Weird Underwater Waves Spotted from Space

Weird Underwater Waves Spotted from Space - In the ocean, there are more waves than meet the eye.

Below the whitecaps breaking on the sea surface, so-called internal waves ripple through the water. These waves can travel long distances, but rarely does evidence of their existence surface — unless you're looking down from space, that is.

This photograph, taken on Jan. 18 by a crewmember on the International Space Station, shows internal waves north of the Caribbean island of Trinidad, as featured by NASA's Earth Observatory. From space, the appearance of the waves is enhanced due to reflected sunlight, or sunglint, aimed back at the space station, making the waves visible to an astronaut's camera.

 

LiveScience.com/NASA Earth Observatory - This photograph, taken on Jan. 18 by a crewmember on the International Space Station, shows internal waves north of the Caribbean island of Trinidad. 

The most prominent waves can be seen in the upper left of the photograph, moving in from the northwest due to tidal flow toward Trinidad, according to the Earth Observatory. Another set can be seen moving in from the northeast, likely created at the edge of the continental shelf, where the seafloor abruptly drops off, the site reported.

Internal waves are seen throughout Earth's oceans and atmosphere, according to MIT's Experimental and Nonlinear Dynamics Lab. They are created by differences in density of water layers (from changes in temperature or salt content, for example) when that water moves over a feature such as an underwater mountain or a continental shelf. The waves are huge, with heights up to 100 meters (about 330 feet) and widths that span hundreds of miles, according to a 2010 MIT press release on a new method for studying the waves.

A plume of milky sediment can also be seen moving to the northwest in the photograph. The sediment is carried by the equatorial current, which flows from east to west, starting in Africa, and is driven toward the Caribbean by strong easterly winds, according to the website. ( LiveScience.com )

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Clairvoyant Camel Predicts Baltimore Ravens to Win Super Bowl

Clairvoyant Camel Predicts Baltimore Ravens to Win Super Bowl - They say betting is a losing man's game, but for one clairvoyant camel in Lacey Township, N.J., it's a winning one.

Princess, a 26-year old Bactrian camel, lives at Popcorn Park Zoo and apparently has the powers to predict the winners of the Super Bowl.

 

Good Morning America/Courtesy Popcorn Park Zoo - Courtesy Popcorn Park Zoo

"Over seven years she's only lost once," zoo's General Manager John Bergmann told ABCNews.com. "Last year, she picked the giants to win and they won. I think she has a record of 6 and 1."

Courtesy Popcorn Park ZooThe method to this camel's madness might be hunger driven, however.

"She loves graham crackers. In one palm we write down with one of these magic markers the 49ers, and on the other, the Ravens. We cover them with graham cracker so she can't see. Whichever she chooses to eat first is her pick," Bergmann said. "She picked the 49ers to win yesterday, and they did."

But just this morning Princess had a change of heart.

"She picked the Baltimore Ravens. I guess she picked the older brother," Bergmann joked of the sibling rivalry this year between brothers, John Harbaugh, head coach of the Ravens, and Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the 49ers.

Princess has honed her prognostication skills by predicting the outcome of many New York Giants and New York Jets games since 2006, after a local radio station contacted Bergmann about getting an animal involved in the DJ's weekly picks pool.

"She would pick a game a week against a DJ and she wound up beating him all the time," Bergmann said. "She likes to make fun of the Jets and [head coach] Rex Ryan a lot." ( Good Morning America )

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Haneke's "Love" wins to cheers at Cannes film festival

Haneke's "Love" wins to cheers at Cannes film festival - Austrian director Michael Haneke was the popular winner of the Cannes film festival's top honor on Sunday with "Love" (Amour), an elegiac tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death.

Haneke joins an elite group of two-time winners of the coveted Palme d'Or at the world's biggest film festival after his "The White Ribbon" won in 2009.

The glamorous red carpet awards, held amid thunder, lightning and pouring rain on the French Riviera, brought to an end a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making on Cannes' giant marketplace.

Best Actress award joint winners Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur (L) for the film "Dupa Dealuri" (Beyond the Hills) react during the awards ceremony of the 65th Cannes Film Festival, May 27, 2012. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

"It's raining a little," deadpanned "The Artist" actor Jean Dujardin, wiping his soaking forehead as he entered the theatre after signing autographs.

Haneke's moving tale set inside a Paris apartment and following a man caring for his ailing wife reduced audiences to tears. The award underlined the 70-year-old's reputation as one of the greatest European directors working today.

"I must say I cried a lot," fashion designer and jury member Jean Paul Gaultier told a news conference.

