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.