John Russell

Mars Rover Clears Mind From 125 Million Miles Away

NASA will soon wipe and reformat the flash memory of their Mars rover, Opportunity, from 125 million miles away. NASA tweeted: Sometimes you have to clear your mind. Team plans to reformat Oppy’s flash memory http://t.co/iavjxxjt97 pic.twitter.com/FntEOBJ4Si — Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers) August 29, 2014 Similar to a reformat and update of your cellphone’s operating […]

10y ago

science

Lava Erupts At Iceland’s Indecisive Volcano

To erupt, or not to erupt? That is the question for Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano, who has shown signs of indecision. The volcano’s heightened seismic activity began on August 16. Iceland’s Met Office reported lava flows Friday evening, when magma broke through a rift in the volcano’s older lava flow, creating a new fissure around 0.6 […]

10y ago

Knee Defender: The American Way?

The Knee Defender is a little slice of America–like a stone-wall General Patton with a scoundrel-ed Bernie Madoff bent. Or maybe the other way around? The Knee Defender is that crafty plastic armament you wedge into someone’s airplane seat to keep them from reclining onto your knees. After all, the best defense is a good […]

10y ago

Russian Rocket Launched Into Wrong Orbit

A Russian rocket launched on Friday, August 22, is about 8,900 miles (5,200 kilometers) away from its target orbit above the Earth. The Russian-built Soyuz STB-B rocket was aiming for a 14,600 miles (23,500 kilometers) orbit above the earth, but according to U.S. Airforce data, only made it to 8,500 miles (13,700 kilometers). Oops. Speaking […]

10y ago

Cindy Crawford Models Motherhood, Pulls Kids From Toxic School, Should Tackle Asbestos & Lead Paint

Cindy Crawford isn’t just one of the hottest women of all time; she’s a model mother too. Crawford just pulled her kids out of California’s Malibu High School because dangerous PCB levels were, again, found in the window caulk. Malibu’s mama drama with Crawford started in 2013 when the Environmental Protection Agency was called in […]

10y ago

astronomy|nasa

Black Holes: Kings Of The Universe

Black holes have been the celebrity of astronomy since Einstein and friends first thought of their existence in the early 1900s. A century later, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has reported that it captured an “extreme and rare event” in the neighborhood of a super-massive black hole. Michael Parker, who headed the group of […]

10y ago

Student Loan Debt: The $1.2 Trillion Industry

Student loan debt held by U.S. students represents $1.2 trillion. The average student borrower will graduate $26,600 in the red. But this is only for an undergraduate degree, which doesn’t make you particularly competitive in the job marketplace. Post-graduate or professional degrees are much more crippling. Medical school student loan debt, for instance, totals an […]

10y ago

Monkey Selfie Provokes Lawsuit, Widens Neuroscience Inquiry

Selfies trend across species. The famous monkey selfie shown above was taken by a crested black macaque (Macaca nigra) in Indonesia. The modish monkey happened upon the unattended camera of David Slater, a nature photographer. It was instinctual. While our monkey friend has likely forgotten his selfie (isn’t this the nature of selfies?), Slater has […]

10y ago