Beam Me Up - Science & Science Fiction news

WOW That Was CLOSE!

2012-01-27T23:37:00.000-05:00

Anyone feel like ducking Friday? Why? Well Wednesday astronomers got a bit of a nasty surprise. Asteroid 2012 BX34 was spotted quite literally in our back door. What's worse BX34 was going to get MUCH closer. By Friday it was one fifth the distance to the Moon or 36,750 miles! And yes sports fans, that is one of the closest approaches on record. In all fairness I ought to tell you the

Lost In Space's Robot Has Lost His Voice

2012-01-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

Airlock Alpha reports that the iconic voice of the 60s classic Lost in Space's robot has died. Dick Tufeld who's famous lines like "Danger, Will Robinson" and "That does not compute" died Jan. 22 he was 85. Tufeld worked on many of producer Irwin Allen's productions such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel though, as AA points out, his work often went uncredited.

Do You Know the Apollo 1 Joke that Became Unofficial NASA Policy?

2012-01-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

After all these years, and my fascination with the Apollo Program, I did not know this fun little fact. As you know, 40 years ago today marks the date of the Apollo 1 tragedy. On this date, Apollo 1 crew members Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee all lost their lives to fire brought about by a series of mistakes that proved fatal. But out of that tragic loss came a practical joke (I

Opportunity - Eight Years Into a 90 Day Mission.....

2012-01-27T00:15:00.000-05:00

Nasa rover Opportunity is once again gearing up for another mission. At the start of its' fifth Martian winter, Opportunity has gained a three year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, at which it arrived to, in August of 2011. Endeavour is 14 miles in diameter, much larger than the Eagle crater where it started it career. After exploring Victoria Crater, Opportunity's controllers set the

Space Tourism? Space Adventures Says Yes!

2012-01-26T16:13:00.000-05:00

Space Adventures' Eric Anderson, says basically in the commercial below, you give him 150 million and he will send you to the Moon. Quite literally! Anderson's company has made a name for itself by flying rich customers to the ISS for upwards of 20 million is serious about the Moon adventure. They plan on using the work horse Russian Soyuz along with a modified Proton/habitat module to fly two

Wow, Star Stuff in the Lab!

2012-01-25T19:56:00.000-05:00

You read right, scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, using the Linac Coherent Light Source - one of the most powerful X-Ray lasers on Earth have, as the article in Gizmodo writes: (have) made matter that you can only find in the heart of stars and giant planets. In a recent experiment, scientists: fired the LCLS at a small cube of aluminum only 0.00039 inches on a side, (

3D inactive SpaceX Dragon Interior

2012-01-24T19:14:00.001-05:00

This is cool! Check out this 3/d interactive view of the SpaceX Dragon module here As the Boing Boing article points out: SpaceX's Dragon will be the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. SpaceX's Dragon will be the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.

What is Is The Air Force Using the X-37B Space Plane For?

2012-01-24T12:58:00.004-05:00

Xnewsman sends in a piece from the Huffington Press concerning the highly secretive X-37B Space Plane that is being flown in low Earth orbit. The plane has been in space more than a year, which has raised suspicious speculation of everything from spying on the Chinese spacelab called Tiangong-1, to spy radar focusing on ground based installations. Check out the video....

Early Jim Henson Film from 1963

2012-01-24T01:49:00.000-05:00

Found this on Gizmodo! What a riot. As the video Notes says in short: Jim Henson made this film in 1963 for The Bell System. Specifically, it was made for an elite seminar given for business owners, on the then-brand-new topic — Data Communications. The seminar itself involved a lot of films and multimedia presentations, and took place in Chicago. Click the article title to go to the

This is a WHAT?!

2012-01-24T01:32:00.000-05:00

his great pic really brings home just how things have changed....Check out the pic. Like the article asked - is it a: A toaster? Farm equipment? Part of an engine? Wreckage from a destroyed tank? Nope - amazingly it is a 4k memory module from an early computer. Like the author said, since the pic is 600+ kbytes, if you wanted to carry this photo around it would take 172 more of these memory

Star Trek - Shatner and Nimoy 1966 Interviews

2012-01-23T20:27:00.000-05:00

Xnewsman sends in some Star Trek gold. Interviews from 1966 of Shatner and Nemoy as the liner says: at the very early stages of the original Star Trek TV show from 1966.. Enjoy!

