He Hates Your Dog, and Your iPod

August 3, 2010

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Last month it was the puppies he dissed, this month it’s music.  In another fatwa,  Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is “not compatible” with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practiced or taught in the country.

Yep, someone has wound this guy’s turban WAY too tight…

Props to Joe.My.God, and The Guardian UK.

OMG! Robot Geek! NASA Snuck This One Right Past Me!

August 2, 2010

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I’m a bit abashed… NASA snuck this guy right past me, and I never even knew about him!  The next Shuttle mission to the International Space Station, set for September,  will include R2, a robot!  Well…  half a robot, for now, anyway.  He doesn’t have any legs, and he’ll be bolted down, but he’s going to become a permanent part of ISS.  Eventually, they’ll take him outside on spacewalks, to assist astronauts and cosmonauts.  Here’s a video where the designers talk a bit about him.  You can follow him on Twitter, too!

He even gets his own mission patch!

This is sooo cool!

Of course, in every bad science fiction story where the robots take over or destroy the world, the first robots are innocuous.  We will have to keep an eye on this guy, and any compatriots that get built.

I offer some suggestions for their design:

#1.  An easy to reach off switch!

#2. An equivalent to the Three Laws of Robotics.

#3. Don’t ever give them a personality, no matter how much they beg for one!

“Mr. Scott, I believe the transporter is out of adjustment”

August 1, 2010

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Mars Geek – Or, no, Mars will not be as big as the Moon

August 1, 2010

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Did you get the Mars email?  The one going on about how Mars would be closer to the Earth than at any time in the past 60,000 years?  And how it would be as big as the full Moon?  Don’t worry, if you haven’t you probably will before much longer.  Here’s the scoop on the facts of the matter, from a real authority, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

From:The Haden Planetarium
by Neil deGrasse Tyson, 1 August 2010
Nearly everyone I know has received an e-mail about Mars from an anonymous source, but sent to them by friends who could not resist forwarding the message to their entire address book. The e-mail declares that toward the end of August, the planet Mars will be closer to Earth than it has in the past 60,000 years, thereby offering spectacular views of the Red Planet. The commentary proclaims, with liberal use of exclamation marks, that Mars will appear as bright as (or as large as) the full Moon in the night sky.

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