Petman? Oh Come On!

You tell me the first thing that came to mind when I saw this DARPA video.   With the camo on the damn thing  is all but indistinguishable from a human corps-man.  

The article says this about the...what...robot?  Yeah I guess....anyway:

• The PETMAN robot was developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the DoD CBD program. It is used to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. 

Then they say things about micro climates, sweating and stuff...but dollars to doughnuts we see it in the field with heavy packs or even dare I say it, mounted weapons?  Even the mounted part need not happen.  But if you have a weapons platform that can use weapons already in the theater of conflict or able to pick up and used any light to medium weapon would be golden for the same reason that a lot of American weapons started chambering NATO rounds, it makes them more universal in the field.  I can't be the first person to say ... hey  ground troops! As long as it doesn't have that stupid whine that big dog and the headless horse has.

Mark my word on this....

Latest ISS Astronauts Return Safely

Three astronauts returned to Earth, aboard a Soyuz capsule, safely after a marathon five-month mission.  The crew-members  landed Tuesday (5/14/13) on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American Thomas Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko landed as planned without incident.  

Hadfield has managed to garner some notice in the entertainment industry as well with his recent rendition of Major Tom which was filmed and recorded aboard the station. ( The five-minute video posted Sunday drew a salute from Bowie's official Facebook page: "It's possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created.")  Hadfield, from Milton Ontario is also Canada's first professional astronaut to live aboard the ISS as well as the first Canadian  spacecraft commander (he was commander of the ISS while aboard, passing command Sunday before he returned to Earth).  

There are still three crew members aboard the ISS.  They will be joined by another three astronauts in a couple of weeks.

   

May 14th - Skylab Anniversary

May 14  of this year 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of America's first space station.  massing 169,950 pounds, Skylab was launched atop a modified Saturn V rocket. 

Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979.  Due to a constantly descending orbit, Skylab entered the atmosphere and crashed over parts of Australia.  

The space station almost didn't make it.  During launch, a micro-meteor shield detached and  damaged one of the large solar arrays.  The shield also helped maintain temps inside the lab and without most of its power systems  could not maintain comfortable living conditions or electrical systems for life support and to run experiments.  

Skylab hosted three crewed missions during it's active career. 

The first manned mission was Skylab 2 SL-2 (SLM-1). The crew arrived on station at 5/25/73. This mission lasted 28 days. On board were Pete Conrad,  Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin.    

The second mission was Skylab 3 SL-3.  The crew was aboard 7/28/73 and the mission ran for  59 days.  Skylab mission 3's crew was  Alan Bean,  Jack Lousma and  Owen Garriott.  

The final manned mission was Skylab 4 on 11/16/73.  This was the longest running mission lasting     84 days.  4's crew was Gerald Carr, William Pogue and  Edward Gibson.  

Plans were to continue manned mission to Skylab, using the new Shuttle to move the crippled station to a higher orbit and repair the launch damage.  However due to delays, the Shuttle was not available at the needed time and Skylab entered the atmosphere, crashing many parts on Australia.     

Review: Lady Death - animated film

Lady Death takes place for the most part in the 15th  century Sweden.  The story centers on the young daughter, Hope, of a skilled and ruthless mercenary called Matthias who in fact is in actuality a  demon.  

Matthias is dispatched by villagers for him evil.  Hope herself is accused of consorting with the Devil and is sentenced to burn at the stake.  At the very last moment she is transported to Hell by winged demons.  Her body restored, she is taken to her father who in fact is the ruler of all the levels of hell 

and demands that she join him in ruling Hell.  Matthias/Lucifer forces her hand by showing that he has trapped he mother and the first true love.  

Refusing to join him, Hope is cast out to die, but instead she is transformed into a powerful demon in her own right and with other powerful demons join power to take down Lucifer.

Hope however finds out that she is still trapped in  Hell for as long as one of Lucifer's allies remains alive.

Not a badly animated film.  Looks very much like the work that used to come out of CLAMP.  Many of the graphics and back-ground have a very stylized look to them, which lends itself well to projecting the horror of the local without graphic death and dismemberment.  Though it is an animated film from the US,  Japanese anime fans will still enjoy it as well.   It seemed a bit dated to me however, not that the story or the graphics lacked anything, just the nagging feeling that it has been done before.   The movie deserves an overall 7 easily.  Worth a check.

Chris Hadfield Sings Major Tom in a most Unusual Way!

You might think, just by listening, that you were experiencing David Bowie, singing an updated version of his timeless classic, Major Tom. If you thought that, you would be very very wrong. For here is astronaut Chris Hadfield singing his version of this topical tune while SERVING ABOARD the ISS! Plus to do it one better, Hadfield does it as a video that proves to be an amazing counterpoint to the song! Yes pay close attention to Hadfield as he sing, plays an instrument and demonstrates micro-gravity! Plus the whole thing was recorded aboard the "tin can"