

(via afro-bodhisattva)

abagond:

findingupsidedown:

imagine

This is something very few Americans understand. The country is way richer than they suppose. 

soundcloud.com/rapperOHM

rapperOHM.bandcamp.com

(via adreamdeferred)