2015 | Imagination Works

Polaroid Cube : stylish gadget, that is available for preorder

Polaroid prepares to release new stylish gadget Polaroid Cube at 31 August of this year. It is action-camera in form of cube with 35 mm side, that is released in 3 colors variations : black, blue and pink. It can record videos in following modes : 1440p ( 30 frames per second ), 1080p ( 30 or 60 fps ) and 720p ( 30, 60 or 120 fps ); and has 8 MP CCD-sensor for photos shooting with image stabilization in photos and videos recording modes. Camera can record videos from 1 charge of battery for upto 107 minutes. Polaroid Cube has microphone for audio recording and it is supplied with optical objective with 124 degrees field of view and 4.6x optical zoom; also it has Wi-Fi connectivity support, which allows it to transmit photos and videos directly to mobile devices. With use of this connection there is ability to remotely control camera, for example, there is ability to remotely trigger videos recording or photos shooting. Polaroid Cube stores data on MicroSD flash cards with maximal capacity upto 128 GB. It is weather and shock resistant and with special waterproof case it can be used underwater. There are lots of mounts released for camera : on helmet, on bicycle, on bumper and for other vehicles parts and sportive equipment. Now camera is available for preorder and those customers, who will do this, will receive for free waterproof case for it. Package of camera contains : Polaroid Cube camera itself, MicroSD flash card, clip mount, user’s guide, battery and charger. Now it costs 149.99 USD. All in all it is good action-camera, with affordable price for such stylish novelty; it is also worth to note, that there are more functional cameras, that cost less, for example Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera.

Crocodilomorphs of mesozoic seas

In the Mesozoic Era crocodilomorphs lived on Earth; they had lots of simillarities with modern crocodiles, but their body was very adapted for marine life and looked like fishes’ one. Their tails had fins, some of them had limbs, that were transformed into fins, and their body was far more gidrodynamical, than body of modern days land and freshwater living crocodiles. Most of crocodilomorphs was fish hunters, but there were big species, that hunted on other marine reptiles; dakosaurus ( from Greek words, that “biting lizard” ) was one of them. Their teeth was flat and serrated, such form is not adapted for small fishes hunting and was adapted for hunting on big reptiles, that has comparable sizes to dakosaurus themselve. Many of the crocodilomorphs had grooves in skulls, in which salt glands resided. Salt glands is organ, that helps marine animals to remove from themselves excess of salts, that accumulates in them due to constant contact with salt water. For now there are no direct proves, that crocodilomorphs had exactly salt glands in these grooves, but their presence in them is the most probable assumption. Modern day crocodiles are adapted for ambushes tactics on hunting, but crocodilomorphs of mesozoic seas was far more active hunters : their fast body says about this and they had need to swim to surface for air breaths and there is no possibility to do this without leaving cover.

In most of areas of mesozoic seas different species of crocodilomorphs lived on one territory and occupied different ecological niches. Their fossils are found in many countries of the world : in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Polland, Russia, Argentine and Mexico. Crocodilomorphs was very adapted for living in seas and for now it is not clear whether they oviposited eggs on land or gave birth to already formed posterity. From one side : they were able to move on land on their fins, like turtles ( but their body made them vulnerable to big land carnivores and they were unable to hide in shell, like turtles ); from other side : they were able to develop viviparity, like their contemporaries ichthyosaurus and modern days whales and dolphins. So, untils nests and eggs of crocodilomorphs or evidences of viviparity of crocodilomorphs are found : this question is still open. Species was first described in 1856 year by paleontologist Friedrich August von Quenstedt.

Micosoft / Nokia Lumia 540 review

Micosoft / Nokia Lumia 540 is new smartphone, produced by Micosoft company. It has 5-inch IPS display, which allows TrueColor ( 24-bits / 16 millions of colors ) colors reproduction and has HD720 ( 1280 x 720 pixels ) resolution with 294 pixels per inch density. Display is sensory with multitouch functions. Lumia 540 weights 152 grams and has sizes of 144 x 73,7 x 8,6 mm. Smartphone has Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with 4 cores, which works on 1200 МHz frequency, and 1 GB of RAM; it has 8 GB of built in memory for storage. It also supports MicroSD cards with maximal capacity upto 128 GB. Its battery has 2200 mAh charge, which is enough for : 24 days of work in stand by mode; 26,2 hours of phone calls; 81 hours of listening for music; or 6,9 hours of videos watching.

Micosoft / Nokia Lumia 540 has swappable panels of black, white, orange and blue colors. Main camera has 8 MP sensor and LED flashlight and frontal camera has 5 MP sensor for photos and videos recording ( at 848 x 480 pixels resolution ) and mono audio recording in AAC LC, AMR-NB and GSM FR formats. Phone supports 2 SIM cards; USB, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections; and GSM and 3G networks. Navigation includes : GLONASS, GPS and Wi-Fi-positioning; and sensors include : ambient light levels, acceleration and proximity. Package contains : smartphone Microsoft Lumia 540 Dual SIM, user’s guide, battery, charger and headset. Overall Microsoft Lumia 540 Dual SIM is good smartphone, which costs around 120 USD at the middle of summer of 2015 year.

Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera review

Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera is competitor of many more expensive cameras of this type. It has 16 MP CMOS sensor for photo and video recording. Maximum photo resolution is 4608 x 3456 pixels. Camera can record videos in following modes : 1080p@60fps, 1080p@48fps, 1080p@30fps, 1080p@24fps, 960@60fps, 960@48fps, 720p@120fps, 720p@60fps, 720p@48fps and 480p@240fps, with stereo sound recording at 96 KHz sampling rate and signal to noise ratio of 92 dBa. Video is encoded in H.264 format, which allow to preserve good picture quality. Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera weights 72 grams and has aspherical objective with 155 degrees field of view, which reduces image distortions at such high FOV. Its battery has charge of 1010 mAh, with low power consumption this allows camera to work for long time with one charge. It is worth to note, that camera has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity functions and allow to transmit data directly to mobile device in 40 meters range.

Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera has lots of accessories ranging from underwater case ( which allows to record videos and photos in water depths downto 40 meters ) and different holders to bicycle and motorcycle mounts. It stores data on Micro SD cards with maximal capacity up to 64 GB. Package contains : Xiaomi Yi Action Sport Camera itself, Micro USB cable, battery and user manual. At the middle of summer of 2015 year it costs around 100 USD and has lots of advanced features, which make it very serious competitor of many other action-cameras, which are priced at much higher levels. It is also worth to note, that camera supports accessories of GoPro cameras and those, that compatible with them.

Ichthyosaurus

Ichthyosaurus ( from Greek words fish and lizard ) are marine reptiles, that lived in Mesozoic Era, almost in all its time span 250 – 90 millions years ago. Ichthyosaurus reached in length 2 – 20 meters ( members of their family was the biggest marine reptiles, that lived on Earth to date ); their skin was scaleless; they were warm-blooded; and had very big eyes, this says, that ichthyosaurus hunted at night time or dived deep in Mesozoic seas. As all reptiles, they had lungs and had need to swim to surface to make air breathes. They were unable to lay eggs in seas and their body was not adapted for land walking, so they developed viviparity, like modern dolphins have. Ichthyosaurus are very similar to modern whales and dolphins in their shape and way of life, this is the result of convergent evolution, when animals of different species develop similar shapes and way of life in close living conditions. Ancestors of whales and dolphins made the same way, as ancestors of ichthyosaurus did 200 millions years before them.

For now no transitional forms between land reptiles and ichthyosaurus are found : the earliest of know already lived in seas. Previously it was thought, that they originated straight from amphibia, but later studies show, that they originated from reptiles, whose ancestors were amphibia. Ichthyosaurus was the most diverse in late Triassic Period, they occupied lots of ecological niches : from biggest marine predators to small fish hunters. In Jurassic their diversity was still high, but there were no such big species, like in previous period. Probably, this was caused by increased competition from sharks and first plesiosaurs. Previously it was thought, that in early Cretaceous Period amount of ichthyosaurus species abruptly decreased, but new studies show, that they were still diverse at that time. And only at the middle of Cretaceous they went extinct from Earth’s surface.

Ichthyosaurus had 4 limbs with big amount of phalanges, that were completely transformed into fins. Many species had back and tail fins, that were not present in any form in their ancestors – reptiles. Earlier scientists reconstructed ichthyosaurus without back and tail spins, because there are no bones, that support them. But later fossils were found, which contain prints of fins and animals were reconstructed from that time with these parts of bodies. Ichthyosaurus had circle of bone plates in each eye, that protected eyes from high pressure of deep waters. They had the biggest eyes from all vertebrates in both relative and absolute meanings. Their hearing was weakly developed, but smelling was advanced and, probably, they had some kind of bio electricity sensors on surface of their skin. Earlier it was thought, that their skin had colors, like modern dolphins have : dark on top and light at bottom to camouflage them closer to water surface; but new studies show, that they had dark pigment all around surface of their skin. This camouflaged them in deep waters and helped to perform thermoregulation. First fossilized bones of ichthyosaurus were found at the end of 18th century and during 19th and 20th centuries amount of found fossilized bones increased each year.

Allosaurus

Allosaurus ( “strange dinosaur” ) are carnivorous dinosaurs from theropod family, they lived in Jurassic Period 155 – 145 millions years ago. They was named so, because their vertebrae was very different from vertebrae of other dinosaurs, that was know at that time. Allosaurus reached 11 – 12 m in length and 2,5 – 3 m in height ; their maximal weight was 1 – 2 tons. They were biggest predators of their time and hunted on plant-eating dinosaurs, like stegosaurus and iguanodons. Fossils of allosaurus were found in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia; in total there were found 60 fossilized skeletons of allosaurus. First almost complete skeleton of allosaurus was found by farmer M. P. Felch in 1883 year in Colorado, USA. Dinosaur was described first time by paleontologist O. C. Marsh in 1877 year.

They moved on their 2 legs, their forelegs was small and mainly used for hunting. They were able to run fast on their legs, despite their big size and weight, because there were found lots of allosaurus skeletons with ribs, that were broken during falls at high speed running. Also, their vertebrae had special holes, that allowed them to breath through skin at high physical exercise; modern birds also has such adaptations in their skeletons. Probably, allosaurus lived and hunted in groups, because there are lots of their fossilized footprints found together. Their brain was big relative to their body size; and allosaurus was able to perform social interactions and care about their youth. Their inner ear was relatively big and they was able to perceive low frequencies; but they had problems in perceiving high frequencies. Their smelling was developed to high level and they was able to use it for hunting and to determine other animals of their kind.

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