Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Stone Mushrooms of Bulgaria

     We travel to Bulgaria today where the Replica Report looks at some interesting rock formations. The Stone Mushrooms is a rock phenomenon near Beli Plast village in Bulgaria, on the road between Haskovo and Kardzhali. They are about 2.5 metres tall. The 3 hectares area is declared as natural resource on May 13, 1974 according to №РД-552 bill of the Ministry of Environment and Water.
      The rock formations have the shape of natural mushrooms – their stalks are pink, and the caps are green. The height of the mushroom stalks and the width of the caps are up to 2.5 meters. They are made of rhyolite volcanic tuffs, which are the result of intensive underwater volcanic activity, dating back to the Paleocene. After the sea withdrawal and the consistent seabed rising, the influence of the erosion became visible. The lower, pink layer proved to be softer and more amenable to the effects of sun, wind and rain. The upper, green layer contains solid minerals, mainly volcanic glass.
      As with many large Resemblances a legend has arisen that says, the charcoal burner Raduil lived in the Perperikon fortress with his four beautiful daughters. One sunny morning they went outside the town walls to bring water. Suddenly, they saw a great horde of invaders at the hill near the river. They ran back to the fortress. A fervent, uneven battle started; many men were killed, most of the women were captured. The daughters of Raduil were among them.
      They were waged to the leader of the horde, astride a racial horse at the nearby river – to take a look at them and choose the most beautiful ones for him and to sell the others as slaves. Fury gripped the hearts of the girls as they approached him. They grabbed what they could – sticks, stones, and began throwing them at the rider. The horse got scared and stood on its hind legs. The unsuspecting rider fell on the ground, the four girls ran towards him and tore him apart and ran into the forest.
      The closest friend of the leader ran to pursue the girls and caught them at the end of the day, lashed out with his yataghan and cut off the first one’s head. As it fell on the ground, it turned into a stone mushroom. The same happened with the other sisters. Before the man cut the head of the last girl, she petrified. The terrified man tried to escape with his horse, but turned into a black rock at the first step. Nowadays people call the lonely rock near the mushrooms Karatepe.
Src : http://bulgariatravel.org/en/object/401/Kamenni_gybi



Friday, March 22, 2013

Is Your Bonnet Blue?


     On our third day of Spring, the Replica Report takes a look at the Bluebonnet! Named for its color and, it is said, the Resemblance of its petal to a woman's sunbonnet, the bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. It blooms in the early spring and can be readily found in fields and along the roadsides throughout central and south Texas.
     Scientifically named Lupinus texensis, the bluebonnet is also called buffalo clover, wolf flower, and ,by the Mexicans, el conejo (the rabbit). It was adopted as the official state flower by the Texas Legislature in 1901.
Src : Wikipedia



Camel Toe

We reserved this post for the late hours of the day. Camel Toe is a reference to the visual similarity in appearance to the two toes of a camel's hoof.
Cameltoe is slang for a fashion faux pas caused by women wearing snug pants; the term suggests a visual analogy.
Src : Wiktionary




Monday, March 18, 2013

The Phantom Foetus

     Unlike any other art form, Extractionism is the only one to be covered regularly by the news today. Metro, of the UK, features Extractionist Heather Large and her Recognition of the Emperor Palpatine.
     It all began about a year ago when an ultrasound scan of an unborn baby revealed an eerie resemblance to the evil emperor from Star Wars, and is now, with the help of the Internet, gaining widespread attention.
     Heather Large, 39, immediately spotted the seemingly cloaked figure glaring back at her from a scan in the 20th week of her pregnancy - can you see the claw-like left hand?
     Husband Toby, 33, from Illinois, said: ‘During the ultrasound, Heather noticed that one of the images appeared to look like Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars.
     ‘At this point, everyone in the room had a laugh, including our eight-year-old daughter Hannah and the ultrasound technician.
     ‘At the end of the ultrasound, the tech asked us if we would like to include that image on our take-home CD, since we were so amused.’
     Toby's son Bowie, now eight months old, captivated the imagination of Star Wars fans when he uploaded it to his Devian art webpage last week, causing a stir.

Src : http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/11/may-the-face-be-with-you-star-wars-villain-emperor-palpatine-appears-in-ultrasound-scan-3535977/
and
http://hearte42.deviantart.com/art/The-Emperor-357892316



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Galaxies that Resemble the Letter "D"

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       The Replica Report goes galactic today looking at 4 galaxies whose shapes Resemble the letter 'D'. A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, stellar remnants, and a interstellar medium of gas and dust, and, it is hypothesized, an important but poorly understood component called dark matter. Examples of galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million stars to giants with a hundred trillion stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own center of mass.
       Galaxies contain varying numbers of star systems, star clusters and types of interstellar clouds. In between these objects is a sparse interstellar medium of gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Observational data suggests that super massive black holes may exist at the center of many, if not all, galaxies. They are thought to be the primary driver of active galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy appears to harbor at least one such object.
       Galaxies have been historically categorized according to their apparent shape; usually referred to as their visual morphology. A common form is the elliptical galaxy, which has an ellipse-shaped light profile. Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped with dusty, curving arms. Those with irregular or unusual shapes are known as irregular galaxies and typically originate from disruption by the gravitational pull of neighboring galaxies and are what make the alphabet series possible. Such interactions between nearby galaxies, which may ultimately result in a merging, sometimes induce significantly increased incidents of star formation leading to starburst galaxies. Smaller galaxies lacking a coherent structure are referred to as irregular galaxies.
Src : Wikipedia & http://cas.sdss.org/dr7/en/
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