BMU #320 now online

Another week done and it is time for BMU with episode 320. Wow be glad you didn’t try to listen live if you were close enough to the station….Bad weather was popping up all over the place! With it were the incessant weather alerts. So I ran out of time and my last story had alars in it. So if you downloaded the new episode 320, it is clean.
So I start with the conclusion to Ed McKeown’s There Was A Wild Colonial Boy. Nice finish up for this story this week. The closing story is The Intervention by David Sholes. Two aliens look for the last soldier of an ancient war, what they find is way more than they bargained for.
I review the Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds, for only the second Shippuden movie I think it came out well.
Shace Junk is going to a growing problem for future generations, but the Naval Research Lab may have a safe cure…..Tungsten dust!
Plus I once again run Star Trek Trivia!

Review: Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds

According the the wikipedia article Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds
is the fifth ovaerall SNaruto movie and the second Shippuden movie released on August 2, 2008. The English dub version of the movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25, 2011 in America..

The movie centers around the Sora ninja from the Sky Country who attack Konoha for nearly destroying the Sky Country during the last Shinobi World War. After the Leaf village is attacked Naruto agrees to accompany Sakura, and Hinata who are on a medical mission. They are to travel to Konoha, along with a young apprentice and the child's Sensei.

I have to say that this, except or a few isolated instances, that the movie made sense. Or at least it was the last time the plot was easy to follow.

Motivations are unclear or suspect, Alliances shift regularly, plus responsibility, is often hard to track down, And finally no one is quite or really who they say they are. It is clear that intrigue is the main course today.

Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing the movie. I began watching Naruto several years ago right at episode one to present. I switched to Shippoden because of the 5 year jump ahead and his apprentice with Jiraiya, which was entertaining as were the more advanced episode arcs. So it wasn't difficult to make the choice to get the movie.

And what else can I say in or about this movie. If you like Naruto and are a Shippuden fan than you will enjoy Bonds. If you have never experienced Shippuden, this may be just the thing.

However almost non existent extras, some artwork, and some previews...that's it so I rate the film an 8, but strongly reccoment it for Naruto fans

How About Space Dust to Clean Up Space Junk?!

I know, I have hammered on this a lot, but it IS an interesting problem that needs to be dealt with.
From the Dvice article:

• NASA estimates that "there are more than 21,000 orbital debris objects larger than 10 centimeters (roughly four inches) in diameter in low Earth orbit and approximately 500,000 object particles between one and 10 centimeters, with the number of debris particles smaller than one centimeter in excess of 100 million."

100 million people  100 million!  Not an easy cleanup for sure but there might be an easier way that doesn't involve satellites that would trap, skim or just plain blow  stuff up.  

From the Naval Research Lab comes a really different idea.  They suggest boosting 10 to 20 tons of tungsten dust into low Earth orbit.  This would form a gigantic "cloud"  that would impart huge drag on anything small passing through it. One or two passes and the object start to de-orbit all on their own.   Plus the beauty of the dust system consists of particles so small that it has no effect on larger rockets passing through and the beauty is that it cleans itself up as well!  Just as it de-orbits small pieces of debris it has the same result on it's own material, slowly de-orbiting and burning up in the upper atmosphere like so much cosmic dust!

read the complete article here

Seth Macfarlane provides Sagan papers to LOC

   Not only has Seth given us hit shows like American Dad, and Family guy, He apparently has a thing for Carl Sagan as well.  Although he didn't have possession of the papers, he provided the funds to obtain 800 boxes of documents and papers that included correspondence, book drafts, and idea files, along with many other papers even from his childhood.

   Carl Sagan  (Nov, 9,1934 - Dec 20, 1996) was an american cosmologist, astrophysicist, astronomer, and author. He did a lot to promote the popularization of space and natural sciences, as he brought it down to a level that the normal everyday person could understand.  He was involved in more than 20 books, either as editor, author or co-author. He also published over 600 scientific papers and was an advocate of the scientific method, promoted SETI, and basically pioneered exobiology. 

   He made numerous contributions to NASA's exploration programs such as Pioneer, Viking, etc, and was awarded medals for distinguished Scientific Achievement, and Public Service from NASA, National Academy of Sciences, and the National Science Foundation.

   I personally believe he did a great thing trying to bring science to everyone. Some of them understood at least. 

   Seth Macfarlane had this to say of Carl Sagan.

