Flying out of this World

Space Junk, Orbital Debris

2011-09-24T07:15:00.001-07:00

An abandoned 6.5-ton satellite, UARS: Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite reentered the earth's atmosphere. NASA reported early this morning that it does not know where the remains are located. This is a perplexing statement from the "people in charge" of this operation. One would like to think that their tracking equipment could actually track the huge installations they have launched into space. Orbital debris, a.k.a. Space Junk is increasing.

NASA's website reports the "decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24."

NASA Officials said "it entered the atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean" but the "precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty."

More info here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasa-uars-satellite-crashes-earth-location-unknown/story?id=14595092

Comet Elenin C/2010 X1 Animation

2011-06-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010%20X1;orb=1;cad=1;cov=0;log=0#phys_par

Dust Devil

2011-03-27T15:30:00.001-07:00

Homemade Space Craft

2010-12-09T16:53:00.001-08:00

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Flying Foam 3D Printer

2010-11-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

John Armleder....Too Much is not Enough

2010-08-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for a photo of that quintessential prone chandelier piece by John Armleder. Couldn't find a photo of it, but did find this excellent disco-ball installation.

Aerial Apparitions by Adam Ekberg

2010-08-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Aberation, 2006, Photograph Inkjet print on paper

Disco Ball on the Mountain, 2005, Photograph Inkjet on paper

The artist's website: www.adamekberg.com

Hélica, Steampowered Plane Without Wings

2010-08-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

In 1919 Marcel Leyat founded a French automobile factory. Its first model was known as the Hélica, a plane without wings, capable of carrying multiple passengers. The vehicle was steered by turning the rear wheels, and powered by a large propeller powered by a an 8 bhp (boiler horse power) engine. The 550 pound body of the Hélica was made of wood, and reached a speed of 106 mph in a 1927 race.

European Union Calls for U.S. to Open X-files

2010-07-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

From the Associated Press July 6, 2010
BRUSSELS (AP)
Stephanie Fleming

An Italian member of the European Parliament, Mario Borghezio, told the Associated Press that the European Union needs access to the U.S. classified information on UFO, including, but not limited to U.S. Military data. European lawmakers called Tuesday for member governments to open their "secret X-files" to provide transparency to all people. Borghezio said all European governments should go public and stop what he called a "systematic cover-up. Britain posted 4,000 pages online last year, and over the past three years, the British defense ministry has been gradually releasing previously secret UFO papers after facing Freedom of Information demands.

"I think that, under the principle of transparency, the EU member states have a duty to make public and available to all scientific data on UFOs which today are partially or wholly withheld," he wrote in the e-mail.

The truth is out there....it's just stuck in government archives.

U.S. Launches Surveillance Satellite to Monitor Space Junk

2010-07-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

There are more than 20,000 pieces of human made debris orbiting the earth, in addition to the 1,000 active satellites (which will eventually become debris). Read more about NASA's plan to monitor orbital debris, otherwise known as Space Junk here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/03/AR2010070301160.html

And their "Greening of Orbital Debris" plan here:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/ask-academy/issues/volume2/AA_2-12_F_greening.html

Moon Solar Station

2010-06-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

A "big dream" of the Shimuzu Corporation is to construct an enormous "Luna Ring" solar power generator on the moon. Read about it on their site: http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/lunaring.html

Spiral Atmospheric Lights over Norway

2009-12-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

This interesting light phenomena occurred on Dec. 9, 2009 over Norway. Seen by thousands of people, photographed by many different points of view. Several conflicting theories: an unusual natural phenomena; a wormhole in the fabric of space-time possibly caused by an event at the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland; a failed Soviet missile launch; an unidentified flying object, or.....? You decide.
Another theory is that the lights originated from the HAARP, the HIPAS facility near Fairbanks, Alaska, or the HAARP antenna site near Tromso, Norway, and relates to human-caused ionospheric heating.

Water on the Moon

2009-11-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

Scientists have confirmed that a significant amount of water has been found on the moon, as reported by Anthony Colaprete, an investigator for NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. The Lcross Satellite crashed into a crater near the South Pole of the moon, the impact of which stirred up several gallons of water.

Questions are raised by this discovery, not only about possible life forms past or present; but also, at least to my mind, issues of colonization, ownership & property rights, and whether humans will believe that this is "their" resource to use and or exploit, and if so, which humans? Americans, or all humans?

300,000 Birds

2009-11-12T18:51:00.001-08:00

This is one of the most beautiful videos I've seen.

Excellent Blog About Space

2009-10-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Wanderingspace.net is a fabulous blog on which was posted this gorgeous map of Space Exploration, from National Geographic Magazine.

Teenagers take images from space with a camera and balloon

2009-03-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html
Four Spanish teenagers built a camera-operated weather balloon and sent it into the statosphere!

Chu Yun's Constellation

2009-03-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Dark room installation with many small flashing lights. They are coming from household appliances & electronics in pause or error mode.

Abandoned UFO house in Wanli, Taiwan

2009-03-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Cypherone's amazing flickr set of images of this abandoned UFO-style house in Wanli, which is on the North coast of Taiwan.
See more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cypherone/sets/72157608219667225/

Mars Exploration Rover's dusty solar panels

2009-03-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

The Spirit Mars exploration rover's solar panels are covered with dust as seen in this image. The dust has caused the rover to travel only one hour per day before having to spend and additonal day charging it's batteries.

NASA evidence of Past Life on Mars

2009-03-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Moller Skycars

2009-03-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Paul Moller speaks on TED about his flying cars
Moller Skycar Website

Experimental French multiplane, 1890's

2009-03-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Satellite Collision Creates Tons of New Space Junk

2009-02-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

New Scientist reported on February 12, that two space satellites smashed into each other on Tuesday in an unprecedented orbital accident. Government agencies are still assessing the aftermath, but early radar measurements have detected hundreds of pieces of debris that could pose a risk to other spacecraft. As first reported by CBS News, a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and a communication satellite owned by the US firm Iridium collided some 790 kilometres above northern Siberia on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009.

"This is the first time that two intact spacecraft have accidentally run into each other," says Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office in Houston, Texas.

More info at NEW SCIENTIST.

Daniel Wurtzel's Floating World

2009-02-03T06:48:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn based artist Daniel Wurtzel makes elegant sculpturesincorporating light weight materials suspended in a column of air. More information at http://www.danielwurtzel.com

(a) gravity weightless narratives

2008-11-22T10:20:00.001-08:00

- Cast a meter of ribbon into the air and capture its trajectory and its movement in mid-flight (Tom Marioni)
- Float an object in space (Edith Dekyndt)
- Compare the ratio of weight and volume of a given body and experience the effect of its density (Didier Vermeiren)
- Walk vertically up a wall (Trisha Brown)
- Let oneself tumble and analyze the fall (Yoko Ono)

These are just a few propositions, or experimental methods, that make it possible to test gravity, to extricate oneself from it, or to render weightlessness tangible…
The laws of attraction and gravity invisibly govern the movement of the world and the elements: the incessant ebb and flow of the tides, the revolution of the planets. The universe is thus defined by its equilibrium of opposing forces. These imperceptible phenomena determine and delimit our way of being in the world, our dislocations, and irrevocably bind us to the earth.
From the fantasies of flying or floating (as revealed by the sublimity and pathos of Gino de Dominicis' attempt to transform himself into a man-bird, or by Yves Klein's angelic leap suspended in mid-air), to the philosophies of religious or metaphysical transcendence, humanity has aspired to elevation and desired to be free from alienation of and subjugation to gravity… Including the contemporary demand for lightness, from "lite" food to our relations to others, passing through the domain of thought…
This physical and existential dialectic, which is in a permanent state of oscillation between height and willful falling, drives us to explore the limits of balance and these opposing forces.
Vertigo, floating, rocking, inversion of perception, power, and tension are some key words to help guide the viewer through the exhibition which makes light of gravity in order either to subvert it or to make us experience it, in the lightness of dust as well as in the imposing physical presence of a ton of weight "suspended" in the air.

