Was IST das?

In order to keep the International Space Station up in the sky, the station needs fuel and other supplies.  Instead of sending expensive space shuttles up to refuel the station, physicist John Hunter is proposing using a 1.1 km long gun that could launch a 450 kg payload at 6 km per second.  A small rocket engine would propel the payload into a low orbit around the Earth.  Of course, no human beings could take this ride up to the International Space Station because of the sheer amount of g force.  Projectiles would only be in the Earth's atmosphere for 100 seconds.  The gun would cost $500 million to build.

Shooting rocket fuel from Earth to the International Space Station using a gun is a pretty ridiculous idea.  I have trouble imagining a 1.1 km long gun.  However, because I learned about this article from Slashdot, I also learned that Hunter was not the first one to think about using a gun.  In his book From the Earth to the Moon, author Jules Verne wrote about using a gun to propel the crew of the Columbiad to the Moon.  If only NASA tried Verne's idea for bombarding the moon instead of its LCROSS mission!  Or maybe NASA should have used Megatron instead:

Students from MIT through the use of a computer program are able to predict if a person is gay or straight solely based on the gender and sexuality of a person's friends on Facebook.  The underlying principle is that similar people like to be around each other, so therefore, gay individuals will have a higher proportion of friends than those individuals who are straight.  The students have named their research under the code name of Project Gaydar.

What I find to be more surprising than the predictive power the study is that fact we as Internet users do not have as much control as we think we do.  This kind of data mining is remarkable as it is scary.  Project Gaydar is just another friendly reminder to be careful of what kind of information you are putting on the Internet while realizing that there is only so much you can do unless you stay offline.    

Using a helium filled weather balloon, a camera, a Styrofoam cooler, hand warmers, and GPS enabled cell phone, two students from MIT were able to take pictures from space for less than $150.  While this fact alone is pretty cool, the pictures are even better.  A sample picture of what the two students took can be found below:

Although clearly some technical knowledge is required, I think it is pretty cool that theoretically a person with $150 could take a picture from space.  Low cost experiments such as these would definitely motivate students to pursue careers in science.  Why look at pictures of space in a textbook when you can take a picture for yourself?  I wish they had an event like this at Science Olympiad.

Rocky Mountain Adventures has developed a creative way to make sure that the photographs of white water rafters make it back to the store for the rafters to purchase their memories after their trip.  The company uses homing pigeons to transport the memory sticks from the photographer to the store.  The owner of the company has stated that their pigeon method works 91 percent of the time.  According to the article, pigeons have an amazing ability to fly their way back home that is currently unexplained by science.

To me, while this method of transporting digital photographs is pretty cool, I was surprised to see that there was no mention of the possibility of using the Internet anywhere in the article.  However, I guess when you can use pigeons, why consider anything else?

With only a few rumors as to when the next Batman major motion picture will start production, one would figure that this summer would be pretty light on Batman news.  However, from Bruce Wayne "dying" and Dick Grayson taking the mantle of the Bat, this summer has been hardly as expected.  In fact, the biggest Batman news of the summer is the upcoming release of the new video game Batman Arkham Asylum.  The publicity behind this new video game has been picking up steam as of late and has one reviewer from IGN calling it the best comic book video game of all time.



Batman Arkham Asylum starts out with the Dark Knight returning the Joker back to his holding cell in Arkham Asylum.  However, this fairly common routine is what the Joker was hoping for.  Once inside the asylum, the Joker quickly takes control and has Batman trapped.  The only way to stop the Joker's plan for ultimate doom and destruction is to battle the Rogue's Gallery in what shapes up as one of the Caped Crusader's darkest nights.  The voice talent of Batman and the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series reprise their roles in the game.

After watching all of the trailers, reading the reviews, and playing the free PC demo of the game, I have to say that I am cautiously optimistic.  Personally, Lego Batman: The Video Game was the best Batman video game that I have played.  However, the Lego Batman portrayal of Batman mirrored the camp of the 1960s TV series.  Batman Arkham Asylum mirrors the gritty, serious, and driven Batman.  In any case, for my honors thesis, I am excited for this game to come out because of its information technology elements such as Oracle, the use of a Detective mode, and the appearance of the Batcomputer.  Unfortunately for me, I am going to have to wait until Christmas to play this game.  At least I can watch more amusing trailers in the meantime:

After a nice long summer break, I am back ready for the fall semester of my junior year.  My summer was pretty eventful with the completion of my second internship at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. in its Global IT department, my fourth year as a lifeguard at Lake-In-Wood, my third time as a games leader at Vacation Bible School, the continuation of my research for my eventual honors thesis, and my third SHO TIME.  As a declared Information Sciences and Technology major in the Design and Development option, I am excited to start taking classes more focused on my interests.  At the same time though, I am excited to take classes outside of my comfort zone like Tai Chi and American Sign Language.  This semester promises to be an exciting one for sure!  

The spring semester is finally over, and now, I have some time to relax until my internship starts up.  During my relaxation time, I have started to research my honors thesis topic of exploring the relationship between the world of Batman and technology.  In order to chronicle my research, I have created a blog through using Blogger called Batman 101H.  Each post is devoted to a potential source that I might use for my eventual thesis.  By using a blog, my honors adviser can check in on my progress and can more easily address any potential problems.  You can check out it by clicking here.  

On this day in May of 1939, Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.  Over the last seventy years, Batman has become a cultural icon who has appeared in all kinds of media.  Batman has gone through many iterations over the years, but one aspect of the Caped Crusader never changes.  Batman is who he is through his hard work and dedication to his goals.  He is just a man, but he makes a significant impact on the lives of others.  It is this drive and determination that makes me a fan of the Dark Knight.