discovery
Science
“Full Tank, Please!”
12:30PM Jesus Diaz | This is one of NASA’s gas stations boys filling Discovery’s external tank with 1.6 million pounds of liquid fuel. The procedure had to be stopped yesterday, further delaying its launch. I wonder if he cleans the windshields too. More »
Music
Discovering Music in 2009: The New Tools
6:45AM Adrian Covert | MTV doesn’t play music videos. Magazines are dying. Radio is all about the $$$. It’s no secret the old modes of music discovery have been thrown out the window. Thankfully, new music-finders are here: More »
Science
I Wish Things in Space Really Went This Fast
10:00AM Jesus Diaz | I was watching NASA’s channel,—admiring Discovery’s pitch manoeuvre as it approaches to dock with the ISS—and I found myself thinking: “This is glacially slow.” So I speeded it up by four.* More »
Random Stuff
Shuttle-Riding Bat Dies The Most Glorious Death Imaginable
11:40PM John Herrman | On a cool spring eve March 15th, 2009 a bat, crippled and wistful, clung to the Space Shuttle Discovery as it was thrust toward the great beyond. Goodbye and godspeed, my magnificent Spacebat. More »
Science
ISS and Discovery In Debris Collision Danger, NASA Thinking About Course Change
7:11AM Jesus Diaz | I told you we needed lasers up there: The ISS is again in danger of colliding with the orbiting debris. And space shuttle Discovery is headed into it too. Cue in the Bruckheimer movie’s soundtrack. More »
Entertainment
Upcoming Prototype This! TV Show Sounds Like Modders, Maker’s Geekfest
9:07PM Kit Eaton | Hackaday has a piece about an upcoming Discovery Channel show called “Prototype this!” It’s due in October, and since it’s about making and modding robots and other gizmos, it sounds like a Mythbusters-meets-Makerfaire geeky heaven. [Hackaday] More »
Science
Mythbusters Shark Week: Real Sharks Eat Robot Dog, Robot Shark Eats Real People
6:30AM Matt Buchanan | To find out if dogs are really homing snackycakes for bloodthirsty sharks, or if poking them in the eye with a pokey thing is actually a good idea, you could ask a dude in a lab coat, or like, watch Jaws. Unless you’re the Mythbusters–then you build a robot dog, surround it with doggy blood, piss and shit and dump it in shark-infested waters. And a 16-foot ROBOT SHARK. With serrated metal teeth and the same pound-for-bone-crunching-pound bite as a great white. But! If you stab it in the eye, you can make it stop killing you (I guess that’s one way to test the myth). You can catch a glimpse of this robo-Jaws in the vid below. galleryPost('mbsharkweek', 3, ''); More »
Science
Habemos John! Astronauts Can Boldly Go Again, As ISS Toilet is Fixed
8:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | Spaceboys who have been crossing their legs in sympathy with the can-less astronauts on the Space Station can relax. Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko fixed the toilet after the Discovery space shuttle delivered a new pump to the ISS on Monday. The outer-space loo had been broken for two weeks, and the three-man team had been taking it in turns to swill it out manually with water. “Let’s start using it,” said Russian mission control to Kononenko, adding hopefully, “we’ll keep our fingers crossed.” In other space news, a billion-dollar Japanese science lab was opened on the ISS. Called Kibo, or hope, the 11 metre long lab is one of the largest rooms on the ISS, but will not be up and running until its porch arrives next year. [CNN] More »
Toys
Buzz Lightyear Goes to Infinity and… the International Space Station?
8:16PM Gizmodo US Edition | Buzz Lightyear is now part of the International Space Station crew, after astronauts from mission STS-124 boarded the orbital outpost yesterday at 3:36PM EDT—bringing in the 12-inch to guard us against Emperor Zurg, who has been secretly building a weapon with the destructive capacity to annihilate an entire planet. Or maybe just teach kids about math and science. I can go either way, death rays or deathly equations. More »
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