"I realized that maybe to be on the jury was not so easy because you have to have a lot of emotions sometimes that are strong and make you hurt," said Gaultier, speaking in English. "But I love to be hurt in that way."

Love marked a shift away from Haneke's preoccupation with violence The White Ribbon and 2005's "Hidden".

"The film talks about love," Haneke told a press conference after receiving the Palme d'Or amid loud cheers at the awards ceremony. "Journalists always try to stick a label on directors and say, 'Well, he is a specialist in this or an expert in that.' For a long time, I've been the 'expert' in violence."

Love also won plaudits for its two main actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both in their 80s.

HOLLYWOOD LEFT EMPTY-HANDED

Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Matthew McConaughey and rising stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Shia LaBeouf all walked the red carpet this year, putting Hollywood at the centre of Cannes.

Yet despite five U.S. pictures appearing in the main competition of 22 films, they all left empty-handed.

Asked about the U.S. productions in competition, and the glamour they brought to the festival, jury president Nanni Moretti said: "I'm not against glamour, but the glamour has to be in films that really please me."

The Grand Prix runner-up prize was awarded to "Reality", Matteo Garrone's examination of society's obsession with celebrity and reality television.

Its central character Luciano was played by Aniello Arena, an Italian serving a lengthy prison sentence who was allowed out of jail on day release to shoot the movie.

Two other previous Palme d'Or winners picked up prizes.

British director Ken Loach won the Jury third prize for his charming Scottish whisky caper "The Angels' Share" and Romania's Cristian Mungiu scooped the screenplay honor for "Beyond the Hills" about a real-life exorcism gone wrong.

His two young stars, Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, shared the best actress honor, while Danish star Mads Mikkelsen scooped the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man wrongly accused of child abuse in the harrowing drama "The Hunt".

"I'm normally a very cool person but this time I could hardly say anything," said Mikkelsen, who was close to tears as he collected his award.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas won the best director category for "Post Tenebras Lux", a dreamlike exploration of the undercurrent of menace within Mexican society today.

On the sodden red carpet leading into the Grand Theatre Lumiere, the cast and crew of "Therese Desqueyroux" braved the rain for the world premiere of this year's closing film.

Annie Miller, the wife of the late director Claude Miller who was finishing the film when he died, was in floods of tears as she walked up the stairs and turned to face the ranks of photographers and cameramen. ( Reuters )

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Steven Tyler’s Botched National Anthem Not Deemed Golden Ticket-Worthy

Steven Tyler’s Botched National Anthem Not Deemed Golden Ticket-Worthy - Steven Tyler, the nicest and cuddliest judge on "American Idol," has a habit of telling almost everyone on "Idol" that they're "beautiful, just beautiful." But I have to wonder how he or his fellow judges, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, would ever react if a prospective contestant walked into the "Idol" audition room and sang a song as pitchy as Steven's rendition of the national anthem at this Sunday's Baltimore Ravens vs. New England Patriots AFC Championship game.

Look, I love me some S.Ty. He's one of rock 'n' roll's greatest legends and finest frontmen, a national treasure in fact--and really, who else could pull off a sequined Patriots scarf with such panache? And in his defense, Steven was singing live at the AFC game, while so many other "Star-Spangled Banner" performers have opted to lip-synch because acoustic conditions in such enormodomes are far from ideal. But that being said...this was not good, dawg. Maybe Steven should have lip-synched. I imagine the only reason he wasn't booed right off the field was the fact that he's a local Boston hero, and he was performing at Massachusetts' Gillette Stadium. Or that, you know, he's Steven Tyler, and people just love the guy no matter what he does.

However, outside Gillette Stadium, in the even vaster Twitterverse, there was a whole lot more jeering than cheering for Steven's um, interesting interpretation of the anthem.

"The Insider" host and former Fox Sports/ESPN anchorman Kevin Frazier tweeted: "Was [Ravens linebacker] Ray Lewis crying during the National Anthem or was Steven Tyler hurting his ears?" Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock posted: "Steven Tyler far more obscene than Janet Jackson's [bared Super Bowl breast]." Sports Business News writer Howard Bloom tweeted: "Is there any chance Ray Lewis can tackle Steven Tyler?" MMA Beatdown chimed in with: "BREAKING NEWS: New England authorities are seeking out Steven Tyler for questioning in relation to a homicide on the National Anthem today." Sports humorist Ashley Burns sardonically pointed out: "Please remember that Steven Tyler's job is criticizing people who sing." And even old-school rappers Naughty By Nature randomly tweeted: "I'm sorry Steven Tyler I can't give u a yellow ticket to move on to LA with that performance....what are ya votes Jennifer & Randy?"

