Mitaka is an application (software) for visualizing theoretical, computational, and observational astronomical data, developed by the Four Dimensional Digital Universe (4D2U) project of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). Users can seamlessly navigate across the universe from Earth to the edges of the known universe.

Mitaka is optimized for 3D visualizations on multiple screens at the 4D2U theater in NAOJ’s Mitaka headquarters. However, it can also be used on a single Windows PC.

After reading the on-line tutorial for a few minutes, even my kids started exploring the universe. Fun and interesting was their response. Give it a try and download the latest release found a bit down on the front page. A few issues and suggestions are found in the FAQ.

Fish ‘n Flush is a patented, two-piece aquarium toilet tank, designed by AquaOne Technologies, Inc., an innovator of water-management systems. The aquarium has a 2.2-gallon capacity. When you flush, it looks like all the water is draining out of the tank and the fish are going down, but it’s an optical illusion: the fish are actually safe in an outer aquarium made of high-polished plastic. What you see draining is the toilet water in a separate tank behind the aquarium.

More cool aquariums can be seen here

On the 18th December 1987, the initial version of the programming language Perl was announced by Larry Wall on the news group comp.sources.mis. During the years Perl has become one of the most popular programming languages and is especially known for its great ability to process text.

Perl is often included in the standard set-up for both Unix and Linux systems, and is widely used for executing local applications and as scripts in various web solutions.

The last main update from Perl, Perl 5, came back in 1994, but the language is still maintained. The latest version is 5.8.8, but Perl 6 is currently under development.

Perl is one of few languages that can do a lot from only a few lines of code. This again can make it difficult for anyone but the author to interpret what a piece of code actually does.

Perl supports modules, which is used extensively. CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) is a collection of alomost 13.000 Perl modules that offers tons of pre constructed routines available for other Perl developers.

Once again, Happy Birthday and best of luck!

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical calculations, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy. Experiencing numbers as colours or sensations is a well-documented form of synaesthesia, but the detail and specificity of Tammet’s mental imagery of numbers is unique. In his mind, he says, each number up to 10,000 has its own unique shape and feel, that he can “see” results of calculations as landscapes, and that he can “sense” whether a number is prime or composite. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful. Tammet not only verbally describes these visions, but also creates artwork, particularly watercolour paintings, such as his painting of Pi.

Tammet holds the European record for memorising and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. He also speaks a variety of languages including English, French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic, Welsh and Esperanto. He particularly likes Estonian, because it is rich in vowels. Tammet is creating a new language called Mänti. Tammet is capable of learning new languages very quickly. To prove this for the Channel Five documentary, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic in one week. Seven days later he appeared on Icelandic television conversing in Icelandic, with his Icelandic language instructor saying it was “not human”.

More videos: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Clam — 400 Years Old — Found In Icelandic Waters

ScienceDaily (2007-10-29) — A clam dredged from Icelandic waters had lived for 400 years. Is this the longest-lived animal known to science? Can you imagine living for four centuries? Scientists believe they have found an animal which did just that, a quahog clam, Arctica islandica, which was living and growing on the seabed in the cold waters off the north coast of Iceland for around 400 years.

Source: ScienceDaily