NASA Suggests Guidelines to Protect Moon Landmarks

Despite the National Aeronautics and Space Administration no longer doing any space stuff, they sure got territorial when private companies started making strides for space travel. The inevitable exploration of the moon’s surface is a hot topic among the private space travel initiatives, and NASA is calling “dibs” on certain areas of the moon.

NASA is suggesting some guidelines be put into place to protect these areas: “NASA recognizes that many spacefaring nations and commercial entities are on the verge of landing spacecraft on the moon.”

Russia has already made it known that they plan on building a permanent base on the surface and are exploring just how to do that. NASA just wants to protect the areas they consider to be historical landmarks.

You can read the PDF outlining these guidelines. It doesn’t seem like they are making any demands that are not logical or respectful. They are not trying to limit what other private entities are hoping to accomplish, but simply establishing etiquette for the places they already have visited.

Imagine one day, on the Moon Mall in Moon City, there could be a fenced off area with a US flag and landing module right outside the food court! Wouldn’t that shut up all the “Lunar Landing Hoax” conspiracy theorists!

Via

Google’s speedy new Chrome Computers

With the same name as what has now climbed to #1 browser, Google released its own Chrome OS a few years ago. The operating system was marketed for its speed, web/cloud integration and streamlined usability – which are still the main focuses for the new Chromebooks and the “Chromebox” they have released with Samsung.

Here’s an ad for the new Chromebook:

The Chromebox is looking pretty sleek – if a little reminiscient of the Mac Mini – and it starts at US$329 with the following specs:

  • Intel® Core™ processor
  • 4 GB RAM
  • Built-in dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
  • Gigabit ethernet
  • 6 USB 2.0 ports
  • 2x DisplayPort++ Output (compatible with HDMI, DVI, VGA)
  • DVI single link output
  • Bluetooth 3.0™ compatible
  • Kensington™ key lock compatible

And the Chromebook comes in three different models: The Acer AC700, starting at $299; the Samsung Series 5, starting at $349 and; the Samsung Series 5 550, starting at $449.

What do you guys think? Is Google ready to invade the computer hardware world and begin their complete domination? Or will this struggle to get its foot in the door like Google+ has?

[Via The Next Web]

Phoenix ComiCon 2012 Cosplay in Pictures [Gallery]

Another month, another Comic Con! The latest one took place in Phoenix, Arizona, and as usual, there was no shortage of nice pictures to find on Flickr. As always, all these pics were licensed under a CC license by the photographers, which are all listed at the bottom of this post. If you’re one of the cosplayers featured in these pics and wish us to remove your picture from the site, be sure to hit the contact section on the top of the blog. It might also help to do the same thing with the photographer who took the pic.

[Pictures by: dkwildz | Phxcc | Gage Skidmore | dak1n3]

Amazon Deal of the Day: 63% Off The Alien Anthology on Blu-Ray – $29.99 + Free Shipping

Just in time before Prometheus hits the big screen, Amazon has the Alien Anthology, featuring all four Alien movies on Blu-ray, for just $29.99 plus free shipping. That’s 63% off the anthology’s usual retail price of $79.98.

Brace yourself for a whole new breed of Blu-ray: Four powerful films…eight thrilling versions…in dazzling, terrifying, high-def clarity with the purest digital sound on the planet. Two bonus dics and over 65 hours of archival and never-before-seen content, including the totally immersive MU-TH-UR mode feature, makes this definitive Alien collection!

Alien Anthology [Blu-ray] – $79.98 $29.99 (63% Off)

Rub Some Bacon On it Yeah! [Music Video]

That’s it, I’m hooked. This is now my new very favorite song in all the universe… until a another one comes to replace it! :)

I mean, there’s no possible way someone could go wrong by having a music video featuring bacon, a dancing and singing robot, and a narwhal. Plus, I was feeling kind of bummed this morning, but after listening to this, I’m now all smiles!

Rub some bacon on it!

[RhettandLink]

Animation Voice Actors take on the Star Wars Radio Play

Recently at the Emerald City Comic Con, a wonderful little event took place. There was a reading of the Star Wars Trilogy Radio Play by some very special guests. But instead of playing it straight, these guests drew on their multifaceted voice talents to replace the characters’ voices with some popular voices from TV and animation.

The guests included voice talents most notable for animation, but they all took a hand at some impersonations from other celebrities as well. Jess Harnell’s R2D2 as voiced by Christopher Walken is just genius!!

Billy West is best known for voicing Philip J Frye (Futurama) Stimpy (Ren and Stimpy) as well as the iconic voices of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd on the feature film Space Jam.

Tara Strong was the voice of Hello Kitty when she was just 13, and has no shortage of voices she offers up to various animated series like Power Puff Girls and others.

Maurice LaMarche is another Futurama voice actor giving life to Kif, as well as Brain (Animaniacs’ Pinky and the Brain.) John DiMaggio is best known for voicing Bender on Futurama.

Kevin Conroy is the voice of Batman on many versions of the show as well as for the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City video games.

Jess Harnell warmed living rooms since 1998 being the announcer on America’s Funniest Home Videos, but also voiced Wakko Warner on Animaniacs and Ironhide in the Transformers animated film.

Rob Paulsen, who voiced Raphael in the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will also return to turtle power with Michael Bay’s upcoming take on the Ninja Turtles as Donatello. Paulsen also voiced Pinky in Pinky and the Brain.

So if you have an hour and a half to kill, this video is an awful lot of fun.

World’s Largest Telescope to Straddle Two Continents

Three countries have agreed to work together to build the largest radio telescope ever made. South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have decided to pool their resources after making separate bids to run the Square Kilometre Array project.

The name comes from the aim of producing a total collecting area of one million square meters. That’s roughly the same size as 189 NFL pitches, or half the size of Monaco.

The telescope works through combining data from thousands of antennas. Many of these will be clustered at a central location, but some will be spread out up to 3,000 kilometers away.

Because the antennas are tracking waves, they need to be sited in areas with as little interference as possible from TV broadcasting and cellphone relays. Two rival suggestions were put forward, with the central clusters to be based in either Western Australia or the Northern Cape of South Africa.

With both bid teams having begun work on building sites, they agreed to combine their resources. This will increase the complexity and cost of the project (now estimated at 1.5 billion euros (approx US$1.8billion) and may mean good quality results can be achieved more quickly.

The plan now is to base the low-frequency antennas in Australia and the mid-frequency antennas in South Africa. In the latter case, while South Africa will host the central cluster, there will be antennas extending out into seven other African nations.

The SKA will have enough power and sensitivity that it could theoretically detect television signals broadcast on other planets, though it has to be said those working on the project aren’t expecting that to happen!

Instead the main aim is to track the billion nearest galaxies to Earth, as well as imaging hydrogen to build up a three-dimensional picture of what happened between the first appearance of hydrogen and the formation of structures that became the first galaxies. There are also plans to further test Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

(Image shows artist impression, courtesy Swinburne Astronomy Productions for SKA Project Development Office)