   "The work of Carl Sagan has been a profound influence in my life, and the life of every individual who recognizes the importance of humanity's ongoing exploration of our universe. The continuance of our journey outward into space should always occupy some part of our collective attention, regardless of what Snooki did last week."

  I couldn't agree more. It's amazing how sometimes, something will come along that makes you think we still might have a chance. Thanks Seth. We appreciate this.

http://www.space.com/16331-carl-sagan-papers-seth-macfarlane.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

7 Minutes of Terror: The Mars Curiosity Landing

They call it 7 minutes of terror, the time it will take the Mars Curiosity Rover to travel from the top of Mars' atmosphere to landing on the planet's surface. As one speaker points out, it will take 14 minutes for the signal to reach Earth, so when they first get confirmation that the rover has encountered Mars' atmosphere it will either be alive or dead, for seven minutes on Mars.

To drive that fact home, they have produced a short video of the landing sequence, which I am sure most of us are familiar with, but in a most entertaining manner. I think you will be entertained, I know I was!

Curosity is due to touch down 10:31-pm pdt August 5 2012 1:30-am on August 6th eastern daylight time.

Gifts for us

   Just thought I'd post this, so that everyone out there can point out this site to whom they need to.

   It's the store at Space.com. A great site for space science, NASA news, and a pretty decent gift store.  They carry things like the mission patches, shuttle mission pins, models, and even some sci-fi stuff as well.  Star trek pizza cutter, Han Solo in carbonite ice cube trays, etc. 

   Basically just a place for some cool gifts that some of you may find a hard time finding elsewhere. Especially some of the space stuff.

   I'm sure there may be better sites, but since I am on this one a lot, and this is the first day I wandered into their store, I thought I'd bring it up. 

   I thought it was cool. But then, I'm the guy looking to build a blue London police call box to use as my front door if I can ever build an underground or an into the hill type house.

http://store.space.com/?p=home

Beam Me Up episode 319 is now online

Another weekend and we are back in the WRFR lp/fm studio, creating another hour of

nonsense!

I open this week with a tune suggested by listener Nelson, from Creedence Clearwater Revival – It Came Out of the Sky

This week’s stories prove to be a good lot. We continue with part 3 of Ed McKeown’s There was a Wild Colonial Boy and a new writer to WRFR Alex Shvartsman with his story “The Take” Alex tries his hand at the theme of selling your memories for entertainment. Alex spins his tale along less familiar lines.

After the first story, I play another round of Star Trek Trivia, I answer last week’s questions and start a new one with two more new ones. Yep, I don’t know about you but I am having a great deal of fun with this section of the program.

From the net, I play a news article from Earth Sky about light antennas! Truth!
Finally from the Beam Me Up Blog, the Airforce’s re**cough** spy plane **cough** search X-37b is back, landing at Vandenberg after 469 days in space. IBM’s Sequoia has replaced Japan’s K as the fastest computer in the world. A very interesting comparison of Space Ships, New, Old, Retired, side by side , Or, how about a bullet train from New York to London in an Hour!

It’s beam Me Up for another week! Enjoy!

Joel McHale, Your Michael Fassbender Android On the Cheap!

Have you seen this rather creep short viral film from Prometheus?



Well if you like that and you are a fan of The Soup as I am then you have GOT to see "Joel McHale, Your Cheaper, Drunker Michael Fassbender Android Alternative" Joel really burns the Prometheus video to a crisp, and I could not stop laughing. Slightly NSFW.

NSFW It's The Hoverboard Lightsaber Portal Gun Fight

From College Humor a piece animated video demonstrating some of the most popular death dealing or just plain dangerous toys and weapons all in one NSFW game. waaaahhhhhoooooooooooo lets git ta cuttin!

CollegeHumor’s Favorite Funny Videos

Shuttle Enterprise's new home.

   On June 14th, 1974 construction began on what was designated OV-101, and was going to be named Constitution. They were planning on unveiling it  on Constitution Day on September 17th, 1976, the year of our bicentennial.

    This was changed thanks to a letter writing campaign by Trekkies, myself included, to President Gerald Ford asking that the ship be named for The Enterprise of Star Trek. He apparently liked the name, and though he didn't bring up the writing campaign, he did direct NASA to change the name to ENTERPRISE.

