Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Way back in the 70’s NASA commissioned a few studies on what long term space colonies might be like. Many artistic renderings were done as visual aids and have become icons of a future that might have been. I remember seeing these on the pages of Starlog
The educational resources are simply a joy to browse through. I mean, where else are you going to find data on low-g agriculture and a Ringworld simulator?
[via MAKE, boingboing]
Space Settlement Education Information
Come tomorrow, November 8th, many people (check the link for locations) will have the chance to see the inner most planet of our solar system make an attempt to eclipse the sun. This transit is a some what rare occurrence, as only about 13 will happen in the next 100 years. So grab your approved solar viewing gear and have at it!
SPACE.com — Viewer’s Guide: Watch Mercury Cross the Sun (warning, popups)
Wikipedia – Transit of Mercury
This page fills my head with ideas! Steam engines, electrostatic generators, bi-metallic motors… Mumm.. Well if your not the tinkering kind of person then you should be happy to know that everything at Exergia is for sale. Yep, in kit form or a finished unit. So explore the wonders of science today! Or at lest by mid noon of next week. 🙂
A bit from the site:
Sophisticated demonstration models of alternative energy technologies for universities, schools and interested individuals: Stirling Engines and steam engines, fuel cells, photovoltaic objects, toys and more! Discover extraordinary ideas in energy related devices: Educational devices inspired by old and new concepts to demonstrate the physical principles of conventional and alternative energy conversion."
[via MAKE]
Now this is a lovely photo set of early slides from the Apollo space program. There were so many hopes and dreams back then weren’t there? Maybe the next 50 years will bring these dreams to full realization.
One commenter made this remark:
"This slide, as well as two others you have posted, were used in a presentation by M. W. Rosen and F. C. Schwenk at the Tenth International Astronautical Congress in London, England, August 31, 1959."
[via boingboing]
NASA dawn of the Apollo program slides – a photoset on Flickr
I saw this and I just could not find any words that would do this justice [via Boingboing]:
Kent "Dr. Dino" Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and the Dinosaur Adventure Land creationist theme park in Florida ("where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!"), and his wife face more than 200 years in jail for tax fraud. (Previous post with background here.) Yesterday, Dr. Dino was found guilty on 58 counts, including not paying an $845,000 employee-related tax bill. From the Pensacola News Journal:
U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers released Jo Hovind until sentencing but denied Kent Hovind’s request to be released. He most likely will be detained at either Escambia County Jail or Santa Rosa County Jail until sentencing.
(Assistant US Attorney Michelle) Heldmyer said Kent Hovind was a flight risk and a "danger to the community."
His attorney, Alan Richey, argued that the Internal Revenue Service pursued his client because of his religious beliefs.
Kent Hovind, whose life’s mission is to debunk evolution, says he and his employees are workers of God and therefore exempt from paying taxes. He pays his employees in cash and does not withhold their taxes or pay his share as an employer.
Link to Pensacola News Journal article, Link to Scientific American’s "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense"
I was running around the Internet a few days ago and happened across this web page on Meccano hobbyists. It gives a great explanation of how an analog computer works.
The Differential Analyzer solves differential equations by integration. It makes use of one or more wheel and disc integrators (or Kelvin-disc integrators), interconnected by shafts in various ways to suit the problem equations. The process of integration can be illustrated by the simple example of the acceleration of a car. This can be represented for input by a curved graph showing speed varying with time. Say one wanted to find out the distance traveled in a certain time, say five minutes. The period of 5 minutes can be divided into much smaller intervals of say 10 seconds each, and assuming a constant speed over each interval from the graph, a distance traveled for each interval is calculated. The sum of the distances traveled in successive intervals is then the total distance traveled. The smaller the interval taken the more accurate will be the result. This is called Integration, and is the function performed by the integrator in a continuous manner.
Best of all, with a bit of work these can be made out of Meccano (Erector) sets.