Twitch911

DepthX, a mushroom-shaped machine, an underwater hydrobot that ‘thinks’ for itself, is being developed to search for life on one of Jupiter’s moons. DepthX is currently undergoing tests in one of the world’s deepest flooded cave systems -the El Zacaton cave complex in Mexico- to simulate penetrating the ice-covered sea that surrounds Jupiter’s moons Europa. The next version of the machine will be tested in Lake Vostok, a deep ice-covered lake in the Antarctic.

Scientists believe Europa’s ocean, which is warmed by gravitational forces, could be one of the best places in the Solar System to look for life. A craft sent to Europa would use nuclear power to melt through the 10km of ice that cover the moon’s ocean.

The mission, not likely to take place until 2019, will be one of the most complex ever attempted by the American space agency NASA.

el-oh-el!

I need an expert linguistic to help me decipher just what flavor of nut crunching dorritos these are in the picture.

My favorite candy bar of the week, or FCOW.  Although it has no nutritional value - Butterfingers are good because they’re low in sodium and very low in cholesterol.

From Telegraph.co.uk - Keiichi Iwasaki bikes over 46,000 km through 37 countries.

For only $99.99 you can own this stylish and VERY functional pair of Digital Performance Eyewear!

So, I’m on Newegg at work looking for a USB to Serial adapter when I noticed the category for Digital Performance Eyewear.  Hoping that it was a really cool toy like the Sony Eye or XBOX’s Natal, I clicked with intrigue.

I can’t believe that these things exist.  The marketing on them is insane.  Lot’s of bullets of bullshit features that you can only get with a pair of Digital Performance Eyewear.

fRACTYL lens geometry … The wrapped lenses also reduce air flow around the eye, creating a microclimate with increased moisture levels.

Plus, they protect against all of the really cool new terms they invented - like:

Digital Eye Fatigue (DEF)

and

full-blown Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)

mills:

My friend S. just alerted me to the Kickstarter-funded album Kind of Bloop, billed as “An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.” More on the genesis of the album, which features the classic tracks rendered in NES-style bleeps and bloops, can be found at Waxy.org.

Another interesting take on this album is Eddie Jefferson’s vocalese arrangement of “So What.” The first time I heard it I thought I was hallucinating. Jefferson would compose lyrics to set with instrumental melodies, and so sang verses with Davis’ trumpet solos. It’s quite amusing.

Above is the 8-bit take on the album’s iconic cover. (Update: Kind of Blue is fifty-years old today; it was the second jazz album my dad shared with me).

8-bit art and music is cool.  I’m glad it still has a place in the world of HDMI and MegaPixels.