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Monday, May 21, 2012
Science & Technology
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Entertainment / Arts / Science & Technology Crumb's Facebook prediction hits Facebook
Posted by Bill Forman on Wed, May 2, 2012 at 1:14 PM
As an IndyBlog reader, chances are good that you're also on Facebook.
Chances are also good that you'll experience the same shudder of recognition I got this morning when Dangerous Minds posted this four-decade-old panel by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb.
Actually, since this has been out there on Facebook for hours, several of your friends have probably reposted it, which means you're already processed it and moved on .
In any case, now that we've seen Crumb's vintage view of a social media future, here's his sentimental take on America's past:
Friday, April 20, 2012
Nonprofits / Business / Science & Technology / Education / Books Space group lands Russian exhibit, teaching lab
Posted by Pam Zubeck on Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 5:17 PM
- Space Foundation
- Lunokhod rover
From the land of wheat and the Wizard of Oz comes help from the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center in Hutchinson, Kan., in helping the Springs-based Space Foundation get its visitors center project off to a good start.
The Cosmosphere is loaning a collection of 1970s-era Soviet space artifacts, which will be displayed at its headquarters at 4425 Arrowswest Drive.
Since the foundation moved last year into the building, it's been gradually settling in and has a generous amount of space to dedicate to a visitors center and museum.
The Russian items will be on display for three years starting Aug. 1, after making an appearance at the National Space Symposium at The Broadmoor, which closed on Thursday.
On display will be one of the few Lunokhod lunar rovers ever to be displayed outside of the former Soviet Union; a half-scale model, constructed in the Soviet Union, of the Luna 16 Robotic Probe, the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth, and a prototype of a Sokol (Falcon) Space Suit-K, a pressure suit that was used for on-ground engineering and thermal vacuum tests during Soviet cosmonaut training.
The foundation said in a press release:
"Initially, we will place these three extraordinary artifacts, which the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center has so generously loaned to us, in our extended lobby area," said Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham. "Then, we'll move them into the El Pomar Space Gallery, as part of the first phase of development of our visitors center."We're particularly excited because these artifacts represent a rich part of space history that few Americans have been exposed to," he continued. "We are very pleased to be able to display some of the meaningful contributions the Soviet Union made to space exploration."
The Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center is a museum and educational facility in Hutchinson, Kan., that displays and restores spaceflight artifacts and offers educational programs and camps. It is one of only three museums to display flown spacecraft from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and it has the second-largest collection of flown Soviet and U.S. space artifacts in the world. In addition to being a destination, the Cosmosphere also sponsors traveling exhibits and loans artifacts to other museums and organizations. For more information, go to www.cosmo.org.
"These artifacts on display in our booth at the National Space Symposium are exemplary of the unique and inspiring collection accumulated during our 50-year history and housed at the Kansas Cosmosphere," said Richard Hollowell, interim president & CEO of the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center. "We are excited to continue our mission of honoring the past and inspiring the future of space exploration by sharing these fascinating artifacts with visitors to the Space Foundation through an annually renewable three-year loan agreement.
In a related development, industry leader Northrop Grumman Corp. has donated $375,000 to create a science center and teaching lab at the Space Foundation's headquarters.
The press release explains:
To be known as the Northrop Grumman Science Center, the facility will include a Science on a Sphere™ laboratory and a teaching facility that will be used for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs for teachers and students and for community education outreach efforts.The Northrop Grumman Science Center is the first major component of the Space Foundation's visitors center, which is under development at 4425 Arrowswest Drive in Colorado Springs, Colo. Construction will begin immediately and the new center is expected to open as early as this fall.
"This generous gift from Northrop Grumman makes it possible for the Space Foundation to realize our vision of an interactive destination for formal and informal public and private education - advancing STEM in the exciting context of space exploration, development and utilization," said Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham. "We envision a facility where children and adults can participate in highly interactive learning opportunities in multiple disciplines, including astronomy, physics, mathematics, geography, environmental sciences, planetary sciences and biology."
The Northrop Grumman Science Center will have both lecture and laboratory facilities that can be used for pre-kindergarten through graduate-level courses, educator professional development and educational multimedia events and presentations for the general public.
"Northrop Grumman is honored to partner with the Space Foundation to create this exciting new educational facility for the Rocky Mountain region that will help lead the next generation into space," said Gary Ervin, a corporate vice president of Northrop Grumman and president of the company's Aerospace Systems sector. "STEM education initiatives like this are critical for today's children to become tomorrow's leaders in space. They are the future stewards of our nation's leadership in technology to keep both our economy strong and our residents secure while advancing our understanding of the world around us."
