steve barrett

Frost on Mars was first detected on the Viking 2 in 1980. This year the Pheonix Lander finally confirmed that water exists on mars by chemical composition and boil point tests. This seems like a major discovery, wouldn’t it be easy to collect morning frost. If liquid is in the atmosphere it could be continually harvested. As you know water is hydrogen and oxygen. Air for breathing and Hydrogen for jet fuel. So why aren’t we on mars yet?

Licorne Nuclear Test

The Licorne Thermonuclear test was one of 4 French nuclear tests carried out around 1970. This paticular test was an air detonation. The 914 kiloton payload was suspended from a helium balloon and set off at an altitude of around 500 meters. As you can see the resulting blast was, like most nuclear blasts, quite spectacular.

Licorne Nuclear Test

What strikes me about this test was the vibrant photos of the mushroom cloud. Most often photos of nuclear tests are black and white grainy film slides that keep you detached from the vividness and reality of the true blast. As you can see from the photos this test was carried out a bright and sunny day under a baby blue sky.

This little gif is pretty impressive. It speaks volumes to the intelligence of birds. It also reminds me of a speech given by Joshua Klein at TED 2008 about the intelligence of crows. Joshua created a machine that passively teaches crows through a series of steps to use a vending machine, in theory with widespread implementation the vending machine could be a way to use crows to help pick up litter or some other task that is mutually beneficial.

Joshua talks about a trick learned by crows in Japan where they drop nuts into traffic to be crushed by cars, then wait for a red light to safely retrieve the soft and nutritious insides. His speech is most definitely worth a watch if you find this topic interesting.

These bears were caught on camera using playground toys much in the same manner that humans do. Pretty interesting seeing these mammals acting so much like us.

This just highlights the problems that might arise from urban sprawl moving into the habitats of all kinds of wildlife. Its not just rabbits that are getting caught in our back yards.

Agent Orange was a defoliating herbicide widely used during the Vietnam war. Over 20 million gallons were dropped over the jungle from aircraft. As a dioxin, it is extremely hazardous and since the war Agent Orange has been revealed to be a potent carcinogen. Its effects are still being felt by those who live in areas surrounding drop zones, even those who are now in their third generation since its use. This just goes to show how easy it is to fuck up the environment with a quick spritz of chemistry.