Missing Mary Road

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hopefully this is true.

IT left Earth 33 years ago, now it’s claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens after sending back data messages NASA scientists can’t decode.

NASA installed a 12-inch disk containing music and greetings in 55 languages in case intelligent extraterrestrial life ever found it.

But now the spacecraft is sending back what sounds like an answer: Signals in an unknown data format!

The best scientific minds have so far not been able to decipher the strange information – is it a secret message?

Geocities, once the charm of the internets, was shut down last october by yahoo. now in it’s memory, the spirit of geocities lives on. the Geocities-izer does you the enormous favor of transforming your favorite (or least) website into not just a Geocities page, but a really bad Geocities page. oh and good luck enjoying the lame midi files. it’s like a blast from the past.

got an email from a reader today. thought i should refer you to his site. snidely makes some awesome parody book covers. i’m guessing it was in response to a post i did back in ‘05. check out  the awesome site here.

For decades physicists have suspected that neutrinos hold some of the universe’s darkest secrets. Determining their behavior and where they came from could tell rich stories of the early universe and potentially illuminate the curious nature of dark matter. Untold trillions of these tiny subatomic particles—some born soon after the birth of the universe, others born in the hearts of stars—have traveled unimaginable distances to pass through your body every second. So what does this mean for you? Not much, really. The nearly massless particles pass through almost all matter unabated, without leaving a trace. It’s this elusive nature that also makes them so difficult to detect and therefore study. Very occasionally, however, a neutrino collides into an atom, producing from the wreckage another particle—known as a muon—that can be detected (using special light sensors). At the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a team of pioneering researchers has buried thousands of these sensors miles deep into the ice at the bottom of the Earth, all in an attempt to catch the rare neutrino that crashes into an atom of ice.

26 of NASA’s legends, including Cernan, Armstrong, and Lovell have blasted Obama’s new space plan.

The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it was the Soviet Union who excelled in those early years.

Under the bold vision of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with the overwhelming approval of the American people, we rapidly closed the gap in the final third; of the 20th century, and became the world leader in space exploration.
America’s space accomplishments earned the respect and admiration of the world. Science probes were unlocking the secrets of the cosmos; space technology was providing instantaneous worldwide communication; orbital sentinels were helping man understand the vagaries of nature.

Above all else, the people around the world were inspired by the human exploration of space and the expanding of man’s frontier. It suggested that what had been thought to be impossible was now within reach. Students were inspired to prepare themselves to be a part of this new age.

World leadership in space was not achieved easily. In the first half-century of the space age, our country made a significant financial investment, thousands of Americans dedicated themselves to the effort, and some gave their lives to achieve the dream of a nation.

In the latter part of the first half century of the space age, Americans and their international partners focused primarily on exploiting the near frontiers of space with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

As a result of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, it was concluded that our space policy required a new strategic vision. Extensive studies and analysis led to this new mandate: meet our existing commitments, return to our exploration roots, return to the moon, and prepare to venture further outward to the asteroids and to Mars.
The program was named Constellation In the ensuing years, this plan was endorsed by two Presidents of different parties and approved by both Democratic and Republican congresses.

The Columbia Accident Board had given Nasa a number of recommendations fundamental to the Constellation architecture which were duly incorporated. The Ares rocket family was patterned after the Von Braun Modular concept so essential to the success of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn 5.

A number of components in the Ares 1 rocket would become the foundation of the very large heavy lift Ares V, thus reducing the total development costs substantially. After the Ares 1 becomes operational, the only major new components necessary for the Ares V would be the larger propellant tanks to support the heavy lift requirements.

The design and the production of the flight components and infrastructure to implement this vision was well underway. Detailed planning of all the major sectors of the program had begun. Enthusiasm within Nasa and throughout the country was very high.

When President Obama recently released his budget for Nasa, he proposed a slight increase in total funding, substantial research and technology development, an extension of the International Space Station operation until 2020, long range planning for a new but undefined heavy lift rocket and significant funding for the development of commercial access to low earth orbit

Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating.

America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz – at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future – until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves.

The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.

It appears that we will have wasted our current $10-plus billion investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded.

For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature.

While the President’s plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.

Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.

