“A king’s time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king.”

I love things like this way too much.

“A light stick consists of a glass vial, containing one chemical solution, housed inside a larger plastic vial, containing another solution.

When you bend the plastic vial, the glass vial breaks, the two solutions flow together, and the resulting chemical reaction causes a fluorescent dye to emit light.

The particular dye used in the chemical solution gives the light a distinctive color.

The chemical reaction in a light stick usually involves several different steps. A typical commercial light stick holds a hydrogen peroxide solution and a solution containing a phenyl oxalate ester and a fluorescent dye.

When the two combine:

1. The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the phenyl oxalate ester, resulting in a chemical called phenol and an unstable peroxyacid ester.
2. The unstable peroxyacid ester decomposes, resulting in additional phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound.
3. The cyclic peroxy compound decomposes to carbon dioxide.
4. This decomposition releases energy to the dye.
5. The electrons in the dye atoms jump to a higher level, then fall back down, releasing energy in the form of light.

The light stick itself is just a housing for the two solutions involved in the reaction — essentially, it is portable chemistry experiment.”

(via howstuffworks)

This is a photo of George Clooney when he was much younger (via this article).

There is hope for all of us.

The shuttle Endeavor’s last mission

Dear Obama,

Please give funding back to NASA. Space is too beautiful not to explore.