Silent Rays WORK

In our era of relentless "noise", if you will, there's a growing appreciation for silent film, as seen in the rise of festivals and the flourishing availability of silent film on Blu-ray. Fans and initiates are certain to enjoy Michael Barrett's 10 best silent films released on Blu-ray this year.

Silent Rays

Richie Shaffer, playing in just his second career game for the Rays on Tuesday night, tallied his first MLB hit. And wouldn't you know it, it was of the home run-variety. Unfortunately, when Shaffer got back to the dugout, his teammates gave him the ol' silent treatment. Don't worry, "teammates." Richie can hit home runs by himself and Richie can celebrate those home runs by himself.

Richie Shaffer became the third Rays rookie on the season to hit a home run for his first major league hit. In return, the Rays gave him the silent treatment, and Shaffer's reaction was absolutely perfect.

Are we taking the proper precautions to protect our eyes? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Eyes may be windows to the soul, but they are also windows for harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause silent, long-term damage on our vision that may occur decades later.

The good news is that there are easy steps, which, when taken together, can help minimize UV exposure to our eyes. Wear a wide-brimmed hat. Wear wrap-around sunglasses that block at least 99 percent of both UV-A and UV-B rays, with lenses large enough to completely cover the eyes. And wear them all day; UV radiation for the eyes is actually worse when the sun is lower in the sky. While it has long been thought that the risk of UV exposure to the eyes is greatest during the mid-day hours, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, research suggests that from spring through fall, when the days get longer, the incidence of exposure is actually greatest earlier and later in the day.

UV-blocking contact lenses, when worn in combination with UV-absorbing wrap-around sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat can offer an added measure of protection for those who need vision correction. However, not all contact lenses offer UV protection, and of those that do, not all provide similar absorption levels. An eye care professional can prescribe Class 1 or Class 2 UV-blocking contact lenses, which provide high levels of UV blocking. Although UV-blocking contact lenses are beneficial in helping to protect against harmful UV rays, clinical studies have not been done to show they reduce the risk of any specific eye disease or condition.

By becoming better educated about the dangers of UV rays on the eyes and the importance of choosing proper eyewear that provides the best UV protection, we can lessen the risk for ocular UV exposure and help protect the long-term eye health of ourselves and our children.

SILENT AVANT-GARDE offers an essential collection of 21 short art film experiments in HD to 5K scans made from 35mm and 16mm picture elements. Highlights include brand new digital restorations of classic experimental films, The Enchanted City (1922), Return to Reason (1923), Ballet Mechanique (1924, 1931), The Twenty-Four Dollar Island (1925), Eisenstein Mexican Footage (1930), Escape, Synchromy No. 4 (1938), The Eclipse (1936-1949), Look Park (1973), and Tenga fe (2022). Each film features a brilliant accompaniment of original silent film music specially prepared, composed, improvised and/ or performed by a master of experimental new music. SILENT AVANT-GARDE desires to focus on the creative possibilities of image, sound, and silence used in American-made experimental films of the 20th century.

X-rays came to public attention in 1895 thanks to the research of Wilhelm Roentgen and were first used under clinical conditions in 1896, just one year before The X-Rays was released. Needless to say, they became a sensation. Citizens with the wherewithal could purchase DIY x-ray kits with which they could photographed the skeletons of fish, nails in shoes and the bones of their own hands. It is possible that the man wielding the machine in The X-Rays was meant to represent an over-enthusiastic amateur scientist or photographer. (The grisly postscript to all this is that x-rays were hardly the harmless gimmick that almost everyone believed them to be.)

Apparently one of the dominant causes of data corruption in SSDs, is in fact something which completely blew my mind when I heard it! Believe it or not, bit rot and data corruption is often caused by cosmic rays!

The dissipative translocation of the Zn2+ ion between two prototypical coordination complexes has been investigated by combining X-ray absorption and 1H NMR spectroscopy. An integrated experimental and theoretical approach, based on state-of-the-art Multivariate Curve Resolution and DFT based theoretical analyses, is presented as a means to understand the concentration time evolution of all relevant Zn and organic species in the investigated processes, and accurately characterize the solution structures of the key metal coordination complexes. Specifically, we investigate the dissipative translocation of the Zn2+ cation from hexaaza-18-crown-6 to two terpyridine moieties and back again to hexaaza-18-crown-6 using 2-cyano-2-phenylpropanoic acid and its para-chloro derivative as fuels. Our interdisciplinary approach has been proven to be a valuable tool to shed light on reactive systems containing metal ions that are silent to other spectroscopic methods. These combined experimental approaches will enable future applications to chemical and biological systems in a predictive manner.

Shaffer's teammates pulled a classic baseball prank, the silent treatment. That is, when a player hits a home run that is significant to their own career, the rest of the team ignores him and pretends like it is no big deal. The Rays took it a step further, with several players huddling in the middle of the dugout when Shaffer got back.

"That we only just realized that these commonly encountered stingrays are making sounds demonstrates, once again, how little we know about the oceans," says marine ecologist Lachlan Fetterplace of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who led the study.

Two mangrove whiprays (Urogymnus granulatus) and one cowtail stingray (Pastinachus ater) were observed by divers who captured them making weird sounds, which likely serve as a warning or defense signal, Fetterplace says.

Unlike haunting whale songs that travel far across the oceans, or bewitching bird songs that filter through forests, the wild stingrays in these videos make short, sharp, hollow-sounding clicks that sound more like a percussion instrument than a marine animal.

"We can't be certain of how the rays are producing the sounds," says co-author and marine scientist Joni Pini-Fitzsimmons of Macquarie University, "but it appears to involve rapid movement of the head or jaw and spiracles, an opening behind the eyes used for respiration."

Stingrays noises have been observed previously, but only rarely. Decades ago a few captive rays were observed making 'crunching' and 'rumbling' sounds when feeding (let's be honest, who doesn't); there were also some anecdotal reports of cowtail stingrays making loud clicking sounds when fleeing from divers in murky waters. 041b061a72