Only former reality singer Aubrey O'Day, of "Making The Band"/Danity Kane infamy, seemed to be feeling the S.Ty love, tweeting: "Love Steven Tyler singing the nat anthem! Werk."

Honestly, I think Steven is a fantastic rock singer--his performance of Aerosmith's "Dream On" was THE highlight of the Season 10 "American Idol" finale last year--but this was absolutely not his best moment. It did not werk. Steven was not in it to win it in this particular AFC game.

Nice scarf, though. ( yahoo.com )

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Rio dances on the sand, soars through the sky

Rio dances on the sand, soars through the sky - A lot of passion and personal feeling clearly went into "Rio," the 3-D animated adventure from director Carlos Saldanha, who devised this story as a love letter to his Brazilian hometown.

It's strikingly gorgeous, bursting with big images and vibrant colors. And the use of 3-D, which so often feels so needless and like such an afterthought, is surprisingly effective in the hands of Saldanha (director or co-director of the "Ice Age" movies) and his team. Stuff doesn't come flinging at you in cheeky, knowing fashion — although that can be fun in its own gimmicky way sometimes — but in the flying sequences especially the chase scenes, the 3-D provides an extra thrill, an added layer of immersive oomph. Blu, a cerulean macaw who's the film's reluctant hero, hang-glides around the mountaintop Christ the Redeemer statue, and the depth of field that results is sort of awesome.

Animated characters, from Raphael - In this publicity image released by 20th Century Fox, animated characters, from left, Raphael, voiced by George Lopez, Blu, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, and Jewel, voiced by Anne Hathaway, are shown in a scene from 'Rio.'

The whole film has a tremendous energy about it, not just in the way it moves but in the snappy banter and screwball antics between Jesse Eisenberg, who voices the character of Blu, and Anne Hathaway, who voices the free-spirited bird Jewel. Eisenberg works his patented halting, neurotic delivery to ideal comic effect, while Hathaway is confident, bold and impatient as the female of the species who is his destiny. They clash so convincingly, you'd think they'd recorded their scenes together. (They didn't, which is unfortunately the norm in animation performances.)

So much is so appealing for so long that you can almost forgive the fact that there's not much story here in the script from Don Rhymer, Joshua Sternin & Jeffrey Ventimilia and Sam Harper. (Three others, including Saldanha himself, get story-by credit.) It's essentially one long chase, with the usual romantic-comedy friction that will, of course, turn into love.

Blu, as a baby, was abducted by smugglers who raided his jungle home to sell him and other beautiful birds illegally in the United States. He ended up getting lost en route and, luckily for him, falling into the loving hands of a nerdy, small-town Minnesota girl named Linda. Over the years, the two forged an amusingly inappropriate bond, and now are enjoying a comfy, co-dependent existence. Linda (voiced as an adult by Leslie Mann) has domesticated this bird she named Blu to such an extent that he makes his own breakfast and enjoys hot cocoa with marshmallows — but he never learned to do what most birds can do, which is fly.

One day, a scientist named Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives to inform Linda that Blu is the only male left of his species. They must travel at once to Rio de Janeiro to allow Blu to mate with the last female of the species, Jewel. Anxious about leaving their familiar surroundings, they nonetheless make the trip.

But this first date, um, doesn't go quite as everyone hoped. Not only do Blu and Jewel not get it on, but they hate each other — and Jewel is too busy anyway planning her escape. Then they're captured by another set of smugglers, with help from a hideous and diabolical cockatoo named Nigel. Jemaine Clement of "Flight of the Conchords" voices the character with preening menace — complete with an elaborate production number — and he's a hoot.

From here, they must figure out how to break free so Blu can get back to Linda and Jewel can enjoy independence. (George Lopez, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am and Tracy Morgan lend their voices to the supporting players who help along the way.) The fact that they're chained to each other — and Blu can't fly, if you'll recall — sets up plenty of slapstick and elaborate mad dashes across slums, beaches, forests and finally the spectacle of Carnival. ( Associated Press )

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Combination Lock Tricks

Combination Lock Tricks - A combination lock is a type of lock that is opened with the correct alignment of specific symbols, usually numbers or letters. There are several varieties, including wordlock combination locks, rotating disk locks and the most common, single-dial locks. Single-dial locks are well known to almost anyone that possessed a personal locker in high school. It can be easy to forget the combination, but there are ways to open these mechanical contraptions without it.

A classic combination lock

Master Lock Shortcut

A master Lock combination lock requires three specific numbers to open, with 40 numbers from which to choose.

