Really Rocket Science

The food fight between Scripps and Cablevision is being watched closely by many. With 3 million subscribers, mostly in New York Metro, I feel Cablevision stands to lose more than it can gain. Don’t forget about the customer here, Jimmy.

Verizon’s FiOS TV, DirecTV and DISH Network are all hoping to gain customers who love watching Food Network and HGTV — two of the most popular cable channels in the U.S. They should think about leasing DTV sub channels from some of the local broadcasters. Now THAT would make it a real fight.

Meanwhile, in Israel, it’s all about peace and cooperation. We’re talking food and satellite — specifically hummus and a reflector. In fact, they’ve set a new world record: the largest plate of hummus ever.

 A partnership between SatLink Communications Ltd. and Israeli restaurateur and businessman Jawdat Ibrahim, created the world’s largest plate of Hummus, the Middle Eastern delicacy, weighing in at 4090 kilograms. Loaded onto a six-meter satellite dish provided by SatLink, the event brought together food aficionados and an official adjudicator from the Guinness World Records organization to Abu Gosh, a village located outside of Jerusalem.

The world’s largest hummus platter was unveiled and revealed three tons of chickpeas blended with one ton of tehina paste, and more than 5,000 pita breads with which to scoop up the delicacy. Acknowledged world-wide as the epicenter for the preparation and enjoyment of hummus, Abu Gosh is a focal spot for this celebration. Chefs from around Israel arrived early to prepare the overflowing satellite dish. Following local Arab-Israeli singers and a festive blessing by Ibrahim, the Guinness adjudicator acknowledged the new world record.

Here’s the video report..

Years ago, I made hummus using an Armenian recipe, adding homegrown hot peppers to give it some kick. Need to find that recipe.

The X-37 — or Space Shuttle Jr. according to AIR&SPACE — will have a unique re-entry:

With a wingspan of 15 feet and a length of 27.5 feet, the X-37 looks like a tiny space shuttle. It has a blunt (though windowless) nose, and one rocket engine bell instead of the shuttle’s three. Two cargo doors open just as the shuttle’s do, revealing a four- by seven-foot bay. Like the shuttle, the X-37 was designed for low Earth orbits—in the latter’s case, altitudes of 125 to 575 miles. And the craft will fly like a shuttle, reentering the atmosphere with the orbiter’s 40-degree nose-high attitude. After reentry, it will change to a 20-degree nose-down glide and, flying at up to 220 mph, land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with Edwards Air Force Base as an alternate.

 When we first wrote about the DishPointer AR Pro app a few months ago, this is one of the instances where it can become an indispensible tool for field technicians: quickie site surveys.

Here’s a real example from Afghanistan:

I found out about this thing while doing research to find out the directions to a bird while here in Afghanistan. I stumbles across DishPointer’s website, which was a lifesaver, and saw mention of this app. As soon as I got back to where I could access the market I made sure to get this app. I can’t begin to say how wonderful it is. Being over here, we don’t have any birds that are actually for us. We use Hotbird 6&7, which are for Europe. This App still helps me see if I have line of sight and it helped to align a dish in no time. (I know you see the difference in time in the pics, We had a bad LNB that was making it more difficult to get a good signal.)

The fact that the app stores all the birds for offline use is a truly wonderful thing out here. If I had this before, I could’ve been able to tell within 5 minutes that one of the sites we were at was simply not able to see the bird. We could’ve been in a dangerous location for a mere 15 minutes instead of the 3 days we were there trying to no avail. From now on anytime I go out for an install I’ll make sure my phone is part of my toolbag, and of course this app will be installed.

Getting a site survey done quickly in a combat zone using a $20 app? That’s the type of cost-benefit analysis we like to see.

The DishPointer AR Pro is available via iTunes App Store.

By far the coolest space video ever, via the American Museum of Natural History:

After hovering over Mount Everest and the gorges that plunge to the Ganges, you are pulled through the Earth’s atmosphere to glimpse the inky black of space over Tibet’s high desert. So begins The Known Universe, a new film produced by the American Museum of Natural History that is part of a new exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

The magic of this film, though, happens as the inky black expands. Pulling farther and farther from Earth, you see the deep blue of the Pacific give way to night as the Sun comes into focus, the orbits of the solar system shrink smaller and smaller, the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio stretch and distort, and, as the Milky Way receeds, the spidery structure of millions of other galaxies come into view. Then, you reach the limit of the observable universe, the afterglow of the Big Bang. This light has taken more than 13.7 billion years to reach our planet, and you return, back to Earth, to two lakes that are nestled between Mount Kailash and Mount Gurla Mandhata in the Himalayas.

