Johnald's Fantastical Daily Link Splurge

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• Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon
• Why 'Willy' Could Never Be Free
• Creation Museum: Is This How World Began? - ABC News
• Scientists Track Down Source of Earth's Hum
• Fast-spinning black holes might reveal all
• Slavoj Zizek - What does it mean to be a revolutionary today
• Interstellar Space Travel
• Earthships and the Garbage Warrior
• Ben Goldacre explains the problem with homeopathy
• The Prisoner: ComicCon trailer

Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon Posted: 09 Aug 2009 06:06 AM PDT What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon. Iapetus also has an unusual equatorial ridge that makes it appear like a walnut. To help better understand this seemingly painted moon, NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers in 2007. Pictured above, from about 75,000 kilometers out, Cassini's trajectory allowed unprecedented imaging of the hemisphere of Iapetus that is always trailing. A huge impact crater seen in the south spans a tremendous 450 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters and highlands alike. Close inspection indicates that the dark coating typically faces the moon's equator and is less than a meter thick. A leading hypothesis is that the dark material is mostly dirt leftover when relatively warm but dirty ice sublimates. An initial coating of dark material may have been effectively painted on by the accretion of meteor-liberated debris from other moons. This and other images from Cassini's Iapetus flyby are being studied for even greater clues.

Why 'Willy' Could Never Be Free Posted: 09 Aug 2009 05:50 AM PDT Keiko, of course, had starred in three "Free Willy" movies, which sparked a public campaign to free him after nineteen years in captivity.But things didn't quite turn out as planned.

Creation Museum: Is This How World Began? - ABC News Posted: 09 Aug 2009 05:00 AM PDT The Creation Museum near Hebron, Kentucky, in the words of its organizers,

Scientists Track Down Source of Earth's Hum Posted: 09 Aug 2009 04:51 AM PDT You can't hear it, but the Earth is constantly humming. And some parts of the world sing louder than others. After discovering the mysterious low-frequency buzz in 1998, scientists figured out that the Earth's hum is caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the seafloor.

Fast-spinning black holes might reveal all Posted: 09 Aug 2009 12:30 AM PDT Space and time come to an abrupt end in its presence and the laws of physics break down. Now it seems a "naked" black hole may yet emerge in our universe, after spinning away its event horizon.

Slavoj Zizek - What does it mean to be a revolutionary today Posted: 08 Aug 2009 10:06 PM PDT (10 votes - 1 comment - 335 views) Slavoj Žižek responds to Alex Callinicos at Marxism 2009 on 'What does it mean to be a revolutionary today'.

Interstellar Space Travel Posted: 08 Aug 2009 05:45 PM PDT (12 votes - 1 comment - 245 views) Clip from a National Geographic program about the prospects of interstellar space travel.

Earthships and the Garbage Warrior Posted: 08 Aug 2009 05:12 PM PDT (12 votes - 4 comments - 317 views) Some details on how an Earthship works. Earthships are completely sustainable housing designed and built by Michael Reynolds in the desert. They require no heating, cooling, town water or electricity. They supply their own water and food and are built out of garbage - how Reynolds got the name 'Garbage Warrior'. This doco shows how they work in some more detail. The man is a genius.

Ben Goldacre explains the problem with homeopathy Posted: 08 Aug 2009 04:06 PM PDT (17 votes - 0 comments - 242 views) Guardian columnist and best-selling author Ben Goldacre gives his views on the science and ethics an alternative medicine called homeopathy, and looks into the fascinating puzzle of the placebo effect.

The Prisoner: ComicCon trailer Posted: 08 Aug 2009 03:16 PM PDT (14 votes - 1 comment - 266 views) Newly released ComicCon trailer for this fall's re-boot of the classic Science Fiction series- The Prisoner.

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