Doodle 288 - Planet 51

I couldn’t think of anything to doodle today so I thought I would quickly sketch up the astronaut from Planet 51, which we went to see this weekend.  It was a really good movie, the boys enjoyed it, and it was riddled with homages to geeky flicks from my youth.

Vote for Twitternaut @Astro_Mike Massimino’s first tweet from space for “Tweet of the Year” in Mashable’s Open Web Awards Social Media Edition.

You can vote once a day through December 13th.

First EVER Tweet from Space

Find out more about NASA’s first Massimillionaire.

Let your vote send this message: When we tweet from space, everyone listens.

Astronaut Don Pettit, inventor of the Zero-G Coffee Cup, plays with free-floating, head-sized water bubbles on the International Space Station. Make sure you stick around for the third experiment, where Pettit sticks an antacid tablet into one of the bubbles.

Astronaut Don Pettit, inventor of the Zero-G Coffee Cup, plays with free-floating, head-sized water bubbles on the International Space Station. Make sure you stick around for the third experiment, where Pettit sticks an antacid tablet into one of the bubbles.

Lem ist ein ganz normaler Teenager – zumindest auf seinem Planeten, der den USA der 50er Jahre ähnlt. Sein bester Kumpel Skiff arbeitet in einem Comicladen, seine Angebetete Neera will von ihm erobert werden und er selbst arbeitet im örtlichen Observatorium und wird für seine guten Leistungen mit einer Beförderung belohnt. Aber sein Leben ändert sich als im Nachbarsgarten der Astronaut Chuck Baker landet und den Planeten mit der amerikanischen Flagge „erobern“ will.

Die Rezension zum Film “Planet 51″ findet ihr direkt hier oder aber natürlich in der Filmkritik-Rubrik.

I can’t seem to find where I got that picture from, but I love it.

>_<

Hi,

Two new articles from me in the STV contest have gone up. I need you to read them and post comments on them (on the STV site) to help me…

One article is on our attitudes to space travel, sparked by me reading about the death of a cosmonaut from the 1960s, and the wife of a current astronaut giving birth while he was in space:

Astronauts article

The other article is about a Canadian singer called Justin Bieber tweeting about a personal appearance, which led to a crush. Because “his people” initially refused police demands to tweet telling the crowd to disperse, an executive at Def Jam records was arrested:

Power of Twitter article

Teddy x

Invite your family & friends to a party thats out of this world!!!
Be sure to check out the matching items!
http://www.and-everything-nice.biz/shop/birthday/children/theme/astronaut/cat_595.html

There is only one thing that would have stopped Sally Ride from joining us for our 2009 Hall Of Fame Gala – a call from the White House asking her to come to Washington DC. Sadly (for us) – that is what happened. But before she left town, Dr. Ride was kind enough to send us the following video message:

The biographical information below was compiled by Alan Renga, Assistant Archivist, for the 2009 International Hall of Fame Gala. For more information on the Museum’s Library and Archives, click here.

Sally Ride Hall of Fame Portrait

She is the first American Woman in space.  She is a world renowned physicist. She is dedicated to interesting young women in science, technology, engineering, and math. She is Sally Ride.

Born in 1951 in Los Angeles, California, Sally graduated High School in Westlake, where she was a Nationally Ranked Tennis player. She attended Swarthmore College and then transferred to Stanford University where she eventually received a doctorate degree in Physics in 1978.

While a doctorate candidate, Ride was one over 8000 people to answer an advertisement seeking applicants for the space program and was accepted! After joining NASA, Ride underwent an extensive training period that included parachute jumping, water survival, gravity and weightlessness training, radio communications and navigation. For the second and third Space Shuttle flights, Sally served as the ground-based Capsule Communicator between On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7.

During the mission, the STS-7 crew deployed satellites for Canada and Indonesia and conducted the first formation flying of the orbiter with a free-flying satellite, along with many other important tasks. The mission lasted over 6 days before landing on a lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 24, 1983.

Dr. Ride took to space for a second time in 1984 on STS 41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 5, 1984. After the tragic Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Dr. Ride served as a member of the Presidential Commission investigating the accident. She later served on the accident investigation board for the space shuttle Columbia tragedy, the only person to serve on both boards. Upon completion of the Challenger investigation she was assigned to NASA Headquarters as Special Assistant to the Administrator for long range and strategic planning.