The structure of The Known Universe is based on precise, scientifically-accurate observations and research. The Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History maintains the Digital Universe Atlas, the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe. The Digital Universe started nearly a decade ago. It is continually updated and is the primary resource for production of the Museum’s Space Shows such as the current Journey to the Stars, and is used in live, real-time renderings for Virtual Tours of the Universe, a public program held on the first Tuesday of every month. Last year, some 30,000 people downloaded the Digital Universe to their personal computers, and the Digital Universe will soon be updated with a more accurate and user-friendly software interface. Digital Universe is licensed to many other planetariums and theaters world-wide.

“I liken the Digital Universe to the invention of the globe,” says Curator Ben R. Oppenheimer, an astrophysicist at the Museum. “When Mercator invented the globe, everyone wanted one. He had back orders for years. It gave everyone a new perspective on where they live in relation to others, and we hope that the Digital Universe does the same on a grander, cosmic scale.”

The new film was produced by Michael Hoffman, and directed by Carter Emmart. Brian Abbot manages and Ben R. Oppenheimer curates the Digital Universe Atlas. The exhibition at the Rubin, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, opened on December 11 and continues through May 10.

The animation was done in Uniview (SCISS AB)

Via KuvatON, a Finnish photo blog…

F’shizzle, sat-nav! Snoop Dogg‘s voice — and phrases — are now available for your TomTom GPS navigation unit via VoiceSkins.

The program formats the user’s GPS system so that it gives directions in Snoop’s unmistakable voice and using his trademark slang. It offers crucial driving tips like, "Turn around when possible and keep it ‘G’, ya d-i-g?" and "Thanks for the ride man, I had the time of my life. Oowee!" The application also offers a downloadable "Points of Interest" file, which uses GPS to inform the user of Snoop’s favorite local L.A. spots.

Great idea. Love the extras, too. Here he is, in the studio, explaining why…

He’s quite the entrepreneur, which is why he rang the bell at the NYSE to begin Global Entrepreneurship Week recently. The WSJ recorded this interview…  

Amman, Jordan

Norway

South Africa

Guffey, Colorado

The Leonid Meteor Shower was, by most accounts, a modest one this year as between 200 and 300 fell during the peak this week. Apparently, Mongolia was a good place to watch. In the Western U.S., a Bolide meteor caused a huge fireball lit up the sky around midnight. The account, via thespectrum.com:

 People from Southern Idaho to Cedar City reported seeing a bright light in the sky shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to an article on KSL.com.

The article says a meteor is the likely cause of the bright light that lit up Utah skies. The earth is currently passing through the Leonids, a spectacular annual meteor shower.

Some northern Utah residents also reported on Facebook that they heard a noise and felt shaking along with the bright light, including one former Washington City resident. There are also reports on Twitter of several “shooting stars” visible in the Hurricane area.

You can follow reactions to the meteor on Twitter by searching for the hash tag #strangelight.

Here’s the news report from Fox13 in Utah:

The security cameras at the University of Utah’s Milford Observatory‘s captured this video footage:

Which the AP is running with…

Nice effect by Red Huber of the Orlando Sentinel. Check it out and you’ll see why you shouldn’t stand so close to the pad…

George Bernard Shaw, in 1930…

Read most of the toast via Google Books…

DARPA is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Internet with a "Network Challenge." 

The challenge is to locate ten moored red weather balloons located at ten fixed locations in the continental United States. Balloons will be in readily accessible locations, visible from nearby roadways and accompanied by DARPA representatives. All balloons are scheduled to go on display at all locations at 10:00AM (ET) until approximately 4:00 PM (local time) on Saturday, December 5, 2009. Should weather or technical difficulties arise with the launch, the display will be delayed until Sunday, December 6 or later, depending on conditions. If, for any reason, the balloon is displayed in one location then moved to a second location, either location will be accepted. Entrants are required to register and submit entries on the event website. Latitudes and longitudes are entered in degree-minute-second (DDD-MM-SS) format as explained on the website Coordinates must be entered with an error of less than one arc-minute to be accepted.

I like this.

When will we celebrate some kind of F Troop tribute? Those rocket scientists who grew up in the 60’s will remember Chief Wild Eagle’s "it is balloon!!" cry.