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There was a story on All Things Considered this evening about an observation made by a Carnegie Mellon grad student in Pittsburgh: The Grant Building (no relation to myself), which has been continuously blinking out "PITTSBURGH" in Morse code from a red beacon on its roof since 1929, was apparently spelling "PITETSBKRRH" instead! He noticed it while waiting for July 4th fireworks to begin. NPR asked him to go out and check on it again yesterday, and here was the result; whatever the problem is, it's gotten worse: On a not-entirely-related note (but I have a lot of random links to post), I came across this map which gives an idea what Earth radio and television signals are currently arriving at nearby stars. Regulus and Mizar are still pretty much in the dark, and Capella is getting ready to watch the final season of Star Trek and the moon landing. At Wolf 359, a Federation fleet is attempting to defend Earth from a Borg invasion, I mean, getting ready to watch Janet Jackson's boob slip out at the Super Bowl. It's a neat diagram but I have to admit the idea of aliens really being able to watch Earth broadcasts seems a little dubious to me. I can't even pick up Channel 19 from Cleveland, and it's only 19 miles away. Does that signal really reach that far into space? By the way, that first story really makes me wish I knew Morse code. It just seems like one of those useful things. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 65, Wind: calm; This has been a very oddly temperate summer... Tags: astronomy, maps, npr, pittsburgh, space, video
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: Caprica - Bear McCreary - A Tauron Sacrifice
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Hmmm... it's 15 minutes until 2009 and I'm still awake. That means I'm in danger of breaking my general policy of sleeping through a year change, but I guess there's still time to get into bed before midnight. But since I'm up, I might as well sneak one last post in for the year. Today's Astonomy Picture of the Day was actually a series of 7,000 time lapse images from The Sky in Motion: túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo. If you click the link beneath the video you should be able to go the Vimeo page to see the video in higher resolution. These are all from still images - and on The Sky in Motion they give details about the shots, specifically the exposure and interval of shots. Maybe that's something I'd like to try in 2009. The hard thing would be storing all the images and also finding the appropriate software to make a video out of them. current weather: Snow, 19, Wind: NW 6; We were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow last night but ended up with more like 5-6 in Stow Tags: astronomy, photography, video
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: none
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I have been pleasantly surprised by the video offerings on NBC's Olympics website, http://www.nbcolympics.com. Unfortunately I can't embed video from there, but that isn't surprising, one of the frustrating things about Olympic coverage is that it is region-locked, so for example BBC video of the Olympics is not available to users in the USA. I'm sure I've mentioned a million times just how much I was looking forward to watching fencing, even though Americans are usually never major competitors in the sport. But there was a huge shocker in Womens Individual Sabre Fencing, in which Americans swept all three medals, with the gold medal going to Mariel Zagunis of Beaverton, Oregon. The president also attended the matches and apparently was in the first row watching. There's a great video of highlights from Zagunis' match against reigning world champion Tan Xue of China: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=477fa653-7caf-4b2a-bd62-5a1d80ad1decThis is the first time Women's Sabre has been in the Olympics, and it's also the first fencing gold medal for an American in over a century! The main difference between Sabre as opposed to Epee or Foil is that it's possible to score with the edge of the blade, so side (slash) strikes are allowable. This makes it pretty fast as often times both fencers will just run and attack each other. Tags: beijing 2008, fencing, olympics, sports, video
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: none
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This is one of those many times when I wish I could understand Japanese, though I'm not sure that understanding the language would necessarily mean that this would make sense. There's a very unique game coming out this fall in Japan for the Nintendo DS called Kokoro Scan. Kokoro Scan claims to be able to analyze someone's emotional state just be listening to them talk. Intriguing, but what really is worth watching is the first trailer video. I saw this a few weeks ago, and never got past the first 5 seconds so I didn't see the cool stuff until Mark forced me to actually watch the whole thing. It was totally worth it. This video is crazy. Of course, for me personally, my favorite part is with 2:30 remaining, when the Bear-With-Both-Eyes-On-One-Side-Of-His-H ead gets struck by lightning and then breaks out into an electric guitar solo... on an acoustic guitar. And now, I have a new avatar! Anyway, it's totally ridiculous in a Mr. Sparkle kind of way, and the song is incredibly catchy, I've had it in my head for days. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 66, Wind: NE 2 Tags: japan, kokoro scan, video, videogames, youtube
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: none
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One thing I think I tend to underestimate when I consider the possibility of getting a new vehicle is how many new safety features have really taken off in the time since my car was built. Anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, and side curtain airbags are all really important safety features that have become much more common in the last 8 years. I saw today on Autoblog that Consumer Reports has now made more than 200 vehicle crash test videos from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety available online. They're really fascinating to watch, and sometimes a little scary. For one thing, it makes you realize how frightening crashes are, even in cars with excellent safety ratings. As Consumer Reports points out: * Even with the best vehicles, an accident is a brutal event. * There are good and bad performing models in every car category. * Side and curtain air bags can make a big difference, but results vary. * Choosing a poor performing model creates unnecessary risk for you and your family. * It is hard to make assumptions about a vehicle or class without watching the tests. Even premium models, for example, can return Marginal performance. Generally they have videos of all new cars and quite a few older ones going back to 1999 or so, including my Mazda Protege - which gets an "acceptable" rating for the front impact that still involves broken legs and possible head damage, and is sort of painful for me to watch. Of course, the real fun (or not so fun, depending on your point of view) is watching some of the worst cars in the tests, which of the ones I've seen so far are probably: Chevrolet S-10 Dodge Neon Pontiac Trans Sport All of which I should point out are *not* sold anymore, further illustrating how much safer cars have gotten just in the last decade. Seriously though, make sure the watch the Neon and Trans Sport in particular, I think I would actually request not to ride in them after seeing them. The Honda Element side impact is also pretty horrific, but generally any car that doesn't have side curtain airbags is gonna guarantee a broken pelvis and horrible head injuries for the driver (and I think cars without them basically get 'poor' as a result regardless). The actual link for watching the videos is found here: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/safety-recalls/carcrashtest/crashtestvideo.htmcurrent weather: Mostly Cloudy, 80, Wind: calm Tags: cars, consumer reports, safety, video
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: none
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