Imgur user mattsawizard calculated the distances for each leg of Frodo and Sam’s epic journey around Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings and made visual distance comparisons on maps of Britain, Europe, and the United States. He determined that the entire journey spanned a total of 1,350 miles walked (though he does note that part of their journey from Lorien to Amon Hen was in a boat), which is about the same distance from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas.
If London were Hobbiton, walking to Mount Doom would be like walking to Niš, Serbia.
From Hobbiton to Bree would be similar to going from London to Nottingham, which is 120 miles, or 40 hours walking.
From Bree to Rivendell would be like walking from Land’s End to London, which is 300 miles, or 90 hours walking.
From Rivendell to Moria would be 175 miles, or 60 hours walking, spanning the same distance as from Manchester to London.
has picked up the Best TV Show award at the ELLE Style Awards.
Alice Eve presented the second award of the evening to fellow British actors Alfie Allen, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner and Gwendoline Christie, who were all in attendance to represent the sprawling cast of the HBO show.
UK artist Mat Collishaw teams with fellow Londoner Sebastian Burdon (who handled the 3D modeling and animation) to create a mesmerizing and impossibly detailed 3D-printed zoetrope composed of over 350 character figures plus props and environmental elements.
Based on Peter Paul Rubens’ early 17th century painting “Massacre of the innocent,” the project took six months to complete.
This “Kettle” Rod Is a Brilliant Energy-Saving Way to Make Tea
Do you use an electric kettle to make tea? Then you’re using way too much water and too much power heating an overfilled vessel. But! We found this cool new Kickstarter project that saves energy and looks sleek in a kitchen.
It kinda looks like a thick, chic Frisbee, and it’s a pretty ingenious idea. Instead of heating a big kettle, you plop your mug on the device, and heat only the amount of liquid you’ll drink right then and there. This saves water and energy, since smaller amounts of water (or whatever) is heated at a time.
It’s called Miito, and it describes itself as “the sustainable alternative to the electric kettle.” It’s already raised over $340,000—more than double its goal.
The Kickstarter page quotes sustainability strategist Leyla Acaroglu’s TED Talk: “One day of extra energy use [from overfilling electric kettles] is enough to light all the streetlights in England for a night.”
You can also use it to warm up bowls of soup, glasses of milk, mugs of hot chocolate, whatever. Here’s how it works: Put your filled tea cup on the small induction patch on the “kettle,” which is entirely cool to the touch. Slip in an induction rod. The induction patch heats the rod, boiling the liquid from within.
It sounds like the device won’t be wireless, at least at first, which is kind of a bummer. But if it means nuking stale coffee won’t involve a loud microwave caked with sauce stains, we’re all for it. Take my money and start heating my single serving of English breakfast, please.
Sound zany? “[T]his is not so crazy … What’s crazy is what we do today”, Forgacs says. “[W]e raise and slaughter billions of animals to make our hamburgers and our handbags.”
It’s clear why we need to move away from the current system of abusing and killing animals for food and clothing: by 2030, he predicts, it will take 100 billion land animals to provide the world’s population with meat, dairy products, eggs and leather goods if we continue in the same destructive fashion. That’s no good for the planet and even worse for the animals involved.
Meat Without Murder
As the researchers work to perfect the techniques for synthetic meat production, environmentalists and animal rights groups are debating whether lab-grown meat can be a kind of killer app that will eliminate the need to kill animals – or a waste of time and a distraction from the ongoing campaigns to reduce our meat consumption.
“Why go to this much trouble and expense to replace a foodstuff that we simply do not need?” asks Lynne Elliot, chief executive at the Vegetarian Society. “Wouldn’t it be simpler, cheaper, and more sustainable to just stop eating meat altogether?”
“It’s all a bit daft really, isn’t it?” read one typical comment. “They should spend all those billions it’s going to take to get these things into supermarkets on a massive advertising campaign telling people ‘just eat broccoli.’ It’s sustainable, cheap, and doesn’t taste half bad tossed in a bit of garlic butter.”
” …immediately after spacecraft separation, a series of telemetry problems were detected… “
In recent weeks some at the Russian Federal Space Agency – Roscosmos(re-branded in 1992) have seriously started to doubt their ability to conduct even the simplest of tasks in the ever commercializing space
industry. The agency’s loss of Progress 44 in 2011, and now the same for Progress 59 in April of 2015 to a similar incident, have been costly.
This is added to the fact that Roscosmos has also lost six Proton
rockets in the last three and a half years at $55.5 million a piece (not counting contents/cargo). These setbacks have pushed some Russian physicists, engineers, and even program managers to question the very existence of their jobs.
“Almost immediately after spacecraft separation, a series of telemetry problems were detected with Progress 59,”
“After the rocket exploded all I could think was, not again.”