In 1989, Dr. Ride joined the faculty at UCSD as a Professor of Physics and Director of the University of California’s California Space Institute. Because of her passion for motivating girls and young women to pursue careers in science, math and technology in 2001 Sally, founded her own company, Sally Ride Science, which creates entertaining and informative science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school children. In addition, she has written numerous science books for children.

Dr. Ride has been a member of many prestigious organizations including the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board, and has served on the Boards of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the NCAA Foundation.

Dr. Ride has received numerous honors and awards. She has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall and has twice been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal.

For her incredible courage for being the first American Woman in space and her desire to instill in young women a love for the sciences, the San Diego Air & Space Museum takes great pleasure in inducting Doctor Sally Ride into its International Aerospace Hall of Fame.

Some time during a six-hour space walk last week, astronaut Robert Satcher managed to capture this shot of himself…via himself. Today, the STS-129 will be completing their third and final space walk. [NASA]

Hangtianyuan

Astronaut

Cosmonaut

According to Wikipedia, the word “astronaut” has a special translation in China: hangtianyuan (航天员). In Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is often called “taikonaut” (太空人). The later was invented perhaps by Chiew Lee Yih or Chen Lan. In fact, Chen Lan indicated in his blog that it was his invention. But who invented the word “hangtianyuan”? It was unknown for a long time.

On Oct 31, China’s father of space program Qian Xuesen (钱学森) died at the age of 98 sparked a huge amount of articles in memory of him. I myself wrote one too: “Father of Chinese Space Program Qian Xuesen Died“. One of the articles gives the answer: It was Qian Xuesen. According to the story told by the first Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei (杨利伟), Qian Xuesen favored the word “hangtianyuan” which translates “sailing personnel in space” literally. His reason was: In China, we used to distinguish the space (天), the sea (海), the sky (空). He believed that the word “hangtianyuan” made more sense.

Aviation Week has an obituary on Qian’s death. It says “According to the physicist Theodore von Karman, Qian was ‘an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion.’ But the U.S. government suspected him of communism and arrested him in 1950 — though the suspicion seems unfounded in light of his subsequent attempt to stay in the United States rather than go home and help China.” Finally in 1955, Qian was deported, “happy to go home and happily received by China. There he became the central figure in the creation and administration of a scientific and industrial complex which, with Soviet help in its early stages, grew from virtually nothing in 1956 to launching a satellite in 1970.”

NASA_Astronauts

RT @depptla: A bit blurry, but one of the cupcakes I made for @Astro_Nicole’s bday, as promised! (@NASA_Astronauts) http://pic.gd/9e1692

Which just proves 2 things, 1. That creatives and astronauts get along quite well, and 2. Astronauts love twitter (well I can’t really say that this proves it, but following both NASA and NASA_Astronauts on twitter will certainly prove it)

Speaking of astronauts, I was thinking of making a shuttle-styled wine bottle bag to gift some family members much more aeronautically inclined than myself. What do you think?

and…

poppytalk

a new zine that I’ve just fallen for called, “At Your Leisure”. created by @happymundane – see sneak peek here – http://tinyurl.com/ykfg8sk

It looks very nice. Definitely the type of thing I would want to pick up when looking for inspiration.

Some people are fascinated with outer space.

I am too- in the same way some people are fascinated with mass murderers.  Intriguing, but it will freak you out if you think about it too much.

Racist people are scared of black men.  I am scared of black holes.

I wanna go home.

There is far too much space in space.  Plant a tree, or paint a feature wall.

I don’t understand why space needs to be so big.  Is it really necessary to be infinite?  Why not just be a bazillion cubic miles and be done with it?  Surely the global real estate market isn’t growing that fast?

Infinity?  Is that even possible?

Space was not named well.  When I think of ’space’, I think of- “maybe I could fit an extra pair of socks into my suitcase”; or “yes you can stay, there is enough space for you to sleep on a mattress in the lounge”.

Some people want to travel into space.

I don’t.

I can’t think of anything more terrifying than floating around an infinite universe.  I get lost easily enough in my own house.  Though, hanging out next to old fatty magoo, a.k.a Jupiter, I would look really skinny.

I need boundaries, physical or metaphorical.  If not for boundaries, I would have a pet lion and start an underground fight club (‘Lionel’ would be my star fighter.  I’d draw some human abs on his stomach, then no one would click he’s not actually human, but a giant cat).

