Category Archives: Space, Science & Tech

Spring Break Snowpocalypse

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Ever since the Beltway blizzards, I’ve been making #snowpocalypse jokes whenever we get a flurry in Denver. But, in all seriousness, it’s pretty intense out there right now. When I left work, it was just starting to snow, with some thunder to boot, but with no accumulation yet. Just over four hours later, it looked like this: It’s been a… Read more »

Basketball Break

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I probably won’t stick with this — I certainly won’t if UCSB or Houston pull, or come close to pulling, the upsets — but, for now, I think I’m going to take a break from tweeting the games and just watch/relax. And, in the spirit of Andrew Sullivan’s “Mental Health Breaks,” I offer the following “Basketball Break,” courtesy of Roger… Read more »

Blue Marble redux

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NASA has released a pair of spectacular full-globe images of the Earth, updated versions of the famous “Blue Marble” shot from Apollo 17. These are “the most detailed true-color images of the entire Earth to date.” Awesome. (In the literal meaning of the word.) Eastern Hemisphere after the jump.

Hawaii lucked out

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Hawaii was lucky. As this awesome NOAA map shows, the main thrust of the energy in yesterday’s tsunami went almost “due” WNW from the epicenter of the Chile earthquake, at an angle of approximately 294 degrees, rather than 302 degrees — i.e., roughly halfway between WNW and NW — which would have taken it straight toward the islands. This helps… Read more »

The iPad, then and now

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Here is Apple’s promotional video thingy for the iPad: You can watch the entire Stevenote here. Meanwhile, here’s an ad for the original iPad, from a Mad TV skit way back in 2007 2005. (Warning: off-color bodily humor.) Heh. UPDATE: The authors of the sketch talked about their comic prescience on NPR yesterday. (Hat tip: Patrick Cullen.)

Official LRT Jesus Tablet Open Thread

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Tonight, President Obama’s Teleprompter will address the nation, and tell us various lies about the economy and the budget and the future of the country and whatnot. And I’ll be liveblogging that, natch. But first: the day’s really important address to the nation! I’m talking, of course, about Apple’s “our latest creation” event this morning, at which Dear Leader Jobs… Read more »

Southwest storm shatters records

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From the “Brendan is seriously slacking on his weather-nerd duties” file… I knew the recent California/Arizona storm was a big deal, but I had no idea it was this big of a deal: The most powerful low pressure system in 140 years of record keeping swept through the Southwest U.S. [Thursday], bringing deadly flooding, tornadoes, hail, hurricane force winds, and… Read more »

CotW: The Fine Art of Sending Others to Hell

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Wishing damnation of others is tricky business. After all, what’s the criteria? Is it enough to retire, come back in a different, but fairly similar role, underperform, and then, seemingly, get your old job back from someone who worked really hard to get it? (Topical!) Or perhaps you must play in a gigantic stadium in America’s South/Southwest for an organization… Read more »

ISS, Shuttle & Moon

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Loyette, Loyacita and I saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station fly over Denver this evening. They were not quite 16 hours removed from undocking, and were still very close together in the sky, as this photo shows: That’s the Moon at top right. The ISS is the bottom left streak of light, fading as it moves… Read more »