Entries by Ian Skellern

50 Unbelievable And Timely Facts About Earth

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How much time one could survive in space without a suit? Are there truly 24 hours in a day? Why could dinosaurs not live in the present day (shock: ‘Jurassic Park’ is complete fiction)? Where arenmost of the volcanos on earth? Is there a river beneath the Amazon? How long has it been since it has rained on the driest place on earth? And what percent of the world’s species we have discovered? Here are 50 things you should know about the planet we live on.

Bonhams Auctions The Leica Camera That Took One Of The World’s Most Iconic Photos

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A photo of soldiers hoisting the Soviet flag over the Reichstag at the end of WWII, became one of the most iconic images of the century. One of the subjects in the image was wearing two watches, one of which was removed in official reproductions of the photo. The camera used to take that iconic image, a Leica III, is to be auctioned by Bonhams, and it’s expected to fetch more than £300,000 ($500,000).

Urwerk And The Gustave Sandoz Clock That Doesn’t Tell The Time

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In Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, the great man introduced the concept of “spacetime: henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.” Which segues nicely into the discovery of a clock by Gustave Sandoz that doesn’t tell the time: it tells distance.

Heartbeat: Colorfully Quilled Peacock In Saint-Tropez

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The peacock’s iridescent colors are not actually pigment colors at all, but are reflections off the structure of the feathers, which have patterned nano-fiber components. Slight changes in the spacing of the nano-fibers produce different colors much in the same way as iridescent colors reflect off a film off brown/black oil or a butterfly’s wing. But they are none less beautiful for that.

LM101 By MB&F: Distilling The Very Essence Of Time

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Legacy Machine 101. Just when we might next expect to see LM3 featuring some new and unusual take on another traditional complication, this being MB&F, we get the complete opposite: a pared-down version of Legacy Machine No.1 called LM101 with a 40 mm case and a completely new in-house movement.