Spirit Landing on Mars

I am still amazed at what we can do. Here, if you haven't seen it before, is how you send a rover to Mars. And here might be the first planet in our solar system that we step foot on. Just wait.

Deep Sea Fish

Deepest-living Fishes Caught On Camera For First Time

ScienceDaily (2008-10-08) -- Scientists filming in one of the world's deepest ocean trenches have found groups of highly sociable snailfish swarming over their bait, nearly five miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. This is the first time cameras have been sent to this depth. ... > read full article

Walk in the Woods

A walk in the woods. What's the point??

It's difficult to convey the moments of experience. We have cameras and words to help describe our experiences. A simple walk in the woods can reflect so much, but the ability to express and capture these moments doesn't even begin to rival the time itself . And it is unfortunate that more of us can't feel and enjoy the small slices of peace that we sometimes are presented. At least for me, a simple walk in the woods can literally do wonders..

And the surprises on a walk like that can refresh the wonder, curiosity, and bio-aesthetic appreciation that we all have. As I walked with my children, we discovered a snake skin, funky fungus, footprints, cicada shells, two deer, and a vine to swing from. Soon my children were ahead of me at a reasonable distance. Slanted pillars of sunlight plunged through to the forest floor as I manuevered around them. Insects vocalized into a comfortably numbing audio background. Glistening spider-webs appeared like hanging mirrors. Perfectly structured webs. Reflections of ancient DNA. A grand history of arachnid success discovered by mere observation.

A walk in the woods can be inspiring.

Iron Giant predecessor???

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

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.

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.

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