ACCESS / 49 NORD 6 EST - Frac Lorraine, 1bis rue des Trinitaires, F-57000 Metz
http://www.fraclorraine.org

The Integratron

2008-11-18T16:51:00.001-08:00

In 1947 George van Tassel, a former aircraft mechanic and flight inspector for Howard Hughes, moved to Landers, California where he purchased “Giant Rock,” a massive 7 story freestanding boulder. With the intent of launching a tourist attraction, van Tassel opened a café and airport near the rock, which happened to be a sacred site revered by the Native Americans. Years before, a prospector named Frank Critzer excavated a series of tunnels and caves beneath the sacred rock. Critzer was considered somewhat of an eccentric, and as he was a German immigrant “mining” beneath the Rock during World War II, he came to be suspected a spy. He was tragically killed in a police siege at the base of the Rock in 1942. Van Tassel occasionally worked with Critzer in his uncle’s garage and learned of Giant Rock through him.
After acquiring the site, van Tassel began to regularly meditate within Critzer’s caves. In 1951 he claimed that during meditation he had “astrally projected” to an alien spaceship orbiting the earth, where he met the omnipotent Venusians (travelers from the planet Venus). Purportedly, after several “astral” visitations, the beings from the “Council of the Seven Lights” visited him on earth and instructed him to build a structure to “extend human life.”

Van Tassel began building a wood and fiberglass structure that he deemed “The Integratron.” The design was based upon a domed machine he allegedly encountered while aboard the Venusian flying saucer. Van Tassel proposed that the Giant Rock site was a powerful vortex, and that a domed building would concentrate the earth’s natural energy. Human visitors could harness this energy and focus their own electrical forces to create “resonance” and recharge their cells like a battery. He did warn his followers to exercise caution when telepathically communicating with the “Space Brethren” inside the Integratron ….due to the potential of over-stimulation resulting in spontaneous human combustion.

Van Tassel founded a research organization known as the “Ministry of Universal Wisdom,” and began hosting an annual UFO conference called the Giant Rock Spacecraft Convention (1953-1978). Needless to say his airport and café were never more successful. He continued to make slight alterations on the structure until his death in 1978.

Post: In the early spring of 2002, Giant Rock split in two. The structure now exists as a roadside tourist attraction, though there have been several proposals to convert it into a Joshua Tree disco. A loosely organized UFO-cult called the Ashtar Command now claims to have resumed van Tassel’s original vision.

Astronaut Loses Tool Bag in Space

2008-11-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

Not the first incident of space junk, that's for sure. Here's an amusing article from the AP. A spacewalking astronaut has had a grease gun erupt in her bag, and the tote has drifted off into space. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (stef-uh-NIHshun PIE-pur) was wiping the grease off her spacesuit Tuesday when she accidentally let go of the bag outside the international space station. The bag floated off, and the astronauts were not able to do anything about it. She was on the spacewalk with Stephen Bowen. He had his own tool bag with another grease gun, putty knife and oven-like terry cloth mitts. They are using those tools to wipe away metal grit from a clogged joint at the space station. Mission Control says the spacewalk will continue as planned, and that the two astronauts will share tools.

This reminds me of a camera an astronaut lost in space:

2008 Steampunk Convention

2008-11-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

American Concept Car Archive

2008-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Archive of American Concept Cars: http://viacomit.free.fr/index.php/2008/10/21/american-concept-cars/

GEO GOO

2008-10-27T08:37:00.002-07:00

Of course JODI would do something this cool.
Visit their multiverse at: http://www.jodi.org

JODI (www.jodi.org), the wild Belgian-Dutch pioneer dopplegangers of Net Art, explore the relations between the constructed world of the Internet hybridized with mental maps and physical maps. GoogleMaps has radically changed our perception and global worldviews through it's commercial multi-user surface. JODI has recreated the 'Parc Royal' of Brussels (Warande Park) by by mapping geometrical constructs gleaned from Goolge Earth onto reality thus revealing symbols and mysteries, amplifying and deconstructing these manifestations as INFO PARK, an associative agglomeration of data.

From the press release for the show at IMAL, Center for Digital Cultures and Technologies:
For centuries, geometry has been overloaded with symbols, starting from pure mathematical objects to esoteric and mystic signs, hiding in complex figures meanings to be revealed to the gurus, the persons in the know or the psychedelic explorers. Geometrical shapes and lines were drawn on the territories, the cities, the architectures and the monuments or the crop fields. The Royal Parc of Brussels is a well known example with its triangle + circle = Masonic compass. JODI is connecting this long tradition of tracing geometry on the ground with the new geometries one can draw on the surface of the Earth as proposed by online tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth. Of course, the duo of artists draws in a pure JODI style: hectic and free traces resulting from extreme coding and hacking. As they always did since their first web pages in 1995, JODI uses the codes of Internet (e.g. html) and the codes inside the computers (binary) as their artistic material. They paved the way for Net Art and renewed Computer Arts as much as Nam June Paik opened new fields for video art. But the work of JODI plays also with the processes of coding/decoding, of deciphering cryptic data in a chaotic surface. Messages are hidden, only visible to the ones who will dare to dig into the code (see http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/). In the exhibition GEOGOO (Info Park), many things can be constructed into meanings, it just depends on you and your capacity to disconnect and reconnect: the radial glimpses of the sunshines in the video, the 3 DJ turntables laid on a perfect triangle at the visitor's disposal (backmasking!), the jogging walks through Brussels roundabouts. And if you can not reconfigure, just contemplate, it is beautifully rewarding.

Misty's Disappearance

2008-10-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Misty's Disappearance, by Eve Andree Laramee
/seconds #8 Edited by Peter Lewis

Here's a link to a project I have in the online journal "slashseconds" #8. The issue, "Vanishing Point: The Vicious and Virtuous Circle" focuses on works inspired by the 1971 film Vanishing Point, directed by Richard Sarafian, a quintessential road film. To view the project online:
Misty's Disappearance, by Eve Andree Laramee
My project, Misty's Disappearance, is a photo-text piece that is in response the true story of a woman who stole the last running Dodge Challenger used in the film, and drove off into the Mojave Desert. My fictionalization retells the story from her perspective, giving it a different ending than in reality. Each page is clickable, so you can read the text in an enlarged format.

I wish to thank Richard C. Sarafian, director, and Dennis J. Parrish, art director and prop master, for kindly sharing their experiences and memories by telephone on June 30, 2008. They spoke candidly about the making of the film, and the incident when the last running Dodge Challenger was stolen by a woman who drove off with it into the desert. I learned of this event by way of Sarafian’s audio commentary on the 2003 UK DVD release where he states: “Finally we had only one car left, and what happened, there was a lady, or we’ll call her a hooker, that the crew thought they sort of saved from a local hook joint, and she was traveling with the crew, and the word came back that Misty took off with our only car. The state police tracked her down in a helicopter, we were late that morning to work, but we got the car back. And we often talk about Misty. I don’t know where she is now.” In the telephone conversation with Sarafian, he said that after Misty spent the evening with several men on the crew, possibly at the Mitzpah Hotel in Tonapah, she stole the keys from one of them, and was eventually tracked down by helicopter at the California Border. Parrish has a slightly different account of the event: he does not remember the woman’s name but is certain that Misty is incorrect. He did confirm that a woman by another name, who was well known to the crew, did in fact steal the last running Challenger, and was apprehended by the California Highway Patrol in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area two or three days later. Parish too said he did not know where Misty was now, or if she is still alive. He said, Sarafian “took it all in stride finding the event hilarious,” and that any other director would be furious and screaming, but he accepted it as part of the extended story. They both described the weeks during which the film was shot as a series of magical surreal, moments in time, and remarked on the metaphysical and spiritual subtext of the film and how this quality significantly sets it apart from other road films of the era.

