Just an archival catch-up of recent The Beach House Weekly—my Paper.li auto summaries—of an interesting few weeks in science, space and Australian politics.
From rockets to meteorites, Roxon to Rudd, novas to Nobels, planet hunters to metric hunters.
25 March 2013
18 March 2013
11 March 2013
4 March 2013
25 February 2013
18 February 2013
11 February 2013
4 February 2013
28 January 2013
21 January 2013
14 January 2013
7 January 2013
31 December 2012
24 December 2012
17 December 2012
10 December 2012
Intriguing to look back through actually. Something in there for everyone.
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
25 March 2013
27 September 2012
One month on already... Watch this moving tribute to the late Neil Armstrong. Tissues please.
Timely then to watch this moving tribute film produced by NASA, featuring historic footage, and tributes from those who knew him best.
He just wanted to know that other kids could be inspired, not just only by his accomplishments, but by the accomplishments of a country. The impossible is possible. All you've got to do is go on and do it. . . . He just wanted to inspire these young people to dream.”
Gene Cernan, Apollo Astronaut#WinkAtTheMoon
Visit Antarctica with Streetview - even the actual South Pole. Awesome in a can!
Google is really pushing the boundaries with where it takes its Google Streetview cameras. So I'm thinking I'll feature some of these wonderful places with some screen grabs, for those who don't have the time to explore themselves.
First up is Antarctica. Click through to go exploring, and don't forget to wander on through doorways, or to zoom in on displays, artefacts and signs ("Close the damn door").
Mawson's Hut.
Shackleton's Hut.
The actual South Pole - yes there is a pole. And a whopping great building! Unfortunately one frame is poorly spliced...
First up is Antarctica. Click through to go exploring, and don't forget to wander on through doorways, or to zoom in on displays, artefacts and signs ("Close the damn door").
Mawson's Hut.
Shackleton's Hut.
The actual South Pole - yes there is a pole. And a whopping great building! Unfortunately one frame is poorly spliced...
26 September 2012
The final flight of the Space Shuttle - spotted even from space!
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| Endeavour leaving Florida after a flypast of the truly huge Vertical Assembly Building |
This week saw the very last flight of a Space Shuttle. Not a flight in space, but on the back of NASA's customised 747 transporter. Endeavour has been on an extended trip from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to California, where it will be on permanent exhibition at the California Science Centre.
These flights got a huge reception in cities along the flightpath, with many thousands turning out to see each of the shuttles in the air for one last time - possibly more even than saw the launches themselves? The Endeavour flight even got snapped from space! Wired report that that the Digital Globe satellite caught it over the White Sands Missile Range.
13 May 2012
Interview with Neil Armstrong - All episodes now online
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The CPA have released the second episode of their exclusive interview with Neil Armstrong.
In this episode, Armstrong talks about the loss of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee in a test of Apollo 1 in 1967, the lessons learned from that tragedy, the first Apollo to circle the moon, and then his own launch.
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| Apollo 1 crew before the tragic fire |
1 May 2012
Neil Armstrong - a special Australian interview (video - part 1)
My wife is one of said CPA accountants, so both of us were able to attend this one-off opportunity. It was pricey, but would not have missed it.
I watched Armstrong step onto the Moon back in 1969 - with all the other children of the Red Hill Primary School (Canberra) on a single tiny black and white television. And black and white was right - blotches was really all we saw, and my only memory of the audio was teachers shushing everyone. But I do remember the event!
I have video footage of the event that I must get around to uploading. But in the meantime, the CPA have started releasing a pre-recorded interview with Armstrong:
6 February 2012
From cherry-picking denialists to space games and squealing sheilas: weekly wrap of The Beach House
What I've been reading and writing about for the week to 5th of February, all in a neat little magazine for you.
3 February 2012
Perspectives on the Tent Embassy Anniversary fracas
A lot has been written about the events of Australia Day 2012 in Canberra. A lot of it misinformed, a lot blown out of any semblance of proportion. But very little written with any regard for the unnecessary and completely avoidable damage done to the cause for reconciliation.
Apart from Laurie Oakes' piece questioning the role both before and during of the Australian Federal Police, and this piece by Sunshine Coast Daily oped writer Bill Hoffman:
Apart from Laurie Oakes' piece questioning the role both before and during of the Australian Federal Police, and this piece by Sunshine Coast Daily oped writer Bill Hoffman:
The tent embassy on the lawns of old parliament house is 40 years old.
It has sat there as an ugly reminder of the ugly reality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' disadvantage for all that time.
29 January 2012
The amazing Antikythera Mechanism - the world's first computer (and a #Lego version)
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| http://www.computus.org/journal/?p=155 |
In more recent times, curator Michael Wright has managed to construct a replica of the workings of what turned out to be the world's first computer.
And what it does is compute eclipses, planet positions, dates, lunar and solar cycles. Oh - and the four-year Olympiad cycle!
Truly incredible...
This video shows a virtual reconstruction of the device - you'll get a true idea of the amazing complexity that is squashed into one tiny box:
17 January 2012
Birthday video faves - you'll enjoy these...
It's my birthday, so I'm sharing a mixed collection of a few of the cool video clips I've stumbled on but haven't previously posted. No links to each other - just all really cool in their own ways.
