When Science Fiction Takes Over the Headlines

Posted on April 1, 2008 by David

This story reads like beginning of a science fiction novel: Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More – New York Times.

I offer this to those of you who heard me speak about my experience getting stranded outside of the scientific facility where the Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Apparently, the world may end there as well. The possibilities include destruction by black hole or big dragons, take your pick.

Underestimate the work of CERN at your own peril.

(This is not an April Fools story by the way, if highly unlikely.)

Google Moon

Posted on July 20, 2005 by David

Google has launched Google Moon in honor of the Apollo landings. This uses the same interface as their excellent Google Maps. Be sure to zoom in all the way to learn exactly what the moon is made of.

Mojave Airport Weblog

Posted on June 18, 2005 by David

Want to keep up with the latest in private space travel and experimental flight in general? Check out Alan’s Mojave Airport Weblog.

Welcome to the Mojave Airport Weblog. This is one of the most unique airports in the world, with a huge variety of different aviation and space activities centered here, from flight test to airliner storage, from spacecraft development to antique aircraft restoration. This blog is an attempt to provide a glimpse at some of the more exciting happenings. “

The 2 most recent entries are about a scrubbed X-37 flight and a junior rocketeers event. Most entries have excellent pictures as well. I was a model rocketry geek in my youth and hope my daughter has an interest. 🙂 Of course, I would probably need to take her about 100 miles out from DC so as not to attract the Cessna interceptor squadron.

(Via MAKE Blog.)

Apollo Pix

Posted on July 24, 2004 by David

This temporary site has new scans of photos from the Apollo space missions. Check ’em out!

Welcome to Mars

Posted on January 4, 2004 by David

Welcome to Mars. A panorama shot created from the first images taken by the Spirit rover on the surface of Mars.

Google Goes SETI

Posted on March 30, 2003 by David

The Google Compute Project is an extension of the Google Search Bar that will add your computer to a network of others that are working on collaborative processing projects, ala the wildly successful SETA@home project. (No ETs found yet, though.) Google will use your computer to do computations during periods of time that it has extra processing power avaiable (such as when you are reading weblogs). Looks like they are donating the processing time to charities and/or academic research projects. (Via Google Weblog.)