An ice disc, ice circle, or ice pan is a natural phenomenon that occurs in slow moving water in cold climates. Ice circles are thin and circular slabs of ice that rotate slowly in the water. It is believed that they form in eddy currents. Ice discs have most frequently been observed in Scandinavia and North America, but they are occasionally recorded as far south as England and even Wales. They vary in size, but circles with more than 15 metres in diameter have been observed.
     Ice discs form on the outer bends in a river where the accelerating water creates a force called 'rotational shear', which breaks off a chunk of ice and twists it around. As the disc rotates, it grinds against surrounding ice — smoothing into a circle. A relatively uncommon phenomenon, one of the earliest recordings is of a slowly revolving disc spotted on the Mianus River (Stamford, USA) and reported in an 1895 edition of Scientific American.
     River specialists state that ice pans are "surface slabs of ice that form in the center of a lake or creek, instead of along the water’s edge. As water cools, it releases heat that turns into 'frazil ice' that can cluster together into a pan-shaped formation. If an ice pan accumulates enough frazil ice and the current remains slow, the pan may transform into a 'hanging dam', a heavy block of ice with high ridges low centre.

~Ally

     I saw this expression today on the movie "Brave" and kept wondering what does it mean... Turns out it means something like "oh my!" or "goodness gracious me!" So, if you needed a new bewilderment or exasperation exclamation, there you go. Time to practice my Scottish accent!

~Ally

      Today I learned and started to admire the life and work of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who would have been 107 today. It’s very difficult to imagine, as I sit here reading about her on the internet, that people used to use things like paper and pencils and chalk and slide rules to solve (and often not solve) complicated problems.
      Some awesome stuff she did: Grace Hopper developed first compiler, allowing computer calculations to move beyond simple arithmetic and into more complex problems. She also developed first standardized computer language, COBOL, which laid the groundwork for all the languages we use today.
     One day she found a dead moth disrupting one of the electronic relays in the Mark 1 computer, and upon removing it (and fixing the computer), the term “debugging" was born. Awesome! And beyond that, she was a charming scientific communicator, and possessed a marvelous ability to make people, and remember this was in a time when almost no one owned their own computer, truly appreciate both the importance and the complexity of computing technology.

~Ally

     An excellent TED talk. Seriously.

~Ally

     In september 2012 astronomers assembled an improved portrait of mankind's deepest-ever view of the universe. Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004.
     By collecting faint light over many hours of observation, it revealed thousands of galaxies, both nearby and very distant, making it the deepest image of the universe ever taken at that time. The full-color XDF image (which you can download here) reaches much fainter galaxies and includes very deep exposures in red light from Hubble's infrared camera, enabling new studies of the earliest galaxies in the universe. The XDF contains about 5,500 galaxies even within its smaller field of view. The faintest galaxies are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.
     Astronomers continue studying this area of sky with Hubble. Extensive ongoing observing programs, led by Harry Teplitz and Richard Ellis at the California Institute of Technology, will allow astronomers to study the deep-field galaxies with Hubble to even greater depths in ultraviolet and infrared light prior to the launch of JWST. These new results will provide even more extraordinary views of this region of the sky and will be shared with the public.

~Ally

     This week, in many parts of Germany and Bavaria, people celebrate the "Krampusnacht", which is a throwback to a pre-Christian tradition, featuring a scary clawed incubus who hangs around with Santa Claus.
     The Krampus is a beast-like creature from the folklore of Alpine countries thought to punish children during the Yule season who had misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards well-behaved ones with gifts. Krampus is said to capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away to his lair. A Krampus costume also includes sheepskin, horns, and a switch that the incubus uses to swat children and unsuspecting young ladies. There's been a resurgence in interest in Krampus over the past century or so, but it seems as though the custom goes back hundreds of years. The creature has roots in Germanic folklore; however, its influence has spread far beyond German borders.
     Traditionally young men dress up as the Krampus in Austria, southern Bavaria, South Tyrol, northern Friuli, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Croatia during the first week of December, particularly on the evening of 5 December (the eve of Saint Nicholas day on many church calendars), and roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells. Krampus is featured on holiday greeting cards called "Krampuskarten". There are many names for Krampus, as well as many regional variations in portrayal and celebration.
     The history of the Krampus figure stretches back to pre-Christian Germanic traditions. He is sometimes said to be the son of Hel, from Norse mythology. He also shares characteristics, including goat-like ears, legs, feet, with the satyrs and fauns of Greek mythology. The early Catholic Church discouraged celebrations based around the wild goat-like creatures, and during the Inquisition efforts were made to stamp them out. But Krampus figures persisted, and by the 17th century Krampus had been incorporated into Christian winter celebrations by pairing them with St. Nicholas. Countries of the former Habsburg empire have largely borrowed the tradition of Krampus accompanying St.Nicholas on 5 December from Austria. However, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia the mythological figure (called čert) evolved from the Slavic demon chort and although nearly the same in appearance, it comes from a tradition distinct from that of Alpine nations.

~Ally

     Watch the video above and discover!

~Ally

     So now you have a pretty great excuse to continue reading that awesome book, even when the sun goes down! And I can't wait to tell that to my mom - she always annoyed me to stop reading when light was low.
    But before you go to you bookshelf and turn the lights off, know this: reading in the dark won't necessarily cause you to have ametropies (such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism), but it can give you a headache because of the effort your eyes will make. If you think it'll be worth it, go ahead! But, just in case, it's nice to have a directional light source - it can be a flashlight, a lamp or even one of those cool little lamps you can attach to your book pages! - to increase the contrast between the words and the paper, preventing eye fatigue.

~Ally

     Everyone knows Leonardo da Vinci was a hell of a genius. The dude invented all sorts of things, from warfare machines to parachutes. But he also invented a musical instrument! And now, after 500 years, da Vinci's idea came true.
     Slawomir Zubrycki, a Polish guy very fond of da Vinci's works decided to build the organist viola, which unites features from the organ, the harpsichord and the viola. It looks like a grand piano from afar, but sounds completely different. Check out the video to hear it! The 61 strings, instead of being played by small hammers (as in traditional pianos), are stimulated by four swivel wheels coated in horsehair (the same material used in the bows to play the violin and cello). This intrument was a part of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus, a 12 volume manuscript with many typer of projects.

~Ally

     Nature does come out with some pretty neat - and some pretty strange - stuff from time to time. In 2005, it was the turn of Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose in Redmond, Oregon. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy. Now it is in a museum in New York.    
     The tiny cat was born suffering from Cyclopia which is a rare congenital disorder that causes embryos to fail to divide the eye sockets into two cavities. The incidences of cyclopia are 1 in every 16,000 and usually the animal is born without a nose and adequete mouth which obstructs airflow and causes suffocation shortly after birth.

~Ally