NASA SDO: Loops

The NASA SDO views the Solar Edge and captures [on 2012/01/15 to 2012/01/16] this motion picture depicting the enormous looping constructs of superheated plasma.

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Seemingly Magical: DARPA Battle Illusions

Phenomenal write-up at Wired’s DangerRoom, by Noah Shactman, detailing the latest, potentially mind-bending battlefield plans [and budgetary submittal] of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA]. Well Done.

“…Battlefield Illusion” is one of several new Darpa programs that attempt to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum to the American military’s advantage. The $3.5 million “Electro-Optical Warfare” effort will look for ways to jam laser-based communications and sensor systems — just like today’s radio frequency jammers mess with cell phones and radars. As adversaries move from old-school radars to newer-school infrared and laser systems to target our planes, these enemies get harder to track; there’s no sonic “ping” to trace back. The goal of the $8.5 million “Multi-Function Optical Sensor” is designed to fill this gap, giving U.S. aircraft “an alternative approach to detecting, tracking, and performing non-cooperative target identification…” via Wired’s DangerRoom, Noah Shactman

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XKCD: Backward in Time

Beethoven's Weather

via Book of Joe, further via Open Culture and Devour; Superb.

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Distant Diamonds, Quantumly Entangled

The vibrationally separated states of two spatially separated diamonds entangled at room temperature by scattering a pair of strong pump pulses (green). (Science/AAAS)

via the EpochTimes, comes this outstanding piece on observations of quantum entanglement, also known by it’s Einsteinian description - ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’. Simply phenomenal.

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Genius: Erin King's MIT Acceptance Letter Now In Near Earth Orbit

via BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow (and originally via Chris Peterson, an Admissions Administrator at MIT) comes this outstanding hack of the now traditional, MIT Acceptance Letter Tube. Oh, and by the way, the hack and launch is the work of a brilliant 16 year old - Erin King, Class of 2016. Carry On.

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Grail

NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory [GRAIL] project has produced the first video of it’s historic educational outreach mission. The video was captured on 2012/01/19 via the MoonKAM aboard the ‘Ebb’ spacecraft [one of the twin GRAIL spacecraft of the mission]. Robotic exploration of the far-side of the moon, absolutely superb.

Wonder of the World: Ant Megalopolis

Astounding.

Rings of Sound

Absolutely phenomenal - a turntable that plays tree rings… Primeval derivative sounds? Must be heard to be believed.

“…A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently…” via Traubeck

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Symphony of Science: Evolution

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TEDX Women: Science In Action Awards

TEDxWomen Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose and Naomi Shah

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Heroes: Dr. Mae Jemison Slated To Lead 100-Year DARPA Starship Project

News, of the appointment by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, of the brilliant Mae Jemison, M.D. as the leader and commander of the Agency’s 100 Year Starship. One of the most respected former NASA astronauts, and a superb choice to lead the United State’s Starship efforts. Absolutely Outstanding!

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