In space, there are no lights.  Except stars.  But they emit more than light.  Like flames and poisonous gas. There are also meteor showers and asteroids.  I will not feel unfulfilled if I never see one in my life.  Space is dangerous, dammit!

NASA thinks space is awesome  (It wants to marry space.  It wants to have babies with space, and name them after astronomers).  It loves space so much, that it spends bazillions of dollars on this long distance love affair, while real humans can’t afford to buy cancer treatment, or Botox.

I bet astronauts are like those really annoying ‘ubertravellers’ who always needlessly drop exotic places they have been into conversation.
“You would never believe it, I was sitting in an amazing cafe on Saturn, when I got an eyelash stuck to my face! On Saturn!”
-or-
“So, I was floating past Venus, when Gary choked on a sundried tomato, while floating past venus!  It was hilarious, while floating past venus!”

No wonder they haven’t made friends with any aliens.  Astronauts are socially retarded.  They have vaccuum packed faces and use nappies.

I am all for expanding my horizons, but I am more comfortable if I can actually see one.

Space may have some cool bits, but it’s mainly just space.

Pentru toate vanatoarele de preturi mici: REDUCERI inainte de sarbatori! Sariti cu comenzile pana pe 25 decembrie, cand vine MOSU’!!!

Mai jos: LUCRUSOARE EXTRA NOI!

Cercei “Semiluna” (culori: mov si albastru-verzui, ~ 4 cm lungime) – 17 lei     13 lei

Cercei “Hibridul de zapada” (~ 4, 5 cm lungime, lucrati manual, reprezantand doi pinguini-oameni ai zapezilor, echipati de iarna) – 20 lei

Bratara “Albastru 100%” – 24 lei     20 lei (REZERVATA)

Cercei “Albastru 100%” – 17 lei     12 lei (REZERVATI)

Bratara “Figurine cuprate” – 24 lei     20 lei  (UNA a fost DATA, A MAI RAMAS doar UNA)

Bratara “Flower power” – 24 lei     18 lei

Bratara “Verde invechit” – 25 lei     20 lei

Cercei “Triunghi tripolar” – 17 lei     13 lei

Cercei “Ursuletul astronaut”/”Ursuletul teleportat”- 15 lei    12 lei

Cercei ” My blue heart” – 16 lei     12 lei

Cercei “Puppy” – 17 lei     14 lei (REZERVATI)

Bratara “Inima mea nu ti-o dau” – 24 lei     19 lei

Bratara “Pretty in green” – 22 lei     18 lei

Cercei “Bomboana de aur” – 18 lei  (optishpe)   14 lei

Colier “Foita aurie” – 28 lei  (doua’sh’opt)   22 lei

Colier “Frunzulita” – 32 lei     26 lei

Cercei “Frunzulita” – 16 lei     12 lei

Bratarile “Alien”  -   24 lei    19 lei

Cerceii “Alien” – 16 lei     13 lei

Bratara “Millefiori galben” – 22 lei     18 lei

Cerceii “Millefiori galben” – 13 lei     10 lei

Bratara “Pretty in mauve” – 25 lei     20 lei

Brosa “Bluesome” – 22 lei     18 lei

Bratara “Golden Swirl” – 25 lei     21 lei

Bratara “Cadre negre” – 23 lei     18 lei (REZERVATA)

Bratara “Vartej albastru” – 25 lei     20 lei

Bratara “Black blue dots” – 24 lei     19 lei

Cercei “Vrajitorul” – 16 lei     12 lei

Bratara “Classy Murano” – 25 lei     23 lei (VANDUTA)

Cercei “Ochiul lui Allah” – 16 lei     12 lei

Cercei “Old School” – 15 lei     12 lei

Cercei “Rochita turquoise” – 17 lei     13 lei

Cercei “Rochita mov” – 17 lei     13 lei

Bratara pentru copii “Life is colourful” – 18 lei  (optishpe)   13 lei

Bratara pentru copii “Floral marin” – 18 lei  (optishpe)   13 lei

Bratara pentru copii “Florile copilariei” – 18 lei  (optishpe)   14 lei

Cercei pentru copii “Floricica rosie” – 10 lei     6 lei

How much more do we wish we had gone to space camp?

Let me start by saying that I fully support this cause. Actually, I don’t even think it makes sense to support or not this cause as its stupid to discriminate between men and women for almost anything.