Neil Armstrong
Commander, Apollo 11

James Lovell
Commander, Apollo 13

Eugene Cernan
Commander, Apollo 17

Chris Kraft
Johnson Space Center Past Director

Jack Lousma
Skylab 3, STS 3

Vance Brand
Apollo-Soyuz, STS-5, STS-41B, STS-35

Bob Crippen
STS-1, STS-7, STS-41C, STS-41G, Kennedy Space Center Past Director

Michael D. Griffin
Past NASA Administrator

Ed Gibson
Skylab 4

Jim Kennedy
Kennedy Space Center Past Director

Alan Bean
Apollo 12, Skylab 3

Alfred M. Worden
Apollo 15

Scott Carpenter
Mercury Astronaut

Glynn Lunney
Gemini-Apollo Flight Director

Jim McDivitt Gemini 4
Apollo 9 Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager

Gene Kranz
Gemini-Apollo Flight Director, NASA Mission Ops. Past Director

Joe Kerwin
Skylab 2

Fred Haise
Apollo 13, Shuttle Landing Tests

Gerald Carr
Skylab 4

Jake Garn
STS-51D, U.S. Senator

Charlie Duke
Apollo 16

Bruce McCandless
STS-41B, STS-31

Frank Borman
Gemini 7, Apollo 8

Paul Weitz
Skylab 2, STS-6

George Mueller
Past Associate Administrator For Manned Space Flight

Harrison Schmitt
Apollo 17, U.S. Senator

Dick Gordon
Gemini 11, Apollo 12

During the climactic men’s hockey game at the end of this winter’s Olympics, Toronto was united by a lot more than enthusiasm for sports. As this graph of the city’s water usage during the game clearly shows, Torontonians were also remarkably synchronized that night in the timing of their trips to the washroom, with massive spikes in water consumption to coincide with each intermission in play and a huge dip in usage following Sidney Crosby’s winning goal. This was almost certainly due to toilets, citywide, flushing, and not flushing, in unison. Bladders were straining together all over Toronto.

Similar graphs showing water usage in Edmonton and Winnipeg have already made the news?but this graph, from Toronto Water, our city’s water-supply agency, is the first evidence specifically in Toronto.

so i’ve been watching a lot more television than i have films lately (much harder to get out to the cinema being a new parent and all). some shows are far superior to some of the better films out there. (on a side note: amazon has a super sale on criterion’s kurosawa collection which i’m really tempted to buy right now.) so i’m just gonna post some brilliant shows that i’ve seen in the past 12 months, which you otherwise may not have seen and really should. oh by the way, some of the links to the shows have links to full episodes, so go through to the site if you feel like it may interest you.

in no particular order aside from memory…

true blood – vampires, shapeshifters, sex, blood, gore, and mind readers. awesome. season 3 is coming up and looks to be very promising. 8/10

mad men – the cool of the 50s, the precision of set design and some pretty awesome acting and script writing. 9/10

hustle – shows about con artists are always fun. 7.5/10

chuck – good clean spy comedy and drama. besides, adam baldwin kicks ass in any show. 8.5/10

ultraviolet – vampire vs. humans. show from the UK back when vampire culture wasn’t as cool as it was today. was cancelled after one season.  7/10

better off ted – a very funny comedy  with extremely witty and well written humour that takes quite an aim at corporate america. 9/10

fringe – one of the best sci fhows on television. besides, it has leonard nimoy in it. 8/10

firefly – the best tv show that only lasted one season. with big, damn heroes. shiny. joss whedon, ’nuff said. 9.5/10

mission impossible –  the original series, basically pulling off a lot of cons as they really didn’t need to be very technical as the new movies would portray them out to be. 6.5/10

the prisoner –  patrick mcgoohan at his best. this show has done more to inspire and motivate todays television than any other show that i know of. it also is referenced in all sorts of media in ways you wouldn’t have thought of before. 9.5/10

burn notice – the a-team meets mcgyver meets james bond. 7.5/10

the big bang theory – geek comedy at it’s finest. 8.5/10

V – the new one is promising to be a fairly awesome show. and elizabeth mitchell is definitely underrated as an actress. 7.5/10

lost – speaking of elizabeth mitchell, j.j. abrams’ second show on this list after fringe, it’s had it’s ups and downs, and it’s finally coming to a close and worth the watch.

