Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Asteroid and Comet Collisions More Common Than Thought


TUNGUSKA IMPACTOR SIZE REVISION

The 1908 Tunguska airburst from a small asteroid has generally been estimated to have had an energy of 10-15 megatons. The corresponding size for a rocky impactor is roughly 60 meters in diameter. Mark Boslough of Sandia Laboratory, however, has generated new supercomputer simulations that suggest a smaller Tunguska explosion. In part his models require less energy in the explosion because he includes the substantial downward momentum of the rocky impactor, rather then modeling it as a stationary explosion. If this revision (down to an estimated energy of 3-5 megatons, and a corresponding diameter perhaps as low as 40 m) is correct, the expected frequency of such impacts changes, from once in a couple of millennia to once in a few hundred years. If smaller impactors can do the damage previously associated with larger ones, of course, the total hazard from such impacts is increased. Below is a press release from Sandia and a newspaper article discussing this new work.

News Article: Tunguska Revision, and a Possible NEA Impact on Mars

Monday, August 04, 2008

Photo of Barack Obama around 1981-83 with his grandparents

My, we have come a long way. I liked this photo because it made me imagine the roar of laughter that would come from this happy crowd ... if I could sneak back into the moment and inform them that young Barack might just someday become the Leader of the Free World. Truly, change that we can believe in.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Documentary: Who Killed the Electric Car?

I found this nice freebie online. Click the picture to watch it in its entirety over at Google Videos.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

The 'Uno'



Cool idea ... to inspire us to think about all of the possibilities that have yet to be discovered. This one's the brainchild of some 18-year-old Canadian kid named Ben J. Poss Gulak. It's still in the development phase ... and who's to say that a contraption that needs "gyros" to keep it afloat will ever really take off ... but, if it does ... I'd get in line to give it a little spin.

Source: http://www.motorcyclemojo.com/articles/the-uno/

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Flag Pins

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - New York Times


Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - New York Times

When it comes to blaming people for our war in Iraq, I never flinch at going right to the source: the American People. Simple. We knew we were being lied to. There were ample signs of this, and ample alternative views that could have prevented the debacle that we're in. So, shame on us if we try to blame others and not ourselves.

That said, it's interesting to learn just how the lies were manufactured. And this quite clear article is a good start for anyone interested in peeling back his/her psyche, and asking the tough questions about his/her worldview and biases: "What need was served me by the war." We all knew these war analysts weren't to be trusted, as they dished out the daily rations of "good news" in Iraq ... but we did anyway. At least ... you did.

Al-Sadr


(Posted because I just like how "evil" this photo looks. He's the perfect enemy)