Amazing use of water and light . . .

Engrish Brog brought this to my attention. It is a water fountain clock at the Osaka JR Line Train Station, Osaka, Japan.

The light source is constant. What changes is water flow, obviously controlled by computer.

Brilliant! Fun! And as one commenter notes, "I'm afraid I would miss my train."

Absolutely one of the coolest videos I have ever seen . . .

A water drop falling and then bouncing as it becomes absorbed in a larger body of water.

Check out

--With thanks to Chareen on the Sonlight Curriculum Forums

What happened to the world's fourth-largest freshwater lake?

The demise of the Aral Sea produces massive problems outlined in this education video. Is there hope? Amazingly, yes! --10:29.

Water for space flights

Don't ask me how I got here.

Oh. I remember.

Many amateur astronomers noticed a strange glowing plume ejected from the space shuttle Discovery a week and a half ago (8:40 PM CST, Wednesday, 9/9/09). "What could it be?" one asked. "Something venting? An OMS burn? RCS thrusters? A massive, record breaking urine dump?"

As it turns out, it was the last: a dump of urine . . . and other waste water.

But/and, from that page, I bumped into a video that describes, in detail, how NASA has designed a water recycling unit for use on extended space flights. --Not just interesting. Pretty attention-grabbing. Especially as the interviewer notes that there is a definite "ick factor" related to drinking recycled urine, sweat, bathwater, food vapors, and so forth.

Enjoy!