    Though she never made it into space, she was used for approach and landing tests. Refitting her for space flight turned out to not be a viable solution since there were major design changes during the construction of  Columbia. She was also considered for a refit after the Challenger disaster, but Endeavour was built instead from structural spares.

   The Enterprise now sits on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space museum, with her nose pointed out toward the Hudson river. She was lowered to the deck on June 6th, sustaining slight cosmetic damage to one wingtip.

    The have her covered in a white inflatable canopy to protect it from the elements, and also NASA demands a climate controlled environment for display.  

    She will be open for her first viewing during the spacefest for her grand opening from June 19th to 22nd.

In a few years they are planning on moving the Enterprise to a permanent home built for her as an extension of the museum. 

    I really have to get myself to see her. Frankly, we should all make sure we get there to see her, and the rest of the museum. 

     The link I put here, (which I know there's a simpler way I have to learn) will take you to the story of the intrepid complete with video of her being lowered on the deck, etc. Well worth the time to read and watch. 

   http://www.space.com/16255-space-shuttle-enterprise-nyc-display.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

   

Has CERN Finally Done It?

How many times over the past year or so have we heard this statement?

• Scientists at CERN might be on the verge confirming the existence of what they call the "Higgs boson"

Well it is making the rounds again according to an article in the Daily Galaxy blog.  

Peter Woit a Columbia University mathematician is saying that "Cern will soon have to decide.....".   What's to decide you ask?  Well according to Woit,:

•  Cern has got to either announce discovery of the Higgs, or will they wait for some overwhelmingly convincing standard to be met.

Woit goes on to say that:

• "....The bottom line though is now clear: there’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look."

We shall see, I guess...read the complete article here

China Succeeds With It's First Manned Docking

Going through the IO9 blog articles I was blown away to discover that China has an orbiting space lab called Tiangong-1. Not afraid to admit I dropped the ball on this one! But I degress, China in the early hours of June 18th 2012 succeeded in docking with Tiangong-1. This makes it one of only three countries behind the USA and Russia. The three person crew consisted of taikonauts Jing Heipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang, China's first woman in space.

China is aiming towards a space station in 2020, which may not be too ambitious for their program considering that this was only their fourth manned mission.

Space.com article here

X-37b Back From Space After 469 Days!

The Air Force's * cough* spy *cough * "space" plane made a trouble free landing at California's Vandenberg Airforce base after a record setting 469 days in orbit.

Overtly the Air Force was testing the robotic space plane for endurance. The Boing built craft as the Air Force describes it, as a research vehicle, going so far as to carry various experimental packages in it's payload area. One thing that seems to be clear is that the Air Force is unlikely to be developing let alone building any follow on craft to the X37c which was purported to have the capacity to carry personnel.

Check out the complete Dvice article here

Sequoia Topples K

IBM's Sequoia has replaced Japan's K as the fastest computer in the world.

The Sequoia uses 1.5 million processors to establish a benchmark speed of 16.32 petaflop/s which bested K Computer's 10.51 petaflop/s.

For those of you that would like to know what a mind blowing speed 16+ petaflops a second is - a petaflop is a quadrillion floating-point operations per second, or, to over simplify it a bit a quadrillion is 10 with 15 zeros after it or 10 million billion and Sequoia is doing 16+ basic mathematical operations of these. Can't hardly say the number let alone comprehend it.

In the BBC New article, IBM said that to put a bit more understanding to the number:

• Sequoia was capable of calculating in one hour what otherwise would have taken 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they had worked non-stop.

Also according to the article:

• Sequoia will be used to carry out simulations to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, avoiding the need for real-world underground tests.

Also not only is Sequoia faster than K but is also 150% more energy efficient using  7.9 megawatts to K's  12.6. 

WIKI article here

Mysteries of Moon Dust...Finally Solved?

Kallamis sent in an interesting note that I found facinating reading, so appologies K. I think others might enjoy the article as well.



From 69 - 72 our astronauts were bringing home cool things from the moon for study. But even before this, they noticed after landing how strange the dust acted on the moon. It seemed to hang too long above the surface after being disturbed, it got into everything and stuck there like it was sticking to tape, and was filled with super fine green and orange glass beads formed from the super heating and cooling following impacts.

Houston discovered that the dust was unusually chemically reactive for what is essentially a hunk of rock. They also found that it was lousy at conducting heat. So bad that the surface on the sun side could be at the boiling water level, and only a few feet below be far below freezing.

