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Paleofuture has moved

If you don’t already know about it, there is a wonderful site dedicated to how the past saw the future called Paleofuture. The original site is at the first link, and started off being a project for a class that Matt Novak was taking back in 2007, which he figured would be taken down when the class ended a few months later. What he didn’t expect was that he would become addicted to learning about all the different stuff folks in the past thought about how the future would be. He continued to add new entries to the site until he finally graduated in 2011.

Then Matt got his first real job at the Smithsonian in September of 2011, which was also happy to host the Paleofuture new and improved site. It looks to me like he learned a lot from some of the Smithsonian team about how to both research his topic and present the results of that research. His entries went from being the isn’t this neat kind of postings he did in school to detailed analysis of not only what folks in the past were thinking about what the future would be like, but how and why they came to those conclusions. It was during this period that his site grew into the ideas powerhouse it is today, rich in understanding of the various previous eras and how they each perceived the times to come.

The site moved again this week, following Matt this past Thursday to his new job at Gizmodo to become Paleofuture in its 3rd incarnation. Mind, each of the previous sites still exist in archived form, they just aren’t having new articles added. Matt has a lot of good info and ideas to share, if you haven’t run across him before now I recommend you take some time to explore his sites.

Giant Robots for sale

They are a little pricy at 1.35 million dollars each baseline (options cost you more), but in the first month they went on sale they took orders for 3,000 of them. Called the Kuratas after their designer, Kogoro Kurata, when you order yours from their web page you can even have it customized with the various weapons systems they offer. They have been out for about a year now, and they do have a disclaimer on their home page that these are sold as works of art, not as combat mechas. Thanks to Rocket News 24 for the heads up on this one.

Single Pixel 3D Imaging

Science News reports that a team at the University of Glasgow has set up four single pixel detectors and used gear normal to a high school science lab to create 3D images, fully mapping the test object. Why is this important? Because unlike a 20 million pixel camera array, single pixel detectors can operate over a much greater bandwidth than visible and ultraviolet light, so you can also apply it to thing like x-rays and infrared energy. This is going to open up a range of applications not previously available, especially medical imaging and natural resources investigations.

3-D IMAGING MADE SIMPLE from Science News on Vimeo.

X-Ray Analysis of the Starship Enterprise

The original model used in filming the Star Trek series was donated to the Smithsonian, and now they have produced and published an X-Ray Analysis of the Starship Enterprise for everyone to enjoy. You can also see pictures there of where it now hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. If you are in the neighborhood you can attend the Star Trek’s Continuing Relevance symposium at 1PM on Thursday May 16th at the Moving Beyond Earth exhibit in Gallery 113. I should probably also mention that they will not be showing Star Trek Into Darkness at the IMAX theater at the Air and Space Museum on the mall, but they will be showing it at the Udvar-Hazy Center Airbus IMAX Theater in Chantilly, VA. That is the Air and Space annex out by Dulles Airport, you should time your attendance to be able to wander through the Udvar-Hazy Center Museum and see their incredible collection of exhibits, which includes the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Attend #SIBeamUp event!

If you want to attend the Smithsonian’s Star Trek #SIBeamUp! on May 16th you probably want to get your applications in now, as attendance will be very limited. They will give the ten social media users who gain entry a closer look at the Star Trek goodies in the Air and Space Museum collection (including the Tribbles and the original Enterprise model), and the winners will be able to talk with the curators about the collection. If you want to attend you need to go to the #SIBeamUp! page and fill out and submit the form before noon tomorrow (Monday, May 6th). Winners will be informed by email on May 7th. The event will be held the morning of May 16th at the Air and Space Museum on the mall in DC, and even if you don’t win into the up-close-and-personal event, you can still attend the Star Trek’s Continuing Relevance symposium at 1PM at the Moving Beyond Earth exhibit in Gallery 113.

Kryton’s Electric Car Reviews

Robert Llewellyn, the actor who plays Kryton on Red Dwarf, does some great electric car reviews on his streaming video show Fully Charged. In a way it is the anti-Top Gear show, since the things he is looking for that define a good vehicle are pretty much the opposite of what Jamie and the gang want to see. If you were thinking of upgrading your archaic gas guzzler for a modern electric vehicle his site is an excellent place to start. Since he has a huge collection of detailed reviews, each filmed from inside the car in question while he took it on a test drive (sometimes going quite a distance), you can get a pretty good idea of the pros and cons for each model.