The moon race took place in the ‘60 and thanks to many and many people things have changed significantly since then. I want to believe that such an absurd act of discrimination would not take place today, even though I’m sure that the percentages would still favor men… but time and persistency will make things right.

Before anyone complains, I say almost anything because there are things like medical studies, statistics, or even sex where it’s necessary to discriminate or differentiate!

What am I talking about? Right, I forgot to say… here’s the link

So if I’m all for it, what am I complaining about? Am I always complaining on this blog? Should I rename it to something like “I disagree”, “This is Stupid” or something like that? I hope not… I’ll find something nice to post one of these days

Anyway, my point is… does anybody think it will make any difference whatsoever in any decision maker? Wait… I just read her blog (the one I posted a link to) and it has nothing to do with the 2 news pieces I just read about this…

Hmm… interesting… this happens a few too often. I started this post because I read on a newspaper (in Spanish) that she was revindicating that women were not part of the moon programs back in the ‘60 and she wanted to “pressure” so that they took part in NASA’s new plans of sending people back to the moon. Now I read on her blog that it’s just a story about a woman who, like all women that were never part of the moon race, stayed on earth and she bases her stories around this character.

We could argue again that maybe some people have too much spare, wasted or useless time on their hands or be a little more honest and admit we’re just amazed that someone can make a living by doing that (I wouldn’t mind making a living by “expressing” some of my crazy “artistic ideas”) but the point is that it’s a show, it’s different and I have nothing bad to say about it or against it :)

In addition to our dining expedition in Houston, Texas, a trip to the Space Center was in order. Well, mostly because the Urb wanted to. As a traveler, hitting up popular attractions once in a while doesn’t make your travel experiences any less authentic unless you let it by letting those attractions become the single story of the place.

As a photographer, finding new angles and ways of photographing those popular spots remains an ongoing challenge.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the Space Center.

With the mandatory astronaut shot now out of the way….

There’s a certain reverence this picture evokes with the image of the flag above the lit up spaceship component/capsule/gadget. It almost forces visitors to respect it without fully understanding what it is.

According to the guide, one of those longhorns owned by NASA is apparently worth $500,000. As in half a million dollars. Since NASA operates with gazillions and bazillions of dollars, owning $500,000 a piece cattle makes sense.

One of the engineers working the weekend shift with a bag of half-eaten Rold Gold pretzels by his side. This scene told me that getting out of that chair needed to be kept to a minimum while monitoring the space station.

More interesting than the space engine spare parts we were looking at was the look of admiration and pride on this woman’s face. The backstory? I overheard her telling a friend that her son had worked on one of the engine parts.

The distorted wide angle view of this shot belies the fact that the shuttle behind the man is a real life-sized replica of what you see regularly launched off at Cape Canaveral, Florida

This shot took me back to a scene from the Wizard of Oz when the curtains were drawn and the wizard looked startled in front of his contraptions and controls.

Used available  artificial light to light up this shot giving it its space-age, theatrical  feel. Flash should always be your last resort and leveraging any available light will give your photos a more natural composition.

Getting ready to bite into a $4.00 freeze-dried ice cream sandwich bar and wondering why I paid $4.00 for it in the first place.

And the super-private Urb makes a slight appearance, albeit mysteriously behind sunglasses.

]]> http://goremasternews.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/justin-theroux-and-will-arnett-speed-up-and-for-space-invaders/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:22:19 +0000 goremasterfx http://goremasternews.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/justin-theroux-and-will-arnett-speed-up-and-for-space-invaders/

Justin Theroux and Will Arnett

by Michael Sullivan  - Collider.com

Iron Man 2 and Tropic Thunder writer Justin Theroux is penning a new draft of Space Invaders–not based on the video game. The original spec by Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger is about an astronaut who goes into space to catch his girlfriend in the act of cheating on him with a fellow astronaut. Even better: Will Arnett is attached to star! 

The rom-com is being set up for Fox after the collapse of Fox Atomic, with Davis Entertainment (A Perfect Getaway, Aliens vs. Predators: Requiem) on board to produce. Theroux, an actor-turned-screenwriter, has a couple other projects on his plate including a comedy about air guitar competitions, which he may also direct according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Theroux also wrote the upcoming Danny McBride/James Franco medieval-stoner-comedy Your Highness.

Amazon Specials!

Nobody likes to talk about the fourth Apollo 11 astronaut

(Moon Landing)

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: JMonschke via Advanced Lol Builder

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