If Curiosity meets a cat on Mars

...will it be obliged to kill it?
This and other deep philosophical problems may be answered over the coming months following the successful landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) aka Curiosity.

 I have dithered for weeks about posting on this because of the hugely ambitious landing procedure. I didn't know how to describe the complexity and all hopes could have been dashed by the failure of one tiny component, but this amalgam of spacecraft, Transformer and Rube Goldberg machine worked flawlessly and delivered a mobile chemistry lab to the surface of Mars. A tribute to the expertise of the team who designed and built it.*

This image is from one of the hazard cameras down near the rover's wheels. They have fisheye lenses and I think the transparent dust caps are still on for protection during landing. Martian pixies should soon remove these for a clearer view. The scene shows a wheel resting on a flat terrain (marsain?) which stretches to the horizon, with the rim of Gale crater rising like mountains on the right.

 Now begins the slow process of bringing all the systems online, testing and calibrating and then Curiosity can do it's job. Inquiry and curiosity are part of the human spirit; this Curiosity may satisfy some of those dreams

EDIT: the dust caps are off in this image. People seem to be surprised at the amount of dust which got through to the lens despite the cap. It's not a problem though, dust will come and go with the wind and was expected.

*If you haven't seen the landing simulation video by now . . . er, which planet have you been on for the last few years? Grow into these trousers... >>

Dust That Sings

Following on from my post by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, YouTuber philhellenes gives his take on the subject.

Ramp up the quality, make it full screen and enjoy...

Dust That Sings [12:37]
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A thought for a Sunday

Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War - 6th century BCE Grow into these trousers... >>

The Most Astounding Fact

I realise that I've not been active round here for a while. Sorry to the world and thanks to NobblySan for the nudge.

What is the most astounding fact about the Universe? A deep question which has tied up philosophers, theologians and scientists for millennia. The astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked this in an interview for TIME Magazine in 2008 (I think).

I would have said 'the direction of the arrow of time'. But thinking of the reverse: atoms and molecules converging through the soil to produce a corpse which is then animated as you, to exist for an undefined period gradually getting younger until doctors or midwives push you inside another person who then has inverse copulation...

Well it's no more strange then what we do by living 'forwards'. You'd be used to it because that's how it was. How would you tell the difference? I prefer it our way though.

DeGrasse Tyson chooses a different fact:

The Most Astounding Fact (Neil deGrasse Tyson)


We are stardust indeed.

Woodstock ~ Joni Mitchell
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A thought for a Sunday - only moments late

"It may not be said that there is no god.
It may be said that there is no reason to think that there is one."

Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949 – 2011)

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Merry Christmas To All

Have a great weekend!

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This is how I want to remember Hitch

Christopher Hitchens has died and the world has lost one of the greatesat speakers in the debates for rationality and human rights. May the spirit of his words endure...

This, I think, is Hitch at his best Debating free speech laws at the University of Toronto in 2006. The motion is: 'Be It Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate.'



"Stay cool" Grow into these trousers... >>

A thought for a Sunday

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A bit of music

Sometimes it just hits the right spot!

Steeleye Span - Drink Down The Moon (1974)
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Oh! So this is why we have 'small clothes'

Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads Underwear

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