Neil Armstrong was one of my heroes, and I finally found a video I wanted to post here about his contributions to the space program. This Week @ NASA (actually, last week at this point) had this brief comment about him, along with a number of other interesting entries on a variety of topics. If you are not familiar with the weekly vlog, here is an entry to give you an idea of what they cover. You can subscribe to the podcast at the link above if you want to follow it…
Not the whole sun, just one little strand of plasma. But that one little strand was many times larger than Earth, and was traveling at 900 miles per second when it left the sun on August 31st this year. NASA had a number of observation platforms able to get a look at it, so they put together this rather amazing video. The music is quite tasty as well, wish I knew what it was. The music is not as good on the second video, but it is quite silly and celebrates the recent landing of Curiosity on the red planet, so I felt the need to include it.
There are two main choices on the big screen this weekend, including Resident Evil: Retribution, where Alice joins a resistance movement out to exterminate the undead. If you want something more family oriented, Finding Nemo has a new release in 3D for a limited time only.
In movies Snow White and the Huntsman is an excellent retelling of the classic tale, focusing on the darker side of the legend. I am sorry to report I missed this one in the theaters, and I have every intention of watching it now. In fact, I will probably go with the extended version. Beyond the Black Rainbow is a surreal little movie taking place in a near-future commune, and focusing on one of the inhabitants who is trying to escape. I hope she makes it.
Terra Nova: The Complete Series is a drama about a family who went back 85 million years in time to help colonize the Earth. The first season is the entire series so far, but it was not canceled outright. Rather it was announced it would be shopped to other networks, but so far I haven’t heard of anyone picking it up. The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Third Season is also out, which I find a bit surprising, since I didn’t think the series had these kind of legs on it. While not genre Castle: The Complete Fourth Season makes its way to the shelves as well. I admit I only watched this at first because the male lead had been in Firefly and Buffy, but I found it rather enjoyable and just kept watching. I suppose to keep it balanced I should also mention The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Fifth Season is coming out, but the show just doesn’t do anything for me. Maybe it is the laugh track that makes me cringe and turn the channel in the first 30 seconds of its appearing on my TV set.
In Anime, Cat Planet Cuties (Asobi Ni Iku Yo!) is an absolutely enjoyable silly little ride that pokes fun at many of the Neko tropes. I particularly liked the various religious movements and secret agents of various organizations all clustering around our primary cat-girl, as well as the evil machinations of the dog empire representative. Also firmly entrenched firmly on the side of silly, Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up is a story of rampaging Yokai (evil spirits) and the team sent from Hell to subdue them. Filled with surreal action-comedy that includes a bit of lechery and a boatload of obscure anime references and in jokes, this one would be even more attractive at a more reasonable price point. I consider $5 per 25 minute episode a bit steep, and will be waiting for a more cost effective offering of this one.
Bleach Box Set 14 continues that saga, bringing us episodes 206 through 217. I think this means we are beginning to catch up, since they are currently running episode 275 in Tokyo. Cluster Edge – Collection 1 starts a new series about an academy where the children of the elite are trained to take over and control the world, but one new student may just turn the whole place on its ear and change everything. Even the artificial soldiers and religious fanatics may have a problem this time.
It seems if you fill a classroom with robots that make mistakes, the kids get smarter. According to this New Scientist Report, a Nao Robot was operated by humans in the next room during an English class in a Japanese school. Yes, that is Telepresence rather than true robotics, but the kids didn’t know that. They played a learning game where the English name for a shape was given, and the robot and kids would draw that shape. It appears the kids learned faster when the robot made mistakes, and the children would have to teach it to draw the correct shape to go with that word. Which is just scientific backing for the old adage The best way to learn is to teach. Not only that, but the kids then wanted to continue learning with the Robot, and would carry on studying longer and learning better as they did so. The results will be presented at Ro-Man this year, the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, which will run from tomorrow, September 9th through the 13th in Paris, France. The event is all about real world results of humans and robots working and communicating together, and every year contributes tremendously to the further development of robotics on both the software and hardware fronts. Take a look at their scheduled presentations to get an idea of the scope of this event. If you were thinking of building your own robot, this is a great place to absorb some real understanding of what is possible today and coming for tomorrow.
This one is for the iOS series of devices, including iPhones and iPads; the Free Graphing Calculator for iOS. This has a lot of built in functions, solvers for a variety of equation types, constants including those necessary to do orbital mechanics calculations, reference material including some very detailed but understandable explanations of how the various logic gates work, and a whole lot more. If you do anything with math beyond count your change at the checkout counter, this app will help you do it a lot faster and easier. Thanks to the folks at The Daily App for the heads up on this one. If you have a iOS or Android smart device you will want to visit the Daily App once a week or so to check out all the interesting goodies they find.