Entries for July 2006
When Aliens Don't Attack
Since the dawn of man, we have stared up into the sky at night and wondered what the stars are. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods existed as the planets in the night sky, and they may not have been far off. Given the age of the universe, and the laws that govern it, it is highly probable that a race exists in the far reaches of space with such advanced civilization as to be considered godly by ancient Greek standards. The fear of this type of unknown power is prevalent in human culture; spanning from the ancient Greek mythology to modern science fiction. The movie “Independence Day” features an alien race that travels from world to world consuming everything and destroying the inhabitants in the process: a terrifying and unlikely premise. If an alien race visits Earth, the violence that ensues is far more likely to be as a result of human society’s faults then that of ill intent on the part of the visiting race.
Continue reading "When Aliens Don't Attack"
I Met Frank Drake
Wow. One of the perks of being a NASA intern is that I get to /am required to (as if they have to force me) attend various presentations. These are usually pretty cool and are timed during lunch and have food, they're called "lunch talks". Today's talk was across the highway at the SETI Institute and it focused on the artificial meteorite-ness of the recently recovered Stardust probe. The Stardust was sent out to tail behind the commet 'Wild 2' and collect the dust that surrounds it (hence the name 'Stardust').
The presentation was pretty cool, but then somthing really cool happened: I met Frank Drake. That's right, the Frank Drake. Frank Drake of the Drake equation, the one that estimates the number of extraterrestrial civilizations that Humanity might encounter.
The meeting went kinda like this:
Me: Dude, is that Frank Drake?
Yale: I think so!
Me: Let's go meet him!
Yale: OK!!
Me: (Extending hand) Hi, I'm a big fan.
Drake: Hah, I don't play baseball or anything.
Me: *nervous laugh*
Drake: You guys are NASA interns? Who do you work for?
Us: *Insert our bosses names here* over at Air Traffic Control
Drake: Who?
Yeah. It was sweet.
New WAV Fasion
I have taken a long break from blogging about gadgets. I can't tell you how sick I am of seeing all the zillions of tons Ipod related crap and some new shape or color of the same damn cell phone over and over again. But here's somthing new! A t-shirt with an OLED visual graphic spectrum analyzer ON IT! That's right ON THE SHIRT! 
I actually had the pleasure of seeing one of these first hand at the BFD about a month ago. It's really easy to see in the day or at night, and insanely dorky. Essentially, I gotta have it. This is really only the begining, with the advent of upcoming flexible or cloth display technologies, the rules are all gonna change.
Imagine how cool camo will be!
