out of mind

there is a place you can go, even for just a moment - to contemplate reality. to absorb knowledge. to become more scientifically literate than you were before. in this place you may see things that frighten you, that shock you, that force you to question the world around you. within this place you have the ability to discuss, contemplate & define your own inner peace. this is a place that strives to educate in order to achieve a more harmonious balance with the world & grasp the actions needed to perfect our life, our world or our own personal corner of the planet. within this place, your ideas, current education, ideals, traditions & religions may be tested. this place will challenge your mind, build your courage & embrace your fears. this place encourages you to understand your place in the universe. just like the world we know, this will not always be a safe place. this place is not a room to hide in, it is a gateway to a higher sense of purpose. this place is an open door that allows you to move freely at your own pace without prejudice or judgement. this is that place. and it's yours. and ultimately, it's whatever you need it to be in your place in time. peace & love to each of you. enjoy.

thoughts? post away.

Photos 68
Notes

tyrannoraptora:

Velociraptor leaping biomechanics.

Did Jurassic Park finally get something right?

By: tyrannoraptora

From: Nature

John Ostrom is often heralded for being one of the founding forefathers of the notion that some dinosaurs were fast, agile hunters with his work on Deinonychus antirrhopus in the late 1960s. Forty years on, and yet another of his theories may have been proved right.

We all know and love Jurassic Park right? And yet most of us know, despite the incredible effects, and seemingly lifelike dinosaurs, the wondrous film is plagued with palaeontological inaccuracies. Well, studies on leaping lizards, such as the Red-headed Agama (Agama agama) may now show that that (possible unknowingly) that Jurassic Park may have got something right.

The famous ‘Rex rescue’ scene during the film’s finale, shows a ‘raptor’ jumping from the balcony onto an Alamosaurus skeleton. As it jumps, the raptor lifts its tail to stabilise it self (top image). Work done in the University of California, Berkeley, have shown the Red-headed agama (amongst other lizards) to carry out a similar mechanism. With some biomechanical modelling, they have concluded that Velociraptor (and perhaps other dromaeosaurs, such as its closely related ‘cousin’, Deinonychus) may have been able to carry out such a behaviour.

Previous work by Freedman et. al. on the predatory ecology of Deinonychus has strongly suggested that the tail of dromaeosaurs such as Deinonychus (and in this case, Velociraptor) was used for stability during feeding (as the animal pinned its prey down). This current study presents an intriguing possibility of using lizards (usually, birds are used) as modern analogues for biomechanical models of dromaeosaurs.

(via scinerds)