Category Archives: Technology

Casual Friday — inserting objects into existing imagery

Posted on 27 January, 2012 by Sam Wise

So let’s say you’ve got a photograph of some place, and you really wish it contained something that wasn’t present at the time the image was taken. A recent presentation at SIGGRAPH shows how to do just that in a realistic way, and Photoshop isn’t involved…

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The scientific tourist #207 — the VK-1 jet engine

Posted on 23 January, 2012 by Sam Wise

This week’s picture comes to you from the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Tutusville, Florida. It’s a Russian VK-1 jet engine…

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Casual Friday — don’t break the internet!

Posted on 20 January, 2012 by Sam Wise

For those who haven’t become saturated by the argument (in the U.S., anyway) over the SOPA / PIPA bills floating around in Congress, here’s a bit more background for you…

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Casual Friday — build a 30-story building in 360 hours

Posted on 13 January, 2012 by Sam Wise

Lest there’s any doubt that ingenuity is driving China to a real estate bubble, here’s the latest construction innovation to come from the Middle Kingdom: a prefab 30-story hotel built in 360 hours…

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Casual Friday — Curiosity on its way

Posted on 2 December, 2011 by Sam Wise

I normally try to avoid repeating myself on posts here — but this week’s video is just too good to put off until later…

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Casual Friday — getting ready for Curiosity

Posted on 25 November, 2011 by Sam Wise

If all goes well, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity will launch from Florida tomorrow morning (10:25 a.m. Eastern Time, 1525 GMT). JPL put together this video of highlights in the rover’s planned mission…

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The scientific tourist #201 — a pilot’s eye view…

Posted on 21 November, 2011 by Sam Wise

…of a DC-3. Seen at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

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Casual Friday — how much does the internet weigh?

Posted on 18 November, 2011 by Sam Wise

It all comes down to electrons (direct link): For an earlier estimate of this weight, you might want to compare this. H/T: Andrew Sullivan

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Casual Friday — Fobos-Grunt, how it was *supposed* to happen

Posted on 11 November, 2011 by Sam Wise

Well, if you are at all tuned into space news, you’ve heard that the Russian space agency’s latest attempt to send a spacecraft to Mars is pretty much dead. Here’s a video (11+ minutes long) of how things were supposed to play out…

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Casual Friday — watch Shenzhou-8 dock with Tiangong-1

Posted on 4 November, 2011 by Sam Wise

So now China’s joined the orbital “club,” and performed it’s first rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft

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