Remember, a robotic space explorer going into safe mode is not a malfunction, it's the correct response to an anomaly.

After the early rapid expansion, inflation continues until there is either a cosmic rip or the trend reverses in a cosmic crunch. Facebook seems to be trying for the former while LJ does the latter.

Yes, you can land a rover on Mars via a Rube Goldberg.

For those wondering what I do for a living:

You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com

(No, I don't study craters. I shoot videos about people who study craters.)

The Kepler mission has a cool result today.

As a brief summary, the press release hypes that they've found five Earth-sized planet candidates and a solar system with six planets in it.

Of course, the hype is on the former ... Earth-sized planets -- if confirmed -- in the habitable zoneUnfortunately, folks, the bigger news in that is actually " ( Read more... )

Submitted without comment (mostly since if you don't get it, you need to take an Astronomy course before I can explain it to you):


( Read more... )

It's hard to see eclipses through the clouds.

Yes, that's Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) playing the Doc-- er, Physician, and Ed Wasser (Babylon 5) returning as the voice of IR-2. I'm very thankful both feel strongly enough about education to work at the rate Spitzer can afford to pay them ( Read more... )

I had less to do with this one than the credits would imply. It was one of the projects I was brainstorming when I left.

Click to view

I'm at least partially at fault for the central "dead stars" premise, and a couple of the jokes I think I recognize as mine (though Tim's and my humor is so alarmingly similar that I have a hard time differentiating). Tim ( Read more... )

I'd love to say "I had nothing to do with this," but my name in the credits would probably give away the truth.

This is a story that Tim and I outlined (and wrote some key dialogue for) probably two years ago now. We backburnered it because neither of us was confident in our own abilities to get the right music for it. Apparently, the composer/ ( Read more... )