Skyehaven’s Cool Thing of the Day

Update
6;10pm The rumble is over and in just a few short minutes another shuttle mission will be safely in space. I wish them all a successful flight and safe return.

6:06pm The rumble from the shuttle is just now arriving here. I’ll be able to feel/hear it rumble for something like the next 5 minutes.

6:05pm It doesn’t matter how many times I see that, whether it’s outside in my yard, at the beach, or on TV, it always brings a lump to my throat. Absolutely beautiful. I live about 40 air miles from the launch pad.

The title says it all. Liftoff is scheduled for 6:02pm and a quick glance at the radar looks promising!

Yep, really. Everyone who needs something to amuse them while driving to work needs to check out the free audio book website. You’re not likely to find the latest NY Times bestseller there, but there are lots of classic stories, non-fiction, and even free university courses, all available for free.

Check it out!

Watch a real time re-enactment of the Apollo 11 launch.

Families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man’s first steps on the moon.

Now, they’ll be able to watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time on the Web, follow Twitter feeds of transmissions between Mission Control and the spacecraft, and even get an e-mail alert when the lunar module touches down. Those features are part of a new Web site from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum commemorating the moon mission and Kennedy’s push to land Americans there first.a href=”http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view/20090712web_site_recreates_apollo_11_mission_in_real_time/srvc=home&position=recent”> (Boston Herald)

This virtual space launch is scheduled for Thursday morning at 9:32am Eastern time. The site will go “live” at 8:02am, 90 minutes before launch time. In the mean time, the virtual rocket sits on its virtual launch pad and offers photo galleries as well as listen to a pretty realistic soundtrack of birds, helicopters and pre-launch chatter.

Spend a little time while you wait listening to one of John F. Kennedy’s speeches that has gone down in history as one of the most stirring ever offered.

For CNN junkies, you’ll be pleased to know that Miles O’Brien has another gig. For the rest of you, this is probably the closest you’ll get to a shuttle launch without coming to Florida. For myself, I think I’ll be at the beach. There’s nothing quite like an almost-night launch. As the shuttle rockets off into space, the contrail rises up past the grey line and goes from a darkly clouded column of steam at its base to beautifully lit with sunset colors. I wish I had a good camera so I could try to get a picture to share of Endeavour blasting off tonight, but pictures really don’t do the sight justice.

EDIT: I removed the live stream, but you can find plenty of video coverage of the flight here:  http://spaceflightnow.com/

Jacob the Syrian Hamster has put a spin on the good old fashioned sniglet. My favorite sniglet has always been pencilventilation: the act of blowing the dust from a pencil point after sharpening.

Enjoy a few captchadefs. It’s a meme whose time has come, and that adorable little hamster deserves to be known as the creator.

In an attempt to tap into Web 2.0 Doritos is running a special new promotion linked to their “Late Night” category of chips. I have no idea if these chips are any good; I tend to stick with the old fashioned original, or sometimes the cool ranch variety. I do dig cool things, after all. If you like Blink 182 or Big Boi, your exclusive concert courtesy of Doritos is just one purchase and a webcam away.

RUDY WILSON: And all you’ll see is the bag and all of a sudden the bag will rip open and explode.

On your computer screen, that is. Then, punk band Blink-182 busts out with its song “The Rock Show.” And if you move the bag of chips around in front of the webcam, you can get the video to do things. The technology’s called “Augmented Reality.”

WILSON: So if you’re watching this concert, you can twist it and turn it, you can get really close and pull it back. But if you actually start pushing it up and down or moving it around, the backstage will actually start to crumble.

And if the crowd of Dorito-eaters huddled around your PC shouts loud enough, the band plays an encore

Now, I’m not a huge fan of either band and don’t have a ton of desire to try these oddly named Doritos (let alone a webcam), but the idea of an interactive concert on the Intertubes sounds pretty darned nifty. If I had a webcam, I might even buy the chips just to see this thing. And that, I expect, is the point.

For a group of Poles in World War II, it wasn’t a canine. It was a brown bear. Yes, you heard right. A bear. In another account, they tell the story of a thwarted espionage attempt:

Story has it that in the heat of summer he learned to work the shower, and used it so often that the Nissen hut had to be locked to prevent him exhausting the water supply.

On one occasion, Voytek was delighted to find the door ajar. Entering the bear discovered a cowering Arab who had come to spy out the lie of the land for a raiding party, intending to steal all the weapons and ammunition.

The spy confessed all, the raiding party were rounded up, and Voytek became a hero. He was given two bottles of beer and allowed to spend all morning splashing happily in the bath hut.

(more…)

I’ll tell you what’s cool! If you google “cool thing of the day”, I’m on the front page. Woot!

Let’s celebrate!

The children’s department at our local museum has one of my favorite toys, a musical marble tree. As the marble travels down the tree from branch to branch, each rung/leaf chimes a different tone, like a xylophone. It’s a little difficult to explain, so here’s some clarification:

Why not try some hand drawn holograms?