Sun from near space
Team TechShop RDU (or NC Nearspace, as they are now calling themselves) had the balloon they thought was lost located yesterday. It turned up in the field of a soybean farmer in Wendell. Like the second balloon they launched, this one took some amazing photographs of near space.
You can see the collection of photos at Adrian Likins’s Flickr page.
I was cleaning off the hard drive of one of my old computers here and came across some photographs from our 2007 Orcas Island vacation. It amazed me to realize that was three years ago, and that we took much smaller kids with us. Boy, the time just flies.
Like many people, I spend much of my life on autopilot. Every day is a routine; get up, walk the dog, shower, eat, head to work. At work, grab coffee, catch up on emails, get to work, eat lunch, work again, go home. Repeat every day. If anything upset that carefully-crafted apple cart it would throw my whole day off balance. I’d have to engage my thinking brain, damn it. And thinking can be hard. It’s much easier to coast through life.
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At Umstead State Park
Yesterday was my last day at my last job so, being in-between jobs and with the kids in school, I took the opportunity to spend the day bike riding with Kelly. We rode from our house through downtown Raleigh, then on the Chavis Way greenway to Chavis Park. While at Chavis we got a chance to ride the beautifully-restored carousel before heading on. The Little Rock Creek greenway brought us past the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, at which point we headed west along the Walnut Creek Greenway.
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I have plenty more topics upon which I’d like to pontificate tonight but I’ve been burning the midnight oil at both ends (as my former boss and world-class metaphor-mixer Buck Bohac might say). My Skylab post kept me up later than I should’ve been up but that wasn’t the worst of it. At 4 AM our son roused us out of bed to announce that he “needed a drink of water.” Argh! Needless to say, sleep was quite fleeting after that episode.
I’m just looking forward to finishing my last day tomorrow at my current job. Then I’ve got a few days off before jumping all-out into my next gig. I’m really psyched about it but it’s been really tough splitting my attention between the two worlds. I’ll be really happy when I’m settled in with my new job.
Skylab
The recent balloon launch and it’s subsequent pictures of near space has gotten my thoughts lifted skyward. I was pondering the 4-pound weight limit of the balloon and contrasting it to the heavy lifting that was once done in this country by rockets like the Saturn V. That led me to some online videos of Skylab.
Skylab was America’s first space station, launched in 1973 on a modified Saturn V rocket. The station itself was made from spent Saturn V rocket stages and was so roomy that it makes the current International Space Station look like a toy. Sadly, Skylab fell from orbit in July 1979.
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Dogfeng photo by Max Smith
A new weapon in the Chinese military arsenal is said to be causing a stir in the U.S. Navy: the Dongfeng 21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Some experts are calling it a “game changer” because the missile is the first ballistic missile with the capability to take out a moving aircraft carrier. Because it’s ballistic it can travel at incredible speeds: this missile reportedly clocks in close to an astounding Mach 10!
Earth’s supply of helium is dwindling fast.
It is more commonly known as the gas that fills cheap party balloons and makes your voice squeak if you inhale it.
But helium is actually a precious resource that is being squandered with Earth’s reserves of it due to run out within 25 to 30 years, experts have warned.
Earth’s resources of helium are being depleted at an astonishing rate, an effect which will spell disaster for hospitals which use it to cool MRI scanners.
via Earth’s helium reserves ‘will run out within 25 years’ | Mail Online.
My friends were ultimately successful in their balloon launch yesterday! Tanner Lovelace posted a collection of near-space photographs on his Flickr page.
Amazing work, folks!
Update: Here’s a nice video slideshow of the launch.
Roku player
Our geek-owned beach house includes a Roku Digital Video Player. Formerly known as the Roku Netflix Player, this player has branched out beyond Netflix. It now has dozens of video and podcast streams that can be delivered straight to your television.
I admit I had my doubts about this modest little box, but after seeing it in action I’m convinced. We already enjoy Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” video streaming through the built-in capability of our Samsung Blu-Ray player. To my surprise, the Roku blows our Samsung away. The Roku user interface is far better than our Samsung player’s.
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