The Center will extend the reach and capabilities of the Space Foundation's education enterprise, which offers space-themed, standards-based education programs to teachers and students. Programs include Space Across the Curriculum teacher professional development courses, STARS science enrichment programs for schools, New Horizons community programs that combine school-based education programs with community events and lectures, Audience with an Astronaut sessions for schools, school and youth tours of major space industry exhibits, including those at the National Space Symposium, lesson plans and teaching resources and a NASA Educator Resource Center.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Entertainment / Science & Technology Further advice for data hogs
Posted by Bill Forman on Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Since then, I've heard from a number of others who are, for the same reason, facing reduced data speeds.
While yesterday's post offered some tips on how to cut back on data usage, I've since been made aware of a more comprehensive New York Times article.
Although the piece originally ran in 2010, it's full of useful suggestions, including some little-known suggestions on how to extend battery life.
Did you know, for instance, that streaming music will use up more battery life at higher volumes? (So if you're listening to Rhapsody on a trip to Denver, it helps to turn DOWN the volume on your phone and turn UP the volume on your car stereo system.)
Anyway, I'd go into more of them here, but I wouldn't want to deprive the Times of a few potential page hits. So if you're interested in preserving both battery life and data speeds, check out the article here.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Entertainment / Science & Technology Confessions of a data hog
Posted by Bill Forman on Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 4:41 PM
I've always wanted to be in the top 5 percent of something, and now I am.
A text from AT&T this morning delivered the good news: "Your data use this month places you in the top 5% of users."
Unfortunately, the rest of the message appeared less promising. "Use Wi-Fi to help avoid reduced speeds."
Yes, it turns out that I am a "data hog," the pejorative term reserved for those of us who've pushed past the newly instituted limits on AT&T's "unlimited" data plan. From this point forward, if I exceed 3 gigs of data usage during a one-month billing period, I'll be "throttled" back to a speed the company would rather not specify.
Granted, I have felt vague pangs of guilt as I imagine a landfill somewhere overflowing with my spent data. But a more pressing concern, as someone who's become dependent on streaming music, is the prospect of spending the next 24 days listening to songs start, stop and stutter as the cache slowly reloads.
Fortunately, it's turned out to be not as dire as all that. I called AT&T today and discovered that my billing cycle actually begins on the 9th of the month, rather than the 1st. (Everyone's varies, the say.) In other words, I've barely gone over my limit.
Plus (and here's where this post may have some actual use-value), there are a bunch of ways to cut back on your data usage that don't involve hiding your iPhone.
• If you're in a wi-fi zone — whether that's at home or a coffee shop — be sure to switch over from 3G and the meter will stop running.
• Even when you put your iPhone to sleep, a lot of apps continue to toil away in the background, including Pandora and my beloved MOG. Facebook is especially diligent, since it's off looking for your friends' latest lolcats even as you busy yourself with something useful.
• To prevent that from happening during periods of non-use, you can close each app individually, power off the phone, or put it in airplane mode. Just remember that the latter means your phone won't ring when you get a call or message. (Of course, coworkers might appreciate that.)
Find more suggestions, along with a space-age "data calculator," right here.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Science & Technology / Health QR-coded condoms? Yes, folks, they're here
Posted by Kirsten Akens on Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 12:41 PM
It's like Foursquare for sex. Sort of.
In order to normalize and popularize responsible condom-wearing, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest has kicked off a new "Where did you wear it?" campaign (Tagline: Safe sex happens. Find out where!") with the distribution of 55,000 condoms whose wrappers bear QR codes.
They're asking individuals to scan the codes with their smartphones, then add details online about the experience, including gender, partner's gender, age, relationship status, general location, why you used a condom, and how the sex was (from "Ah-maz-ing" to "Things can only improve from here.")
You don't have to have a QR-coded condom to check in. And according to the online interactive map, folks all across the U.S. have been participating, including those in our very own Colorado Springs.
One such couple in the Springs reports:
An under 20 guy and a girl whose relationship is just for fun and have already talked about safer sex and STDs used a condom in the bedroom to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. It was great— can’t wait for round 2.
Really, it's probably just a matter of time before a company like Sir Richard's Condoms jumps on this and starts giving away mayorships.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Science & Technology Ross Technology sees your 'waterproof' and raises you 'superhydrophobic'
Posted by Bryce Crawford on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Call this the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Geek.com reports that Ross Technology Corp. has developed a liquid spray that repels water like nothing you've ever seen (probably).
