MetaFilter posts tagged with discovery

What we really want to discover in the near future

jjray — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:45:13 -0800

Decades of Future Science. In which advances of the next few decades are wishfully thought up.

"Here be Dragons"

adamvasco — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:04:18 -0800

Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed, ( 1465–1554/5) was an Ottoman-Turkish Admiral, Privateer, Geographer and Cartographer more commonly known as Piri Reis. In 1521 he finished his Kitab-I Bahriye or Book of Navigation This is an exquisite C17th - C18th revised and expanded version.
( scroll down and click the icons which can then be magnified. ) Marvel at the gold leaf and coloring of the map of the Bay of Salonica or the wonderful map of Rhodes. ( click addittional information button below map to get further information.)
However Piri Reis is more famously known for this map dated 1513 which is one of the oldest surviving maps to show the Americas. In the marginalia are the accounts of the pioneer seamen who have taken part in the discovery of the places shown on the map.
Piri Reis at The Map Room and wiki and related.

I Love XKCD, Boom De Ya Da, Boom De Ya Da, Boom De Ya Da, Boom De Ya Da ...

WCityMike — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:26:27 -0800

"I Love the Whole World" + xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel + Noah Raby + the Map of the Internet + Olga Nunes = I Love XKCD, a pretty cute bit of animation. (It's not the first time Raby's animated an xkcd strip.)

This one goes to 27

Hardcore Poser — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:41:11 -0800

A companion to one of Europe's most eminent prehistoric monuments has been discovered just a mile away. Bluehenge has the same rough configuration as its sister site, Stonehenge, but with 27 stones instead of 56. It is speculated that the stones of Bluehenge may have been moved to aid in the making of Stonehenge. Bluehenge was discovered by Professor Michael Parker Pearson of Sheffield University, who also discovered evidence of housing near Stonehenge a few years back. The news may have leaked out early.

Let me dust off my little grey cells!

lioness — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:59:32 -0800

Decades after it was written on the eve of World War II, a lost Poirot story by Agatha Christie has been found. Today it is published in the Daily Mail for the first time: The Capture Of Cerberus (scroll half way down the page). "Hercule Poirot sipped his apéritif and looked out across the Lake of Geneva. He sighed. He had spent his morning talking to certain diplomatic personages, all in a state of high agitation, and he was tired. For he had been unable to offer them any comfort in their difficulties." The fact that Christie presented the manuscript for publication in 1939 is probably the reason it was never published. Her dictator bore a thinly disguised resemblance to Adolf Hitler, and the work might have been considered too sensitive to release as part of a collection of short stories that appeared in 1940. John Curran came across it one Friday in November 2005, after being invited to examine Dame Agatha's papers at Greenway, her holiday retreat in Devon. (Source) Another unpublished story, The Mystery of the Dog's Ball, will be published in Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran, due out on 3rd September.

Discover, Explore and Document

netbros — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:27:13 -0800

NYC Grid is a photo blog dedicated to exploring and discovering The City of New York block by block and corner by corner. Updated every weekday, each post covers a new block with a focus on the mundane and ephemeral. An optimistic snapshot of New York as it is now. Vs. The Lamentations: Lost City is a running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric. Jeremiah's Vanishing New York — a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct. Still hunkered down in the East Village, waiting for the wrecking ball of gentrification to find me. Until then, I'll write this ongoing obituary for my dying city.

Puijila darwini Makes a "Splash" in the Paleo World

vertigo25 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:39:18 -0800

On April 23, 2009 Natalia Rybczynski, Mary R. Dawson, and Richard H. Tedford published their paper "A semi-aquatic Arctic mammalian carnivore from the Miocene epoch and origin of Pinnipedia" in the journal, Nature, detailing their 2007 discovery of the species they have named Puijila darwini. The carnivorous marine mammal, which lived about 21 to 24 million years ago, was discovered practically by accident, but as a "transitional fossil" is re-writing our understanding of pinniped evolution. It could also be noted that it was most likely cute as all get out, and is already the star of it's own mini documentary.

Baby Mammoths on ice!

Science! — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:48:48 -0800

Make Believe you're in a ~~jungle~~ movie. Watch the frozen baby ~~elephants~~ mammoths go by. The ~~beat~~ world is groovy. Awesome pictures of the frozen little guy, and a BBC story about the find a few years ago.

Quick, Robin! To the batosphere!

ardgedee — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:57:50 -0800

NASA Interim Problem Report 119V-0080: The bat that went up with the Space Shuttle Discovery.

