Saturday, September 27, 2008

Iron Giant predecessor???

If you've seen the kids film Iron Giant you will undoubtedly remember the robot re-building itself. Possible in reality??

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Bad Dream Robots

Here's some material for that next "creepy robot chasing you" dream.



You don't see too much of this type of robotics. Usually they seem more clumsy, mechanical, and still quite primitive. This one was methodical, dilligent, yet sure-footed and seemingly mammalian. Think Llama or Bighorn Sheep. It certainly conjures different images of the next robotics generation. Maybe we should be scared.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Hubble finds weird new object


A new observation of a "mystery" object was seen over a period of about three months recently from the Hubble Space Telescope. Now for some strangeness....


It was found outside any known galaxy seeming to mean it was kind of in the middle of nowhere.


It was of a different spectrum than all known or recorded supernova and, in fact, the spectrum was not found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database.


So what this really means is that some new class of celestial phenomena has been discovered. (Barring any discrepencies or scientific error). Everything new thing we find usually puzzles us even more, but they are certainly important in revising our understanding of the universe.


I was skeptical of this story originally, because it seems to be quite an anomaly on perhaps a grand scale. It hasn't yet been reported by NASA or any Hubble source that I've yet seen, but is published here.


And the technical report is here.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Hurricane Ike from ISS


A humbling view of the massiveness of Hurricane Ike from the International Space Station. Perhaps a picture like this should have been shown to all those that stayed home.
"You can stay here if you really, really want, but know that THIS thing is coming into your neighborhood very soon". "Don't make us come back here to rescue your sorry, up on the roof of your house, butt. Just get out." Sadly many didn't heed the warning

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Search for ET ala NASA


NASA has just announced Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration. This should speed up the discovery and identification of new planets throughout our galaxy. And in the spirit of Sagan, the search for extraterrestrial life will undoubtedly remain a critical driver in the development of newer and better techniques and technologies to help study our heavens.


I wonder how humanity might react as we encounter deep space signatures of something very much like Earth.


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Hurricane Tracker

You should check out this link if you'd like a nice visual way to track current hurricanes. I've posted the link on the right tab, but thought it worth mentioning. It has been an interesting season thus far. Lets hope for the best.