Link: Delightful Soviet Car Ads, Comrade!

Link: The boiling, erupting Sun | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

    <a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/10/28/the-boiling-erupting-sun/"><img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/alanfriedman_sun_halpha.jpg" height="510" width="510" /></a>

Holy solar retinopathy! That’s the Sun?

Yup. But this is not a space-based image from some bazillion dollar observatory! This phenomenal picture was taken by astrophotographer Alan Friedman with this relatively small (but very, very nice) ’scope. He shot it on October 20th, and it shows our nearest star in the light of hydrogen, specifically what astronomers call Hα (H-alpha). I’ll get to that in a sec…

In this picture you can see sunspots, giant convection cells, and the gas that follows magnetic loops piercing the Sun’s surface. When we see them against the Sun’s surface they’re called filaments, and when they arc against the background sky on the edge of the Sun’s disk they’re called prominences.

Read more by going all clicky-clicky, it’s a great read (and an awesome blog)!

Link: Neutron star packs two Suns’ mass in London-sized space -BBC News

    <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11639458" target="_blank"><img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/49682299_49682298.jpg" height="171" width="304" /></a>

Link: British Airways Boss Blasts ‘Redundant’ TSA Airport Security Checks

LONDON (Oct. 27) — The chairman of British Airways has launched a scathing attack on the “completely redundant” airport checks requested by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and urged the U.K. to stop “kowtowing” to American demands for ever more security.

I like the Universe, it’s fraking gorgeous!

Link: BP dispersants ‘causing sickness’ – Al Jazeera English

Injected with at least 4.9 million barrels of oil during the BP oil disaster of last summer, the Gulf has suffered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons of widely banned toxic dispersants, which according to chemist Bob Naman, create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil. And dispersed, weathered oil continues to flow ashore daily.

Link: Time-travelling alien? Mystery woman in Chaplin movie clip – thestar.com

Boba’s Invoice (by Brock Davis)

Enough already: information overload | Stuff.co.nz

Link: Kapow! The home-built Dark Knight Batmobile

    <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gizmag.com/home-built-dark-knight-batmobile/16736/"><img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/tumbler-8.jpg" height="397" width="530" /></a>

These Gears Really Work? (via quilty1987)