Thanks to new technology Geologist Marek Zbik of Queensland university may have figured out what gives the moon dust it's so called pixie dust like qualities. And now it gets good again. He wanted to look closely at the glass beads. These should have been filled with gas or vapor as any other bubble is.

"Instead of gas or vapor," says Zbik, "the lunar bubbles were filled with a highly porous network of alien-looking glassy particles that span the bubbles' interior."
Since nano particles can become statically charged, that would also explain the clinging effect of the dust.

Really interesting reading article.

Now I say we need to go back, and do some drilling. Lets just see what else we don't know yet.

Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2117143,00.html#ixzz1yGpGgNpc

Also check out the WIKI article on Luna regolith and collection here  (editor)

Space Ships, New, Old, New Retired, side by side comparison

Every now and then you run across a piece of info , a short, story graphic whatever, that just has you totally enthralled.  I don't know for sure if this graphic is quite there, but I did find it strange and wonderful.   I was going through the Boing Boing blog when I came across the article from Supernova Condensate comparing craft in service to retired or proposed spacecraft.

There are other information but just seeing them as a unit is pretty amazing.    I think what is cool just to look at the "under development" units.  Tell me that doesnt worry ya?!

Kallamis sent in this note about the Skylon I thought I would share.

• Skylon is actually a British concept for a single stage re-usable pilot-less space plane. Hydrogen powered and designed to take off from a regular runway. Here's the link to the wiki article.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)

Thanks Kall, very interesting!

Portal: Terminal Velocity a short film by Jason Craft

Holy S... you got to check out this really clever short based on the "Portal Gun" as in the game Portal 2. The short is called Portal: Terminal Velocity, and is from the very active imagination of Jason Craft.

Here is what he had to say about his creation:

• My interpretation of what a real Portal gun would be like if one existed. Based on the video game, Portal. I tried to match the game as close as possible. This was the most challenging project I have ever undertaken, consisting of 3D tracking, seamless camera cuts and 3D camera projection. ENJOY! 

New York to London in an Hour?!

Xnewman sends in the really great article from a blog I had never heard of before but they have great articles.  This one in question revisits the bullet train or high speed tube trains.  However this one seems to take it an extra mile.  This tube train would be of the vacuum type, meaning that with no air to push around, speeds can be attained that are unheard of in today's various modes of transport.  

According to the article:    

• "vactrain technology" could have us traveling from New York City to London hitting speeds up to 4,000 mph, making the journey from NYC to London in just one hour.

The article also seems to state that the core technologies may be available in just a decade.  The overall makeup of the trains and transport are pretty standard to those of us that have been reading of this mode for the better part of a century,  Very little sounds really unique, but exciting none the less.  The tubes would be about five feet across, the "tracks" would be frictionless magnetic style.  Each passenger capsule would be about the size of a small car.  Each capsule would be accelerated up to speed and for the balance of the trip  no additional power would be applied.  At the end of the trip, the energy is recaptured regenerative breaking manner.  The writers of the article state that using this system provided 50 times more transportation per kilowatt/hour than electric cars or trains.    

You can read the complete article HERE

Beam Me Up episode 318 is now online

For some reason the program seemed protracted, but it ran the same length. I suspect that it was the excellent stories this week. I open with Steven R. Stewart’s “Metal and Flesh” Which demonstrates a friendship that knows few if any boundaries. When one friend will go the extra mile, despite adversaries to give of him or herself. Stewart’s Metal and Flesh is truly a great experience. I close the program this week with part 2 of Edward McKeown’s There was a wild colonial boy. This week we are introduced to the antagonists of the tale. There is no question that Ed is a very eclectic writer, this story is an excellent demonstration of his talents.

For the BMU blog, I start off with a review of the dvd movie The X-files / I want to believe. I hope I account for myself with this review. Then a rave about a budget cut proposed for nasa, and a most unusual way to protest the move! Astronomers again find some of the oldest structures in the universe. And it seems the older they are the stranger they are! Finally the question floating around as are we ready for a tourist trip to the moon! How about exploitation? will any of this be possible?  Great article this week.

Will We Ever Live On The Moon?