My project is a fictionalization of Misty/Desirée’s point of view of the car theft. Rather than interpreting her story as a crime, or a reversal of loss, or worse a disaster, I seek to create a fictional terrain: geographic, psychological and cognitive, in which the reader/viewer imagines the days of her disappearance. The intention is to provide “Misty” with an escape into an alternative history and an alternative future, had her luck or circumstances been different. I delight in the fact that Sarafian saw her actions as a “perfectly surreal event” in relation to the film. My project opens up a space for Misty’s release: she makes her get away, was not apprehended, the crew cheers her on, there are no surveillance helicopters, no California Highway Patrolmen, only her own psychological complexities to deal with. She makes it to the waters of the Gulf of California, that slip of sea between Baja and mainland Mexico to begin her new life. Ever onward, Misty/Desirée. Plus ultra, more beyond.

Space rock found on collision course with Earth

2008-10-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Astronomers have found an object on a certain collision course with Earth. Fortunately, it is so small it is not expected to cause any damage, burning up in the atmosphere somewhere above northern Sudan in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. It may, however, produce a brilliant 'shooting star'.

More info at NewScientistSpace

Giant Swallow Returns

2008-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Via Jeni on http://wndring.blogspot.com

More info on the Giant Swallow project http://www.complex.com/blogs/2008/05/20/giant-birds-nest-takes-over-office-building

A-10 Sugarbolt III

2008-09-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Graham Coreil-Allen's 2007 proposal.

The “A-10 Sugarbolt III” will be a 1/3rd size interpretation
of the A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support jet used in
both the 1991 and current Iraq wars. The craft will con-
sist of a semi soft, light weight plastic skeleton, wrapped
in a multi-colored skin of grocery bags. A twelve person
support crew will use 10’ PVC poles to float the craft
above their heads. Each wing will carry a “bomb”
carefully designed to drop candy on willing spectators.
During the parade, crew members will turbulently
shake the craft’s wings to activate candy bombing.
In addition, crew members will expand and
collapse the flexible wings depending on parade
conditions. Peace will be achieved through
visual pleasure and oral pacification.

150 MPH British Steam Powered Car

2008-09-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Unlike a steam locomotive, which uses a steam-powered injector system, the British Steam Car uses compressed-air-powered hydraulics to inject distilled water and pre-prime itself. The water is pumped into the start of 1.86 miles of tubing to develop three megawatts of heat to convert water into 750 F steam. This super-heated “dry” steam is then directed down the car via heavily lagged pipes and two enormous industrial steam valves, which act as throttles, and then into the two-stage turbine. “That’s where we turn pressure into velocity,” says Candy. The steam is injected into the turbine at over two times the speed of sound; under the assault, the turbine revolves at up to 13,000 rpm. The turbine drives the rear wheels via a conventional crown wheel and pinion. The vehicle turns 10.5 gallons of water a minute into super-heated steam at 40 times atmospheric pressure. More information here on the Hacked Gadgets Blog

Flying Art Causes Chaos in Switzerland

2008-08-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

I saw this story at breitbart.com
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080811192637.nkspe7sd&show_article=1

Marine Worm Jaws = Cutting Edge Aerospace Technology

2008-07-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

Researchers in California and New Hampshire report the first detailed characterization of the protein composition of the hard, fang-like jaws of a common marine worm. Their work could lead to the design of a new class of super-strong, lightweight materials for use as construction and repair materials for spacecraft, airplanes, and other applications.
In the new study, Chris C. Broomell and colleagues note that Nereis virens, also known as the sandworm or ragworm, is a burrowing marine worm found in shallow waters in the North Atlantic region. Researchers remain intrigued by the remarkable hardness of its jaws and long pincers, which rivals that of human teeth and exceed the hardness of many synthetic plastics. But little is known about the exact chemical composition of these structures.
Broomell and colleagues collected the jaws of 1,000 worms and analyzed their protein content using high-tech instrumentation. They found that the primary chemical in the jaws and pincers of the worm is a unique protein, named Nereis virens jaw protein-1 (Nvjp-1), which is rich in the amino acid histidine.The researchers also characterized the chemical conditions needed for its formation, such as the presence of zinc, which could allow researchers to create synthetic versions of this super-hard, lightweight material.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Journal reference:
Broomell et al. Cutting Edge Structural Protein from the Jaws of Nereis virens. Biomacromolecules, 2008; 9 (6): 1669 DOI: 10.1021/bm800200a
Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

UFOs Invade Seoul

2008-07-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

Many lovely blinky lights in the Chungyo-Dong hardware/lighting district of Seoul.

Two more sightings in Seoul

2008-07-12T03:54:00.000-07:00

Faceless "Aliens" Spotted In Crowds

2008-07-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places. The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John's White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.
With a membrane of skin stretched tightly over their eyes, noses and mouths, the alien-like figures were most recently snapped 'watching' a match perched on Murray Mount at Wimbledon.
Close inspection of the pictures rules out an alien invasion - small perforations around the eye areas of the masks allow the people beneath to see the world outside. But nobody knows who the faceless figures, who often appear as motionless couples are, or why they are turning up at high profile events.
Theories include the possibilities that they are limelight-seeking pranksters, performance artists or that they are at the centre of a viral marketing campaign for an as-yet unknown product of forthcoming horror film. Speculation has even arisen that the masks hide a pair of well-know faces, fed up with being harrassed by the paparazzi. This faceless figure even has his own driver, fuelling speculation that the man behind the mask may be a celebrity himself. One blogger wrote on the Moue Magazine website: "They probably aren’t just random people off of the street. "If it ends up being a pair of celebrities who have had it with being photographed all of the time and are staging a protest, I vow to support every project they appear on from now on."

We May All Be Aliens

2008-06-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday.

European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor fragment, are truly extraterrestrial. Previous studies had suggested that the space rocks, which hit Earth some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact. Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead author Zita Martins, a researcher at Imperial College London.

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is another key part of the genetic coding that makes up our bodies. These molecules would also have been essential to the still-mysterious alchemy that somehow gave rise, some four billion years ago, to life itself. "We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite, which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago," Martins told AFP in an interview. Competing theories suggest that nucleobases were synthesised closer to home, but Martins counters that the atmospheric conditions of early Earth would have rendered that process difficult or impossible. A team of European and US scientists showed that the two types of molecules in the Australian meteorite contained a heavy form of carbon -- carbon 13 -- which could only have been formed in space.

"We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding, enabling them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations," Martins said. If so, this would have been the start of an evolutionary process leading over billions of years to all the flora and fauna -- including human beings -- in existence today.

The study, published in Earth Planetary Science Letters, also has implications for life on other planets. "Because meteorities represent leftover materials from the formation of the solar system, the key components of life -- including nucleobases --could be widespread in the cosmos," said co-author Mark Sephton, also at Imperial College London. "As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely," he said. Uracil is an organic compound found in RNA, where it binds in a genetic base pair with another molecule, adenine. Xanthine is not directly part of RNA or DNA, but participates in a series of chemical reactions inside the RNA of cells.

The two types of nucleobases and the ratio of light-to-heavy carbon molecules were identified through gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, technologies that were not available during earlier analyses of the now-famous meteorite. Even so, said Martins, the process was extremely laborious and time-consuming, one reason it had not be carried out up to now by other scientists.

Solar Saucer designed by Scotty Whittaker

2008-06-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

This large photovoltaic collector setup of 20 KW solar power will be part of the Entheon Village this year at Burning Man. Nice design.

Exploring Derelict Space Ship in Rare Soviet-style Sci Fi Film

2008-06-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Show Featuring Maggie Covert

2008-06-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

Davide Balula

2008-06-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

Davide Balula
Un air de fête
2003
Tourne disque, disque vynile 45Tours, ballon, hélium.
Env. 50 x 50 x 100 cm

Tom Ashcraft: Harnessing Wild Electricities from Outer Space

2008-06-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Artist Tom Ashcraft will embark on two public experiments attempting to receive and harness radio emissions from Jupiter's "C" region and "B" region, using modified radio-telescopes as receivers.

Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, June 23 and June 24, from 11pm to 1:30 am each night.
More information on his website: www.heliotown.com

Mysterious Forest Rings

2008-06-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

It is a strange phenomenon: thousands of large, perfectly round "forest rings" dot the boreal landscape of northern Ontario. From the air, these mysterious light-coloured rings of stunted tree growth are clearly visible, but on the ground, you could walk right through them without noticing them. They range in diameter from 30 metres to 2 kilometres, with the average ring measuring about 91 metres across. Over 2,000 of these forest rings have been documented, but scientists estimate the actual number is more than 8,000. What causes these near-perfect circles in the forest?

Since they were discovered on aerial photos about 50 years ago, the rings have baffled biologists, geologists and foresters. Some explanations put a UFO or extraterrestrial spin on the phenomenon. Astronomers suggest the rings might be the result of meteor strikes. Prospectors wonder whether the formations signal diamond-bearing kimberlites, a type of igneous rock. Stew Hamilton, a Sudbury-based geochemist with the Sedimentary Geoscience Section of the Ontario Geological Survey, says forest rings are caused by giant, natural electrochemical cells — big centres of negative charges called reduced chimneys — that are frequently situated over metal or mineral deposits, or methane. (Courtesy Ontario MNR) "We have been working on the rings since 1998, and there have been many developments, but there are still many unanswered questions," says Stew Hamilton, a Sudbury-based geochemist with the Sedimentary Geoscience Section of the Ontario Geological Survey.

The Cheecka Ring is a ring measuring about 1 kilometre in diameter, located 20 km east of Hearst, Ont. Scientists believe it was formed by a natural gas deposit.

Hamilton first became interested in the rings in 1997 when Sudbury prospector and geologist Bob Komarechka asked him about the potential kimberlite link. Now he has some new theories about how the giant rings were created, and his paper discussing some of the strange electrical phenomena that occur over the rings has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysics. According to Hamilton, the forest rings are caused by giant, naturally occurring electrochemical cells — big centres of negative charges (called reduced chimneys) that are frequently situated over metal or mineral deposits or methane (a natural gas source). Think of them as huge natural electrical batteries with a negative charge in carbonate soil and surrounded by oxygen that carries a positive charge. The current from the batteries — the negative charge — travels outward and where it meets the positive charge, acidic conditions are created that eat away at the carbonate soil, causing it to drop in a circular depression around the natural battery.

The origin of Ontario's methane-based forest rings, according to Hamilton's theory, lies in the glaciers and glacial lakes that at one time covered the province. As the glaciers began receding from northern Ontario about 10,000 years ago, they left behind a mix of clay and other glacial sediment.Bacteria began eating the dead plankton and other organic matter left in the clay, a process that can only last a few thousand years before the organic matter is consumed, a short time, geologically speaking. This produced methane, a chemical that is the principal component of natural gas. In the case of forest rings, the methane is released into the atmosphere partly through the depressions of the rings.

So why the perfectly formed circles? "Because force goes out in a circle," Hamilton says. "For example, throw a stick in the water. At first it makes a stick shape when it hits the water, then perfect circles go out from that. Electricity is just the same."Gordon Southam, a geo-microbiologist at the University of Western Ontario, has just begun working with Hamilton on the biogeochemical aspects of forest rings. "We debate back and forth on the various theories on forest ring formation. I find it extremely interesting any time that water-rock interactions release materials that support the growth of the biosphere; we're very interested in litho-trophic [rock-eating] bacteria," Southam says.

Rings in farmer's fields in Southern Ontario's Essex County, a few kilometres from the Michigan border, formed by oil deposits. (Courtesy Ontario MNR) "In the case of forest rings, they appear to create anoxic [oxygen-free] conditions that support methane-producing bacteria below ground and methane-oxidizing bacteria near the earth's surface." A map of forest rings in northeastern Ontario devised by Hamilton also seems to indicate that the creation of these anoxic conditions appears to be coinciding with permafrost melting, which is causing new activity in the biosphere.

Although northern Ontario has the highest concentration of forest rings, you can also find them in the Yukon, Quebec, Russia and Australia. "For years, we have been puzzled as to why Ontario has so many, and we now think we have some of the answers," Hamilton says. "We have measured the isotopic signature of natural gas in a number of rings, and it suggests the gas is very geologically young and is likely still being produced today and constantly escaping into the atmosphere. Northern Ontario has the youngest and most extensive glacial clay deposits in the world, and therefore we also have the most rings." He estimates 80 per cent to 85 per cent of the region's rings are methane-based, with the rest being a result of kimberlite; hydrogen sulfide (recognizable by its "rotten egg” smell); metal-based sources such as nickel, copper and zinc; or buried peat. These, too, are all sources of negative electrical charge and have a capacity to create similar electrical fields as methane.

"On the one hand, the rings are a large potential source of relatively clean natural gas. On the other hand, they are constantly venting methane into the atmosphere, which has a greenhouse gas equivalent that is more than 20 times that of carbon dioxide," said Hamilton.He is keen to see companies develop technology to extract the gas and use it as energy. "Extracting the gas would therefore be doubly beneficial and also fairly easy from a technical point of view."

"It is definitely not a UFO thing, crop circles, tree-killing fungus or meteors falling from the sky," Hamilton laughs. He does admit, though, that forest rings have "a million mysteries." For example, the electrical field found inside the forest rings is a puzzle that needs to be solved. "It shouldn't be there," Hamilton says. "Something is creating a huge electrical field, and we think it might be millions of chemical-eating micro-organisms in the soil."

Hamilton, University of Ottawa geochemist Kéiko H. Hattori (chair of the department of earth sciences) and graduate student Kerstin Brauneder are the only Canadian scientists currently studying forest rings. This summer, they will test their hypothesis by generating chemicals in test tubes and adding some forest ring micro-organisms (bacteria) to the chemicals. "To see a perfectly round forest ring in the middle of the forest is really very strange," said Brauneder, whose master's thesis is titled Origin and Distribution of Forest Ring-Related Methane. "This summer, Dr. Hamilton and I will be sampling soils over five forest rings near Timmins and Hearst. Together with Dr. Southam, we will try to recreate a small-scale forest ring phenomena in-vitro, in a test tube, to see where and how methane-producing microbial communities grow. Understanding the methane-cycle of the rings is important, because we are hoping the methane could eventually be used as a new energy source for isolated communities."

Calling the forest rings the "world's largest petri dish," Hamilton said the testing will be the first step to recreating, in the lab, the mysterious electrical field process. "Our hypothesis is that with the forest rings, millions of micro-organisms are creating a massive, low-voltage electrical field that causes their food, the chemicals, to come forward to them. The bacteria don't have to move — the food keeps coming to them along the electrical field they have created," explained Hamilton.
This, he said, also poses an intriguing question: "Are micro-organisms changing and modifying geology? It is a new paradigm for us. What science doesn't understand is the most interesting, and we're having a lot of fun working on the many pieces of the strange puzzle. This is beyond science fiction — it is unbelievable."
Original Article By Elle Andra-Warner

Colossal Flying Reptiles Ate Dinosaurs For Lunch

2008-06-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

Scientists say that giant pterosaurs called Quetzalcoatlus had to stalk prey on land.

With a name like T. rex, you'd expect to be safe from even the fiercest paleo-bullies. Turns out, ancient flying reptiles could have snacked on Tyrannosaurus rex babies and other landlubbing runts of the dinosaur world. A new study reveals that a group of flying reptiles from the Age of Dinosaurs, 230 million to 65 million years ago, did not catch prey in flight, but rather stalked them on land. Until now, paleontologists pictured the so-called "winged lizards" or pterosaurs as skim-feeders. In this vision, the creatures would have flown over lakes and oceans grabbing fish from the water's surface, much as gulls do today. The new findings, detailed this week online in the journal PLoS ONE, don't ground the animals totally.

