Menu

All posts by dwayne

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia

One of the most tragic events in the history of space exploration is the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and all seven of its crew on February 1, 2003—a tragedy made worse because it didn’t have to happen. But just as it is human nature to look to the future and wonder what might be, so too is it in our nature to look at the past and wonder, “what if?” Today, 13 years after the event, Ars is rerunning our detailed 2014 examination of the biggest Columbia “what if” of all—what if NASA had recognized the danger? Could NASA have done something to save the crew?

@ arstechnica.com
first posted:
last updated:
Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

To lions, zebras are mostly gray

The problem is that we’ve always looked at zebras through the wrong eyes—ours. Human eyes are exceptionally good at resolving detail in daylight, so “we have a very odd appreciation of the coat of a zebra,” says Tim Caro from the University of California, Davis. By contrast, their main adversaries—lions and hyenas—have eyes with poorer resolution, but greater sensitivity at dawn, dusk, and darkness. So Caro, together with Amanda Melin from the University of Calgary worked out what zebras look like to these predators.

@ theatlantic.com
first posted:
last updated:
Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

What we’ll do in space by 2016. Er…they

With such rapid expansion of capability, it may seem difficult to tell what the next 60 years will bring, much less the next century. But we never do anything in space without first imagining what we could do, so in that spirit, here is an attempt to predict—and nudge us into—the future.

@ nautil.us
first posted:
last updated:
Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

The Illusion of Time

Designing digital experiences comes with an ingrained obsession. The obsession of speed and performance. Amazon calculated that an increased loading time of just one second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales each year. Google loses about 8 million searches (and ad displays) when page speed decreases by just four tenths of a second — scary shit!

@ medium.com
first posted:
last updated:
Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

It’s probably not aliens

That left some speculation about, um, aliens. While it’s incredibly unlikely, it does kinda fit what we’re seeing. An advanced civilization would have big energy requirements, and it would make sense to build huge structures around their star to capture as much light as possible for solar power. The dips in light we see are then these “megastructures” passing in front of the star (some people call this a Dyson Swarm; a collection of enormous solar panels enclosing the star).

@
first posted:
last updated:
Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

Liber8 BB-8!

My on-the-fly take was that there was a conceptual problem: if we made machines smart enough to provide all our services, wouldn’t those machines effectively be people, deserving freedom from servitude?

@
first posted:
last updated:
« Previous Page — Next Page »