 Kallamis writes in a great question of Moon habitability in an article he found on BBC future:

Finally someone that somewhat agrees with me. At least to the point that he is actually thinking about this. The article is actually too long to sum up here, but here is the basics of it. We could live on the moon, and use it for many applications. Mining, research into science, medicine, and even the history of the solar system. We could also have tourism, and mining H3 would provide a strong fuel source. Add in asteroid mining, and the best place to be is a massive space station, or a base on the moon. Landings and takeoffs would be easy from the moon. (Personally I still feel we could launch from the moon by magnetic rail launch.) I can think of nothing better than a large moon base, and work from there for the station. Mine the asteroids, run vacation tourism ships, and you watch how much better the economies or the world would be, (provided they and we can all give up our own ignorance and prejudices, distrusts, etc), not to mention the overall satisfaction of the entire planets peoples. I still feel that space is the answer to world peace and prosperity. 

   Not to mention that in theory, asteroids could be brought to the moon to be mined, or at least into an orbit that could be easily reached, maybe even by building a mining base in orbit connected by a space elevator. 

  Works great in my game, but there I don't have the world hating each other problem. Here's an idea. Everyone just stop. Just for 10 minutes, everyone stop, and do nothing. Amazing what it would be like with 10 minutes of true peace across the earth, everywhere. I'll be covering that concept soon, from Morgan Freeman's through the wormhole on the subject of is the universe alive.

Here is the link to the article on moon living.

Hubble Finds Two Galaxies Lined Up For Who Knows What!

Kallamis writes....  

Found this on Space.com. There is no article, just one statement.

   Apparently galaxies NGC3314A and NGC3314B are not on a collision course, but are actually separated by thousands of light years. No real info there but that, but watching it is relaxing, even though it only lasts about 2 minutes, and you of course have an ad first. Here's the link for anyone interested in watching it. They have a lot more there as well.

Video link here

Universe's 1st Objects

Long time fan Courtney sends in this article from Yahoo News, concerning what may be the very first objects created after the big bang.

NASA's Spitzer space telescope, seen in the infrared, might be hugely massive stars or black holes, but are too distant to see individually. These object are estimated to have taken shape about 500 million years after the big bang. At this time, the first stars, galaxies and black holes began to take shape.

Though they can't be confirmed for sure, the objects seem to date from the early universe.

One thing that is also worthy of a thought is how tremendously bright these objects are to be seen at such vast distances. Alexander "Sasha" Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement "We can't yet directly rule out mysterious sources for this light that could be coming from our nearby universe, but it is now becoming increasingly likely that we are catching a glimpse of an ancient epoch."

to read more click here for the complete Yahoo news item.

Astronomer Protest NASA With Bake Sale

XNewsman sends in an article from the New York Daily News concerning a rather unusual bake sale! According to the article astronomers at a Florida university and others have found themselves and NASA space exploration budget facing almost 300 million in cuts. Sounds like a massive amount of money does it not. Well let put it into perspective, the military budget for 2010 was $680 billion. Billions MORE than was requested by the executive branch! So 300 million is what...less than half of 1%?!! 300 million is not a deduction, it's a distraction. However 300 million buys a LOT of space science. In protest students, professors and scientists at the University of Central Florida will be holding a protest bake sale consisting as the article points out: super nova brownie cookies, Milky Way cupcakes and other earthly delights.

Tracy Becker, a graduate student in planetary science pointed out that the lose will take the form of a loss of satellites and their ilk that explore other planets. The bake sale is meant to hi-lite losses of whole missions, but also students to carry on the research as well as scientists will be lost due to job loss.

Becker currently works on the Cassini Saturn mission points out that it is these type of programs that create high tech jobs and new tech.

Alan Stern a researcher at Southwest Research institute (who also helped organize the event) That if cuts like these go through it becomes impossible for the US to maintain leadership in these critical areas!

For me what is even more disconcerting is the blatant waste in NASA! Recently NASA said that it has decided to halt work on a new x-ray telescope. A telescope to study deep space and black holes. Work already done and paid for, wasted because to finish would exceed NASA's budget.

The bake sale can help inform the public as to the importance of the work but also how relatively speaking, how inexpensively it does it!

Read more at the New York Daily News artile site here

Beam Me Up episode 317 is now online

I speak for a moment about the loss of Author Ray Bradbury. Then we travel over to New Arden and it’s very special detective. In Plain Sight by Jason Kahn.

