These things happen, as anyone who has followed (or read about in restorspect) the early missions of NASA. However, it deeply saddens me that part of the payload on this mission was the ashes of James Doohan, Scotty of Star Trek fame. I know, as a Secular Humanist, it doesn’t really matter what happens to my remains when my time finally comes, but there was a rightness of Mr. Doohan’s ashes being scattered in space, even though I’ve never been the biggest fan of Star Trek.
Hopefully, the Atlantic will serve as a proper resting place to a man who has tantalized the imaginations of generations.
The Canadian National Post has an interview with Dr. Robert Buckman, an oncologist and former collaborator with John Cleese, where he intimates his concern for his fellow atheists.His concern centers around his view that “the godless can be way too dogmatic and far too humourless”.
Try to be more humble. Or as he puts it, “humble up.”
“Stop feeling because you are sure you are right that gives you the power to shout and dominate and be a pill,” said Dr. Buckman, who will be appearing with his good friend Dr. Henry Morgentaler. “Humble up and accept that people may not agree with you.”
This is semi-valid advice that may change if Canada’s religious conservative movement continues to gain ground in their government. The squeakiest wheels in the atheist community at the moment are the ones who are most against religion as a whole and take the most agressive stance in promoting their views. Yes, I thought parts of Dawkin’s The God Delusion were presented in a very arrogant way that made roll my eyes bit, and I have yet to buy Chistopher Hitchen’s God is Not Great for that very same reason. However, as with any book, you have to incoporate the opinions of the author into understanding the message of the book and why it was written.
BigDog is a quadrupedal robot designed by Boston Dynamics and funded by DARPA. The goal of the project is to design a robot that is capable of navigating the same diverse terrains as humans while carrying a large load. If only nature was able to provide such a creature.
Anyways, here’s what Bston dynamics has to say about their robot:
The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth
BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.
What they neglect to mention is that it’s fucking terrifying to see. The video speaks for itself:
So, enjoy your life while you can. The Rise of the Machines is nigh!
h/t to the Bad Astronomer, who has recently been invited to join Discover Blogs! Congrats, Phil!
50 years ago today, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 was signed into law by Eisenhower. This act created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NASA provided the means and reasearch to fling satellites into orbit, to rocket men to the moon using a huge, controlled explosion. They gave us the majesty of the universe through Hubble and Chandra. They gave us regular citizens access to their triumphs and devastating losses as no other government organization had before.
In 50 years, we’ve seen men on the moon, telescopes in orbit, space stations, probes that hit comets 267 million miles away and sent back good data. We’ve seen with wonder-stricken eyes pictures and film from the surface of the moon, Mars, and Titan. We’ve celebrated the achievements of our astronauts and we’ve wept when they fell.
Happy 50th Birthday, NASA, and thank you for what you have given us: the continuation of the American frontier spirit and for feeding our ever-continuing hunger for knowledge and wonder!
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has found the youngest supernova yet in our galaxy. Poetically named supernova remnant G1.9+0.3 was first observed by the Very Large Array back in 1985, where it was hypothesized to be ~400-1000 years old. A comparison of the VLA and the above image taken in 2007 have shown that the remnant has expanded 16% in the time between and that it is expanding at 35 million miles per hour.
This data puts the supernova at ~140 years old, about 12 younger than presidential hopeful John McCain.
In this continuation of the Vatican’s failing bid to be socially relevant, the Catholic church now okays belief in aliens. See Steve Newton’s post on Delaware Libertarian on the Holy See’s previous reactions to one of their own for hypothesizing other worlds. Here’s a summary: torture and murder!
Well, I feel so much better about their policy of hiding and avoidance of culpability for legions of child molesters now that I know I can safely believe in the possibility of life on other planets!
As I said, I have been reading voraciously. As it turns out, the past month has had some huge scientific goings-on that I will summarize:
Astronomers have discovered a new type of variable white dwarf star. This new type is one that has shed it’s hydrogen and helium shells to expose the carbon shell underneath earning them the name “hot carbon white dwarf”. Only the addition of “carbon” to the name kept that from being a porn title. This is the first new type of variable white dwarf to have been discovered in 25 years. h/t goes to the MacDonald Observatory for the find, and to Tom’s Astronomy Blog for the story.
You may not know this, but less than 5% (4.6% to be exact) of the universe is normal matter. What is normal matter? The screen you’re looking at, the chair your sitting in, the brain interpreting this post, the stars, galaxies, etc. are normal matter. The other type, dark matter, has only recently been detecetd. Of that 4.6% of normal matter, we have only been able to find half of it up until now, when scientists found evidence of the rest in filaments of super hot, diffuse gas in between galaxy clusters. From this, scientists are able to guess the amount of the rest of the matter out there in this state, but as Phil Plait says, the current data set is exactly one, so stay tuned.
Now, we all know that the platypus evolved somehow, but this ridiculous-looking animal has been used in the past by creationists as evidence again evolution because of it’s freakish mix of apparently unrelated parts and systems. Well, I guess the creationists that were still foolish enough to use this as evidence against have to abandon it, like their brethren with a better ability to learn did years ago. Study of the monotreme’s gene structure (I always read that as metronome) is starting to paint the picture of how this bizarre venomous, duck-billed, lizard/marsupial, nipple-less lactator came to be the horrid little monster that it is. No offense, platypi. h/t to Pharyngula for reigniting the nightmare
If the platypus doesn’t disgust you, this will. They finally dissected that giant squid. The pictures are vomitous. Enjoy them before your eyes leap out of your head in self-defense! This also brought to you via Pharyngula, winner of the Gross Science Twofer, a new award from MB-A the trophy for which is a bust of my middle finger.
Speaking of eyes, the good folks at Expelled Exposed have released a video of how the eye evolved (it’s the bottom video). I think you’ll find it fun and educational! Also, it flies in the face of ID proponents who classify the eye in their list of “irreducibly complex” systems.
I was going to do a politics summary of the same type as this, but I can easily summarize it as “a crop of assholes have acted like children”.
Look, the movie-makers here are telling flat-out lies and have used questionable methods to market and produce their film. That does not give anyone leave to do the same underhanded bullshit to combat it. Period.
Hate the movie, decry their methods, but don’t be dicks.
Some of you may be aware of SpaceX, a private company trying to get into space. They recently had a failed mission when their Falcon 1 rocket failed to make orbit due to an issue wth compatibility with their Merlin 1C engine.
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