“Hold My Hand Because I Might Disappear.”

If you dropped a water balloon on a bed of nails, you’d expect it to burst spectacularly. And you’d be right – some of the time. Under the right conditions, though, you’d see what a high-speed camera caught in the animation above: a pancake-shaped bounce with nary a leak. Physically, this is a scaled-up version of what happens to a water droplet when it hits a superhydrophobic surface. 

Water repellent superhydrophobic surfaces are covered in microscale roughness, much like a bed of tiny nails. When the balloon (or droplet) hits, it deforms into the gaps between posts. In the case of the water balloon, its rubbery exterior pulls back against that deformation. (For the droplet, the same effect is provided by surface tension.) That tension pulls the deformed parts of the balloon back up, causing the whole balloon to rebound off the nails in a pancake-like shape. For more, check out this video on the student balloon project or the original water droplet research. (Image credits: T. Hecksher et al., Y. Liu et al.; via The New York Times; submitted by Justin B.)

Do you have any links to books/pdfs for Russian? Not like literature but more learning Russian.

I have so many books and links, my friend, that I am not posting most since they are on my laptop and I would have to upload >1 GB of books. But I hope that the following is more than enough.

The New Penguin Russian Course (my rec for beginners!!)

60 Lessons in Russian

10,000 Russian Words by Frequency

A Basic Modern Russian Grammar

A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

A Reference Grammar of Russian

Assimil Russian (with audio)

Big Silver Book of Russian Verbs

Colloquial Russian (with audio)

Colloquial Russian II

DLI Basic Russian

DLI Intermediate Russian

DLI Intermediate-Advanced

DLI Russian Binder I

DLI Russian Binder II

DLI Russian Phase I

DLI Russian Phase II

DLI Russian Phase III

DLI Advanced Russian

Essential Russian Grammar

FSI Russian Fast Course

How to Pronounce Russian Correctly

Hugo’s Russian in 3 Months (with audio)

Intermediate Russian: Grammar and Workbook

In-Flight Russian

Just Listen n’ Learn Russian (with audio)

Linguaphone Russian (with audio)

Living Language Russian: Beginner-Intermediate

Michel Thomas Russian (with audio)

Oxford Russian Verbs & Grammar

Peace Corps Russian Language Lessons

Peace Corps Russian Language Competencies

Peace Corps Workbook

Pimsleur Russian (with audio)

Routledge Modern Russian Grammar

Russian 

Russian - A Self-Teaching Guide

Russian For Dummies

Russian Grammar

Russian in Exercises 

Russian Phrasebook

Russian Pronunciation

Russian Verbs of Motion

Say it Right in Russian

Schaum’s Outline of Russian Grammar

Teach Yourself Russian 1962

Teach Yourself Russian 1996

Teach Yourself Russian 2000

Teach Yourself Russian 2003

If you want to know which ones I like, here is a link to it. I can post, if you want, other specific Russian books if I have them, like stories and such, at a later date.

#if only they were monkeys #🙈 

So You Want To Be a Surgeon

(For: Domonique Nichols)

Every surgeon has to learn how to hold scissors without nervous hands, how to break open skin and wound a body just to fix it. How can we mend a broken heart if we’re too afraid of getting its blood on our hands? There will be blood on your hands. If you are going to be something, then you have to learn to kill for it. Every surgeon has the power to kill, however life exists at the cusp of that incision. Look at your hands. There is blood running through your fingers and every line in your palms lead somewhere. Where? to your destiny, where the light shines like a fire burning down forest. 

Be scared, but do not fear. The nervous pounds in your blood are natural stimuli just as the rain that feeds the seeds in the ground that cause the herbs to grow. Fear is created from the voices of question, of failure–waiting for rain. But voices can be silenced like the way a wave rushes in and drowns a ship. Rain will come.  I hope your insides tremble when you whisper your dreams and you awake at midnight hours gasping for air. there is a call for you I hope you answer in passion. So you want to be a surgeon? Your first surgery starts here. Here, in the quiet hours where the world sleeps and darkness swallows you with anxiety…  Make an incision while you are awake. bleed, feel, ache, heal. Begin to remove and sew whatever it is that is holding you back. Release yourself from self arrest; because walls are only walls, they are built with the same hands you have to cut away. Get away, pull apart the jail bars, diseased parts and set yourself free. Look at what your hands can do.

Your hands can sew and mended a heart, remove cysts that grow in the mind of emotional hurt bodies, cut away fears and tumors of the past. You can leave a body working like an unbreakable machine.  Your hands can bring life. Your hands can fight back, your hands can love better, Hold tighter, and let go easier. So you want to be a surgeon? Have faith. Kiss your hands with belief, and hold your dreams like a trophy you haven’t seen yet. Hold on to your hope, cradle dreams, sew wounds, and love is always a scar on the body like a piece of art. So love like a heart beat at the will of your hands on an open operating table.  Throbbing, breathing, beating.

