crooked indifference

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:54:25 -0700

urhajos: WRDBNR

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:08:26 -0700

urhajos:

WRDBNR

Spacelab and the Shuttle

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:30:17 -0700

Spacelab and the Shuttle

Photo

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:17 -0700

In a sketch prepared in November 1964, Dr. Wernher von Braun...

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:30:15 -0700

In a sketch prepared in November 1964, Dr. Wernher von Braun envisioned developing a Saturn V S-II Stage into a space station.

sirmitchell: You guys, I am thrilled to finally share this with...

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:14:13 -0700

sirmitchell:

You guys, I am thrilled to finally share this with you. It’s the first time I’ve ever curated a show, and it’s a theme that I’m very passionate about. Take a gander at the artist list, get yourself pumped up and come to the show, it’s going to be a stellar time.

I’m going. For sure.

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:26:50 -0700

Photo

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:30:06 -0700

1883 photo of the Orion Nebula made by Andrew Ainslie Common for...

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:00:04 -0700

1883 photo of the Orion Nebula made by Andrew Ainslie Common for which he won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1884.

spaceplasma: Centerbody Flames The images shown are photographs...

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:33:50 -0700

spaceplasma:

Centerbody Flames

The images shown are photographs of ethylene/air/nitrogen diffusion flames stabilized behind a bluff centerbody. The two images on the top show the centerbody flame photographed from the side (top left) and top views (top right). The blue regions are associated with the flame front and the other colors of the flame are largely due to blackbody radiation from the soot. The intense yellow radiation is from soot trapped in a tight ring vortex downstream of the stabilizing bluff body. The motion of the soot trapped in the vortex can be seen in the longer exposure photograph taken from the top.

The bottom two images are of a centerbody flame with the same inlet flow velocities as the case shown above but with higher nitrogen content in the feed gases. The image on the lower left shows a blue ring flame that forms around the main flame immediately downstream of the centerbody. This blue ring flame exhibits a slight oscillation in the vertical direction. The image on the lower right shows the region downstream of the ring flame for the same conditions. The disturbances in the downstream region of the flame are amplified as it passes through the tube, resulting in the large structures shown in the short exposure (0.8 ms) photo.

Credit: Scott Stouffer, Garth Justinger (University of Dayton Research Institute), Mel Roquemore, Amy Lynch, Vince Belovich, Joe Zelina, Jim Gord (Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base), Keith Grinstead, Vish Katta and Kyle Frische (Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated)

Keck-2 Telescope Laser at Night

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:30:25 -0700

Keck-2 Telescope Laser at Night

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:46:09 -0700

1957 | SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA - National Geographic magazine’s...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:25:24 -0700

1957 | SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA - National Geographic magazine’s Thomas Abercrombie, first correspondent to reach the South Pole, flies the Society’s flag from the Pole while reporting on the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58. (Photo by Thomas J. Abercrombie)

Photo

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:30:16 -0700

Helios B Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as Helios 1 and...

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:00:15 -0700

Helios B

Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as Helios 1 and Helios 2), are a pair of probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of studying solar processes. A joint venture of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and NASA, the probes were launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 10, 1974, and Jan. 15, 1976, respectively.
The probes are notable for having set a maximum speed record among spacecraft at 252,792 km/h (157,078 mi/h or 43.63 mi/s or 70.22 km/s or 0.000234c). Helios 2 flew three million kilometers closer to the Sun than Helios 1, achieving perihelion on 17 April 1976 at a record distance of 0.29 AU (or 43.432 million kilometers), slightly inside the orbit of Mercury. Helios 2 was sent into orbit 13 months after the launch of Helios 1. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, but they continued to send data up to 1985. The probes are no longer functional but still remain in their elliptical orbit around the Sun

Orion’s Belt

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:30:13 -0700

Orion’s Belt

knowledgethroughscience: Satellite ESTCube-1’s first image from...

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:53:06 -0700

knowledgethroughscience:

Satellite ESTCube-1’s first image from the orbit of the Earth.

The Sea's Strangest Square Mile

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:40:34 -0700

jkottke:

You’ve heard of Weird Twitter but now there’s Weird Ocean. This square mile of water in the Lembeh Strait has some of the strangest and most unique marine life on the planet.

Includes an appearance by the always delightful cuttlefish. (via @Colossal)

jtotheizzoe: NASA’s 19-Gigapixel Filmstrip of the Earth With...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:44:55 -0700

jtotheizzoe:

NASA’s 19-Gigapixel Filmstrip of the Earth

With the newest generation of Landsat satellites up and snappin’, in orbit over 400 miles above us, NASA continues a mission over a generation in the making: Observing a beautiful and changing planet from above.

This video features 56 photos stitched together in a continuous 19-gigapixel image that stretches from Russia to South Africa. Dig in to the interactive “Long Swath” at NASA’s Earth Observatory. This image covers almost 1.7 million square kilometers, but it would take over 300 of them to paint a picture of all of Earth’s surface.

Bonus: Combine this with Google’s Earth Engine to gain a perspective on our planet once reseved for time-traveling astronauts.

(via The Atlantic)

Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:17:40 -0700

Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit:

jtotheizzoe:

climateadaptation:

These channels are failing the spirit of conservationism and education. They are failing inspiring awe in young people. Failing much needed inspiration in a very confused and conflicted world.

These shows are failing their core values, their main purpose, which is leadership in environmentalism and cultural education. Far worse, they are failing millions of young people - millions - who look up to them.

Please join me in asking Discovery, Animal Planet, and the History Channels to stop, apologize, and correct.

That’s an important read up there, folks. These “reality” shows are feeding an outdated and unscientific view of predator species. These are channels founded on principles of education and conservation (TLC, of course, left the building years ago). Are they willing to sacrifice that for what appears to be gratuitous bloodsport?

Like any media, you can vote with your eyeballs. And if you support any kind of rights for wild animals and natural spaces, you can not support these programs. If the account above is true, shame on these networks.

It speaks to part of a larger issue with nature films. The amazing footage we see in shows like Africa, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet is rarely the result of serendipity. It involves years of careful research and preparation to maximize the chances of capturing nature’s majesty on camera, and what is captured is highly edited to create story, drama and emotion. These are uniquely human interests, and nature doesn’t include them in her original script.

That’s not to say we are being fleeced all the time. People like Sir David Attenborough take these concerns very seriously, and constantly strive to find the balance between entertainment and true nature in every varying instance. What we watch is real. But is it REAL?

I wonder how many people realize that, for instance, the famous polar bear birth scene from Frozen Planet was filmed in a zoo? Disney’s adorable Chimpanzee movie was not a documentary, but rather spliced together to create an emotional tale of adoption. Jason Goldman put together a great collection of opinions on the matter.

How far can we take allowances to deliver good edutainment before we are delivering bad science? The “reality” shows surely fail the test. But the others? What do you think?