Space Sludge

02/04/09 @ 10:48AM EST
posted by will

I love energy drinks. Most of them taste awful, but bear through it, chug them fast and you feel nice and energized. Jittery too, and you'll have to piss a lot, but energized. They work a little bit better than coffee for me, and they don't require any work to make them.

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[Comments: 2][Tags: food, space]

Geo-astro-science: Extrasolar Plate Tectonics and Ice Volcanoes

12/16/08 @ 5:19PM EST
posted by will

I don't know nearly as much geoscience or astroscience as I'd like to, and it never ceases to amaze me. I recently discovered a nice science blog, Supernova Condensate, through ResearchBlogging, and that's been keeping me up to date with some really interesting stuff.

Plate tectonics on other planets? Really? Enceladus is a moon of Saturn and is pictured above. The white cracks in the image are thought to be formed due to ice, which would obviously be really exciting.

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[Comments: 0][Tags: science, space]

Satellite Photography

06/21/08 @ 11:57PM EST
posted by will

Yet another reason I wish I could be a photographer. Well, whenever I start earning some real money I'll take it up as a more serious hobby. My camera just doesn't quite have the kinda power to do really cool stuff.



The image above is one of 1500 'astrophotographs' that Trevor Paglen has taken. What is it? A satellite which doesn't officially exist. I'm not sure if I'm impressed that he's so cool or disappointed that 'black ops' could be picked up by a civilian with a camera. Granted, he seems to be pretty amazing, but a civilian nonetheless.

Definitely read the story off Wired, it's pretty amazing. I know that satellites have solar cells by which they are powered, and those are fairly reflective, but I had no idea it left it so brightly visible. That's star bright; well not really, because it's a hell of a lot closer, but nonetheless.

Astronomy is cool, that's another expensive hobby I'll pick up someday.

Godspeed.

[Comments: 0][Tags: technology, space, art]

Techy Tuesday: Twittering from Mars

06/03/08 @ 3:39PM EST
posted by will

I've been using Twitter recently. I'm really not sure what the appeal is, but I enjoy it. I came across an article from The Daily Galaxy about how the Phoenix Mars Lander is Twittering from the moon.



NASA gets major points for this one. Not only for keeping with the times and embracing things like Twitter, but for the brilliance of it. They're not dully writing about how the Phoenix is doing, but they're actually writing from the perspective of the lander. When referring to NASA they talk about them in the 3rd person. Here are two examples:

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[Comments: 0][Tags: space, technology, twitter]