RedBull’s Stratos Stunt | Amy Shira Teitel Baumgartner, covered in RedBull logos, begins his fall at just over 128,000 feet. Credit: Handout/Getty Images via The Guardian According to YouTube, eight million people watched Felix Baumgartner’s high altitude jump on Sunday morning. I realize I sound like an irritated historian, but I also have a background (albeit a brief one) in publicity. What ever else he may be, Baumgartner is definitely a good face for RedBull. A little background first. Ostensibly, the jump was designed to expand the boundaries of human flight. The International Space Station, which you can’t jump out of. It’s not entirely clear what applications this data would have, like the research on “passenger/crew exit from space.” But what bothered me the most is how RedBull presented the jump. A schematic showing the layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Which brings up another problem with RedBull’s promotion of the Stratos jump. This was far from the only misinformation associated with the event. Joe Kittinger in his U.S.
MST3K: The Shorts During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from ) inside for links. Alphabetical list with episode information shamelessly cribbed from here, then chopped and channeled. (It was actually missing a couple.) AAlphabet Antics: 308, Gamera vs. BBody Care & Grooming: 510, The Painted Hills DDate with Your Family, A: 602, Invasion U.S.A. (1952)Day at the Fair, A: 608, Codename: DiamondheadDays of Our Years, The: 623, The Amazing Transparent ManDesign for Dreaming: 524, 12 to the Moon GGeneral Hospital (Parts 1, 2 and 3 in sequence here and here): 413, Manhunt in Space; 415, The Beatniks; and 417, Crash of the Moons HHere Comes the Circus: 422, The Day the Earth FrozeHired! JJohnny at the Fair: 419, The Rebel SetJunior Rodeo Daredevils: 407, The Killer ShrewsJuvenile Delinquency? KKeeping Clean and Neat: 613, The Sinister Urge LLast Clear Chance: 520, Radar Secret Service MMr.
The Spoony Experiment - Because bad movies and games deserve to be hurt back! The Ancient Gaming Noob Google Search: A Discussion About The Past, Present and Future With Jack Menzel During a visit to the Googleplex last week, I sat down with someone so passionate about search, it’s as if it’s his job or something. Well, it is, and Jack Menzel, Director, Product Management of Google Search, is as excitable as it gets when it comes to talking about his passion. Who can blame him, though? When I spoke with Menzel, I focused on what the future of Google Search looks like, from an insider’s perspective: The future of search, the way we think about it, is that we want to be able to answer any question. I found that Menzel answers many questions in this way, meaning that there is no simple answer to how search will evolve. The important focus for Google is to make search act as naturally as possible. That’s whats motivating us in the future of search. It’s a tall order, especially when Menzel describes computers as simple “counting machines”, that have to be turned into a machine that can naturally answer any question with powerful algorithms. There’s no API for the world.
BOINC The Best App Is the One You Don't Have to Use Apps are reaching an inflection point. Now that zillions of apps are available to serve every imaginable purpose, there are two ways for them to keep us interested. They can either melt into the background and do their jobs with minimum fuss, or they can force us to pay attention to them. Which option sounds better in the long run? This is a story of two apps. One has evolved from an inconvenience to a convenience, the other has done the opposite. Greplin: The Business of Friction I loved Greplin. I didn’t need Greplin often. You could pay Greplin to unlock the ability to connect to some services, but you could also do it by inviting friends to Greplin. Now, a free app has to get you to launch it all the time if the publisher has any hope of turning it into a business; frequent use brings the opportunity to display lots and lots of ads. Paying for Convenience Contrast Greplin’s trajectory with that of Square. To drive more usage, Square did the opposite of Cue. The Long Run
Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2016 April 15 Mercury and Crescent Moon Set Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva) Explanation: Innermost planet Mercury and a thin crescent Moon are never found far from the Sun in planet Earth's skies. Tomorrow's picture: Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD at NASA / GSFC& Michigan Tech.
Top 10 Myths About Evolution – with Downloadable PDF | Atheism Resource Email If you have been looking for a simple, easy to follow quick guide to evolution… we’ve got it. Our friends at the Skeptics Society gave us permission to reprint this. Below is the text. Original Text: 1 If Humans Came From Apes, Why Aren’t Apes Evolving Into Humans? Humans, apes, and monkeys are only distant evolutionary “cousins.” 2 There Are Too Many Gaps in the Fossil Record for Evolution to Be True In fact, there are lots of intermediate fossils. 3 If Evolution Happened Gradually Over Millions of Years Why Doesn’t the Fossil Record Show Gradual Change? Sudden changes in the fossil record are not missing evidence of gradualism; they are extant evidence of punctuation. 4 No One Has Ever Seen Evolution Happen Evolution is a historical science confirmed by the fact that so many independent lines of evidence converge to this single conclusion. 5 Science Claims That Evolution Happens by Random Chance Natural selection is not “random” nor does it operate by “chance.”