"In our hypothesis, flight is primarily a locomotive method," said co-researcher Mark Witton of the University of Portsmouth in England. "They're just using it to get from point A to point B. We think the majority of their lives, when they're feeding and reproducing, that's all being done on the ground rather than in the air." To uncover these feeding habits, Witton and Portsmouth colleague Darren Naish analyzed fossils of a group of toothless pterosaurs called azhdarchids, which are much larger on average than other pterosaurs. For example, one of the largest azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus, weighed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms) with a wingspan of more than 30 feet (10 meters) and a height comparable to a giraffe.

Witton and Naish learned that more than 50 percent of the azhdarchid fossils had been found inland. Other skeletal features, including long hind limbs and a stiff neck, also didn't fit the profile of a mud-prober or skim-feeder. "All the details of their anatomy, and the environment their fossils are found in, show that they made their living by walking around, reaching down to grab and pick up animals and other prey," Naish said.

A skim-feeder, such as a gull, trawls its lower jaw through the water, eventually smacking into a fish or shrimp and pulling it from the water. "Regardless of what they hit, the impact force drives the head and neck underneath the body and into the water, thus requiring a hugely flexible neck," Witton said. This is the case with gulls and pelicans (which are considered plunge divers), but an azhdarchid's neck, despite potentially reaching nearly 10 feet (3 meters) in length, was super stiff. "Whatever these animals were doing, it had to involve minimal neck action," Witton said.

Their tiny feet also ruled out wading in the water or probing the soft mud for food. "Some of these animals are absolutely enormous," Witton told LiveScience. "If you go wading out into this soft mud, and you weigh a quarter of a ton, and you've got these dinky little feet, you're going to just sink in."The reptile's head also was pretty lengthy, up to 10 feet (3 meters). So Witton said an azhdarchid would only have to dip its head part way to the ground, enough for the tip of its jaws to touch down, to hunt and feed on terrestrial prey. Back before they went extinct 65 million years ago during the event that also killed off non-avian dinosaurs, these pterosaurs could lunch on animals ranging from small birdlike Velicoraptors to T. rex babies to amphibians.

By Jeanna Bryner
Senior writer for livescience.com, through www.MSNBC.com

UFO Explodes Over Viet Nam

2008-06-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

HANOI - An unidentified flying object exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, state media said Wednesday, a day after Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash. The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long. "The explosion happened at about 8 km (5 miles) above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft," VNA said in a report headlined "UFO explodes over Phu Quoc Island."Soldiers were sent out to look for wreckage and survivors, and local authorities contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but received no reports of missing aircraft, the official state news agency added.
Villagers in Kampot said Tuesday that they had heard a loud explosion. Wednesday they told Reuters they had found small chunks of metal near the coastline. Kung Mony, deputy commander of Cambodia's Air Force, said Tuesday he had been told of a foreign plane crashing in Kampot province, but later backed off his claims of an aircraft accident.
(Writing by Grant McCool and Ed Cropley in Bangkok; Editing by Bill Tarrant for reuters.com)

Mythical Moth Rediscovered: Pulled From Spider's Web

2008-06-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Article by Steven McKenzie
Pulled from BBC Scotland news website

A moth found on only four previous occasions since 1853 has been rescued from a spider's web close to where it was first recorded. The black-winged and orange bodied Ethmia pyrausta is so rare it has gained almost mythical status, said Butterfly Conservation Scotland (BCS). It was spotted and photographed by Andy Scott and Margaret Currie. Their find was made near Loch Morie, Easter Ross, Highlands, close to the original specimen site. The moth was identified by experts Mark Young and Roy Leverton, who were leading a BCS workshop at Aigas Field Centre in Inverness-shire. Apart from the original 1853 specimen, only four others have ever been found in the UK. Two were found in 1996 on the top of Glas Maol in the Grampians with a further two found nearby. The caterpillars have never been found in Britain. BSC said prior to the Loch Morie find there were doubts that the species still lived in the Highlands. Mr Young said: "It is now up to us to try and find out where the moth breeds and to make sure that its habitat is safe."

Air Jellyfish

2008-06-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Artist/Geographer keeps his eyes on satellites.

2008-06-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Up in our darkened sky, sinister objects lurk.
They are not the vehicles of some alien life form bent on destroying humankind, though many do look like props from a sci-fi film. Some are so large they could engulf three football fields.
For four decades, the United States has been filling the outer reaches of our atmosphere with 189 reconnaissance satellites. And for several years, artist-geographer Trevor Paglen has been keeping his eye on them.
Complete SF Chronicle article HERE.

Tomas Saraceno

2008-06-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Tomas Saraceno
(Argentina, 1973)
As an architect Saraceno has for years been looking into the possibility of using large balloon-like constructions to enable the free circulation of persons and goods across the entire globe. With remarkable results.
More information and photos here (external site).
Interview with Tomas Saraceno here.

lightning is striking again

2008-06-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

My plane was hit by lightning on my way back from California. There was a big thud, a lot of light, and the plane jolted. It hadn't really come up as an issue before:

Question

How is a plane protected from Lightning strikes?

Asked by: Sridhar Narayanan

Answer

Since the outer skin of most airplanes is primarily aluminum, which is a very good conductor of electricity; the secret to safe lightning hits is to allow the current to flow through the skin from the point of impact to some other point without interruption or diversion to the interior of the aircraft.

Estimates show that each commercial airliner averages one lighting hit per year but the last crash that was attributed to lightning was in 1967 when the fuel tank exploded, causing the plane to crash. Generally, the first contact with lightning is at an extremity...the nose or a wingtip. As the plane continues to fly through the areas of opposite charges, the lightning transits through the aircraft skin and exits through another extremity point, frequently the tail (as shown by Gauss's Law).

Another related problem with lightning is the effect it can have on computers and flight instruments. Shielding and surge suppressors insure that electrical transients do not threaten the on board avionics and the miles of electrical wiring found in modern aircraft. All components that are vital to the safe operation of commercial aircraft must be certified to meet the stringent regulations of the FAA for planes flying into the United States.

Answered by: Rich Uranis, B.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Gecko Found INSIDE Chicken Egg: A Fortean Mystery

2008-05-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you are eating eggs for breakfast, put down that fork. The Australian Egg Corporation has expressed surprise at the discovery of a gecko inside a chicken egg. Darwin, Australia, doctor Peter Beaumont was cooking dinner when he cracked open the egg and found the dead gecko inside the shell.

Health authorities say the discovery is nothing to be alarmed about and it is being examined at a laboratory. The research and development program manager with the Egg Corporation, David Witcombe, says he has never heard of such a case before.

“Certainly the gecko wouldn’t have been ingested by the bird. It would be physically impossible for it to make its way from the digestive tract into the area where the egg’s formed.

“So it’s a case of the gecko actually making its way through the cloaca of the bird and onto the developing egg.”

Explosions on the Moon?

2008-05-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, anyone claiming to see flashes of light on the Moon would be viewed with deep suspicion by professional astronomers. Such reports were filed under "L" ... for lunatic. Not anymore. Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times.

"They're explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the Moon," explains Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). "A typical blast is about as powerful as a few hundred pounds of TNT and can be photographed easily using a backyard telescope."

The impactor was a tiny fragment of extinct comet 2003 EH1. Every year in early January, the Earth-Moon system passes through a stream of debris from that comet, producing the well-known Quadrantid meteor shower. Here on Earth, Quadrantids disintegrate as flashes of light in the atmosphere; on the airless Moon they hit the ground and explode. "We started our monitoring program in late 2005 after NASA announced plans to return astronauts to the Moon," says team leader Rob Suggs of the MSFC. If people were going to be walking around up there, "it seemed like a good idea to measure how often the Moon was getting hit. Almost immediately, we detected a flash."