The spray actually uses nanoparticles and is superhydrophobic. That means it repels water and keeps a surface completely dry and stain free. While it may keep steel dry, Ross also realized it could be sprayed on products to keep them clean, and also keeps objects free of bacteria and ice. The company even claims you can spray an iPhone with NeverWet and it becomes waterproof.NeverWet is being turned into a consumer product and will see a release next year, but we should also start seeing it applied to products too. Shoes that can’t get dirty, ovens that don’t need cleaning, and clothes you never need to wash hopefully (a personal dream of mine).
Watch the video: There's a cool bit about stacking water molecules, besides other things that may make your head asplode.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Science & Technology Chemistry Tuesday (time to dork out)
Posted by Edie Adelstein on Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 8:55 AM
My days of chemistry are long behind me, but after a reading about atoms in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything last night, it's fondly coming back to me (sans flunked tests).
We're talking about the interface of chemistry and physics here, the strange structures of atoms and their behaviors, things like clouds of probability, the Schrödinger Wave Equation and math so complex as to prove fundamentals like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I'm tripping up over fractions these days.
All that said, while tooling around on the webs to refresh myself on orbitals, I found the Dynamic Periodic Table, probably the funnest thing I've ever seen today.
The DPT loads quickly and has multiple tabs and mouse-over options for revealing facts about the elements. From the basics of atomic number and weight, to the temperature at which each changes from solids to liquids to gasses, it's easy to navigate. A Wikipedia tab even gives encyclopedia information, in case you wanted to know what molybdenum is known for.
Likely, those of us no longer studying this field will have no inclination to review isotopes or learn a bit about all those scary elements that sit in two pull-out rows below the box proper. And yes, the site isn't at all new, but given the variable behavior of time in the world of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, I'd say that's a good enough pass.
But if you want to be ultra-Zen about it, and get super-trippy, there's this:
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Entertainment / Outdoors / Arts / Music / Science & Technology Indy Minute
Posted by Jack Ward on Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Tune into the Indy Minute — as seen on ABC affiliate KRDO News Channel 13 — each week for details on all the events that entertain and bring our community together. It's simulcast on KRDO News Radio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Media / Entertainment / Science & Technology Prediction: World Wide Web fad may become bigger than CB radio craze
Posted by Bill Forman on Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Bolstered by interviews with such web-savvy visionaries as Sandra Bullock, Newt Gingrich, Perry Farrell and "cyber-journalist" David Bennahum, the report includes '90s rapper Coolio extolling the virtues of the "information superhighway" and a narrator who declares it the highest-profile "big-deal technological fad" since "the CB radio boom of the 1970s" — which is, of course, followed by footage of a semi driver blurting "All right, that's a big 10-4" into his citizens' band radio.
Stretching the trucker metaphor just a bit more, MTV goes on to describe the Internet's "proliferation of special interest truckstops called 'websites' and the arrival of 'network browser programs' that make the whole thing, if not idiot-proof, at least user-friendly."
Monday, August 1, 2011
Breaking News / Entertainment / Music / Business / Science & Technology Spotify stung for spying
Posted by Bill Forman on Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 5:26 PM
OK, then, get ready for Drawback No. 3. Turns out Spotify, along with Hulu and a number of other companies, has been using a particularly virulent online tracking service to mine information about subscribers' Internet habits — one that, as Berkeley researcher Ashkan Soltani told wired.com on Friday, uses "practically every known method to circumvent user attempts to protect their privacy."
Spotify and Hulu have since discontinued use of the service, which is provided by a Northern California company called KISSmetrics. Meanwhile, the good folks at KISSmetrics are insisting none of the data can be traced back to the individual visitors it spies upon.
All that might be somewhat reassuring, were it not for the prominent post that jumped out at me when I visited KISSmetrics' blog. Titled "7 Sneaky Ways to Use Facebook to Spy on Your Competition," it's a sequel to the company's previously posted "7 Sneaky Ways to Use Twitter to Spy on Your Competition."
"These days," begins the latter article, "spying on your competition is easier than ever."
But spying on customers? Why, that would be unthinkable.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Media / Arts / Science & Technology / Books Joyce's Ulysses: There's a tweet for that
Posted by Bill Forman on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 5:02 PM
But what Ulysses devotees may not realize is that this landmark work, which some of us have spent years trying to get through, will appear in a variety of forms on Twitter tomorrow.
As far as I can tell, no one out there has announced plans to celebrate Bloomsday by tweeting the entire 265,000-word novel in sequential 140-character installments, which I'm guessing would do for Twitter's servers what Lady Gaga recently did for Amazon's.
But I do know of two potentially interesting Twitter commemorations that microblog-inclined Joyce fans can check out.
