Stuff, with gloating

[pensnest]

I amused myself today by forwarding to my Brats a science quiz I found in one of my newsgroups. Apparently, these are ten (variably) basic questions - posed by a bunch of appropriately reputable scientists - to which everyone should know the answers. In case you're interested, here are the questions.

1. What percentage of the earth is covered by water?

2. What sorts of signals does the brain use to communicate sensations, thoughts and actions?

3. Did dinosaurs and humans ever exist at the same time?

4. What is Darwin's theory of the origin of species?

5. Why does a year consist of 365 days, and a day of 24 hours?

6. Why is the sky blue?

7. What causes a rainbow?

8. What is it that makes diseases caused by viruses and bacteria hard to treat?

9. How old are the oldest fossils on earth?

10. Why do we put salt on sidewalks when it snows?

Extra credit: What makes the seasons change?

The Brats, incidentally, did pretty well on this, though Boy's contribution seems to have been mostly typing the answers. Bun was most indignant to learn that I, too, have a reasonable clue as to why the sky is blue. "But, it's PHYSICS!" she cried. Hah, say I.

And for something completely different, more icon boasting under the cut.





















I am charmed (and somewhat amused) to note that I have had second place in every Lance Challenge since #23, with the exception of one week (when my icon was placed first). Now, that's consistency.

Comments

[turloughishere.livejournal.com]

Absolutely glorious icons! All of them different and all so good I can't even have a favourite among them!

How did you make the one for lance_challenge? I've been wondering about that since I first saw it. (It was my choice for first place actually :-)

BTW, I note that those questions aren't all straightforward. What kind of answer do they want for # 5 for example, the historical explanation or the scientific one?

[pensnest]

Thank you so much! I was pleased with the Lance one, I'm very much into experimenting with colours and gradients at the moment. I can't remember what, if anything, I did to the crop - probably upped the Brightness/Contrast a bit, or something like that. Thereafter:





The dark green Vivid Light layer was pure happenstance, and I liked the effect.

As for the science questions, yes, they're not necessarily as straightforward as they might be. #5 is looking for a physical/scientific rather than a cultural/historical explanation. I'll post the answers tomorrow.

[turloughishere.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!! I've started experimenting with coloured layers a little myself but nothing nearly as advanced as this. I forsee many happy hours playing around in Photoshop in my near future :-)

[pensnest]

It is great fun playing with b/w pics, because you can really see what effect the coloured layers have. Changing the blending, and moving them up and down the layers, turning other layers on and off - it really is amazing what happens. I think the real problem... is knowing when to stop. ;-)