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!

Water Droplets and Sound Waves in Space

I am sure we have all had that "what would happen" moments in life. If you are a science fiction, fan it is almost a given. Here is a great demo of sound and fluid dynamics presented on orbit aboard the shuttle. Those of us in audio can guess what is coming but it is still fascinating all the same. No special equipment was used, just some old usb speakers and plain ole water.

Why Did Early Hominids Evolve? No More Elephants!

I know!  Elephants?  What do elephants have to do  with early evolution?  According to PloS One  
It seems that  one of the major pushes along the "big brain" highway was the disappearance of of  a major food item 400k years ago.  (yep, I did say 400k, seems this little bump pushed the appearance of early hominids back a lot further than was expected!)  That food item was the elephant which in some cases may have been responsible for upwards of 60% all animal derived protein / fat and not only that, but the elephant had just the right mix of fat to protein to sustain a healthy diet.

Of course the elephant was slow and big, which for homo - erectus was perfect, plus the fact that it would sustain a larger population for far longer.  But by 400k years ago, the boogers had pretty much run the elephant to ground.  

Now this of and by itself would not prove much of anything but for a tooth.  A 400,000 year old MODERN tooth no less discovered recently in  Israel's Qesem cave.   It seems that with ample food supplies there was no pressure for Homo-E to evolve.  But with the disappearance of large slow moving food source Homo-erectus and for that matter any hominid would have to adapt or perish.

As the IO9 article puts it:

• These later, more modern hominids might have evolved from or simply replaced Homo erectus, but either way, the loss of elephants is key.

And American Science Dies a little More

The giant particle accelerator The Tevatron is shutting down 9/30/11 and a great project becomes victim like SETI, to budget cuts and apathy. (and lets man up here...a healthy dose of ignorance maybe? naaaaaaa, America is the greatest country in the world! It would never bend to the unwashed and uneducated! but I digress)

From the Dvice article:

• The Tevatron particle accelerator was one of the most powerful machines ever constructed. When completed in 1983 it's two massive underground rings could power beams of accelerated protons and anti-protons at energies of up to 1 teravolt and smashed them together, pulling pieces of the fabric of our universe out of the resulting subatomic debris.
• The floundering economy and the politicization of science has meant that there's increasing reluctance to fund major research that doesn't have immediate and tangible benefits.....

and what will you say to your grand-children Mr. Senator / Mrs. Representative when they ask why isn't America great any longer humm?

Read the Dvice article here