Your hands they are warm and loving as the sun even when winter digs up goose bumps on the skin. You’ll spend time planting gardens just to see its beauty. Loving like petals but I hope you love like a rose thorn and pierce someone’s side so much they wail out in pain but are still strong enough to kiss you like a ticking time bomb just went off. Every surgery you will ever have to perform begins now. It begins with you. And if you’re too afraid to cut off people like snapped branches or too in love to let go as the leaves leave the trees in winter then you will never be able to save a life. Spring will never come. So walk with your hands wide open, walk ready to give. Give, give yourself. Surgery begins with saving your own life. Your life lived is a fountain of beauty awed by the eyes of another. You keep giving and they live from your waters.

You are herbs in a bush, a twinkle in the sky and one day someone’s body will pray for your hands. Somebody’s body will thank your hands. You are beauty in flaw and an ocean that refuses to stop waving even in winter when no one visits the beach. Your smile is a candle in a cave, your laughter a soothing anodyne in the moment of pain. Breathe and let be. Your hands can move an orchestra so beautifully tears fall without notice. And when the song is done, the score keeps singing in the soprano whisper of hope. So you want to be a surgeon… make an incision down the middle of your own heart and carry it in your hands. Give it away. So you want to be a surgeon… cut the world in half and let the light in. Die for this, breathe for this, shine for this, live for this. And your very hands that cut the world open will sew the world back up. 

The Tambja affinis is a longer dorid nudibranch, reaching typically about 7cm. It’s found in the western Indian Ocean and around Thailand. It is often mistaken to be part of the Nembrotha genus, but although their appearances can seem similar their radula and guts are very different, reflecting their differences in diet. Nembrothas only feed on ascidians (sea squirts and tunicates) while Tambjas only feed on bryozoans (moss animals).

recent notes + bujo spread, ft. pictures from my seoul/tokyo trip over the summer! // ig: studylustre ✨

My heart says yes but my vocal range says no

There was once a very great American surgeon named Halsted. He was married to a nurse. He loved her - immeasurably. One day Halsted noticed that his wife’s hands were chapped and red when she came back from surgery. And so he invented rubber gloves. For her. It is one of the great love stories in medicine. The difference between inspired medicine and uninspired medicine is love.

Sarah Ruhl, The Clean House (via liquidlightandrunningtrees)

*UPDATED* Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. Some are short, some are very interactive, some are better than others. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos.I checked each link to make sure they are functioning.

Spanish

Beginner 

Beginner’s Spanish:Food & Drink

Spanish 103 - Review of Elementary Spanish

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Preparing for the AP Spanish Exam

Spanish for Beginners

Basic Spanish for English Speakers

Fastbreak Spanish

Intermediate 

Spanish:Reading, Grammar, and Composition 

Spanish:Ciudades con Historia

Spanish:Espacios Públicos 

Advanced

Leer a Macondo (Taught in Spanish)

Spanish:Con Mis Propias Manos

Spanish: Perspectivas Porteñas

Corrección, estilo y variaciones

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Beginner’s French: Food & Drink

Français Interactif

Elementary French I

Elementary French II

French:Ouverture

Intermediate

French: Le Quatorze Juillet

Passe Partout

Advanced

La Francophonie Essence Culturelle

La Cité des Sciences et de Industrie

Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese for Beginners

Italian

Beginner

Survive Italy Without Being Fluent

Beginner’s Italian: Food & Drink

Beginner Italian I

Oggi e Domani

Intermediate

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced 

Italian Literature 

Italian Novel of the Twentieth Century 

Advanced Italian I

Latin

Latin I (Taught in Italian)

Russian

Beginner

Russian Alphabet

Reading and Writing Russian

Russian Phonetics and Pronunciation

Russian for Beginners

Easy Accelerated Learning for Russian

Basics of Russian

Russian Level I

Travel Russian

Advanced

Business Russian

Let Us Speak Russian 

Russian as an Instrument of Communication

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Kazakh

A1 Kazakh (Taught in Russian)

Chinese

Beginner

First Year Chinese I

First Year Chinese II

Chinese for Beginners

Basic Mandarin Chinese I

Basic Mandarin Chinese II

UT Chinese 

Chinese for Travelers

Beginner’s Chinese

Chinese Characters

Oral Chinese

Chinese Made Easy

Mandarin I

Chinese is Easy

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

Easy Mandarin

Intermediate

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Japanese

Japanese JOSHU

Beginner’s Conversational Japanese

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji I

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji II

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji III

Learn 80 JLPT N5  Kanji IV

Korean

Beginner

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

German

Beginner

German Alphabet

Beginner’s German: Food & Drink

Rundblick-Beginner’s German

German Modal Verbs

Basic German Grammar

Study German Language from Native Speakers

German A1 Grammar

Deutsch im Blick

Advanced

German:Regionen Traditionen und Geschichte

Norwegian

Norwegian on the Web

Finnish

Basic Finnish

Finnish for Medical Professionals

Frisian

Introduction to Frisian  (Taught in Dutch)

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Arabic

Arabic Language for Beginners

Arabic for Global Exchange

Arabic Fast Track

Moroccan Arabic

Conversational Arabic Made Easy

Arabic Without Walls

Hebrew

Hebrew Alphabet Crashcourse

Know the Hebrew Alphabet

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Business Hindi

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Nepali

Beginner’s Conversation and Grammar

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Irish

Introduction to Irish

I’ll keep an eye out for new courses and if you know of any, let me know so I can update this list.

Last updated: January 1,2016