crooked indifference

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Thu, 17 May 2012 07:49:54 -0700

Apollo 7 Launch

Thu, 17 May 2012 06:27:52 -0700

Apollo 7 Launch

Facebook Mobile App: Leading the way in slow, boring mobile...

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:02:00 -0700

Facebook Mobile App: Leading the way in slow, boring mobile applications since 2008

Be the breakfast burrito that you want to see in the world.

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:27:00 -0700

“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our...

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:17:39 -0700

“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? …

We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win …

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, ‘Because it is there.’ Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the Moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”

President Kennedy speaks at Rice University on the American space program, September 12, 1962.

Hubble Watches Light from Mysterious Erupting Star Reverberate...

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:57:47 -0700

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Hubble Watches Light from Mysterious Erupting Star Reverberate Through Space

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Wed, 16 May 2012 07:19:30 -0700

Svalbard Global Seed Vault A secure seedbank located on the...

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:02:29 -0700

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

A secure seedbank located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole. The facility preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. The seeds are duplicate samples, or “spare” copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

"Behold the Sea, The opaline, the plentiful and strong, Yet beautiful as is the rose in June, Fresh..."

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:20:27 -0700

“Behold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sea Shore.

jamesnord: Finally got to meet Shah last night, and then we...

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:28:20 -0700

jamesnord:

Finally got to meet Shah last night, and then we proceeded to shut down the bar.

Good times and great conversation with Mr. Nord.

Animated fractal mountain

Tue, 15 May 2012 07:40:41 -0700

Animated fractal mountain

Hasselblad 500EL/M used in the NASA’s Apollo Program

Tue, 15 May 2012 06:31:35 -0700

Hasselblad 500EL/M used in the NASA’s Apollo Program

grapevinetwine: Buddy from today

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:39:08 -0700

grapevinetwine:

Buddy from today

ilovecharts: Yeah, Geeks! AKA a regular day at the office.

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:15:48 -0700

ilovecharts:

Yeah, Geeks!

AKA a regular day at the office.

Photo

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:02:18 -0700

Lunar orbit rendezvous

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:31:05 -0700

Lunar orbit rendezvous

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Mon, 14 May 2012 08:57:39 -0700

Radiolab: Is There an Edge to the Heavens? Edward Dolnick tells...

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:00:29 -0700

Radiolab: Is There an Edge to the Heavens?

Edward Dolnick tells an escape story involving God, humanity, and a huge rewrite of cosmic laws. It began in 1665. A plague hit Cambridge University. All of the students were sent home. One of them is a twenty-something Isaac Newton, who spent his forced summer vacation solving “the problem of the moon” and explaining why that heavenly rock will never be free.

Sucks for the moon. But Newton’s mental leap ultimately lead to humanity leaving the confines of planet Earth. And as producer Lynn Levy explains, we’re about to reach yet another new frontier. The Voyager probe (which we talked about in our Space episode) is about to become the first human-made object to leave the solar system. And the information it’s been sending us along the way has upended what we thought we knew about our little corner of the universe. Merav Opher is an astronomy professor at BU and a Voyager guest investigator. Ann Druyan is one of the creators of the 1977 Golden Album traveling on the Voyager probe. Together they describe how Voyager continues to surprise us.

The first ever printed version of the Rhombicuboctahedron was by...

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:31:08 -0700

The first ever printed version of the Rhombicuboctahedron was by Leonardo da Vinci, as appeared in the Divina Proportione by Luca Pacioli 1509

jtotheizzoe: crookedindifference: The Most Astounding Fact by...

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:34:33 -0700

jtotheizzoe:

crookedindifference:

The Most Astounding Fact by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.

When you take something great, like the musings of the mind of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and combine it with something else great, like stunning images of life and wonder on and off of Earth … you get this.

It’s the sort of video that makes you prop your chin up in your hand, with your head tilted just so (yeah, like that), as you stare at your computer screen mumbling things like “Ahhh“ and “Wooahh” and other unintelligible noises that mean “I approve of this, and it makes me feel good.”

Watch it once, then twice, then with a friend.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ph.D. (October 5, 1958)]
“The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them went unstable in their later years they collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas cloud that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems. Stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.

So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up – many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big – but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant you want to feel like a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive…”