Month: November 2006

In this site, you will be able to follow the Lewis and Clark trail, and discover the flora and fauna as they described it along the way.

Click on a map of North America to find mammals native to a specific location.

In his thirty-eight years, Roberto Clemente became a baseball legend in the United States, but in his homeland and throughout Latin America he became a national and cultural icon.

“Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t do it, you are wasting your time on this earth.”

Crossword Puzzle

See our amazing planet from the perspective of an orbiting satellite. Developed by the Smithsonian Institution, this website complements the national traveling exhibition, which may be coming to a city near you!

Flash Earth is an experimental application that uses satellite and aerial imagery from online mapping websites without official concent.

Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird.

A woman comes back to her house just to find out that the physics in her own kitchen is all messed up.

More

A nice commercial for Johnnie Walker. More infomation about it.

The most intelligent ad ever?

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) provided reliable real-time control for the Apollo spacecraft that carried US astronauts to the moon, 1969-1972. It was designed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.) and manufactured by Raytheon Corporation.

The AGC was significant for its tight coupling of human and machine, its early use of integrated circuits, and its reliable, mission critical software. The history of the AGC project provides a window into the history of technology in America during the space race and the Cold War. This site is devoted to documenting the machines, people and institutions that made this achievement possible.

Virtual AGC is a computer model of the AGC. It does not try to mimic the superficial behavioral characteristics of the AGC, but rather to model the AGC’s inner workings. The result is a computer model of the AGC which is itself capable of executing the original Apollo software on (for example) a desktop PC. In computer terms, Virtual AGC is an emulator.

Why waste so much time on a project that may be of interest to 3 geeks somewhere?

Placing men on the moon is one of the greatest accomplishments of the United States of America. It is arguable, indeed, that it is the greatest accomplishment (of any kind) in the history of the human race. If so, perhaps it makes sense to preserve the relics of the Apollo project. (Besides, I’m one of the 3. )

Computer History Museum
PowerPoint (with pictures)
How to build one in your basement
Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience

Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience

In the first 25 years of its existence, NASA conducted five manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle. The latter four programs produced spacecraft that had on-board digital computers.