Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
As I said yesterday, like in the Anime manga ‘Planetes‘, space junk cand and will become a major problem in the future of space low Earth orbit exploration. I hope that the nations of the world will figure out that you can’t just leave you toys lying all over the place once your done playing with them. If the world is not careful we might end up triggering a Kessler Syndrome
Space Debris Mitigation: The Case For A Code Of Conduct
More neat stuff from Boing-Boing today, this time it s little flying Linux web servers. What will they think of next?
Flocks of unmanned aircraft form Bluetooth Linux clusters
From the guys that brought you the ***PONGMECHANIK***, they now have a cool little spinning teapot in a CBM PET case. (I used to have one of those monsters… )
Boing Boing: Gutted Commodore with glowing rotating wire teapot on motors in the monitor
How very clever.
This 50,000 Euro, R2D2oid robot from the University of Pisa perambulates on two or three wheels and flees from humanoid shapes bearing lightsaberoid shapes. It is also Bluetooth and USB-enabled.
Italian R2D2oid bot recognizes and flees from lightsaberoid objects
Wheee! Bake a cake, have a party!
Gizmodo has a little blurb about Kodak’s 50th anniversery of Super 8 motion picture film and the phasing out their line of Kodachrome 40 Super 8 stock due to marketplace dynamics. Kodachrome was great stuff, I loved shooting on the 64 ASA stock in my 35mm stereo camera, the colors were so strong and saturated. But, as I found out a few months ago, it’s very hard to find a lab that will process it.
So, Kodak will no longer be offering the vivid chrome in the Super 8 size and processing for the Super 8 stock will be halted in one year, the 16mm size will not be dropped at this time. However all is not lost…
The new KODAK EKTACHROME 64T film expands the current Super 8 portfolio that includes two black-and-white reversal films in medium and high speeds covering a range of lighting situations. Super 8 customers will also find the latest KODAK VISION2 motion picture films available in 200T and 500T speeds, incorporating the highest quality images, improved sharpness and grain, along with a full systems approach, optimizing the entire imaging chain.
“With Super 8 gates now available for high-end scanners, coupled with the KODAK VISION2 film technology advancements, Super 8 is what 16 mm film used to be,” says Mayson. “Super 8 color negative film has become another option for professionals with low budgets.”
As part of the portfolio revamp, Kodak will discontinue sales of its S8 KODACHROME 40 Movie Film. Final sales of KODACHROME Super 8 will be based on product availability over the coming months. Sales of KODACHROME 16 mm films will continue, unaffected by this announcement.
I have long thought of buying some short ends of Vision2 motion picture film for use in my still cameras, the latatude and grain of the Vision2 stock would be a joy to work with. I’ll have to look up the prices of stock and lab fees from Super 8 Sound and get my super 8 camera out and have a bit of fun.
KODAK:40th Anniversary of Super 8 film
Well, it was bound to happen. Someone needs to send some DVDs of the Japanese anime series ‘Planetes‘ to the guys that want to militarize space. Most of the junk up there just won’t go away and even a paint chip can ruin a space craft.
Air Force officials said the directive did not call for militarizing space. “The focus of the process is not putting weapons in space,” said Maj. Karen Finn, an Air Force spokeswoman. “The focus is having free access in space.”
… to put nuclear weapons in space…
Air Force seeks Bush nod for space weapons