Real Gabinete Português de Leitura | Rio de Janeiro

The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (in English: Royal Portuguese Reading Room) has the largest and most valuable literary of Portuguese outside Portugal. Constructed between 1880 and 1887, it has more than 350,000 volumes in a library, fully computerized, which brings together rare books from the 16th, 17th and 18th. The library receives a copy of Portugal for each of the works published in the country according to its status of “legal deposit”. Its incredible architecture beauty and its rich collection transport you to the 19th century when you visit this library in Rio de Janeiro.

Image Credit BORIS G

The largest Solar Furnace, France

The largest Solar Furnace is at Odeillo in the Pyrénées-Orientales in France, opened in 1970. It employs an array of plane mirrors to gather sunlight, reflecting it onto a larger curved mirror. Solar  furnace  consists of 10000 concave mirrors that reflect and focus the sun's rays on the square diagonal of 40 inches. Diameter mirror construction is 54 meters. An array of mirrors acts as a parabolic reflector, concentrating light into focus. Temperature is in focus, as if in this place at the same time sent 22,000 suns. It can reach 3500 ° C (all depends on the position of the mirrors). Solar furnace used for industrial purposes. With its help generate electricity, melt steel, creating hydrogen fuel and nano-materials.

Image credit Florian

The ancient Greek / Latin term heliocaminus literally means "solar furnace" and refers to a glass-enclosed sunroom intentionally designed to become hotter than the outside air temperature. During the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC), the Greek scientist Archimedes is said to have repelled the attacking Roman ships by setting them on fire with a "burning glass" that may have been an array of mirrors. An experiment to test this theory was carried out by a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. It concluded that although the theory was sound for stationary objects, the mirrors would not likely have been able to concentrate sufficient solar energy to set a ship on fire under battle conditions. The first modern solar furnace is believed to have been built in France in 1949 by Professor Félix Trombe. It is now still in place at Mont Louis, near Odeillo. The Pyrenees were chosen as the site because the area experiences clear skies up to 300 days a year. Another solar furnace was built in Uzbekistan as a part of a Soviet Union "Sun" Complex Research Facility impulsed by Academician S.A. Asimov.

Image credit Joseph Giral

Incredible Feather Art by Chris Maynard

Chris Maynard's, the artist and biologist is interested in bird feathers and tries to make an artistic rendition. Feather designs by Chris Maynard capture the elegance and simplicity of nature in Featherfolio's new, creative art form. Each feather design used as a real feathers natural shed from common and exotic birds to capture the beauty and grace of these exceptional creatures. He said  "In my work I try to capture a a feeling of  a bird and give meaning in the simplest way, often in a silhouette. this is in part because my medium does not allow for a lot of detail. Feather appear to us as endearingly delicate, but they are actually, like my work quite tough." Chris also make an art in Shadow boxes.

Richest Person In The World 2014

Who is the richest person in the world is a common question mostly arising in our minds,  so we have been making research on the top 10 richest people in the world for the last week, so be ready to have the exact answer. The ranks for the world’s top billionaires are allocated after comparing their worth. - 

1. Bill Gates

Brain Will Explode After Seeing These Optical Illusions!

These squares are actually the same exact color. Hold your finger over the boundary between the two shapes and see them change.

americanscientist.orgThe Cornsweet illusion exploits the brain's lateral inhibition, which creates more contrast between the two objects when they have different colored edges.

These cars look like they're different sizes...

neatorama.com

Top 10 Richest American Athletes

Athletes exist in a constant state of competition. They’re hardwired into it — that’s why they make the personal sacrifices necessary in order to become professionals in the first place, because they’re determined to prove that they are that good. No one makes it into the highest level of pro sports by accident. Call it Jordan Syndrome.

Call it whatever you want. These athletes are in competition off the clock, too, comparing incomes, outspending each other on the finer things in life. Here are the wealthiest American Athletes of 2014, with figures gathered from TheRichest.com, Forbes, and CelebrityNetWorth.

Source: coincidenceuno, Flickr

Stuttgart City Library, Germany

The new Stuttgart City Library by Yi Architects was on October 21, 2011.  After winning a competition for the project in 1999, the new library for Stuttgart in southern Germany has finally been unveiled.  Yi Architects have shared with us the drawings and images of the project. The Stuttgart City Library was chosen in Mailänder Platz, an area that is perceived to be a future city center growing out of the location of the library. With this in mind, the architects chose to physically express the importance of this cultural center by giving the building a grand physical presence. The building takes the form of cube with an edge length of 45 meters. It is constructed out of pale grey fair-faced concrete that visually frames an array of 9 x 9 frosted glass bricks. The shell is designed as a double façade that includes the glass brick level and an inner mullion/transom façade as the thermal building shell.

Image credit PAPFOO