Tag: Science

Early Apollo Program Slides

Humans on the moon

 

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

Creationist Kent “Dr. Dino”Hovind Goes to Jail

DinoI 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"

The Differential Analyzer Explained

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.

The Differential Analyser Explained

New Water Crystal Discovered

Water

Humm, just when you think that water is water you find out something new. At least they didn’t discover a real life form of Ice Nine.

Mao’s team subjected water to a pressure 170,000 times greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level. Then they bombarded it with X-rays, causing the water molecules to split and reform into a previously unknown crystalline solid made of H2 molecules and 02 molecules.

Brand new substance created from water

Project Orion: Unpublished Documents

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xeni/sets/72157594329917915/

 

When I read the book Project Orion, I amazed to read that a nuclear powered craft could lift in one shot as much mass as small battleship! Imagine what mankind could do with such a vehicle. Moon, Mars, Pluto, the stars! Too bad it’s a bit on the messy side. Ok, very messy side. That radiation thing is a tough one to beat. Anyway, it turns out that many once classified drawings and documents are now de-classified. You can see them here as well as listen to a podcast about all of it.

[via boingboing] 

Project Orion: unpublished documents – a photoset on Flickr

Hawaiian Rocks Make Lousy Souvenirs

Photo via KNHL

 

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake rocked the tropical paradise of Hawaii this morning. The quakes epicenter was located 10 miles away from the big island but was deep. Damage has been reported to some roads (rock wall failure, boulders on roads, and mud slides), power is out in many areas (maybe in part to heavy rains) and a flower pot was destroyed when it fell to the street from a two story building. However, news reports are still coming in.

The Brady children have not been available for questioning.

Hawiian earthquake news