Anticrepuscular rays at sundown tonight. I’ve not seen ’em quite like this before.
]
Sep 102012
Sep 102012
Specifically, the incredibly tough little “water bears.”
[youtube 7W194GQ6fHI]
From Wikipedia:
Tardigrades have been known to withstand the following extremes while in this state:
- Temperature – tardigrades can survive being heated for a few minutes to 151 °C (424 K),[20] or being chilled for days at -200 °C (73 K),[20] or for a few minutes at -272 °C (~1 degree above absolute zero).[21]
- Pressure – they can withstand the extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1,200 times atmospheric pressure. Tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days.[21] Some species can also withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, which is nearly six times the pressure of water in the deepest ocean trench, the Mariana trench.[12]
- Dehydration – tardigrades have been shown to survive nearly 10 years in a dry state.[22] When exposed to extremely low temperatures, their body composition goes from 85% water to only 3%. As water expands upon freezing, dehydration ensures the tardigrades do not get ripped apart by the freezing ice (as waterless tissues cannot freeze).[23]
- Radiation – tardigrades can withstand median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma-rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions) in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human).[24] The only explanation thus far for this ability is that their lowered water state provides fewer reactants for the ionizing radiation.[25]
- Environmental toxins – tardigrades can undergo chemobiosis—a cryptobiotic response to high levels of environmental toxins. However, these laboratory results have yet to be verified.[26][27]
- Outer space – In September 2007, tardigrades were taken into low Earth orbit on the FOTON-M3 mission and for 10 days were exposed to the vacuum of space. After being rehydrated back on Earth, over 68% of the subjects protected from high-energy UV radiation survived and many of these produced viable embryos, and a handful had survived full exposure to solar radiation.[21][28] In May 2011, tardigrades were sent into space along with other extremophiles on STS-134, the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour.[29][30][31] In November 2011, they were among the organisms sent by the US-based Planetary Society on the Russian Fobos-Grunt mission to Phobos.[citation needed]
The guy in the video speculates that the Tardigrade may have an extraterrestrail origin, for two reasons:
1) Because it seems the little monsters can survive in the vacuum of space
2) Because it seems the little monsters are evolutionarily unrelated to other lifeforms on Earth.
However, Tardigrade RNA has been sequenced, and they seem to be related to arthropods. with more detailed DNA analysis to come.
Sep 092012
This is… huh.
New Avro Arrow design pitched to feds as alternative for F-35s: report
In short… the f-35 is so hideously expensive that portions of the Canadian government and industry wanted to cancel it and restart the old CF-105 Arrow, a plane from the 1950’s.
While the Arrow was undoubtedly an awesome machine half a century ago, it seems like it’d be out of place today… basically a MiG 25 with a maple leaf.
Sep 082012
Found in a pile of ebay-obtained glossies – all the ones that could be identified were Boeing – was this one showing an armed and rather large hovercraft plowing over polar seas. No other data… date, identification, etc. all missing, just the image. What’s shown is a hovercraft propelled by six turbofan engines, with a very “Sea Shadow” type of semi-stealthy build, with a bunch of vertical launch tubes and what look rather like US Colonial Marine Corps sentry-guns scattered about the deck. The other artwork in the pile seemed to be from the 1970’s, so it’s a safe bet this design dates from then as well.
Sep 082012
Sep 082012
It seems that Lucasfilm has decided to produce yet another Star Wars TV series (there was the Ewok animated series, the Droids animated series, the Clone Wars micro-series, the Clone Wars CGI series, and an upcoming live action monstrously expensive series). This time, though, they seem to have noticed that the Cartoon Networks’ Robot Chicken Star Wars specials have been just about the most popular Star Wars properties in years, and have decided to basically run with that premise… a Star Wars parody series. Star Wars Detours will be done all CGI, unlike Robot Chickens stop-motion animation. According the the Wikipedia page, the series does not yet have a release date or a network, which seems odd, but there it is.
And not only have they copied the Robot Chicken parody style, they’ve also appropriated a number of the same voice actors. Seth Macfarlane as Emperor Palpatine is particularly awesome.
[youtube -yRNXFhboBI]
And in case you don’t get the reference in the blog post title, edumacate yourself:
[youtube 3F1d3QWsyk0&NR]
Sep 082012
An RC dragon, jet powered and capable of shooting flame (“breathing fire”):
[youtube SzP5X9Y58JE]
[youtube ntIxK5wjY50]
Now… DARPA< get ready to give me a contract.
1) Scale it up by a factor of three or four
2) Modify the propulsion system to be much quieter, less “jet like”
3) Give it a less flashy, more reptilian paint job
4)Equip it with speakers and cameras
5) Send it to third-world crapholes like Afghanistan, Somalia or Detroit to sow chaos among the ignorant, superstitious locals.
Bonus:
6) Have it crap out swarms of these, modified to explode:
[youtube kTlSSTTkqMw]
Sep 072012
A truly amazing sequence of photos:
Sep 072012
From slides at the NASA HQ archive, two photos of a Convair “Triamese” space shuttle concept. See HERE for more on the Triamese.
Sep 072012
Huh.
1961: SUCCESSFUL LAUNCHING Of Minuteman from an underground silo was made in a test conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Tethering cables restricted the test vehicle’s flight. In sequence, from the left, the missile was preceded by a blast of smoke and flame before engine from the silo. The tethering cables its to fall back to earth after the first-stage rocket engine had used up its fuel. The test missile carried flight-weight upper stages.