From the blog, new battery tech that talks about new battery tech that may allow three as much power through the battery with less material. Earth/ Sky has an article on asteroids that have the potential to do great harm to the Earth. The amount of these asteroids will astound and frightening. Nelson from New Farmer Films then joins us for an excellent review of the movie “the Avengers.

Finally I once again tap Ed McKeown for a great story. He certainly delivers well as is born out in part one of his story “There was a wild colonial boy” I will hazard a guess that this too is a great story.

Enjoy

New Battery Tech May Triple Battery Capacity

Battery chemistry may have improved battery performance. Iron, to alkaline, nickel-cadmium, nickel metal hydride to the various lithium variations. Weight and recharargability were the driving motives. However most of the improvements in live were centered around packing in more storage media or making high density batteries which often proved problematic
in it's own problem.

Now I read about battery researchers at Washington State University have figured out a way to make lithium-ion batteries using an anode made of tin instead of graphite. Graphite, while easy to form does not perform optimally under high current loads. Tin anodes on the other hand could support 3 times as much storage. The problem with tin however is that over time it grows what can commonly be called "whiskers". These whiskers can become so bad that they can short out electronics or batteries.

The researchers however have said, well if we can not remove the whiskers, why not put them to our benifit. The researchers have succeeded in forcing tin whiskers uniformly at the quantum level and they have been able to take these tin whisker anodes and electroplate them! One of the other gains is that the electroplated tin anodes can be made much less expensively. Plus they would last longer, and recharge much faster plus holding 3 times the charge!

Check out the full Dvice article here

Review: X-Files I want to believe DVD

Directed by Chris Carter

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson,  Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet,

When I first saw this DVD on the discount shelf, I thought, well I never really got into the X Files on tvand here might be a way to gain some insight.  You see what I thought I had was a late 90s movie.  Not so, this was kind of a reboot, whats more it was from 2008!  Seems I had lucked into something original.

The film starts with an FBI search line  poking sticks in the snow, what an old many breaks through the line and runs ahead to start digging and finding a body part.  Then we are privvy to a couple of abductions that are seemingly unrealated.  From there on out we are treated to a rather odd character assortment.  I won't runin it for you by going into them all but take my word for it when I say that a pedofilic, physic preist is NOT the oddest of the bunch.

The movie is not bad from a horror movie perspective, but is that X File material?  Religious  quandary is perfectly honest grist, but X File?  There are evil scientists and evil experiments of maximum bizzarness that is bound to make you flinch but there are no aliens or evolutionary questionable lifeforms.  None of what I had come to believe that X Files were all about.  So I think it falls down on its theme, but otherwise is a flincherificmovie.  A good solid 6 for me.  just because it is suppose to be sci-fi  which it isnt  maybe sci-fi horror, but very VERY dated sci-fi.

Now extras.....LOADED UP!  Deleted scenes, diital copy, the works.  Which means yep...It was NOT a rental.  Yep, still mad about that!  So  extras?  9  for an overall 7.5...It was fun, It had alot of ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!  Plus it can be found cheap on the shelf.  
 

RIP: Ray Bradbury passes at 91

Don Smith sends in this article.

• Ray Bradbury died in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2012. He was 91. 
• I remember his writings well, as Bradbury, Clark, and Asimov sent a lot of us down roads we may never have looked down without them. One thing of interest to note, is that this great author of speculate and science fiction never got a drivers license. Apparently he saw a horrific crash when he was young. 
• Even trying to start with any book or story written by him would lead to a list that could not be put on here. For me I guess it would be The Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451 that come to mind first. 
• But he was involved in so many screen plays, and adaptions that to pick a true favorite is almost impossible there. 
• He will be greatly missed by the sci-fi community and the world is just a bit lonelier now.

Don     I do not even in my wildest imagination think I could do a better job.  Or encapsulate my appreciation for the enjoyment Bradbury has brought me over the years.   Yes he most certainly will be missed and the science fiction/fantasy fields are so much worse for the absence.   

Click the article title for the wiki article

Don Pettit and the Space didgeridoo

Don Pettit, aboard the ISS, once again is putting water drops on his speakers. This time instead of constant tone from a signal generator, Don has fashioned a Didgeridoo out of materials at hand (which happen to be the station's vacuum cleaner hoses) with various attachments to change the tone and ultimately the behavior of the water drops on the speakers. Check out the video of Don
Oh and this is off time activities. He is not playing with hoses and water drops on NASA's dime. Check the video out.