100 Years of ships

Becsüld meg!

ISS Time Lapse Video

You can even see the Moon's light reflecting on the oceans..

How Dark Sky Works

What is Dark Sky?

An accurate short-term weather predictor. (By short-term: half or one hour.)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jackadam/dark-sky-hyperlocal-weather-prediction-and-visuali?

And now here is a post about how it works:

http://blog.jackadam.net/2011/how-dark-sky-works/

10 Years of Fires on Earth Seen From Space

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/wildfires-space-nasa

"Ott is volt egy!"

http://twitpic.com/662hqp/full

My new desktop picture.. :)

A shooting star photo taken from IIS by an astronaut.

Bird Flight Deciphered

http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/11369.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnR8fDW3Ilo

It looks wonderful.. however, it reminds me one of Philip K. Dick's novels: Do Androids Dream About Electronic Sheeps?

I bet the main usage fields of this technology will be entertainment and military.

Augmenting Earth Maps With Dynamic Information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPk88soc2qw

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/cpl/projects/augearth/

http://gizmodo.com/5371017/google-earth-will-track-cars-and-people-in-real-time-eventually-destroy-privacy

Entertainment videos

What Earth would look like with rings like Saturn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoz5Q2rGQtQ

Simply amazing.. but we still have a wonder: total eclipse.

So you dont have to envy Saturnians..

(And since total eclipse is a rare event, it is affecting our imagination much more.

Having rings would be nice, but total eclipse is a more arcane something..)

CIA laser listener:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylo72DyapVY

The problem with Discovery channel is, that most of the time it's entertaining, but if it is about your field, sometimes it sounds ridiculous. So, if it's entertaining: maybe you don't understand something. It has to be popular, so they are colouring stories.

A friend of mine from the field of biology told me, that the pictures about oceanic life are really wonderful (even though most of these were shot in aquariums), but often they say misleading sentences about those beautiful fishes. I'm simply enjoying it, but he can tell the mistakes.

(Even worst, if you're watching it dubbed, not in English: once I heard the "those tanks ran on mine" phrase translated with the meaning of "mine" as in "goldmine."

First I did not understand: what? Those tanks were driving on a mine? Then I figured, they said in the dubbed version "goldmine" instead of "landmine." I can't believe no one spotted it at the dubbing studio, but it still has happened.)

So it's good for entertaining, but if you want information: go there and see with your own eyes!

The Third & The Seventh

CG video:

http://vimeo.com/7809605

Norway skies not kept clear

This time again, it wasn't from the future, nor from other planet:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/09/awesomely-bizarre-light-show-freaks-out-norway/

Climate Data Sources

"This page is a catalogue that will be kept up to date pointing to selected sources of code and data related to climate science. Please keep us informed of any things we might have missed, or any updates to the links that are needed:"

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/

(Another interesting link from the world of climate research, for those who have a lot of time:

http://computationallegalstudies.com/2009/11/27/visualizing-the-east-anglia-climate-research-unit-leaked-email-network/ )

Scanning a racecar track

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8333340.stm

Europe Launches Satellite Able to Predict Floods and Droughts

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/11/02/satellite-makes-near-real-time-predictions-of-floods-and-droughts/

http://www.itpro.co.uk/617011/europe-launches-pair-of-new-satellites

Clouds of Apocalyps

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/17-10/st_clouds

Radar Map of Buried Mars Layers

http://spacefellowship.com/2009/09/23/radar-map-of-buried-mars-layers-matches-climate-cycles/ Whats laser to Earth, is radar to Mars.

GPS devices to monitor snowfall

A strange feeling is getting stronger and stronger in me: we are able to do anything, we already have the devices, it is only a question of creativity, manpower (engineers power of course), and time. We are just able to do anything.
Way back I read some news about earthquake detecting hard disks, and now this:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/929/2

Night sky, milky way

http://www.sergebrunier.com/gallerie/pleinciel/360.swf

Always knowing where is north

This little unit makes you able to know where is north all the time:

There is something (especially in male humans) called senso dell'orientamento (in Italian), which does exactly that. Knowing where is north.

However, it's quite easy to follow the directions, if you enter a square building. But there are situations (more than you can imagine!) where your 'direction-sense' will betray you.

Normally you don't even need that sense, so you'll just ignore the failure, or wouldn't even notice it.

But if you drive a few miles on a serpentine road on a shady day, or you enter the underground, and travel a few stations, you'll be surprised.. With this machine you could be more aware of the direction.

However, a few years back I've already read about a similar experiment, and the result was the same: the experimenter was surprised. (So this team just reinvented the compass.)

I'm sure that these kind of augmented reality (or augmented perception) devices wont be mainstream soon, but there are some fields, where it could be useful.

(For instance: navy, rescue teams, pilots, hikers, and maybe geographers.)

http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/enhanced/my-new-sense-organ

Permanent cloud and rain over cartoon city

This poor little lakeside town has clouds over it every time...

(I've been checking it for the last few months.)

Hopefully I'll be there in a few weeks, with a bicycle, and a few friends.

(So I'll check that cloud in real life as well.. :)