Category Archives: Technology

Global Hawk drones to be used to hunt hurricanes this year

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

From the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, it seems the days of the Orion P3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft may soon be numbered. NASA mission sending unmanned aircraft over hurricanes this year Beginning this summer and over the next several years, NASA … Continue reading →

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Posted in hurricanes, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

US Congress Rejects UN Internet Takeover

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-internet.html As a followup to a previous story about congressional hearings regarding a proposal to turn over control of the internet to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union, we are happy to report that extensive public pressure has ensured that … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 56 Comments

CryoSat repurposed from sea ice to bathymetry

Posted on May 30, 2012 by

From the European Space Agency: CryoSat goes to sea CryoSat was launched in 2010 to measure sea-ice thickness in the Arctic, but data from the Earth-observing satellite have also been exploited for other studies. High-resolution mapping of the topography of … Continue reading →

Posted in Oceans, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 55 Comments

A really, really, REALLY bad idea – Giving the Internet to the U.N.

Posted on May 29, 2012 by

Via Junkscience.com, comes this worrisome editorial from the Washington Times. The new world order invades your computer Imagine if everything you did online was subject to monitoring and control by the United Nations. Powerful authoritarian states, including China and Russia, … Continue reading →

Posted in Government idiocy, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 99 Comments

Nanoscale vacuum transistors – way cool, but still not as pretty as a glowing 12AU6

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

From AAAS, news of a super tiny vacuum-tube transistor hybrid that can operate up to .46 TERAHertz (thats 460,000 megahertz or 460 gigahertz): Return of the Vacuum Tube by Jon Cartwright Peer inside an antique radio and you’ll find what … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 120 Comments

ENVISAT declared dead in space

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

ESA declares end of mission for Envisat From the European Space Agency: PR 15 2012 – Just weeks after celebrating its tenth year in orbit, communication with the Envisat satellite was suddenly lost on 8 April. Following rigorous attempts to … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

No hiding this decline – NAS/NRC report: ‘U.S. system of environmental satellites is at risk of collapse.’

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

The National Research Council via the National Academies Press, released a report yesterday that summarized the state of environmental satellite monitoring: Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Midterm Assessment of NASA’s Implementation of the Decadal Survey USA Today reports … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | 59 Comments

Crippled ENVISAT imaged in orbit, still incommunicado

Posted on April 25, 2012 by

From the European Space Agency: Investigation on Envisat continues Optical, radar and laser observations of the Envisat satellite show that it is still in a stable orbit. Efforts to regain contact with the satellite have been under way since 8 … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

How We Nearly Lost Discovery

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

Reblogged from Wayne Hale's Blog: Now that Discovery is safely delivered to the Smithsonian, I think I can tell the story of how we nearly lost her in July of 2005, and how well-intentioned, highly motivated,  hard-working, smart people can … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 51 Comments

Envisat’s satellite failure launches mysteries

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

I’ve been watching with interest and concern some of Steve Goddard’s postings on Envisat on the abrupt changes in their recent sea level data. To me, something didn’t seem quite right, and I expressed concerns privately along those lines that … Continue reading →

Posted in Sea level, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 125 Comments

Nanocopper CO2 catalyst – a possible solution to EPA’s draconian coal power plant killer laws?

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

From MIT, a possible solution to allow coal fired power plants to meet the new draconian CO2 emission requirements imposed by the EPA. Hybrid copper-gold nanoparticles convert carbon dioxide to methane CO2=>CH4 May reduce greenhouse gas emissions CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon dioxide, EPA, Methane, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 161 Comments

arXiv bookworm

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I stumbled across something called “bookworm“, which looks through all of the articles in the pre-print service arXiv. Their default home page looks like this. Figure 1. Comparison of the usage of three terms, “graphene” … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged , | 48 Comments

Information on the GOES-15 outage

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

If you watch storms on the USA west coast, then you have probably been wondering why GOES WEST satellite imagery has not been updating. The reason is that the satellite is down, and is being recovered to operational status. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Nature endorses open source software in journal submissions

Posted on March 1, 2012 by

Ron Dean writes in Tips and Notes: Interesting article about Nature editorial endorsing open source software for journal submissions. No mention of climate models, but it certainly seems to play in their insistence for reproducibility . The money quote: “Reproducibility … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Tesla’s Electric “brick” problem

Posted on February 22, 2012 by

Jalopnik reports: “Tesla Motors’ lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 116 Comments

‘First Light’ Taken by NASA’s Newest CERES Instrument, includes stunning “blue marble” image

Posted on February 3, 2012 by

Western Hemisphere + web view | + hi-res image Eastern Hemisphere + web view | + hi-res image A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite – Suomi NPP. … Continue reading →

Posted in Earth, Science, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 96 Comments

A great development but how will the Government tax the air?!

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

This seems like an eco-dream come true, a car the runs on air developed in India. I’ve seen stories on this since 2008, but have yet to see the car hit market. Now the claim is in August 2012. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 141 Comments

Utility-Scale Energy Storage and Zinc-Air Batteries

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

Apparently, this company (EOS) has overcome the recharge limitation that exists in conventional zinc-air batteries, and supposedly has several patents on the technology. If true, this technology would be a big boost for all sorts of battery powered technology, not … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, solar power, Technology, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , | 113 Comments

Phobos-Grunt demise shows BBC’s (and Daily Mail’s) bad science tendency

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

OK, The “Grunt heard round the world” is no more, apparently burning up over the Pacific. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the probe and what fragments made it through the atmosphere fell about 775 miles west of Wellington Island. In looking … Continue reading →

Posted in media, Ridiculae, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 103 Comments

Grunt work

Posted on January 14, 2012 by

UPDATE: 1/15/2012 11:30AM PST The probe is down, but see how the BBC fouled up the reporting of it here -Anthony Look up in the air, it’s a bird, its a plane, no it’s Phobos-Grunt! Video follows. From Sky News: … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 82 Comments