That first detection — "I'll never forget it," he says — came on Nov. 7, 2005, when a piece of Comet Encke about the size of a baseball hit Mare Imbrium. The resulting explosion produced a 7th magnitude flash, too dim for the naked eye but an easy target for the team's 10-inch telescope. A common question, says Cooke, is "how can something explode on the Moon? There's no oxygen up there."

These explosions don't require oxygen or combustion. Meteoroids hit the moon with tremendous kinetic energy, traveling 30,000 mph or faster. "At that speed, even a pebble can blast a crater several feet wide. The impact heats up rocks and soil on the lunar surface hot enough to glow like molten lava — hence the flash." During meteor showers such as the Quadrantids or Perseids, when the Moon passes through dense streams of cometary debris, the rate of lunar flashes can go as high as one per hour. Impacts subside when the Moon exits the stream, but curiously the rate never goes to zero. "Even when no meteor shower is active, we still see flashes," says Cooke.

These "off-shower" impacts come from a vast swarm of natural space junk littering the inner solar system. Bits of stray comet dust and chips off old asteroids pepper the Moon in small but ultimately significant numbers. Earth gets hit, too, which is why on any given night you can stand under a dark sky and see a few meteors per hour glide overhead — no meteor shower required. Over the course of a year, these random or "sporadic" impacts outnumber impacts from organized meteor showers by a ratio of approximately 2:1. "That's an important finding," says Suggs. "It means there's no time of year when the Moon is impact-free."

Fortunately, says Cooke, astronauts are in little danger. "The odds of a direct hit are negligible. If, however, we start building big lunar outposts with lots of surface area, we'll have to carefully consider these statistics and bear in mind the odds of a structure getting hit." Secondary impacts are the greater concern. When meteoroids strike the Moon, debris goes flying in all directions. A single meteoroid produces a spray consisting of thousands of "secondary" particles all traveling at bullet-like velocities. This could be a problem because, while the odds of a direct hit are low, the odds of a secondary hit may be significantly greater. "Secondary particles smaller than a millimeter could pierce a spacesuit," notes Cooke.

At present, no one knows how far and wide secondary particles travel. To get a handle on the problem, Cooke, Suggs and colleagues are shooting artificial meteoroids at simulated moon dust and measuring the spray. This work is being done at the Vertical Gun Range at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. Meanwhile, back at the observatory, the team has upgraded their original 10-inch (25 cm) telescope to a pair of telescopes, one 14-inch (36 cm) and one 20-inch (51 cm), located at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. They've also established a new observing site in Georgia with a 14-inch telescope. Multiple telescopes allow double- and triple-checking of faint flashes and improve the statistical underpinnings of the survey.

"The Moon is still flashing," says Suggs. Indeed, during the writing of this story, three more impacts were detected, bringing the total to 103.

By Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
http://www.space.com.scienceastronomy/080521-moon-explosion.html

Strange Clouds Over China

2008-05-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Just two days before China's devastating earthquake, strange clouds appeared in the skies. Were these formations atmospheric signifiers of what was to come?

Swiss "Fusion Man" Flys Over Alps with Jet Propelled Wings

2008-05-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Why Did Blogger mess up the colors? I don't know, sorry....

May 14 2008: Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing over the Alps in Bex, Switzerland.Years ago, aviation enthusiast and inventor Yves Rossy dreamed of soaring through the air. "This flight was absolutely excellent," the extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. Half an hour earlier Rossy had stepped out of the Swiss-built Pilatus Porter aircraft at 7,500 feet, unfolded the rigid 8-foot wings strapped to his back and dropped.Passing from free fall to a gentle glide, Rossy then triggered four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 miles an hour as a crowd on the mountaintop below gasped — then cheered.

His mother, who was among the spectators, told journalists she felt no fear. "He knows what he's doing," Paule Rossy said.Steering only with his body, Rossy dived, turned and soared again, flying what appeared to be effortless loops from one side of the Rhone valley to the other. At times he rose 2,600 feet before descending again.

"It's like a second skin," he later told reporters. "If I turn to the left, I fly left. If I nudge to the right, I go right."

Rossy then performed a stunt he had never before tried. After one last wave to the crowd, the rocket man tipped his wings, flipped onto his back and leveled out again, executing a perfect 360-degree roll that even a bird would find impossible.

"That was to impress the girls," he later admitted.Wednesday's five-minute flight nearly never happened. Rossy said his engineers worked until the last minute to fix one of the four kerosene-fueled engines that power his flight.He said he is ready now for a bigger challenge: crossing the English Channel later this year.The stunt, which will be shown on live television, will test his flying machine to the limit. Rossy said he plans to practice the 22-mile trip by flying between two hot-air balloons.

"I still haven't used the full potential," he said.Rossy told The Associated Press that one day he also hopes to fly through the Grand Canyon.To do this, he will have to fit his wings with bigger, more powerful jets to allow for greater maneuvering. The German-built model aircraft engines he uses already provide 200 pounds of thrust — enough to allow Rossy and his 120-pound flying suit to climb through the air.

"Physically, it's absolutely no stress," Rossy said. "It's like being on a motorbike." But on this ride, even the slightest movement can cause problems. Rossy said he has to focus hard on relaxing in the air, because "if you put tension on your body, you start to swing around." Should things go wrong — and Rossy says they have done more times than not — there's always a yellow handle to jettison the wings and unfold the parachute."I've had many 'whoops' moments," he said. "My safety is altitude."

Rossy — whose sponsors have dubbed him "Fusion Man" — says his form of human flight will remain the reserve of very few for now. The price and effort involved are simply too enormous, he says.So far Rossy and sponsors have poured more than 200,000 Swiss francs, or $190,000, and countless hours of labor into building the device. He would not estimate how much his device would cost should it ever be brought to market.

But, he believes similar jet-powered wings one day will be more widely available to experienced parachutists ready for the ultimate flying experience.That is, if they don't mind missing out on the breathtaking panorama above the Swiss Alps.
"I am so concentrated, I don't really enjoy the view," Rossy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Space Junk, lots and lots of space junk

2008-05-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Space, the final frontier to jettison our debris...?
Link to International Space Debris "Coordination" HERE

Link to a map about Space Junk HERE

U.F.O. art

2008-05-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/subodh_gupta.htm

Lightning bolt appears above volcano

2008-05-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanos are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008.REUTERS/Carlos Gutierrez (CHILE)

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

2008-05-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.

The interview was headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother." Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90KSE100&show_article=1

NASA transonic tunnel

2008-05-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1080.html

A wind tunnel that looks like open wings--

My Hero

2008-05-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

http://www.lilienthal-museum.de/olma/home.htm

The Otto Lilienthal museum. The first man to achieve controlled flight.

Sydney Australia invaded by foam.

2008-05-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

I cant tell if this is real or not, but they are claiming that back in august Australia had a mass of foam wash up on it's shores. There are theories that it might be made out of decomposed fish particles, ar some seaweed exceation.

To Austin

2008-05-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks for posting these. They are really cool, and I may attempt to do something like that. I am still using the tunnel idea, but my project has changed a little bit from what I said it was in my last post, but these were good references for my project, and are something I hope I can use.

For Chris

2008-05-04T10:06:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry I didn't get around to posting these earlier, I couldn't find any decent animations initially and then got distracted by my work. But here are a couple animations of the mandelbrot set. In parts of the set you'll see a sort of tunnel/worm whole like sequence, but since this is only a small portion of it it's rarely the focus of the animation.

Mandelbrot Zoom

Mandelbrot -Zoom 2

Google-A-Minute

There are also other fractal sets- such as the Julia set- that when explored will contain sequences similar to that of the Mandelbrot set.

Final Project

2008-04-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

For my final project I am creating a video using a green screen. Both The video and music provoke a feeling of flying.