According to Master Unlocked, "For each of the 40 possible third (last) numbers, Master Lock only assigned 10 first numbers and 10 second numbers. The possible first numbers are the last number and 9 other numbers, spaced equally, 4 apart, on the lock dial. The possible second numbers are half way between the possible first numbers."

It turns out there are actually only 64 possible combinations for the 1500 series of locks, all of which can be entered sequentially in a matter of minutes. This makes it much easier to discover your lock's forgotten combination, and leaves the bolt cutters out of it.


Pepsi Can Key

If you don't feel up to using math to open your combination lock, a small piece of aluminum does the trick. Using a pair of scissors, cut a triangular piece of aluminum out of a soda can. It needs to be roughly the same size and shape as a guitar pick. Wrap the metal point-downwards around the left-hand shaft of the curved metal hoop on the combination lock. Push the point down into the lock. Get some pliers to push the metal a little farther, and then rotate the metal around the shaft towards the inside of the hoop. Pull the hoop and your lock is open.

This works because the aluminum slides between the piece of metal holding the hoop in place. This method works for most types of single-dial combination locks.


Rotation Reversal

Master Locks are opened with a right-left-right combination. This is to say, the user turns the dial right to arrive at the first number, left to arrive at the second number, and right to arrive at the final number. It is possible to use a left-right-left combination instead.

The combination numbers will be different, and the only way to discover the left-right-left combination is through trial-and-error. It is helpful to know that the first number will be larger by a few numbers, the second number will be smaller by a few, and the final number will be the same. ( eHow.com )

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'Social Network,' 'King's Speech' Aim for Oscars

'Social Network,' 'King's Speech' Aim for Oscars — Academy Awards voters are poised to set up a showdown between a tongue-tied monarch and a viper-tongued Web kid entrepreneur.

“The Social Network,” a tale about the prickly founder of Facebook, and “The King’s Speech,” a saga of Queen Elizabeth II’s stammering father, are among the likely nominees for Hollywood’s biggest prize as Oscar nominations are announced Tuesday.

The two films are the best-picture front-runners. With a best-drama win at the Golden Globes and top honors from key critics groups, “The Social Network” seems to have the edge. But “The King’s Speech” pulled off an upset over the weekend for the main prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Oscars.

(L-R) Producers Kevin Spacey, Cean Chaffin, David Brunetti, Scott Rudin and Michael DeLuca pose with the award for Best Picture (Drama) for The Social Network in the press room at the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 16, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California.

For the second-straight year, the Oscars will feature 10 best-picture nominees after organizers doubled the field of contenders from the traditional five to open up the competition to a broader range of films. That returned the show to a setup it had from 1931 to 1943, when 10 films were typically nominated for best picture but as many as 12 were sometimes in the running.

Other prospects this season include the boxing drama “The Fighter,” the science-fiction blockbuster “Inception,” the psychosexual thriller “Black Swan,” the survival memoir “127 Hours,” the Western “True Grit,” the lesbian-family tale “The Kids Are All Right,” the crime stories “The Town” and “Winter’s Bone” and the animated smash “Toy Story 3,” the top-grossing movie released in 2010.

Clear favorites have emerged in most top categories, including Globe dramatic-actor winner Colin Firth as George VI, the reluctant ruler struggling with a disabling stammer in “The King’s Speech.” Among his likely contenders is Jesse Eisenberg as caustic Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network.”

A two-woman race is shaping up for best actress between Annette Bening as a lesbian mom in “The Kids Are All Right” and Natalie Portman as a ballerina becoming unglued in “Black Swan.” Both won Globes: Bening for best actress in a musical or comedy, and Portman for dramatic actress.

Christian Bale is the front-runner for supporting actor as Dicky Eklund, a boisterous boxer fallen on hard times in “The Fighter.” Melissa Leo and Amy Adams both are strong supporting-actress contenders for that film as well.

Organizers for the Feb. 27 Oscars ceremony are working to spice up the show, whose TV ratings had been on a general decline. Last year’s Oscars drew the biggest TV audience in five years as organizers streamlined and tried new ways of presenting awards.

This year’s show, the 83rd Oscars, breaks with recent traditions of using comedians as hosts. Instead, big-screen stars James Franco, a potential best-actor nominee for “127 Hours,” and Anne Hathaway, who has nomination prospects for “Love & Other Drugs,” will be co-hosts.

The show’s producers, Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, said they’re planning a ceremony that will honor the history of the Oscars, yet also be light and lively for audiences. The show will be televised live from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. ( AP )

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