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Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Transit of Mercury

The Transit of Mercury Webcast is being hosted by the NASA Digital Learning Network. From their home page just choose the Transit of Mercury feature. On the information page you will find many activities and lesson plans.

Webcast Air Time:

Start: 1:30 ET - End: 2:30 ET TODAY!

During the webcast NASA will feature:

A panel of scientists live from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

A telescope 'safety viewing' demonstration with instructions on how to view the transit using a classroom solarscope.

Live images of the transit from 2 NASA satellites, SOHO and TRACE.

Live ground based images from Kitt Peak and Hawaii!


Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Children Prefer Those Smiled On By Fate

5- to 7-year-olds more attracted to lucky individuals and groups than victims of bad luck.
Children as young as five to seven years of age prefer lucky individuals over the less fortunate. This phenomenon, the researchers say, could clarify the origins of human attitudes toward differing social groups and help explain the persistence of social inequality.

"Young children express stronger liking for the beneficiaries of good luck compared to the victims of bad lack and generalize this preference to those who share membership in a group. Because the disadvantaged are more likely to experience negative events beyond their control -- such as the tendency for the poor to be most impacted by natural disasters -- this innocuous preference for the privileged may eventually grow more harmful, further increasing negativity toward the disadvantaged. Such preferences may, in turn, help explain the persistence of social inequality." Link.

The work is published in the latest issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Images: link and link

Pick you Lucky Number...:

Friday, November 3, 2006

Speed Racer Goes Hollywood



"Speed Racer" is on a fast track to the big screen in an all-new, live-action feature film that will reunite the filmmaking team behind "The Matrix." Speed Racer" will be written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, marking the brothers' first writing/directing collaboration since their groundbreaking "Matrix" movies.

Based on the classic series created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida, the big-screen "Speed Racer" will follow the adventures of the young race car driver Speed in his quest for glory in his thundering Mach 5. It will feature other characters that fans of the show will remember, including Speed's family and his mysterious arch-rival, Racer X. Link

Speed Racer Sells Out...:


Why would Speed Racer turn to the Dark Side? Could these two 'Racy Speed Racers' have something to do with it?

(Click to enlarge)
Or maybe it's the cool bikes they ride...

Z Machine Melts Diamond To A Puddle

Sandia's Z machine, by creating pressures more than 10 million times that of the atmosphere at sea level, has turned a diamond sheet into a pool of liquid.

The object of the experiment at the National Nuclear Security Administration facility was to better understand the characteristics of diamond under the extreme pressure it would face when used as a capsule for a BB-sized pellet intended to fuel a nuclear fusion reaction.

Why use diamond at all? It was hoped that diamond would help smooth out the applied pressure loads and keep the capsule implosion symmetric.

In the experiments, the applied pressure came from shock waves passing through the diamond. The waves were created by impacting the diamond with tiny plates hurled using Z's huge magnetic fields at about 20 times the speed of a rifle bullet.
LINK

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

This N-man, This Model!


N-Man © and TM Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved, 1993, 2006]
A few years back I wanted to experiment with a block of ‘Super-Sculpty’ that I had acquired. Inspired by ‘Sturdy’ Steve Bissette’s “N-Man” (a co-creation with Alan Moore) for the lamentably never-finished ‘1963’ series for Image Comics, I sculpted the half man-half lobster hero.

Pete Von Sholly then turned a photo of the 12” model into the cool faux-Aurora box seen above. Steve's recent post of of Pete's faux box has forced my hand in putting up this post.





The above illos are all from the ash can edition of “The Unbelievable N-Man” that Steve sent me all those years ago. Below is the ash can cover (left) and the 1st N-Man cover feature.



Below are two better shots of the finished painted model:




N-Man © and TM Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved, 1993, 2006]

And a big Halloween thanks to Steve and Pete!

Happy HPLoween!


© Pete Von Sholly.

A 13x19 Giclee signed print of Pete Von Sholly's HPL above painting is available from www.mysteryandimagination.com

And here's a plug for one of Pete's latest books:

Science Debunks Halloween, Part 3: No Ghosts



Using Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion, scientists have demonstrated that ghosts would not be able to walk and pass through walls

In movies such as “Ghostbusters”, ghosts often walk like humans, pass through walls and pick up objects. But that portrayal cannot be accurate, Efthimiou says. For ghosts to have the ability to walk like humans, they would need to put a force upon the floor, which would exert an equal and opposite force in return.

But ghosts' ability to pass through walls and have humans walk right through them demonstrates that they cannot apply any force. LINK

Ghosts, Vampires and Zombies: Cinema Fiction vs Physics Reality. 2006. C.J. Efthimiou, and S. Gandhi.

The Classic "Lonesome Ghosts":