The first comes via Frank Delaney, the Irish author whose Joyce obsession has led to what's turning out to be a life-long podcast devoted to analyzing Ulysses sentence-by-sentence. Delaney has issued a Bloomsday challenge, inviting followers to summarize the entire novel in a single tweet. For search purposes, participants are asked to include the hashtag #FDBloomsday, and Delaney will award prizes to his favorite three.
Those who prefer a slightly more detailed approach can try @11ysses, which will be tweeting CliffsNotes-style summaries of each section, described as follows:
The @11ysses Twitter account is the stage for this "tweading" of Ulysses. The Bloomsday tweaders are you, anyone in the world who would like to volunteer to take a section of the novel and condense/congeal/cajole it into a string of 4-6 tweets that will be broadcast as a quick burst on @11ysses. "Bloomsday bursts" will be posted every quarter hour starting at 8 o'clock in the morning (Dublin time) on 16 June and continue for the next 24 hours.
Here's hoping the copyright-fixated Joyce estate doesn't figure out a way to sue everyone involved ...
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Entertainment / Nonprofits / Arts / Music / Science & Technology Indy Minute
Posted by Jack Ward on Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 3:40 PM
Tune into the Indy Minute — as seen on ABC affiliate KRDO News Channel 13 — each week for details on all the events that entertain and bring our community together. It's simulcast on KRDO News Radio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM.
Science & Technology / Books PPLD hAPPiness
Posted by Kirsten Akens on Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 7:22 AM
If you, like me, are addicted to checking out books, DVDs and such from the Pikes Peak Library District, and if you, like me, are attached at the palm to an iPhone, you're going to love this news.
Though it actually released March 16, I just this week saw an ad on PPLD's homepage for its new, free iPhone app.
And though I've only used it for two days, I have to say I'm impressed.
Everything you can do on the website, you can do on the app: search the library's catalog, check your account, renew books you've already checked out, ask a librarian a question, etc. You can also ask the app to find the closest library to your current location and show you on a map where the facility is. (I did think it was a bit funny that the app told me the "Mobile Library Services" was 6,493 miles away, but, you know. It's possible.)
My favorite function to have mobile? Reserving books. I've been known to add books I want to read to my GoodReads account on the fly, jot a book title down on the back of a receipt I try desperately not to lose, even write an author's name on my hand — just so later I can open up my laptop at home and use these as reminders to put titles on hold through the library's website.
Now my hands stay (mostly) ink-free.
The only thing I can't do via the app? Pay my fines. Or as I like to call them, donations.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Science & Technology Church makes kids fat
Posted by J. Adrian Stanley on Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 5:39 PM
In the old days, before science provided increasingly bizarre study results, children had to rely on their own imaginations to get out of going to church.
There was playing sick or pointing to a supposed mountain of homework that needed to be completed. And, of course, there was my personal favorite childhood cop-out: "I think I'd rather just stay here and read the Bible." (Translation: Wahaha!)
Anyway, kids today can just say, "No thanks, mom, I'm really trying to watch my weight." Yep, science has proven it: Church makes young people fat.
Is it all that talk of fish and loaves? The cookies the old ladies pile onto the coffee table? The after-church Sunday breakfast at the local pancake parlor? Is the "body of God" more fattening than any of us ever suspected?
Hard to say, hard to say. But one way or another, statistics show that little Danny and Suzy are getting replenished with more than the glory of god in your local house of worship. Their cup is being filled, so to speak, likely with full calorie soda. A mighty fortress is not their mouths.
... OK, I'll stop. Here's what MSNBC had to say:
The study, presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association, followed 2,433 men and women starting between the ages of 20 and 32 for 18 years. Study subjects were all of normal weight at the beginning of the study. By the end, however, those who had attended a religious function at least once a week were more likely to be obese, posting a body mass index of 30 or higher. Previous research by Northwestern Medicine has found a correlation between religious involvement and obesity in middle age and older adults.
Read the full article here.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Science & Technology See it tomorrow: Supermoon
Posted by Edie Adelstein on Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 2:01 PM
According to NASA, the full moon tomorrow night will be special, because it's going to be 31,000 miles closer to Earth than usual.
So be prepared to see one big-ass wheel of cheese in the sky.
The moon travels in an oval orbit around the Earth, and when the short side of the oval passes over us during a full-moon phase, you get a "perigee" moon, which is 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter. The last time this happened was about 20 years ago.
And even though the moon will be closer to Earth, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association say it won't cause any natural disasters; tides may be just an inch or so higher than usual.
For more information, click here.
