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October 2009

Written By: grantb on October 30, 2009 No Comment

Wired has me eager for interplanetary conquest with their look at our armada of airships and robotic rovers:

With the miniature lab tests complete, [Wolfgang Fink, of Cal Tech’s Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory,] plans to take his show on the road, probably to the Arizona desert. Over a large geographic region, they’ll float an airship with [...]

Written By: grantb on October 29, 2009 No Comment

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the Telegraph reports that an asteroid just blew up over Indonesia with the force of three atomic bombs:

Scientists are concerned that it was not spotted by any telescopes, and that had it been larger it could have caused a disaster.

The asteroid, estimated to have been around 10 metres (30ft) [...]

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Written By: grantb on October 28, 2009 No Comment

Discover has an interesting bit of unexpected biomimicry. The mantis shrimp (probably the scariest marine predator less than 3 feet long) has an unusual way of looking at the world… and one that might help create better DVD players:

Circular polarized light is one of two forms of polarized light, or light waves that travel in a specific plane.

The specialized [...]

Written By: grantb on October 27, 2009 No Comment

We all want a primitive man, says the Telegraph, reporting on new evidence that modern humans got it on with Neanderthals:

[Said Professor Paabo, who is director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig:] “I’m sure that they had sex, but did it give offspring that contributed to us? We will be [...]

Written By: grantb on October 26, 2009 No Comment

Forget asteroids or nuclear war. Science Daily now has me worried that we’re all going to die from toxic pond scum:

The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.

James [...]

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Written By: grantb on October 25, 2009 No Comment

Click to embiggen vastly

Landsat 7 gave us this memorable look at clouds moving rapidly over the Aleutian Islands. These whorls happen, as any canoeist knows, when a fluid moves around an object.

Hypnotic, even when the moment is frozen in time.

Found at the USGS Earth Resources and Observation Science (EROS) “Earth As Art 2″ gallery.

Written By: grantb on October 23, 2009 No Comment

SONG: Let’s Take the Boat Out
(To download, double right click and “Save Target As…”)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: “A Rocket for the 21st Century”, from SEED, 29 Sep 2009, as used in the post “Plasma drive. We have one.” (with necessary allusions to “YOU PUT IN OTHER DETAILS”).

ABSTRACT: First, I should say that I’m definitely [...]

Written By: grantb on October 22, 2009 No Comment

Designboom recently gave a green design award to the Murakami rocking chair.

Great invention – it’s a rocking chair with a dynamo and a built-in reading lamp. Your rocking makes the light go.

Rochus Jacob, designer:
Advanced nano-dynamo technology which is built in to the skids of the chair and more efficient light sources such as the newly developed OLED generation [...]

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Written By: grantb on October 21, 2009 No Comment

So first there was that little problem with Al Qaeda and the Large Hadron Collider. Now, the Belfast Telegraph reveals a similar link between Mossad and NASA:

In an affidavit supporting the complaint that was unsealed yesterday, FBI agent Leslie Martell said that on September 3, Nozette received a telephone call from an individual purporting to be an Israeli [...]

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