the final debate

Tags: barack obama, current tv, debate, john mccain, mccain, obama, politics, presidential debate

Posted in » events, news, politics

wall street hits the jackpot!

Much to the chagrin of jealous chain-smokers slouching over jackpot machines everywhere, the American economy took a chance on luck today and fed a buck into the slots, pulled the handle, and got so dizzy watching the wheels spin, it threw up all over wall street. Hooray for public displays of affliction!

Tags: 777, bailout, dow jones, economy, fail street, jackpot, US economy, wall street

Posted in » economy

current tv hacks the debate

In case you’ve been living under a rock, which currently might not be such a bad investment, you probably saw some of the McCain and Obama debate last Friday. Current TV hooked up with Twitter and broadcast tweets over the debate in real-time. They’re doing it again on Thursday for the second debate, assuming Palin doesn’t suspend her campaign to focus on the the trickle down economics of bridge construction.

The mashup for the first debate featured Kennedy and Nixon:

Tags: barack obama, campaign, current tv, debate, economy, hack the debate, joe biden, john mccain, politics, presidential debate, sarah palin, twitter, vice-presidential debate

Posted in » journalism, news, politics

fail street

When the columns crumble, the American Eagle will be there to take Wall Street to it’s final destination…

Tags: america, bailout, design, eagle, economy, fail street, wall street

Posted in » art

lro/lcross | return to the moon

Nasa CoLab recently hosted the twelfth Luna Philosophie salon, with guest Brian Day, Educational Technology Technical Lead at NASA Ames Research Center, who gave a great mission briefing on the coming LRO/LCROSS mission to search for water and landing sites for an antarctic station on the moon. NASA CoLab was set up to help build direct and open collaborations between the public, including mission briefings, data collaboration, great educational materials for kids and adults, and a host of other ways to interact, get involved, and get tremendous amounts of information on NASA missions. NASA has truly embraced the open-source culture and it’s great to see NASA CoLab working so well.

About LRO/LCROSS:

In 2009, NASA will return to the Moon with the combined launch of two robotic probes, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The two satellites will be launched together aboard an Atlas V rocket and these robotic missions are precursors to the planned establishment of a human outpost on the Moon. The LCROSS mission will use the Centaur upper stage of the launch vehicle as a kinetic impactor in the search for possible deposits of water ice that might occur in permanently-shadowed craters near the lunar pole. LRO will orbit the lunar poles for up to five years. Just after launch from the Kennedy Space Center, LRO will separate from LCROSS.

Another cool thing about Luna Philosophie (besides the cute host and the rest of the fun nerds like me who show up), is that it’s always held on (or close to) the full moon.

Tags: Ames Research Center, Ariel Waldman, Brian Day, Centaur upper stage, kinetic impactor, LCROSS, LRO, Luna Philosophie, Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, moon, nasa, NASA CoLab, svs studio, yahoo! brickhouse

Posted in » moon, nasa, science

banksy in the big easy

from sky: “Three years after Katrina I wanted to make a statement about the state of the clean-up operation.”

Tags: art, banksy, big easy, environment, katrina, new orleans

Posted in » art, culture, environment

gustav swirling

NASA’s TRMM spacecraft observed this view of Hurricane Gustav on August 27, 2008 as it attacked Haiti. At this time the storm was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 65 knots (75 mph) and a pressure reading of 992 millibars. The cloud cover is taken by TRMM’s Visible and Infrared Scanner(VIRS) and the GOES spacecraft. The rain structure is taken by TRMM’s Tropical Microwave Imager (TMI) and TRMM’s Precitation Radar(PR) instruments. TRMM looks underneath of the storm’s clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. Blue represents areas with at least 0.25 inches of rain per hour. Green shows at least 0.5 inches of rain per hour. Yellow is at least 1.0 inches of rain and red is at least 2.0 inches of rain per hour.

Made by the awesome nerds at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio (I wish I was one of them).

Tags: animation, environment, hurricane gustav, nasa, nerds, science, svs studio, weather

Posted in » animation, nasa, technology, weather

video on lomography

here’s a great video on the art of lomography by thom hudson.

Tags: current tv, holga, lomo, lomography, photography, thom hudson

Posted in » photography, video

fractured scaphoid

view of left hand, fractured scaphoid. taken 2008.08.15. viewed with open source xray viewer OsiriX. normal xray view of scaphoid in lower right.

Tags: fracture, osirix, scaphoid, xray

Posted in » medicine, science, technology

death star over san francisco

check out this amazing video mike horn created of various star wars ships and vehicles orbiting, flying, landing and cruising around san francisco. the official star wars blog has an interview with him. i plan on asking him a few questions myself, next time I see him in the bathroom stalls at work. I’ll be the one in the wookie costume.

Tags: current tv, death star, mike horn, star wars

Posted in » pop culture, video