tingilinde

traveling to near-earth objects

Sky and Telescope notes a nice little NASA tool that gives a sense of what it takes to make it to asteroids and comets.  Teens and older kids with curiosity should have a bit of fun with this.

Unfortunately the NASA budget for education outreach has been eliminated by the sequester...  Education and inspiration was once one of NASA's prime directives.  

 

 

you have to love william shatner

(hat tip to Kevin)

design? and the history of technology

There are times when the mind wobbles.  

The Kuba Komet from a site with a lot of informaiton on early television.  Some of the mechanical designs from the 1920s are - well - interesting.  Some work at Bell Labs.

(hat tip to Tim for pointing out the site .. it is possible to spend too much time poking around)

 

the earth from space

 

best NOVA ever

 

 

The two hour episode aired last night on PBS - check your guide for future airings...  I don't know what the asynchronous availability will be

fantastic for science curious teens

for those who prefer superbowl ads to the game...

A sampling here

 

 

mr magoo pioneers the television telling of a christmas carol

While I was working out this morning I caught a WNYC Soundcheck segment on Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol.  It turns out this was the pioneering holiday animated show on television - before the Grinch, Charlie Brown and even Rudolph.

It is now 50 years old and will be shown Saturday night on NBC

_______

(the segment begins at the 25:00 mark and runs a bit over 10 minutes)

_______

It turns out this is one of Sukie's favorite versions of the book.  You can download a video copy from iTunes or purchase a dvd or stream from Amazon

don't mess with big bird

The right loves to bash PBS, but it isn't clear that Romney was very bright doing so... (NY Times editorial)

Mr Rogers defends PBS

all the daleks

A gathering for Dr Who

snip

...

Without sounding too pretentious,” Wilson said. “It’s just like any other performance. It’s a role that you have to play and make work. That’s why they still have people inside them and they’re not automated, because it isn’t easy to make this hunk of fibre glass, metal and wood appear to be a living, breathing creature.”

Indeed, given that the Daleks are pulled along with your feet (much like a Flintstones car), there’s a certain amount of technique that needs to be perfected. “You can always tell when someone hasn’t operated a Dalek before. It is quite difficult,” Wilson said. “You’re reliant on three wheels, which isn’t the most stable construction to keep something from rocking side to side, so you have to keep your weight central inside it. Pretty much all of the Dalek operators come from a sort of dance background. It does require incredibly strong legs — we’ve all got fantastic calf muscles.”

It’s a trait that they share with operators of classic-era Daleks, who were recruited from ballet backgrounds. Yet Edwards, who operated ten different Daleks in the new episode, reckoned that they had it easy.

“We have, over the years, studied our ancestors and looked at old episodes of Doctor Who to work out the little tricks the Daleks have,” Wilson said. “That’s especially true with this episode because we knew we were going to be recreating old Daleks. The basic principles are the same, but in terms of operation, the old-style Daleks…I don’t want to do the old guys down but they had it slightly easier. They are much easier to operate because they’re lighter.

...

 

 

picture phones at at&t

They have been around approximately forever - here is a history page.  And a video of the introduction of one of the attempts at commercialization

 

A good deal of Bell Labs effort went into this and it even produced a Nobel Prize for the ccd image sensor. The Labs did really fundamental work - even in working on engineering problems.  The interview video gives a good sense of the old Bell Labs)

followup on hbo's weight of the nation...

excellent - they now have all four episodes online for those (like us) without HBO at home...  I sampled #1 and watched #3 (on childhood obsesity and nutrition).

Features like these rarely cause large changes, but sometimes they make contributions in the right direction.  This is a serious problem that is preventable ..  if someone attached the country and killed 0.01% of what it does. we'd be enraged and would stop at  nothing in taking them out.