OK, that huge jet rocket fire at the Daytona 500 was pretty epic but let’s be honest here- that’s the only cool part about Nascar. Sure tailgating is fun but no amount of booze can make 43 cars driving in a circle entertaining for more than a couple laps.
But then there’s the National Auto Sport Association. Created to promote racing (and right turns) for anyone who has that need for speed, NASA has a full tank of events across the country. Spectators can tailgate and watch the races for free and even ride-along with drivers if they are feeling daring.
So whether you’ve got Dale Jr. mugs you only drink with on Sundays or you’re the next Ricky Bobby, consider checking out a NASA event as a cheap way to watch some fast cars and drink beer.
After cracks, leaks, and weather delays, the shuttle Discovery is finally set to launch today after originally set for November 1. This will be Discovery’s final mission, delivering supplies and experiments to the International Space Station, after which it will be retired.
After Discovery, NASA has two additional shuttle launches on the schedule before retiring the fleet. The Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for April 19; the crew for that flight includes astronaut Mark Kelly – husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The final flight, Shuttle Atlantis, is scheduled for June 28 (anyone want to make the trip South?). Like you, I will be at work during launch – but fear not, NASA is broadcasting the proceedings online all day at NASA TV. Here is the schedule:
10:15am – Docking coverage begins
11am – Pre-launch press conference
11:30am – Full launch coverage begins
4:50pm – Launch
5:45pm- Post-launch news conference
In honor of this event, a coworker…no…a friend of mine, Andrew Smith made a short music video to commemorate this event — and the video is awesome (and a lot of time was put into it) So watch it:
Discovery will spend 11 days in orbit — on top of the 352 days it’s already spent circling the planet — and will rack up another 4.5 million miles.
As we all know, space is often referred to as “The Final Frontier.” Well taking off that concept, Michael Marantz made a brilliant original short on Vimeo using a reading from Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” – editing it into a narrative. The short story was then transformed into an unofficial ad for NASA — made by a fan, Damewse. Check out the video he made below, for some reason space and pianos will always make me emotional. Watch it in HD and enjoy.
And be sure to check out his TV spot he’s created too, here.
First off — this already looks like an artist’s rendering of an alien planet, but no, this is Lake Mono, California — EARTH. NASA had been teasing their big announcement for a couple days now, only saying it regarded new life findings. Well today at 2pm EST they will hold a press conference on their findings — only it’s already leaked.
NASA have discovered a completely new form of life that is also completely different from anything else on Earth — “changing everything.”
Well folks, we are one writer down (even though Andrew never writes, so technically I am the only one right now). Genesis is in the hospital right now til Friday with some “ghost” problems, you can ask him for info. Anyways – these links are to make him less bored in the hospital, as well as provide you with entertainment! ENJOY!
Ok, here we go. Day two and counting. (deep breath) YOU CAN DO THIS GREG! We have some good ones for you today, although I’m afraid my nerdiness is starting to reveal itself. See if you can tell:
The updates being run on my computer right now is making this hunk of junk run slower than a mole’s assets. So with blind faith, I’m going to copy and paste some links that I have not yet reviewed or deemed funny or worth watching. So in other words, IT’S CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE DAY!:
I hate telethons but I enjoy pranks. So when the two are combined, they’re not so bad.
And finally, Wu Tan vs. The Beatles (NSFW – because of language and what might happen in yo’ pants)
If you found something online, post it on the comments below. And if you missed yesterday’s It’s the Internets!, click here. Farts and a world in MS Paint! And follow us on Twitter!
Do you remember seeing that image somewhere? All the crazy stories coming out of Siberia about what caused it? Well it was an asteroid (or comet or UFO?!) in 1908,which was an explosion equivalent to between 5 and 30 megatons of TNT occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in a remote region of Russia’s Siberia. The Tunguska blast flattened 80 million trees, destroying an area of around 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles).
Well don’t look now, but another asteroid roughly three times as big as the Tunguska one is coming for Earth – but no worries, Russia plans to save us! Anatoly Perminov, head of Roscosmos, tells Voice of Russia radio that Moscow may invite experts from Europe, the United States and China to join the project aimed at thwarting the menacing asteroid Apophis.
“People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and design a system that would prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people.”
Well when you put it that way – this actually seems kind of scary. The asteroid is due to hit Earth in the 2030′s – NASA predicts 2036. NASA however also wrote that an update of its orbit indicated “a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.” NASA dropped the odds of it hitting Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 to 1-in-250,000 .
Perminov offers no hint as to how Russia plans to deal with Apophis, except to say it would not destroy the asteroid. He also said after having considered the project, Russia could invite experts from Europe, the United States and China to join it. This truly is right out of a movie script.
“No nuclear explosions (will be carried out), everything (will be done) on the basis of the laws of physics.”
There are no other details at this time, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated! Sounds like a mission for these guys – WE’LL DRAW STRAWS!
Yes. Another space post. This time though with three interesting finds recently in the space world! First – hopefully that picture peaked your interest into what exactly is going on with a red sun. Well that is a red dwarf star – and that other planetary shape there is a “super Earth.”
You heard right, that artist rendition of what this super Earth looks like, shows the newly discovered planet orbiting a small that appears to be a “water world,” with a surface that might be covered with liquid water. This is what scientists believe it would be like if we were to land on it:
Plunging down through that atmosphere, Charbonneau says, the light from the star would most likely dim and disappear until you were in darkness. Then, if you kept going down and your ship could survive the crushing pressure of the atmosphere, you might splash into a hot ocean.
Well that doesn’t sound very hospitable at all. At least it has water on it though and is only 40 light-years away, which we still cannot get to. Scientists have previously found hundreds of planets orbiting stars far from our solar system, but the vast majority are gas giants like Jupiter. The number of known super-Earths (planets more massive than Earth but not as massive as a gas giant) is far smaller, this being only the second time that scientists have been able to determine the density, and thus the possible composition, for a super-Earth. But this planet seems a little implausible – so where else could life be? Why not look in our own solar system!
RT @ry_hudson: RT @kanyewest: NEW SONG AND VISUAL FROM NEW ALBUM BEING PROJECTED TONIGHT ACROSS THE GLOBE ON 66 BUILDINGS, LOCATIONS http:/… 5 days ago