– Russian scientists told a NASA spokesman
The Russian Federation’s Proton-M rocket is the primary competitor of SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket. Both of these delivery systems can transport approx. four and a half tons into geostationary orbits and have the ability to dock with the ISS. These
are huge loads for today’s standards. The problem the Proton-M has repeatedly faced is its ability to successfully escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. This is key for space operations and a problem Russian scientists have battled for decades.
“Everything appears to be working correctly and then, bam, – it is a fireball!” – Systems control specialist Dimitri Matviyenko told one reporter.
In 2001 Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX traveled to the Russian capital of Moscow to discuss purchasing a couple of ICMB’s –
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (minus the ballistics hopefully). This is how SpaceX was really born. Before him there were others as well.
The general consensus of the InternationalSpaceCommunity has been overwhelmingly similar. When will Russia sell it’s space program? It wouldn’t be the first time the former communist
The totalitarian state sold its rockets to the highest bidders. It’s all simple economics. In the world of technology and transportation, it’s sink or swim. Russia had a good run and helped pave the
way as a pioneer in the industry of space exploration. Bankrupting yourself twice in half a century doesn’t seem like the best economical decision though.
A recent episode of the series Seeker Stories explains how photographer Christopher Michel was able to take a selfie at the age of space. While on assignment, Michel was given the opportunity to fly in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane that provided him some impressive views of the Earth.
Could a transfusion of young blood REALLY rejuvenate old people's brains? Vampire-like treatment could stave off the effects of ageing, say researchers
Blood transfusions helped mice to perform as well as memory tests as rodents a third of their age
Scientists are hopeful the findings could apply to humans and ease burden of ageing population
It might sound like something from Dracula, but old brains have been made sprightly again thanks to young blood.
Giving ageing mice blood from much younger animals rejuvenated connections between brain cells and improved memory, experiments have shown.
The treatment is so effective that 18-month-old animals did as well in memory tests as those of only four months. Mice usually live to between 18 months and two years.
Scientists suggest blood jabs from younger adults could help pensioners stay mentally alert
If the treatment is shown to be safe and as successful in humans, it could be used to stave off the ravages of old age.
Those in middle-age could be given regular jabs of blood donated by 20-somethings, a conference heard. Diseases such as Alzheimer's could also be held at bay.
Researcher Saul Villeda told the Society for Neuroscience's annual conference in New Orleans: 'Do I think that giving young blood could have an effect on a human? I'm thinking more and more that it might.
'It's not a drug that will have deleterious effects. It's just blood. We do it all the time for blood transfusions.'
Scientists from Stanford University in the US 'sewed together' two mice of different ages.
They created connections between their veins and arteries that allowed young blood to flow into the older animal's body, and vice versa. The younger animals' brains appeared to age. But in the older animals, young blood boosted the number of connections between brain cells. The connections, which are thought to be vital to memory, were also stronger.
Dr Saul Villeda from Stanford University thinks his exciting findings in mice could apply to humans
The older mice also did just as well as the younger ones in memory tests. The treatment is now being tested on mice with an Alzheimer's-like disease. Experts said that if the research continues to bear fruit, it could lead to treatment that brings even greater benefits than penicillin.
Other work suggests an infusion of young blood could be good for the muscles, liver and immune system. However, the work is at an early stage and it will be some time before it is tested on humans.
It may be possible to identify the compounds in blood that are rejuvenating the brain and turn them into a pill.
Professor Andrew Randall, a brain disease expert from Exeter and Bristol Universities, said: 'Although this may suggest that Dracula author Bram Stoker had ideas way ahead of his time, temporarily plumbing teenagers' blood supplies into those of their great-grandparents does not seem a particularly feasible future therapy for cognitive decline in ageing.
'Instead this fascinating work suggests there may be significant benefit in working out what the “good stuff” is in the high octane young blood, so that we can provide just those key components to the elderly.'
Professor Chris Mason, an expert in regenerative medicine from University College London, added: 'The important questions are; what is in the blood of the younger mice that impacts the ageing process, and is it applicable to humans?
'Even if the finding leads only to a drug that prevents, rather than reverses the normal effects of ageing on the brain, the impact upon future generation will be substantial – potentially outweighing other wonder drugs such as penicillin.'
Dr Villeda said: 'Our findings open the possibility of utilising young blood towards future therapeutic interventions aimed at reversing cognitive impairments in the elderly.
'It now becomes a promising prospect to test whether this extends beyond normal ageing towards reversing cellular and cognitive decline in those suffering from age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's diseas
If London were Hobbiton, walking to Mount Doom would be like walking to Niš, Serbia.
From Hobbiton to Bree would be similar to going from London to Nottingham, which is 120 miles, or 40 hours walking.
From Bree to Rivendell would be like walking from Land’s End to London, which is 300 miles, or 90 hours walking.
From Rivendell to Moria would be 175 miles, or 60 hours walking, spanning the same distance as from Manchester to London.
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