Archive for the 'Off Topic' Category
Mystery Parachuters Dressed in Black Land in Lower Manhattan
October 1st, 2013[???] Via: NBC: Police are looking for a pair of parachuters wearing black suits and helmets who landed near the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan early Monday, Commissioner Ray Kelly said. The parachuters landed on the sidewalk at about 3 a.m. near the Goldman Sachs building on West Street, Kelly said. It’s not […]
NASA Images of Pakistan’s ‘Earthquake Island’
September 29th, 2013Via Russia Today: Amidst the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake in Pakistan that killed more than 500 people, a new island emerged from the depth of the sea. NASA has released images of the newly formed islet. NASA has released before and after photos of a new terrestrial body that was born on September […]
Island Emerges Off Coast of Pakistan After Earthquake
September 24th, 2013Via: Reuters: A major earthquake hit a remote part of western Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people and prompting a new island to rise from the sea just off the country’s southern coast. Tremors were felt as far away as the Indian capital of New Delhi, hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the east, […]
The First Mechanical Gear Found in a Living Creature
September 13th, 2013Via: Popular Mechanics: With two diminutive legs locked into a leap-ready position, the tiny jumper bends its body taut like an archer drawing a bow. At the top of its legs, a minuscule pair of gears engage—their strange, shark-fin teeth interlocking cleanly like a zipper. And then, faster than you can blink, think, or see […]
Possible Slow Updates Due to Loss of Internet Access
September 10th, 2013Telecom NZ has been having problems on their mobile network for the last couple of days. As of now, they’re blaming it on the weather. In any event, if updates slow down, you’ll know why. On a happier note, there’s good news to report in terms of Internet access for us going forward. The long […]
Moon Water Discovery Hints at Mystery Source Deep Underground
August 29th, 2013Via: Space.com: Evidence of water spotted on the moon’s surface by a sharp-eyed spacecraft likely originated from an unknown source deep in the lunar interior, scientists say. The find — made by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe — marks the first detection of such “magmatic water” from lunar orbit and confirms […]
507 Mechanical Movements: Mechanisms and Devices
August 18th, 2013There’s a website that shows animations of some of the designs: 507movements.com Book: 507 Mechanical Movements: Mechanisms and Devices by Henry T. Brown (One of the most popular books with Cryptogon readers.)
First Open Source Airplane Could Cost Just $15,000
July 30th, 2013Via: Wired: There’s an open source airplane being developed in Canada, and now its designers are looking to double down on the digital trends, turning to crowdsourced funding to finish the project. The goal of Maker Plane is to develop a small, two-seat airplane that qualifies as a light sport aircraft and is affordable, safe, […]
Off Topic: Assuming Access to Data Feeds for Dozens of Futures Contracts, Can You Think of a Way to Build a Sort of Half Ass NYSE Tick?
July 27th, 2013Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. I had a free month of market data from IQfeed, and I found NYSE Tick (JTNT.Z on IQfeed, $TICK on TradeStation) to be pretty interesting. Displayed as a histogram, I was using it gauge extremes. Additionally, summing the (h+l+c)/3 and displaying […]
Hillbilly Tracking of Low Earth Orbit Satellites
July 24th, 2013Via: Travis Goodspeed’s Blog: In this article, I’ll demonstrate a method for modifying a naval telecommunications dish to track moving targets in the sky, such as those in Low Earth Orbit. My dish happily sits in Tennessee, while I direct it using my laptop or cellphone here in Europe. It can also run unattended, tracking […]