An amateur rocket that climbs to an incredible altitude of 37,000 metres - complete with curvature of the Earth clearly visible:
A comet that plunged in the Sun back in October, followed immediately by a massive coronal mass ejection. Scientists said it was most likely just a coincidence. Watch and decide for yourself:
An amateur rocket that climbs to an incredible altitude of 37,000 metres - complete with curvature of the Earth clearly visible:
A comet that plunged in the Sun back in October, followed immediately by a massive coronal mass ejection. Scientists said it was most likely just a coincidence. Watch and decide for yourself:
12 January 2012
The whole Earth-side of the Moon should be protected forever
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| Photo: Ashley Kerlin |
But isn't that like how Cairo almost swallows the pyramids??
Shouldn't we go further? Much further? For thousands of years, all of Earth-bound humanity will gaze up on the Earth side of the Moon. And it is exactly the same view that all of humanity ever has looked upon.
10 January 2012
Stonehenge source found - 257kms away!
Scientists have found the source of the inner ring of the massive stones of Stonehenge. The cliff from where the heavy volcanic bluestone came from Craig Rhos-y-Felin in Wales. How they got over to the site is still an unknown. Maybe moved by people, maybe by glacier. But at three to five tons, they would not have been easy to shift.
The outer ring of tall stones are all sandstone, weighing 20 to 30 tons, and the source of these was located some time back in England some 30-40 kilometres away - not precisely as sandstone is a common material used in the area. A challenge to shift too!
But the inner ring has puzzled - now solved. Who says there's nothing left to discover?
There's a great collection of photos of Stonehenge and the tools used and archaeological sites at National Geographic. Sorry iThing users - it's Flash-based.
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| Photograph: National Museum of Wales |
But the inner ring has puzzled - now solved. Who says there's nothing left to discover?
There's a great collection of photos of Stonehenge and the tools used and archaeological sites at National Geographic. Sorry iThing users - it's Flash-based.
26 December 2011
Some of what I've been reading and writing over the past week - The Beach House Weekly Wrap
Amazing what you get through in a single week. This auto-generated summary always intrigues me.
It can also be funny seeing what categories the Paper.Li thingo puts articles under - Exhibit1: a gay rights article under "Leisure"!
Enjoy The Beach House Weekly Wrap as at 24 December 2012.
It can also be funny seeing what categories the Paper.Li thingo puts articles under - Exhibit1: a gay rights article under "Leisure"!
Enjoy The Beach House Weekly Wrap as at 24 December 2012.
5 November 2009
20 years ago today the Berlin Wall came down.
In those days before the world wide web, through the medium of “bulletin boards”, I received a first-hand account of this event from a West Berliner named Wolfgang.
Bulletin Boards were “networks” of computers run by enthusiasts that would allow users to log into them via direct modem to modem connection. Once connected, we could read posts and leave our own. The computers would pool these posts and in the wee hours of the morning, they would dial into a central state host and synchronise content. These hosts would then swap with a central Australian host, which would then swap with one in America, and so on globally – every 24 hours. The bulletin board I used was called “The Lighthouse” and was run out of the Caloundra High School.
The post by Wolfgang arrived the next day after the Wall came down. He recounted the amazing events of that evening, where he and many West Berliners gathered on their side of the wall. He and some friends climbed up onto the top of the wall, and were then blasted off by East Berlin forces with water cannons. Later they climbed up again and found the forces were gone, so they jumped down into East Berlin – how brave that was we can probably never understand. He told how he and his friends went walking around in East Berlin meeting many excited people, and eventually they found themselves back at the Brandenburg Gate – but on the wrong side.
There were many East Berliners in their cars queued up at the Gate, and then the Gate was opened. They got into the cars with the East Berliners and were in the first handful of cars to drive through to the west, cheered by the thousands who had gathered to welcome people through.
To read this account was like being there, in a way that we’ve become all too familiar with these days, but was almost unheard of in 1989. Many times I’ve wished I kept a copy of that post, and I can’t find one stored on the net anywhere by someone else. The net makes for a very good time capsule now, but we’ve lost so much before it came into being.
Bulletin Boards were “networks” of computers run by enthusiasts that would allow users to log into them via direct modem to modem connection. Once connected, we could read posts and leave our own. The computers would pool these posts and in the wee hours of the morning, they would dial into a central state host and synchronise content. These hosts would then swap with a central Australian host, which would then swap with one in America, and so on globally – every 24 hours. The bulletin board I used was called “The Lighthouse” and was run out of the Caloundra High School.
The post by Wolfgang arrived the next day after the Wall came down. He recounted the amazing events of that evening, where he and many West Berliners gathered on their side of the wall. He and some friends climbed up onto the top of the wall, and were then blasted off by East Berlin forces with water cannons. Later they climbed up again and found the forces were gone, so they jumped down into East Berlin – how brave that was we can probably never understand. He told how he and his friends went walking around in East Berlin meeting many excited people, and eventually they found themselves back at the Brandenburg Gate – but on the wrong side.
There were many East Berliners in their cars queued up at the Gate, and then the Gate was opened. They got into the cars with the East Berliners and were in the first handful of cars to drive through to the west, cheered by the thousands who had gathered to welcome people through.
To read this account was like being there, in a way that we’ve become all too familiar with these days, but was almost unheard of in 1989. Many times I’ve wished I kept a copy of that post, and I can’t find one stored on the net anywhere by someone else. The net makes for a very good time capsule now, but we’ve lost so much before it came into being.
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