thats-not-victorian:

Hey, guys!  So, we’re all familiar with Cyberpunk and Steampunk, but there are so many more alternate histories/speculative science fiction genres out there!  I came across this handy-dandy infographic and figured I could share a bit of these punk genres for anyone interested.

• Steampunk
  Roughly covers the Western world during the mid- to late-19th century (ie:  Victorian era, US wild west, etc.), and sometimes up to the Edwardian era.
• Dieselpunk
  1920s up through WWII, ending at just about the Cold War.
• Decopunk
  A cleaner, artistic, more “optimistic” version of Dieselpunk (same time period)
• Clockpunk
  Covers the time of the Renaissance (think da Vinci)
• Atompunk
  Cold War era, ie: the Space Race
• Teslapunk
  Derivative of Steampunk, but focuses on electricity rather than steam.
• Splatterpunk
  Explicit horror and gore
• Biopunk
  Biotechnology, genetics (part science fiction, part real life)
• Nanopunk
  Nanotechnology, sometimes overlaps with Biopunk
• Cyberpunk
  The granddaddy of them all:  computer technology, the internet, hackers, etc. 

Others not included in the infographic

• Elfpunk
  Fantasy-based, features creatures like elves and fairies.
• Mythpunk
  Mythology and folklore, includes urban fantasy.
• Seapunk?
• Stonepunk, Bronzepunk, Plaguepunk

brazilwonders:

Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro (by S H O I O)

jtotheizzoe:

If you haven’t seen the new comic at The Oatmeal: “Why the mantis shrimp is my new favorite animal”, then check it out. Because that is one bad mofo crustacean.

With fists of fanatical fury and the most advanced vision system on the planet, I feel like the mantis shrimp is just evolution’s warning to us all: “Keep your shit under control, or else I’ll make this thing rhino-sized in a heartbeat.”

Radiolab featured this little guy’s amazing vision in an episode on colors last year. And Ed Yong was into mantis shrimp before they were cool, so go check out his great articles about their superpowers.

fearbeforetheflames:

limmynem:

Gallium

Gallium is a silvery metal with atomic number 31. It’s used in semiconductors and LEDs, but the cool thing about it is its melting point, which is only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. If you hold a solid gallium crystal in your hand, your body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silvery metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it freezes back into a solid.

While you probably shouldn’t lick your fingers after playing with it, gallium isn’t toxic and won’t make you crazy like mercury does. And if you get tired of it, you can melt it onto glass and make yourself a mirror.

Price: $80

Someone get me this for my non-birthday. 

THIS WAS IN A BOOK I READ IN SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS USED TO MOLD THEM INTO SPOONS AND THEN GIVE THEM TO OTHER PEOPLE WITH THEIR TEA AND THE SPOONS WOULD JUST MELT AND THE SCIENTISTS WOULD LAUGH AS THE PEOPLE GOT ALL FLUSTERED LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE FOUND IT AS FUNNY AS I DID

An abandoned Atlanta school’s bathroom is slowly reclaimed by ivy and kudzu.