2012-01-22T18:42:00.000-05:00

Oh wow, check out this "short" from Aaron Sims called Archetype. They are calling it a no budget but I don't see how that equates. The short, drops you right in the middle of a conflict and brings you up to speed blazing fast for an honest thrill ride of what seems to be real and what may be real. This is what the YouTube note on the short says: RL7 is an eight-foot tall combat robot that

No Robots, a film about anti-machine prejudice

2012-01-22T18:13:00.002-05:00

On Vimo via IO9 is this really nice little film dealing with prejudice of a different sort....or maybe not so different at all. No Robots from YungHan Chang on Vimeo.

Beam Me Up episode 297 now online

2012-01-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

Wow does it go fast in Beam Me Up episode 297! I start off with a new Symphony of Science titled The Greatest Show on Earth and I follow it up with another piece of music – When Will You Die? from They Might be Giants. Not slowing a bit I play episode three of Erin Bassett’s Clockwork. This week, tensions begin to build higher as classes start in earnest and Ester once again finds that she is

2012-01-20T20:21:00.000-05:00

I am going to preface this recommendation to fans of Batman. I think it takes a special level of fan to be able to pull off a fan film and a whole other level to do one that doesn't sux. This fan made film is Batman: Death Wish and here is what the film notes say: Batman, Robin and Nightwing investigate a mysterious assailant who is targeting the kingpins of Gotham's criminal underground. As

US Erases Russian Grunt Radar Data After Accusations?!

2012-01-20T19:19:00.001-05:00

Have you heard this one? A couple of days ago a friend told me that the Russians were blaming the US of blasting their Phobos Grunt probe with radar making it unable to get a fix on its' position and therefor crashing back into the Pacific ocean. I really thought it was the height of paranoia and an effort from those in control to cover their collective asses from the Russian government that

Cassini Photographs 1.5 Billion Square Mile Storm

2012-01-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

Wow talk about some severely crappy weather....NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has documented a huge storm that developed 12 weeks earlier in Saturn's northern latitudes that: was the largest and most intense observed on Saturn by NASA’s Voyager or Cassini spacecraft The storm covers an area of 1.5 billion square miles or eight times the surface area of the Earth! Check out the daily galaxy

Ummm The Bark Side of the Force?

2012-01-20T12:38:00.000-05:00

I can hazard a guess that after the super bowl just about everyone will have seen the whole version of this VW commercial. But for the meantime watch is hilarious take off on the Star Wars: Imperial March

NASA Shuts Down Heaters on Voyager 1 to Conserve Power

2012-01-20T01:07:00.000-05:00

In an effort to conserve diminishing power, NASA controllers turned of the heater to the ultraviolet spectrometer instrument aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The temperature dropped to minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit which is the coldest temperature the instrument has ever experienced. The shut-down is an effort to make sure that the craft will be able to continue to collect and transmit data for

US Backs EU's Space Conduct Code

2012-01-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

I guess it should be no surprise that the US is one of the biggest holdout for recognizing any policy that would require some sort of sanity when it comes to controlling space trash. Well I guess someone in the upper echelons has become somewhat tired of crap falling out of the sky and potentially ruining their day because Dvice is reporting that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Connie Willis is the 2011 Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master

2012-01-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Boing Boing blog reports that: Science Fiction Writers of America President John Scalzi writes, "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has named Connie Willis, one of the most-awarded and beloved science fiction writers of her generation, as its 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. Click the article title to go to Cory Doctorow's thoughts on the award and

Symphony of Science - The Greatest Show on Earth

2012-01-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

Here is the newest in the series of Symphony of Science music video. In this edition: A musical celebration of the wonders of biology, including evolution, natural selection, DNA, and more. Featuring David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye. "The Greatest Show on Earth" is the 13th video in the Symphony of Science music videos series.

Review: Under the Moons of Mars(New Adventures on Barsoom)

2012-01-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

Ron Huber sends in a review! On February 7, 2,012, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers will release " Under the Moons of Mars(New Adventures on Barsoom)". This collection of 14 short stories; each with its own original illustration, explores the parallel late19th century & early 20th century solar system created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Edited by John Joseph Adams - co host of the

Review: Xmen - First Class

2012-01-17T01:17:00.000-05:00

Xmen - First Class Starring James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr / Magneto Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert Oliver Platt as Man In Black Suit Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme / Mystique January Jones as Emma Frost / White Queen Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore Running

Shatner is Back on Broadway!

2012-01-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

Dave Itzkoff writing for the New York times reports on a subject near and dear to all of us. William (James Kirk) Shatner at 80 is returning to a forum that he hasn't been involved in for over 50 years....playing on Broadway. Not just playing mind you but staring in a show called "Shatner's World: We Just Linve in it" Shatner has not be on a Broadway stage since he played Paul Sevigne in the