I was born and raised in Florida, so I’ve become very familiar with the sonic booms heard when the space shuttle lands. I’m not saying it doesn’t make me jump every time it happens, just that I’m used to it.

Space shuttle Discovery landed minutes ago, and as usual, it was preceded by the sonic booms. So what is one supposed to do when you hear this? Twitter it, of course.

I then ran a search to see how many others mentioned the sonic boom, and here are the 6 best tweets I’ve seen.

#6 – bananakin think I heard the sonic boom. the timing was right and the cat freaked out. I guess it could have been the neighbors, but Im thinking boom

#5 – timrosenblatt I was sitting right next to a large glass window as the sonic boom happened, which made it a lot louder. That was ridiculous. #sonicboom

#4 – wizzlewolf Holy CRAP! My whole house just shook! I thought a car had hit it! It was a sonic boom created by the Space Shuttle landing! LOL

#3 – catdonmit Laughing at myself. Thought I heard thunder, dogs went NUTS, then remembered the shuttle landing! It was just the sonic boom. hehe

#2 – Sorenssibling Just realized the thing that just hit the side of my house was a sonic boom from Discovery coming home.

#1 – NoleNurse just heard the super sonic boom…I think a little poopy came out =/ LoL

Lay post? Yep. I just got a kick out of the reactions.

If you have no idea what a sonic boom is, here’s a video of a shuttle landing. The boom in the video doesn’t do justice for how loud it actually is in person.

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Butcher

It’s hard not to notice everyone “Going Green” these days. What seems like over-hyped marketing tactics, helping the environment isn’t all about selling cars and laptops. There are small things we can each do to help out the environment, and they don’t take much effort. Below are five easy ways you can help the environment – starting today.

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From DVICE:

Since the Large Hadron Collider didn’t destroy the world this morning, isn’t it high time we forgive and forget? And what better way than with a meaty gallery of industrial goodness from all stages of its development, cataloging the effort to build the largest particle accelerator in the world. Of course, today’s test was simply to see if the LHC’s beam would successfully navigate its almost-17-mile ring. Collisions come later.

C’mon, don’t think about that. Look, Google changed its customary graphic to one of the LHC, and just gaze at that red, glowing detector above. It’s even kind of cute, right? Like HAL 9000 cute. Oh…

Ahem, without further ado, feast your eyes on the gallery below and learn to love again. When you’re done, browse our feature on the 10 ways the Large Hadron Collider will blow your mind.

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LHC, science, experiment

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These holes are not only amazing, but some of them are really terrifying! The sheer magnitude of these gaping holes reminds us of how men will scar the earth to pursue their quest for power and wealth.

Apparently the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the world, this 1097 meter deep mine yielded over 3 tons of diamonds before being closed in 1914. More Info – Wiki Link

A glory hole is used when a dam is at full capacity and water needs to be drained from the reservoir. This is the ‘Glory Hole’ at Monticello dam, and it’s the largest in the world of this type of spillway, its size enabling it to consume 14,400 cubic feet of water every second.

This is supposedly the largest man-made excavation on earth. Extraction began in 1863 and still continues today, the pit increasing in size constantly. In its current state the hole is miles deep and 2.5 miles wide.

This incredible geographical phenomenon known as a blue hole is situated 60 miles off the mainland of Belize. There are numerous blue holes around the world,
but none as stunning as this one.

I’m pretty sure most people have seen this one. It’s an absolute beast and holds the title of largest
open diamond mines in the world. At 525 meters deep, with a top diameter of 1200 meters, there’s
even a no-fly zone above the hole due to a few helicopters having been sucked in.

The mine is so huge and the area so remote that it has its own airport with a runway large enough to accommodate a Boeing 737. It looks equally cool when the surrounding water is frozen.

These photos are of a sinkhole that occurred early this year in Guatemala . The hole swallowed a dozen homes and killed at least 3 people.

That’s all the holes we’ve got for you. Know of any others? Tell us about them in the comments.

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From MSNBC:

Today, cutting-edge astronomers use space-based observatories to gain a sharp view of the stars and advance our understanding of the cosmos. But appreciation for celestial bodies dates back to ancient times. Many cultures built structures in ways that suggest they were in tune with Earth’s annual trek around the sun. Other structures appear to take constellations and planets into account. Click the “Next” arrow above to learn about 10 of these ancient observatories. Each page includes an image taken by GeoEye’s Ikonos satellite, shown in this artist’s conception, as it flew 423 miles above Earth at an average speed of 17,000 miles per hour.

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From ZMEScience:

You will probably find this weird, but most people have never seen a real cave in their whole lives; still, those who do remain permanently fascinated by this amazing display of natural force. Caves are definitely a wonder of nature themselves, but every once in a while you hear about one that’s so amazing you wouldn’t even believe it’s real. So is the case with the following caves, which I hope you’ll find at least interesting.

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From Cracked:

Scientists have a PR problem. If TV is to be believed, doctorates are awarded in the form of fishbowl glasses and a tendency to stutter. Sometimes movies try to help out by portraying action scientists, like in The Core, but usually do more harm than good since it’s generally restricted to truly terrible movies, like in The Core.

Here we look at seven self-endangering scientists who only wear lab coats because you can’t get explosive-bear-proof tuxedos outside of MI6. Each one of these researchers has been voted “Most likely to inject themselves with the Omega Serum while shouting, ‘Dammit, there’s no time for testing!’”

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There are so many things in life that we just don’t know or understand. Here is a list of 6 science questions that you’ve probably wondered about, and the answers to those tough questions by top scientists.

Question 1 – Does the Universe Have a Purpose?

Answer: Steven Weinberg, theoretical physicist, University of Texas at Austin: Ever since people started thinking systematically about the world, there has been a widespread impression that the universe exists partly to serve the interests of humanity. That is, that nature is arranged to make it possible for human being to be here. Galen, the Greek medical scientist and philosopher, said, “The reason the sun is where it is relative to the Earth is so that the Earth would not be too hot or too cold for us.” That is a very crude example, but there is a general impression that we somehow have a special significance built into nature. I don’t think that’s true.

Question 2 – Is Immortality Possible?

Answer: Cynthia Kenyon, biologist, U.C. San Francisco: I think that it might be possible. I’ll tell you why. You can think about the life span of a cell as the integral of two vectors, in a sense: the force of destruction and the force of prevention, maintenance, and repair. In most animals, the force of destruction has still got the edge. But why not bump up the genes just a little bit, the maintenance genes? All you have to do is set the maintenance level a little higher. It doesn’t have to be much higher. It just has to be a little higher, so that it counterbalances the force of destruction. And don’t forget, the germ lineage is immortal. So it’s possible at least in principle. Of course, immortality is impossible if you consider the chance that you could be hit by a car. Continue Reading

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