CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-23 20:39:38 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Nine months of MSL front HAZCAM images in about a minute. I love videos like this. Justin Maki made one for the first one-year MER celebration, and it was breathtaking to watch it -- it really brought home all we'd accomplished.

2013-05-23 17:52:41 (10 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

Best Web site ever on how homeopathy works.

2013-05-23 17:25:27 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Since I seem to be on this kick lately, here are more home science experiments you can do. Kid optional. :-)

2013-05-22 18:06:17 (1 comments, 11 reshares, 8 +1s)

Know a kid who loves science -- or are you one yourself, maybe just at heart? Here are about 30 nifty-sounding experiments you can do.

(Sorry, dunno what happened to the link the first time I tried posting this!)

2013-05-22 17:35:49 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Now here's a clever idea: NASA funds research into 3-D printing food. Star Trek food replicators are on the way!

2013-05-21 22:55:58 (20 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

Not that I'm the biggest Apple fan in the world, but it's strange to me that Congress -- or, indeed, anyone -- would resent Apple for not deliberately paying more taxes than they must under the law. Who does?

If Congress really didn't like that behavior, they could write laws with fewer loopholes. But let's not kid ourselves: the loopholes are there on purpose, exactly so that rich companies can avoid paying taxes. More likely, the real cause of the outrage is that Apple didn't pay its protection lobbying money, or something.

I'll believe Congress is serious about this when they make all companies pay their fair share. Until then, this story smells of BS.

2013-05-21 17:56:15 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

2013-05-21 17:31:53 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Opportunity is very much on the move now, routinely covering about 100 meters per drive. At this rate, it won't be long before she becomes the most-traveled extraterrestrial land vehicle in history. I estimate roughly two or three weeks, so be thinking about what food you're going to have at your party.

It is humbling to reflect that we're only now breaking those 40-year-old records, though, set by the likes of the Apollo rovers and the Soviet moon rover Lunokhod 2 -- records that were already 30 years old when we started the process of breaking them. Still, I'll take "late" over "never."

2013-05-21 17:15:15 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

You know how creationists pretend evolution conflicts with the Second Law of Thermodynamics? This has got to be the most definitive slam-dunk response to that hoary old notion ever.

Not that they'll read it, of course -- or understand it even if they did. But I love knowing it's there.

2013-05-18 09:09:03 (3 comments, 6 reshares, 26 +1s)

NASA's long-lived Opportunity Mars rover is the new American champion of off-planet driving with 22.220 miles (35.760 kilometers), breaking a distance record set more than 40 years ago by an Apollo moon buggy. http://bit.ly/Z1WF6e

Opportunity still trails behind the Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 23 miles (37 km) on the moon in 1973.

2013-05-18 02:18:26 (13 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

The Boy Scouts' policy of discriminating against gays and atheists made a lot more sense to me after I read this. As late as the 1970s, they had to be sued for discriminating against black scouts, too. They've always been spineless and backward.

2013-05-17 19:12:21 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2013-05-17 18:04:37 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Some of the amazing exoplanets found by the Kepler space telescope. Even if Kepler proves to be at the end of its planet-finding days, it's sure been a hell of a run.

Via +Boing Boing.

2013-05-17 17:32:59 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Ha!

2013-05-17 17:22:26 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

What New York City would look like on other planets in our solar system.

2013-05-17 02:34:04 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

I feel the Kepler space telescope team's pain: a spacecraft with a balky wheel is no fun. :-(

MER and MSL imaging scientist Justin Maki once said something that really stuck with me: "These pictures from the rovers, they make you feel like you're right there. But one hardware problem, and boom, they're three hundred million miles away."

2013-05-16 18:12:31 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Caveman science fiction.

2013-05-15 18:28:26 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Few things make me happier than a new Vampire Weekend album. This is the one that dropped yesterday. Like their others, it's terrific. (Though it's deliberately more challenging in places, especially in some of the later songs, because of their increased use of electronic stuff.) Enjoy!

2013-05-15 18:08:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Gorgeous Astronomy Picture of the Day: Endeavour punches a hole through the clouds as she climbs to the sky.