torchwood – the last season of torchwood, children of earth series is some of the best television i saw last year. 9/10

dr. who – david tennant has done more for this show than any other previous doctor. he leaves a huge legacy. 9.5/10

castle – funny detective drama. i’m a fan of nathan fillion, otherwise don’t think i’d be watching it. 6.5/10

merlin – a new take on the retelling of arthur and his relationship with merlin the magician. 6.5/10

robin hood – one more retake on robin and his merry. 6/10

stargate: atlantis – my first venture into the stargate universe. i don’t think i can watch sg1 though, ten seasons to watch would be a bit much. 8/10

sanctuary – sci-fi shows are getting better and better, unfortunately they’re also getting cancelled at a faster rate due to shitty shows like all the idols, runways, bachelors and next top whatevers. 7/10

warehouse 13 – very promising show. sorta men in black meets indiana jones. next season sees sean maher and jewel staite meet up again, can’t wait. 8/10

battlestar galactica – don’t bother watching past the second season. it just goes downhill from there. 9/10 (uptil the 2nd season anyway).

freaks and geeks – another funny cancelled show with an awesome cast. 7/10

undeclared – see above. there’s a trend developing here. shows that get cancelled after one season are generally better shows than stuff they show on tv for ten years straight. (hint: that’s aiming at you CSI, idol, etc.) 6.5/10

dollhouse – the darkest joss whedon show yet. see shpeel above about cancelled shows. 9/10

on the to do list, edge of darkness, glee, eureka for now. what do you recommend watching?

so a couple of years ago i wrote a post about how farcical hand sanitizers were as nobody could explain how the damn things work and what good they were?

seems like two years later, they’re more and more pervasive and they’re still full of absolutely  no benefit to us. slate has a fairly in-depth article on whether or not they help protect us from things like the flu and H1N1. seems like for the most part, soap and water works just as well.

scientists were for some reason surprised that giving free hand sanitizers (and, in one case, even clorox wipes) to families and schools failed to cut down on infections.

Our homes and workplaces, we’re told, are trying to kill us. Recently, a University of Arizona microbiologist named Charles Gerba, author of hundreds of scientific papers about household microbes, gave a terrifying lecture at the offices of the Food and Drug Administration. Gerba—who, incidentally, has a child with the middle name Escherichia—that’s what the “E” in E. coli stands for—explained that a kitchen sponge and sink are home to thousands of times more bacteria than a toilet seat. Plus, 10 percent of household dishrags contain salmonella. After playing with other children, toddlers have more fecal bacteria on their hands than does a person exiting a public toilet stall. Those toilets, by the way, aerosolize so many droplets with each flush that Gerba compares their dispersion to “the Fourth of July.” And every public swimming pool he’s ever tested has contained disease-causing viruses.

In response to these kinds of data, more than 700 products promise to help consumers kill bacteria, molds, and viruses in their homes and workplaces, from ultraviolet lights meant to kill toothbrush bacteria, to dishwashers that superheat silverware, to specially treated doormats. Three-quarters of all Americans use six or more antimicrobial products each day.

Keep reading.

Almost thirty years ago, stuntman Dar Robinson leapt from the crown of the CN Tower with no parachute, no airbag, and only a thin wire looped around his torso to keep him from splattering on the sidewalk below. Today, we can relive that jump thanks to this excellent documentary video?uploaded by YouTube user Retrontario and posted at 1?T.O.?which, for no apparent reason, is narrated by Chuck Norris.

Robinson jumped from the CN Tower on two separate occasions. The first, in 1979, was for an action movie called Highpoint, in which Robinson was doubling for Christopher Plummer. Robinson wore a parachute for the original jump. It was, at the time, the highest such leap by any stuntman.

The second jump, in 1980, is the one shown in the video above. It was staged not for a movie, but for a documentary on Robinson, that eventually aired on ABC. According to Toronto Star articles from the time, Robinson received $250,000 to do it.

The video above is not from the 1980 documentary itself. It’s a segment on the MAKING OF the original documentary, from a second, completely separate documentary on Robinson, filmed in 1987. The occasion for the second documentary was Dar Robinson’s death, in 1986, after he (unintentionally) rode a motorcycle off a cliff during a routine stunt for another now-obscure eighties action movie.

Here, with more information on Dar Robinson’s untimely demise, is another YouTube clip?which, for no apparent reason, is hosted by Bill O’Reilly: