Thursday, March 21, 2013

Name a planet contest!

First Planet Around Alpha Centauri: “Alpha Centauri Bb” What name does the public want? Uwingu Funding Space Research and Education via Contest


image courtesy of Uwingu

"Boulder, Colorado—Space company UwinguTM has launched a new public outreach project—a public contest to determine the worldwide public’s choice name for the nearest known planet around another star. Anyone can nominate a name; the contest ends April 15th."

Click on the link to find out more about the contest and how your support funds various space and science projects.

If you don't wish to submit a name for this recently discovered planet orbiting Alpha Centauri -- our closest solar neighbor -- I'd appreciate a vote for mine: FIRENZE.

As I wrote when submitting it, "A wise Centaur from the Harry Potter series, he sides with humans and helps Professor Dumbledore -- against his own kind -- to resist Voldemort. Dumbledore rewards him by appointing him Divination instructor, as Centaurs observe the larger movements of the stars and "watch the skies for great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there."

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Paper is not dead!

Le papier ne sera jamais mort / Paper is not dead ! from INfluencia on Vimeo.

I just heard a radio interview with the author of 'Higher Call', a book detailing the encounter of Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown during WWII...Stigler in his ME 109 and Brown in his badly damaged B-17...and Stigler's decision to escort him out of German airspace, rather than shoot him down.

The following video is from their first face-to-face meeting, many years later.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Super Mega Dolphin Pod Spanned 35 Square Miles

Some estimates put the total at 100,000 dolphins, spanning 5 miles by 7 miles! I've never heard of anything like this happening before (most pods top out at 30 or 40 individuals). There are lots of videos up about this on the Net. Here's one: