This week’s Weekly Science Video comes courtesy NASA. This is the second in a series produced to educate people about GLAST, the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, which is due to launch on June 5.
This video discusses gamma-rays, which I’ve discussed before in the gamma-ray burst context.
This video was brought to my attention by Phil Plait, who’s the first talking head in the video.
Just when you thought that HiRISE taking pictures of Phoenix wasn’t cool enough… Emily at the Planetary Society Weblog has an even cooler picture:
Sweet!
Emily has more HiRISE photos, specifically these ones of the landing site. Go check them out!
Seriously, how can you come up with a picture cooler than this one:
What is it? It’s the Phoenix Lander parachuting down to the surface of Mars. Why is it cool? Because it was taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It’s the first time that a spacecraft has taken a picture of another spacecraft descending to land on another planet. How cool is that? You can even see the tethers connecting the Phoenix lander to the parachute!
Press release: nasa.gov
The Bad Baby Names took a vacation last week — damn you Trib! Luckily for us they didn’t take Memorial Day off.
Of course, a Bad Baby Name post wouldn’t be good without the Attack Of The Ys, so let’s start this one off on the right foot. Khamryan gets things going in spectacular fashion, followed closely by Austyn. Cheyzen doesn’t classify, as it’s just a bad name to begin with.
I never understand parents who name their child after historical people. Surely they know they’re dooming their kid to a life of insecurity and feelings of inadequacy. I can hope, can’t I? I don’t hold out much hope for little Cleopatra, though. Poor little girl.
EvaMarie Natural, now there’s a name to get behind. I wonder what the ‘Natural’ refers to though — is her brother Jayson Artificial Insemination? Robert Turkey Baster?
Usually when parents double-barrel their child’s name, they use at least one name that isn’t horrid. Not so for Joeb-Zaiston’s parents though, they had to saddle him with two bad names.
This week’s winner is MaKoy. Either this girl’s parents are dyslexic Star Trek fans or just plain stupid. I vote the latter.
One from the National Center for Science Education this week, explaining how the amazingly complex human eye evolved.
