{"id":12694,"date":"2008-03-14T13:32:27","date_gmt":"2008-03-14T13:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnackdev\/2008\/03\/giant-lasers-diy-galaxies-and-more.html"},"modified":"2008-03-14T13:32:27","modified_gmt":"2008-03-14T13:32:27","slug":"giant_lasers_diy_galaxies_and_more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/14\/giant_lasers_diy_galaxies_and_more\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant lasers, DIY galaxies, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of today being <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pi_day\">Pi Day<\/a> (mmm, <em>Pi<\/em>&#8230;), it seems appropriate to share a wad of science-y bits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hey baby, &#8220;Ever wonder what\u2019s happening under Orion\u2019s belt?&#8221;  It&#8217;s among <a href=\"http:\/\/www.5ives.com\/archives\/2008\/03\/13\/five-terrible-fake-astronomical-pickup-lines\/\">Five terrible fake astronomical pickup lines<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Flour power: Artist Barry Stone <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbap-houston.com\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=45&amp;Itemid=1\">creates galaxies from spilled flour<\/a>. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kottke.org\">Via<\/a>] <\/li>\n<li>At age 19 I talked my way into an internship at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.janes-defence-weekly.com\">Jane&#8217;s Defence Weekly<\/a>.&#160; Among other things, I found myself visiting the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.archives.gov\">National Archives<\/a>, sifting through then-recently declassified spy photos from the Cuban Missile Crisis.&#160; Seeing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com\/2300-11397_3-6232038.html?tag=nl.e434\">the first US spy satellite photos<\/a> makes me feel those cheesecloth gloves all over again.&#160; I&#8217;m always amazed that the film was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com\/2300-11397_3-6232038-8.html?tag=ne.gall.pg\">snagged in mid-air<\/a>.&#160; Related: these pix of the recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com\/2300-11397_3-6231433.html?part=dht&amp;tag=nl.e433\">spy satellite shoot-down<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space,&#8221; say researchers at the University of Michigan, &#8220;and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of [the HERCULES laser].&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ns.umich.edu\/htdocs\/releases\/story.php?id=6346\">Here&#8217;s the story<\/a>.&#160; [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2008\/02\/16\/university-of-michigan-creates-most-intense-laser-in-the-univers\/\">Via<\/a>] <\/li>\n<li>Speaking of giant magnifying glasses in space, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/hirise.lpl.arizona.edu\/earthmoon.php\">the Earth &amp; Moon as seen from Mars<\/a>&#8211;at a distance of 142 million kilometers. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kottke.org\/remainder\/08\/03\/15175.html\">Via<\/a>] <\/li>\n<li>Core77 features an X-ray of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.core77.com\/blog\/object_culture\/unexpected_uses_for_tennis_and_golf_balls_8561.asp\">python that&#8217;s eaten some golf balls<\/a> (for a rather interesting reason).<\/li>\n<li>BibliOdyssey features some <a href=\"http:\/\/bibliodyssey.blogspot.com\/2008\/03\/montgolfier-report.html\">great renderings of 19th-century airships<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>Can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com\/Images-Digital-art-from-vile-viruses\/2300-7349_3-6234001.html?part=dht&amp;tag=nl.e703\">computer viruses be seen as art<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>True Dimensions features an amazing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.truedimensions.com\/lego\/customs\/2001\/index.htm\">Lego model of the <em>Discovery <\/em>from <em>2001<\/em><\/a>. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.daringfireball.net\">Via<\/a>] \n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of today being Pi Day (mmm, Pi&#8230;), it seems appropriate to share a wad of science-y bits: Hey baby, &#8220;Ever wonder what\u2019s happening under Orion\u2019s belt?&#8221; It&#8217;s among Five terrible fake astronomical pickup lines. Flour power: Artist Barry Stone creates galaxies from spilled flour. [Via] At age 19 I talked my way into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}