UFO show

2008-04-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

You are invited to watch some dancin

2008-04-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

Space tango. Powered by the force of their enormous gravitational attraction, two colliding galaxies known as the Antennae are crushing huge clouds of gas and dust into billions of new stars. This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released 17 October, is considered the sharpest yet of a galactic merger. The bright blue areas are dense star-making clusters, the pink regions are hydrogen gas clouds, and the orange blobs to the left and right of center are the two cores of the original galaxies. (Photo: NASA/ESA/STScI)

Hey guys,
I hope yall are all doing well. I just wanted to give a heads up about my dancing final. I will be in class from 4-5:30 until I go reset the room and warm up dancing with Lev. Please come to Main 110 (the room between the restrooms and admissions) at 6. Thank you very much! See you tomm
a very nervous and excited Carrie

2008-04-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

2008-04-29T23:14:00.000-07:00

You are invited to watch some dancin

2008-04-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

Mystery Lights inside Mount Royal Station Building on MICA Campus. Students and faculty puzzled, but not alarmed.

2008-04-25T15:19:00.001-07:00

flying out of this world; opening

2008-04-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

2008-04-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Pictures From Flying Out Of THis World Show

UFO shapes

2008-04-23T12:08:00.001-07:00

found fromhttp://www.disclose.tv/action/viewphoto/1344/shapes_of_ufo_s/

Most interesting ways that I have seen of describing the shapes of UFOs:

tomato
meat platter
tropical helmet
turtle
bottle with 2 necks
lamp shade
honey comb
electric bulb
jeep hood

(from Passport to Magonia by J Vallee)
half an egg
inverted mushroom

finding the distance of stars

2008-04-23T11:58:00.001-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax

motion parallax, is the change of angular position of two observations of a single object relative to each other as seen by an observer, caused by the motion of the observer. Simply put, it is the apparent shift of an object against the background that is caused by a change in the observer's position. The term is derived from the Greek παραλλαγή (parallagé), meaning "alteration".

Parallax is often thought of as the 'apparent motion' of an object against a distant background because of a perspective shift, as seen in Figure 1. When viewed from Viewpoint A, the object appears to be closer to the blue square. When the viewpoint is changed to Viewpoint B, the object appears to have moved in front of the red square.

In astronomy, parallax is the only direct method by which distances to objects beyond the Solar System can be measured. The Hipparcos satellite has used the technique for over 100,000 nearby stars. This provides the basis for all other distance measurements in astronomy, the cosmic distance ladder.

Tomas Saraceno

2008-04-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Interview: Tomas Saraceno [Stefano Boeri and Hans Ulrich Obrist]http://my.opera.com/mildz/blog/show.dml/127050

flyingoutofthisworld: (Un)Identified Flying Object Student Exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art

2008-04-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

Above: exhibition view, Paul Crump nitrogen bottle/jet pack sculpture in foreground
Above: exhibition view: Louis Shaffer alien plant/life form in foreground
Above: exhibition view, Maggie Covert artist book in foreground
Above: exhibition view, Austin Rocket installs the signage
Above: Louis Shaffer sculpture of alien plant/life form
Above: Melody Lin's custom designed and digitally printed fabric space suit modeled by the artist
Above: Paul Crump's wearable nitrogen fueled jet pack sculpture
Above: exhibition view Paul Crump in front of Chelsea Noggle's project on the Yakima Valley, Washington earthquake light phenomena and UFO sightings, in relation to her project on the mysterious disappearance of cryptozoologist, Celia Landano. Right: Maggie Covert's prints and artist book.
Above left: A.J. Farkas' pinhole telescope he used to make Van Dyke Brown photographs of the sun. Right: Chelsea Noggle's Yakima Valley project. Far right: Maggie Covert's artist book.
Above: A.J. Farkas' pinhole telescope camera and Van Dyke Brown photos of the sun.
Above: Alien Food Product.
Above: more alien food. Left to right: Kat Sotelo, Paul Crump, Maggie Covert, Katie Morton, Austin Rocket.
Above: Katie Morton's alien food products.
Above: Adam Farkas' creature.

Show participants: Chelsea Noggle, Maggie Covert, Kelly Shaw, Katie Morton, Adam Farkas, A.J. Farkas, Louis Shaffer, Austin Rocket, Melody Lin, Chris Raybourne, Matt Sears, Carrie Schneider, Emily Alves

Please post images of your work from the show. These are the only ones I took and sorry it doesn't represent every participant.

Project Or by Christoph Klemmt

2008-04-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Architect Christoph Klemmt has created Project Or, a vortex-shaped installation in a courtyard in Milan that reacts to sunlight. The installation is made up of photo-reactive segments that are translucent when in the shade but coloured when exposed to sunlight. he polygonal segments of the surface react to ultra-violet light, mapping the position and intensity of solar rays. When in the shade, the segments of OR are translucent white. However, when hit by sunlight they become coloured, flooding the space below with different hues of light. At night, OR transforms into an enormous ‘chandelier’, disseminating light into the surrounding courtyard, an atmospheric space for events and gatherings. The hues generated by the photoreactive surface are therefore indicators of changes in weather and daylight, a dynamic architectural tool that can be used on building exteriors. OR is skin, OR is shining, OR is the light OR the shade. OR is the first time that photoreactive technology has been used on an architectural scale. The ecological structure is a step in exploring the possibilities of photoreactive materials in the fields of furniture and design. The beauty of OR is its constant interaction with the elements. Each moment of the day is unique.

To Fly!

2008-04-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

To Fly!

Experience the legendary IMAX film that millions have raved about for over 30-years. Watch the Earth drop away beneath you on an 1800s balloon ascent: rocket across the Arizona skies with the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels; soar on a hand glider off the coast of Hawaii; and blast off into space on a Saturn rocket. The incredible IMAX 5-story screen and 20,000 watts of sound will take you on a journey few pilots have experienced. To Fly' is the museum's first and most popular IMAX film (1976;27 minutes)

Check

(http://www.nasm.si.edu/visit/theaters/index.cfm#NMB)

For times and Tickets

Hubble Space Telescope Lecture

2008-04-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

Mario Livio, director of the Hubble Space Telescope will be giving a lecture this Saturday, April 12, at 2pm at the Walters Art Gallery, in the auditorium.

His lecture is entitled, "The Universe According to the Hubble Space Telescope" in correlation to the exhibit at the Walters, "Mapping the Cosmos."

Perfect!

2008-04-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

flying out of this world: [Un]Identified Flying Objects! Installation

2008-04-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

If for some reason you missed my emails, here's a friendly reminder about tomorrow:

Ceramics will be having a closing ceremony for their show tonight at 6:00. They have this evening and tonight to take care of their de-installation. All of the work will be out of the gallery by morning, EXCEPT for Eric Steiner's piece, because he has special permission to keep it in the space through Tuesday. Please please be mindful of the work and be very careful not to nudge or touch it while you are installing. It will be deinstalled sometime tomorrow.

We will be installing the show TOMORROW! Anyone that can meet at 11:00am please do so, so that we can get the walls constructed. Jesse Reid will be available to help us as well. It's important that we all work together and help each other so that the installation can come off without a hitch. If anyone needs special assistance in installing their work, please come at 11:00 when extra hands will be here. (The pedestals will also be arriving around this time.) Keep in mind that everything should be hung on Tuesday, and that AV equipment should be working. The show should be fully installed before Wednesday, please.

This is going to be an awesome show with a killer opening, if we all work together. Let's make it happen!

P.S. If you haven't done it yet, send me your wall text (name, title, medium)! The consequences will be most dire otherwise.... you won't get a label! Email me at cnoggle@gmail.com with questions

2008-04-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

March 28, 2008—Giant sea stars or starfish that measure 24 inches (60 centimeters) across are held by Sadie Mills, left, and Niki Davey ofNew Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research on February 15, 2008.

They and other researchers collected 30,000 sea creatures—many new to science—during a 35-day census in Antarctic waters in February and March, according to a March 26 announcement.

2008-04-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

living dinosaur is fastest evolving animal

Dave Hansford in Wellington, New Zealand

for National Geographic News

March 31, 2008

New Zealand's "living dinosaur," the tuatara, hasn't changed its look in millions of years. But the reptile is actually evolving faster than any other animal studied so far, new DNA analysis reveals.

