Daredevil Photographers

The Award Winning Photographs

Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository project that shares a 

public domain with free educational media content for everybody. 

The Seventh Annual Wikimedia Commons POTY Contest is an event 

where the most viewed images of the year were voted. The winners 

have been announced! Be prepared to be amazed!

   Tenth Place: Tarvasjõgi at Kõrvemaa Nature Park in Estonia

                              Ninth Place: Vasco da Gama Bridge, Lisbon, Portugal

                                     Eighth Place: Darvasa Gas Crater Panorama

                            Seventh Place: Heritage castle park in Pszczyna, Poland

                                          Sixth Place: Šmarjetna gora

Fifth Place: Yak near Yamdrok lake, Tibet

     Fourth Place:Mabodalen,2011 August                                                

                                Third Place: Light Bulb Shot with an Airsoft Pistol

Second Place: Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun 

                                                           And now...

                                 First Place: European Bee-eater, Ariège, France

Why Can't You Buy Cashews In Their Shells?

You can get almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, peanuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, pecans, and even macadamia nuts in a shell, but not cashews. Have you ever wondered why? The reason is simple; the cashew is surrounded by a toxic shell.

The above picture shows what the fruit of a cashew tree looks like. The cashew itself is located in the kidney shaped greenish-white shell which protrudes from the main body of the fruit.

Source: Bits & Pieces & Wikipedia

Why Can't a Person Tickle Himself?

Ever wonder why you are unable to tickle yourself no matter how hard you try?

The answer lies at the back of the brain in an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements. The cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does. When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation and this prediction is used to cancel the response of other brain areas to the tickle.

Source: Scientific American
Image: Spamily / Flickr

Smart Sunglasses Change Color on Demand

Researchers have developed a new type of sunglasses that allows you to change the hue with just a simple turn of the knob.

The lenses that the researchers have developed are made of a kind of electrochromic polymer, a material that can alter its levels of darkness and color in response to an electric current. The glasses only require power when they change hue.

So far Xu and her colleagues have developed prototype shades that resemble a pair of lab goggles with a dial attached onto the frame. Turning this dial activates the tiny watch battery powering the goggles and dials up the desired color. A single watch battery can power thousands of changes, Xu said.

In the lab, the researchers have shown their glasses can quickly switch from transparent to blue, plus various shades in between, at the flip of a switch, requiring minimal energy consumption. "We are working on a multicolored device as well, but no prototype is available yet," Xu said.

Watch the demonstration video after the jump.

Video: LiveScience
Source: LiveScience

First Open-Source Car Unveiled

The world’s first open-source car was unveiled at the AutoRAI show in Amsterdam. The c,mm,n (or “common”) was developed by three Dutch technical universities: Delft, Eindhoven and Enschede.

The current model features a zero emission hydrogen-powered motor and it seats four (little people by the looks of it). All of the vehicle’s technical data and blueprints are available freely on the Web and anyone is welcome contribute to the design as long as the ideas are openly available.

So if you’re proficient in Dutch and automotive engineering mosey on over to the c,mm,n website and take a gander at the specs.

It has the futuristic look, doesn't it?

Link & Image: Crunchgear

Coolest Toaster

Designed by Atil Kizilbayir, this toaster is designed to work like a heated tunnel - you put plain bread into the toasting carriage at one end, the ‘x’ seconds later the carriage pops out the other end with nicely tanned toast.

I'm going to throw away my plain, ugly toaster and replace it with this beautifully designed toaster - if this conceptual toaster ever becomes a reality!

Link & Image: Random Good Stuff via Coolest Gadgets