Now this is a clock

At Kings Cross St Pancras station, on the platform for the Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels you can see this clock.

Now this is a clock!

A guard at Buckingham Palace

No-one is going past this guard as he stands silently outside Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth’s residence in central London, UK.

London Taxi

All London taxis are black. In fact they carry the nickname ‘Black Cab‘.

Well, some of them are not black any more. The one pictured above has been decorated with the Union Jack.

Here is another photo, with the London Eye in the background.

And by night.

And again.

Vertical Ship

This is a ship which has just started to flip into a vertical position.

And this is how it ends, in a completely vertical plane.

This ship, known as FLIP, is an ocean research ship, but it is not new, in fact it is now 50 years old.

Related articles

• Bizarre ‘flipping’ research ship turns 50 (news.cnet.com)
• VIDEO: A look inside the vertical ship (bbc.co.uk)

Car in house

This is not a CG. This is a real picture of a car in Brazil that was going a little too fast, and ended up smashing through the wall of someone’s house. No-one was badly hurt.

Leap Year

Like the Olympics, the World Cup and the American Presidential election a leap year comes around every four years, when an extra day (leap day) is added to our calendar, February 29th.

Or does it?

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun.

Note: The illustration is not to scale.

However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn’t add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

How do we calculate Leap Years?

In the Gregorian calendar 3 criteria must be met to be a leap year:

• The year is evenly divisible by 4;
• If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless;
• The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

This means that 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years.

The year 2000 was somewhat special as it was the first instance when the third criterion was used in most parts of the world since the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar.

What Japanese students really think

If you want to see what Japanese university students really think and feel about life, the universe and everything then watch this: http://youtu.be/WPW4Lawq6d4

Micro violin

The world’s smallest violin, guess it produces some very high notes.

Mirny diamond mine

This is Mirny in Siberia, Russia. It is home to a huge crater, a man-made crater, which is used to mine diamonds. Trucks make the journey up and down the mine using the spiral road which has been cut into the rock.

Related articles

• The World’s Largest Open Pit Diamond Mine (beadinggem.com)
• 10 World Biggest Holes on Earth (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)

South Sudan

Yesterday July 9th 2011 the world’s newest country was born:South Sudan. Here is its flag.

The capital city is Juba, and the official language is …… English.

But I think they should find a different name for their country, to fully distinguish it from the country of Sudan.

World’s largest emerald

 

This huge emerald was found in Colombia. It is the largest emerald ever seen, about 15,000 carats. It is priceless.

 

Road ends here

 

Tully, Queensland, Australia

They look like toy cars don’t they?

But they are not. They’re real. This is the effect of a cyclone which hit Tully, Queensland yesterday.

Related Articles

• Queensland Survives Wrath Of Cyclone Yasi (news.sky.com)
• Australia reels from once-in-a-century cyclone (windsorstar.com)
• Australia: Cyclone Yasi Strikes Queensland Coast (nowpublic.com)
• Relief as Australia mops up from giant cyclone (lookatvietnam.com)
• Tully emerging as hardest hit by Yasi (news.theage.com.au)

Painting of Central London

 

Is it real?

Yes, it is real. A real painting. The artist is just finishing off the final few brushstrokes of his painting, while some spectators are watching his work.

The place is Trafalgar Square in the centre of London.

Autumn leaves

From the same tree

Autumn/Fall is my favourite time of year.

The changing colours of the leaves look so good.