Scientists recovered DNA from 8,000-year-old tuatara bones and compared it with DNA in blood samples from living tuatara. The modern species is the only surviving member of the order Sphenodontia, which flourished around 200 million years ago.

what makes you feel like you're flying?

2008-04-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
tommorrow i'd like to record each of your voices telling me what makes you feel like you're flying. my plan is to edit all the responses and interpretations and set it to footage i took out the window of a plane from LA to baltimore. this is what i want to put in the show
see yall tommorrow- best of luck with all your projects
Carrie

pregnant man

2008-04-01T20:52:00.001-07:00

www.malepregnancy.com

Flying Out of This World/Poster

2008-04-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here's the ad for our group show. If I've left anything out, or spelled someone's name wrong, please speak up!

JW Dean's Abduction? of 1915

2008-04-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from His Diary:::::::::::::::::::::::
Sept. 14, 1915--"I had an experience on the night of the 10th inst entirely new to me & it has had a prominent place in my thoughts ever since. I had retired at the usual time, was at my best in health and general bodily condition, and fell asleep promptly. In about an hour, I judge, I suddenly awoke with a sort of nervous chill. The most unaccountable twitching and tingling sensation ran over & through my whole body. The twitchings seem to race rapidly up & down and round & round in a manner very difficult to describe. No pain, no fever, no chilling--radically unlike any previous experience. At once I began to wonder what could have brought on such a malady, if so it might be termed, when--clairaudiently perhaps--I heard a voice remarkably clear, distinct & pleasant and the words in substance: 'This is all right. No harm will come to you. We have you in charge. Come.' Now the queer part of the whole strange affair is that I was not excited or disturbed in the least but promptly assented with the coolest indifference. Three persons young men, led me rapidly away. We neither walked nor rode but seemed to be borne along easily & quietly and by some invisible agency. Soon we stopped in the presence of quite a number of people. On the left was a group of middle aged, & older; on the right, children; near to and directly in front young men, my three guides being the nearest. All, excepting the older people, were eying me and smiling as if they were much pleased at something. Suddenly the leader of the three guides attracted my attention by waving his hand & nodding as much as to say, 'Look and see.' In wonderment I asked, mentally, Is this Spirit Land & are all these people spirits? The leader smilingly nodded in the affirmative, saying 'This is Spirit Land & these people you see are indeed spirits.' We then returned and I was soon myself again, the peculiar tingling sensation having entirely ceased. Now most will say that this unique experience was a dream--a dream & nothing more. Perhaps it was but it was a long way out of the ordinary. Anyway the strange bit of experience has dominated my thoughts ever since and like Banquo's ghost will not down. So it occurred to me that making a record of it in these pages might tend to aid me in relieving the mind somewhat of almost constantly trying to make something or nothing of the strange affair."

SPWeatherStation Art Installation in Queens, NY

2008-04-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

SP Weather Station is an artist-run homemade weather station in Long Island City, Queens. [installation!] It will publish the SP Weather Report, a regular printed document available by mail subscription (in a while). Weather data will be collected at regular intervals and made available to guest interpreters, who pair this weather data with their own personal record of the time period in question. The format is open-ended; interpreters may choose to record aspects of their daily life that are directly affected by local weather, or they can expand on the possibilities of what pairing a weather report with a personal report might mean.
SP Weather Station builds on the existing international phenomenon of Personal Weather Stations. Ham weather station enthusiasts worldwide combine DIY analogue technology with organized web forums for collecting and analyzing data, such as wunderground.com (resource links on this site to the right). Although weather station hobbyists are widespread, by and large recording and processing weather data is the domain of high-tech centers and commercial enterprises.
By recording our neighborhood’s environmental conditions, we want to participate in and add to some of the many ways people have, throughout history, made their own weather observations. We are interested in combining new and historical technologies, and in how individuals relate to broader systems and patterns.
S.P. Weather Station is a collaborative project by Heidi Neilson and Natalie Campbell,
and is another exciting facet of S.P. Stationers Group

hovercraft

2008-03-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

instructions!

Ferrofluid

2008-03-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

Ferrofluid is a magnetic liquid. I will link a reliable supplier of ferrofluid on del.icio.us.

slug eating flower

2008-03-26T11:33:00.001-07:00

When out of context or scale, anything is alien and beautiful.

aliens from the garden

2008-03-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Greetings From the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center

2008-03-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well, if you think you believe in UFOs you just might decide otherwise after visiting this museum. (take a virtual tour on their twinkling wesbsite: http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/Tour/entrance.html) But despite the pegboard walls, foamcore displays, amateur models, and an overabundance of tourist memorabilia, The Roswell UFO Museum and Library holds a very special place in my heart.

Snow Flurries, Bacteria Likely

2008-03-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

By Christopher Joyce

Listen Now [3 min 17 sec] add to playlist

Theo Allofs

New research finds that a large portion of the atmosphere's ice particles form around bits of bacteria.

Shawn Doyle, Brent Christner, LSU

Top, an ice crystal lattice that was formed in the laboratory from bacterial culture. Bottom, Pseudomonas syringae cells, stained green, trapped within individual ice crystals.
Brent Christner, lead author of the study, demonstrates the researchers' mode of transportation in the field.All Things Considered, March 3, 2008 · Next time you're in a snowstorm, look up — and get a face-full of bacteria. It turns out there are bacteria up in the clouds, and some of them actually create ice crystals.
The inspiration for this research started in Montana. Brent Christner had a colleague there who was puzzled by some nasty plant bacteria that kept infecting his wheat crops. No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of them. He suspected they might be airborne. So, Christner says, his friend cooked up a strange experiment involving a petri dish and an airplane.
He flew up in the airplane, "opened a window and held a petri plate outside," Christner explains. And in fact, bacteria grew. The bacteria — which normally live on plants — were falling out of the sky. That was over 20 years ago. Christner went on to become a microbiologist himself, currently at Louisiana State University, and also an expert in ice and snow. He knew that at certain temperatures, particles floating in the clouds cause water vapor to crystallize around them. And he remembered the flying bacteria.

"It really intrigued me ... the idea that if these bacteria were blown into the atmosphere and actually got into a cloud that they could induce precipitation," Christner says.
So Christner packed up his skis and went looking. He collected snow and ice and melted it down. Sure enough, he found the particles — or "nucleators," as they're known among ice experts — and was surprised to realize that the most active ones were bits of bacteria.
"In every sample that we've looked at we've found them," he says. He found these ice-bugs all over the place — France, Montana, the Yukon. And in some pretty unlikely places.
"We analyzed fresh snowfall from places like Antarctica where there aren't any plants around," Christner says. "They were still present."
Christner says these bacteria have a special protein that gives them their ice-making powers.
"It's a protein that mimics the lattice of an ice crystal," he explains. "So it enhances ice crystal formation."
In fact, there are several kinds of bacteria floating around in the sky that could be making snow or even rain, according to Steven Lindow, a plant scientist at University of California, Berkeley. He says scientists have suspected these bacteria may be using the atmosphere like an aerial freeway. "They could leave plants, reach the upper atmosphere, (and) become ingrained in atmospheric particles that would fall later as rain or snow," Lindow says. "This would bring them back to earth perhaps even as raindrops onto a new plant where they could find a new home and start the cycle again." He says the research, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, helps confirm that idea. Brent Christner adds that the findings pose an interesting possibility. For example, people might consider growing plants that harbor these bacteria in drought-prone places — in essence, he says, using a green thumb to make it rain.

Sunspot Cycle

2008-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

2008-03-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

Aerogels are engineered compounds which are 99.8% air, and are known as the lightest solid known to man. The most common type is a silica based compound which is molecularly very close to glass. They have a texture similar to that of styrfoam, and florist green foam, but if they are placed under enough direct pressure, such as squeezing it to hard it will shatter like glass. NASA is currently researching them for their insulation properties, while also imploying them to catch "stardust" particles.