BIODIVERSIFY!

auralcoral — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:43:47 -0800

British scientists discover hundreds of new species in a remote forest in Mozambique using Google Earth. The pictures are the best part.

I love arachnids! I love hot magma!

oxford blue — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:10:23 -0800

Feel good hit of the year; Discovery Channel's 'I Love the Whole World' ad This makes me superlatively happy.

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

grouse — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:54:14 -0800

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

Strange New Fish May See Like Humans

chuckdarwin — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:35:24 -0800

A fish with forward facing eyes has been discovered in Indonesia. University of Washington fish expert Ted Pietsch thinks that the fish is probably a member of a previously undiscovered family of lure-less anglerfish.

The Capa Cache

wowbobwow — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:14:08 -0800

The Mexican Suitcase The rediscovery of "The Mexican Suitcase," and what untold mysteries it may reveal! Once considered lost forever, a huge cache of pristine negatives taken by Robert Capa has been rediscovered in Mexico City. The film could reveal the truth behind his most famous image, Fallen Soldier, which may have been staged. Previously 1 Similarly...

Video of a Tour around STS-120/ISS

brownpau — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:15:49 -0800

A tour around Discovery STS-120 and the International Space Station with Paolo Nespoli and Dr. Scott Parazynski. Tomorrow, Parazynski will be perched at the end of a robot arm and sensor boom assembly, stitching up a damaged solar array in what might be one of the riskiest EVAs since Skylab 2.

Discovery of Largest Redwood Stand

LarryC — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:50:57 -0800

A Day of Discovery. Now Taylor and Sillett planned to push deeper into Jed Smith, beyond New Hope Tree, to try to explore valleys where they had never gone before. It seemed unlikely that anyone had gone there in many years, and they would discover, once they got into the valleys, that the U.S. government maps of the area were inaccurate and could not be used for guidance. For all practical purposes, the center of Jed Smith was a blank spot on the map of North America. A couple of guys out for a walk discover an unknown grove of redwoods.

Re-release the Beast

tumult — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:07:59 -0800

Sampled by Daft Punk. They've been mentioned here before, sometimes disparagingly. Here, gathered and laid bare for all to see, are a collection of samples (primarily from their album Discovery) the House music duo have used. Depending on your view of them, this may shock or delight you.

Your tax dollars at work.

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:20:26 -0800

Space Shuttle Discovery lands. (WMV) Watch for the view from the cockpit.

"New" members of our animal kingdom

anjamu — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:30:31 -0800

Free Your Imagination : from the furry "Yeti crab" to the almiqui, animals discovered and rediscovered this millenium.

1421: The Year China Discovered Your Mom

borkingchikapa — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:06:11 -0800

China may actually have discovered the Americas first. Two years ago, Gavin Menzies released a book entitled 1421: The Year China Discovered America. The book was widely read, but its contents were controversial and the evidence not strong enough to convince everyone. Now, a two hundred and fifty year old map, apparently copied from one made in 1418, will be revealed to the public and may permanently change the way we think about the Americas.

By my will alone I set my mind in motion...

loquacious — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:29:09 -0800

May The Force be with you. Also: 13 things that don't make any sense. May your New Year - and the many years to come - be wild and wonderous and bright.

Horny _and_ sensitive!

greatgefilte — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:51:29 -0800

The narwhal, often termed "The Unicorn of the Sea," has a really odd tusk. It's long, spiraled, and there's only one of 'em per animal. Its purpose has been disputed for ages, but at long last, it seems that the answer has been found. And it's pretty damn cool.

What's up with US science these days??

Fozzie — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 17:56:31 -0800

So yesterday I posted the story about how researchers had discovered that both sexes cared about appearance when selecting dates. Today Stanford (!!) releases the startling discovery that cars get hot when parked in the sun. Meanwhile K State learns that women feel better about their bodies when complemented, and the other shocker story is that problem gamblers share traits with substance abusers. And how about that New Scientist story about the fact we're entering a dark age? So what's up with science lately, particularly in America?

Just when you thought it was safe in your hotel room...

gren — Wed, 11 May 2005 11:51:57 -0800

Secret Wall Tattoos "I like to think it's like panties, there's something better behind the mystery, the uncovering that's even more mesmerizing." -josh homme my fav

Way down below the ocean?

moonbird — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 15:01:20 -0800

The BBC claims that Atlantis has been found.
"We have in the photos concentric rings just as Plato described"