<wistful sigh>

2013-05-15 17:16:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-05-15 07:53:51 (4 comments, 6 reshares, 7 +1s)

Newt Gingrich wonders aloud what to call these here newfangled handheld computers, apparently never having heard the word "smartphone."

A commenter then wins the Internet by suggesting "horseless telephone."

2013-05-15 07:34:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Are all red flowers red for the same reason? Here's an experiment you can do (optionally with kids) to find out.

2013-05-15 02:33:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Ohio Northern University students build their own scale model of MSL.

Reading the article was a double treat for me because Professor Eric Baumgartner, mentioned in the article, was one of the "original eight" MER drivers with me. And he's an amazing guy, possibly the best engineer I've ever worked with.

2013-05-15 02:05:14 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Exploring other planets, putting yet another nail in the coffin of young-Earth creationism ... is there anything Mars rovers can't do?

2013-05-13 07:31:34 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Astronaut Chris Hadfield sings David Bowie's "Space Oddity"... FROM SPACE

And he's good.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/12/astronaut_chris_hadfield_sings_david_bowie_s_space_oddity_in_space.html

2013-05-13 07:15:32 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

2013-05-08 22:37:29 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

I don't want to overwhelm you with math, but here's a handy formula: space exploration + infographics = I'm not getting much done for the rest of my day.

Note that you can upload your own infographics to be featured on the site as well -- they even offer helpful art and data to get you started. I swear, if I had a shred of artistic talent, I'd be doing this full time.

2013-05-08 18:04:33 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 14 +1s)

How the price of paint is set in the hearts of dying stars

Today I’m going to try to explain the real reason that barns are painted red: nuclear fusion. And yes, this is an excuse to take a mad ride around some of the stranger corners of physics and chemistry in order to give you the real, this-is-not-BS, answer to a simple question.

This question got stuck in my head as a result of an episode of a long-forgotten sitcom called Head of the Class, about a high school class full of smart kids. (Sort of like Welcome Back, Kotter in reverse) This being an American show, it’s obligatory to occasionally emphasize the superiority of the ordinary virtue of “plain folk,” so in one episode the protagonists face off in some kind of academic contest with kids from a rural school, and end up losing because their city-slicker knowledge can’t answer the question “why are barnsred?” (And ... more »

2013-05-08 17:46:37 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-05-04 22:57:47 (0 comments, 10 reshares, 19 +1s)

*Facebook Rejects Ad Highlighting Zuckerberg Group’s Support For Keystone XL*

"When a subsidiary of Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group started airing ads for expanded oil drilling and the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, CREDO Action decided to post an ad of their own calling Zuckerberg out — on Facebook.

"This morning, Facebook rejected CREDO’s Facebook ad (pictured right). According to CREDO Action, Facebook initially informed them they rejected the ad because it used Facebook trademarks — specifically, Zuckerberg’s image. Though the image used was fully licensed for creative commons use, a Facebook representative told ThinkProgress that any images of Zuckerberg are off-limits, as he is part of the Facebook brand. The rules governing Facebook brand usage specify “trademarks, names, domain names, logos” but does not explicitly restrictimages of Zucke... more »

2013-05-04 06:28:43 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

'Frailty thy name is woman' - watch Jonathan Slinger in Act 1, Scene 2 of our new production of Hamlet

2013-05-04 02:09:29 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Why didn't the FBI/CIA "connect the dots" on the Boston bombers? Because the dots weren't there -- at least, not in the sort of way they now look like they were. We naturally believe otherwise because of something called "hindsight bias," as Bruce Schneier explains.

2013-05-03 17:53:58 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 9 +1s)

Why you should worry about -- and vigorously oppose -- CISPA.

Not mentioned in this piece: under CISPA, local law enforcement gets their grubby paws on your data, too. I'm sure that's good news for anyone whose ex is a potentially vengeful cop.

2013-05-02 02:48:02 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 22 +1s)

Canada properly brags about its space robots by putting them on $5 bills. Where's my Spirit sawbuck?

2013-05-02 02:38:35 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I've often thought the FCC was the last federal agency working for the US citizens, not for corporations. The incoming FCC head is a telecom lobbyist. So, that was nice while it lasted.

