Nun Fight

Valley of Gwangi

It sounds like porn, but it's really cowboys! vs. dinosaurs!

Cinco de Mayo

From Nasa:

May 5, 1961

Forty-seven years ago today, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He launched aboard his Mercury-Redstone 3, named Freedom 7, to make an historic 15-minute suborbital flight.

This image shows Shepard in capsule before launch. After several delays and more than four hours in the capsule, Shepard was ready to go, and he famously urged mission controllers to 'fix your little problem and light this candle.'

Close Call

Apparently a Pac-man ghost sped by the planet Earth yesterday at a distance of about 334k miles, or about 1.4 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. It is about 250 meters across and was only discovered 3 months ago.

Mercury Flyby

The NASA space probe Messenger took this picture of the planet Mercury during a flyby last Monday. The probe was getting a gravity assist from the planet that will help it achieve its final orbit in 2011.

Missed It!

I forgot yesterday was perihelion day, or the Earth's closest approach to the sun this year. If it seemed a little warmer than usual in the Northern Hemisphere, that may have been why. Note that it was ass-cold in North Texas yesterday.

UFOs Key to Global Warming

This is the kind of outside the box thinking we need to save the penguins:

A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.

Awesome.

Happy Belated Perihelion Day

Yesterday the Earth made its closest approach to the Sun for this year. 91,399,800 miles. That's a little too close for comfort for this earthling.

Year End Wrap Up

Important stories in the last few weeks:

• Recent water flows on Mars.
• Ancient astronomical computer unraveled.
• Another asteroid close call in 2041.
  

Milton Friedman

The world's greatest economist and proponent of freedom died today at the age of 94. Here is a link to a long interview with Dr. Friedman in which he clearly and beautifully makes the case for individual liberty.

Evolution and Being Home for Dinner

Here is an interesting article on evolutionary psychology, although it never explicitly says so. And it is done in classic British style. An excerpt:

Cherie’s message was clear. Men should spend quality time with their family no matter how many wars they’ve inadvertently started and no matter how many constables are knocking on the door wanting to know about cash for ermine.

I’m sorry but I don’t understand. If you were an Iron Age man and you came home from a hunting expedition empty-handed because you wanted to play with your children, you’d starve. If you were a penguin and you came back from a fishing trip with nothing but snow in your flippers, your baby would die and the following year Mrs Penguin would find a new mate.

This is the problem. I am designed to kill foxes, bend every woman I meet over the nearest piece of furniture and give her a damn good seeing-to.

But in an evolutionary nanosecond, it’s all changed. After several million years of programming we’ve been told that what women really want is a husband who leaves his colleagues in the lurch at 7pm and comes home to make a delicious quiche.

Why You Shouldn't Throw an Elephant Into a Black Hole

They can recognize themselves in a mirror, an ability that until recently was thought to be only found in great apes and dolphins.

From the article:

US researchers made the discovery by studying the behaviour of Asian elephants in front of a tall mirror.

One of the animals repeatedly touched a white cross painted on her forehead - a classic test used to assess mirror self-recognition in children and apes.

The study is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We see highly complex behaviours such as self awareness and self-other distinction in intelligent animals with well-established social systems," said Joshua Plotnik, from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

What Happens When You Throw an Elephant Into a Black Hole?

I don't know. But here is a great article in New Scientist (which is much better than Scientific American) about elephants, black holes, and conservation of information.

Important Safety Information

The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention

Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.

Here is a collection of six word science fiction stories from Wired magazine.

HG Wells Was Right?

This just in from the BBC:

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

An interesting article. I've long wondered about continued human evolution and what that would bring. What will be the environmental pressures of the future that will affect mate selection? How will this be impacted by technology that will allow humans to genetically design their children from the ground up? I think the most likely scenario is that in the future, no matter what DNA you start with, all humans will be tall, symmetrical, athletic and intelligent. Or maybe I just think that because I'm afraid my descendants will inevitably wind up in the "dim-witted underclass."

Cassini

Lest we forget, Cassini is still out there, orbiting Saturn and taking great pictures like this one. Launched from Cape Canaveral at 4:43am EDT on October 15th 1997, Cassini arrived in orbit on July 1, 2004.

Black Hole Palooza

Ever feel like you are being pulled in 200 different directions at once? That's because there are about 200 supermassive black holes within 400 light years of Earth, according to a NASA study of x-ray sources. To be considered supermassive, a black hole needs to have a mass of at least millions of suns and some type of funny costume.

MRO Takes Picture of Opportunity

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has used its high-resolution camera to take a picture of fellow Mars explorer, the rover Opportunity, which is currently perched on the edge of Victoria Crater.

Shuttle and Space Station

Here is a beautiful photograph of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station silhouetted against the sun.