It was at this moment that a dolphin, named Moko by the locals approached the pair.  According to the story, after several moments the dolphin lead the pair along a channel between the beach and a nearby and bar.  After avoiding another sandbar, he lead them back out to open waters.    

Nature always fascinates me.  We can never be certain if the animals actually communicated or the whales instinctually followed the dolphin back to familiar waters.  Either way, a happy ending for all.

Source: Sky News

This new concept described as a literally a “pit stop”, would use a large tube that runs deep into the group to catch the falling space craft.  The tube and craft would be designed to take advantage of the air pressure built up in the tube to slow the decent of the craft.  More after the break.

This novel approach as several advantages and disadvantages.  It as the advantage of not having to rely on any complex parachute or air bag firing system.  This reduces the weight and complexity of the craft.  The disadvantage is that you are trying to drop a very fast moving object into a relatively small hole in the ground.  As the author points out this problem can be solved with current technology.

Signals from stationary Global Positioning System (GPS) transmitters on the ground near the landing site, in conjunction with the Orbital GPS system, would help direct the capsule’s final decent. Like a “smart bomb” the vehicle would aim for an exact spot on the earth’s surface. Ground-based vertical wind profilers would provide real-time meteorological updates for the guidance and control system. Other terminal guidance aids, for example LIDAR (light detection and ranging) or active laser tracking might also be used to achieve great accuracy.

If your interested in this type of thing I highly recommend you check out the full article, it is well written and goes into a good amount of detail.

The Space Review: “Pit Stop”: a new way to return from space

What makes matters worse is that most of these devices have passive standby modes that should in theory reduce their power consumption significantly.  The images does a good job of giving you an idea of what type of appliances tend to be greedy.  I’ve always found it quite informative to make a quick tour of the house with a kill-a-watt meter.  Check out the Energy Vampire image here.

Source: Good Magazine

According to the Popular Mechanics, the Beijing Olyimipic Commity decided that it would be both a logistical and security nightmare to have enough helicopters in the air to cover all the angles of the show.  

While this explanation makes sense to me, I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see the actual fireworks.  I can’t help but feel that this is another attempt by China, albeit a minor one, at manipulation.

From a technological stand point, I’ve gotta hand it to them.  The fireworks were very well done, and if it was the solution to an actual problem, it worked well.  I wonder if this will simply be an isolated incident or we will see ‘enhanced’ pre-recorded footage used more often, simply because it is easier recreate it on a computer that film the actual event.

What do you think?  

China Olympics Fake Fireworks - Gruccis Claim Real Opening Ceremony Fireworks - Popular Mechanics.

Check out the full story here.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is ‘not nearly as sophisticated’ as theirs and “had they been hostile”, he warned ‘we would be been gone by now’.

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

 Still, I can’t help but wonder, it does make some sense that an advanced space faring race would want to make contact with the group of people that has the most knowledge and experience in that area.  Then again, if I was a member of a race of beings capable of traveling between the stars, I think I would make damn sure I didn’t crash land in in New Mexico so I could get dissected by the locals.

[via The Daily Mail]

On the subject of the Twitter feed, I know its been slow to nonexistent.  I’ve been slowly prodding various other members to get twitter accounts so I can include them in the feed.  I’m also considering the possibility of a flickr group to post weird picture and images in.  I’ve also updated Wordpress to 2.6. Its got some neat new features.  One I find particularly handy is called “Press This”.  It is a posting short cut that allow you to pull content from articles you want to write about without having to go back to your main Wordpress install.

Ever wondered the history of your  favorite condiments.  A great detailed look into the history of several of common one such as ketchup and mustard.  Some interesting bit of information, such as the early ketchup recipes didn’t actually have tomatoes and the accidental discovery of mayonnaise in 1756.

Telsa Roadsters finally starting to hit the road

Looks like they have finally worked out all the major bugs in the Telsa production line and the all electric sports cars are starting to trickle out.  Currently there are 9 on the road with another 3 arriving shortly.  According to the Telsa blog there are a total of 24 in production currently.  Some what ironically the rest of the article is devoted to describing the simplicity of the Telsa Roadster compared to the standard internal combustion engine.

Woman pulls trip to space out of trash

Apparently Nestle was running a contest that offered contestants a chance to win a short trip into space.  A french woman initially tossed the winning Kit-Kat wrapper, thinking that she didn’t have a chance to win.  Luckily she decided to double check and retrieved the wrapper.  The trip on a small four seater craft dubbed the Rocketplane will take her 60 miles (100 km) into space and allow for 5 minutes of weightlessness.   Perhaps I’m not up on my candy bar contests, but I don’t think this contest went on in the States.  But I gotta say, that as contests go, this has to be one of the coolest prizes.  The commercial space age seems to be creeping upon us faster and faster.

(Video of the crash can be viewed here.)  More recently several high res photos take by base personel were released documenting the aftermath of the crash.  As more details were released it turns out that water logged sensors were indeed the root of cause of the crash.  Ground crews had re-calibrated the sensors to compensate for the water.  However, in preparation for take off pilots activate the sensors built in heaters, which in turn evaporates the water.  The pilots are left with fully functional sensors, but they are still displaying incorrect readings as a result of the earlier re-calibration.  The bombers instruments reported an incorrect speed with resulted in take off before the plane had reached the correct speed.

For more details and images check out Popular Mechanics.

But what if you truly wanted to see what kind of green house gases were released by an average cow?  What kind of device would be required and just how weird would it look strapped to that patient bovine?  A group of Argentinean scientists think they might have the answer.

This oddly short paragraph and silent video from the BBC don’t really do the story justice.  However, the contraption strapped to the cows back is worth a chuckle.  The cow doesn’t seem to mind, although they didn’t show exactly there the end of the tube was stuck.   While cows and other grazing heard animals have been around for 100s of years, we a starting to reach a point that every little bit has an effect and the massive food herds of today don’t help the matter.  For a far more in-depth take on the problems posed by cows, methane and other climate change issues check out this article from the new scientist.

[via the BBC]