2013-05-01 17:36:40 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I left my old phone company because they didn't.  Don't think I won't do it again.

2013-05-01 17:28:30 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Totally Retro:  Scienctists succeed in bouncing lasers off the (former Soviet Union's Moon rover) Lunokhod 1's retroreflectors.  And if you zoom in on the overhead image, you can still see 40+ year old rover tracks!

2013-05-01 17:22:27 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)

This is my message to baby Violet ... and to everyone else in the world, too, I suppose.

2013-04-29 18:08:57 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

Rover-wise, it's been a slow news month: the sun has drifted between Earth and Mars, impeding communication with our priceless interplanetary assets. (Our word for this is "conjunction." It happens about every 26 months.)

But conjunction is ending, possibly as soon as today, and the rovers are back to work. What am I most excited about? In the next couple of months or so, venerable Opportunity will head south to a location known as "Solander Point," in whose neighborhood she'll spend her next winter. And along the way, she'll break a record, becoming the most-travelled extraterrestrial land vehicle ever.

The former record-holder was the 1973 Soviet lunar rover Lunokhod 2. That record lasted an impressive 40 years -- amazing work. But now it's time to do even better.

I can't wait.

2013-04-27 02:15:54 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

My first-ever book project. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/04261408-book-announcement.html

2013-04-25 19:17:25 (142 comments, 205 reshares, 686 +1s)

So, for all who are asking whether I "drew" the now-infamous "Mars penis" -- the answer is, maybe. I no longer have access to the data I'd need to answer that question definitively, but the image is from a mosaic taken around sol A-58, making me one of the two very likely candidates.

I sure as hell hope I did, though. Because that's hilarious. Needless to say, it wouldn't have been on purpose. But it's still hilarious.

Some of the raw images from that mosaic are here: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_p058.html

(Someone who, like Poe's raven, shall remain nameless here forevermore, for his or her own protection -- someone who does still have access to the data in question -- says he or she is pretty sure I did it. Thanks, Raven!)

(Update: further confirmation from the inside, thanks to +Fred Calef III.... more »

2013-04-25 02:40:09 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Congratulations to Rover Driver Vandi!

2013-04-24 17:50:23 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

Martian mountain...in 3D!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/04/24/mars_curiosity_rover_sees_landscape_in_3d.html

Check this out: Here's a phenomenal 3D red/green anaglyph of the Martian landscape taken by the Curiosity rover. It's really amazing, and gives you a great sense of what it must be like to stand on Mars.

2013-04-24 17:43:09 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

2013-04-24 17:18:14 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

2013-04-17 02:36:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

You can do something to defeat terrorism: refuse to be terrorized. Be indomitable, and support leaders who are the same. That's how we win.

2013-04-15 18:26:49 (11 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

G+ meta-discussion: surely you shouldn't say that you circle people on G+ but that you encircle them, right? As a verb, circle means "to travel around something in a circle," but encircle means "to enclose something within a circle." And the latter is considerably closer to what we mean.

So, fellow Plusketeers, go forth and encircle!

</EnglishUsageNerd>

2013-04-15 05:41:43 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Five NASA employees watched the Apollo 13 explosion through a telescope.

Via +Barbara Cohen.

(Dang, I wish the mobile G+ client would let you change the picture for a link, as the desktop client does. Maybe in a future release.)

2013-04-14 07:07:51 (32 comments, 5 reshares, 33 +1s)

A cable technician came to my house today, to fix my screwed-up Internet service. He noticed all the Mars pictures on the wall, and we started talking about space and science, and I was pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic he was about it -- he had a real interest. I love connecting with people about this stuff, and I wasn't expecting to have this particular pleasure at that moment.

Then he said this: "I believe in God, you know, and there's no way evolution happened. You look at something as complex as the heart, man, or the eye, there's no way that just evolved."

It was all I could do not to facepalm.

Image via +Nick Jones.

2013-04-13 06:37:32 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

NASA's Mars-bound rocket supposedly on track for a 2017 test launch. I hope so, but at this point, I feel like I've been burned enough that I'll believe it when I see it.