Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Things I Learned on Wednesday

1) Scientists discover 24 new species, including this pretty little amphibian:


2) Season 4 will be Battlestar Galactica’s last, but at least it sounds like the producers decided to go out with a bang. I’m glad I don’t have to wait quite as long for a new episode (2hr “Razor” in November 2007).

3) The Planetary Society has some pictures up of entrants into the Lunar Regolith Challenge to design an automated digging machine that could work on the Moon or Mars. The pictures include everything from the super simple to the weirdly complex. It sounds like the technology’s there; a couple of the current entrants made progress but did not meet the criteria necessary to win the challenge. I am really glad NASA seems to be doing more challenges and the like.

There are several other open challenges. From the NASA Centennial Challenges website, the following are all underway:


4) This day in history: D-Day. I'm a little ashamed to admit I almost forgot about this. Interesting information & background here. The comments include some excellent stuff as well such as musings on the leftovers from WWII still present on the British coast and that fact the allies made ginormous floating ports to supply the troops after the invasion.

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