There are plenty of specialized public high schools in New York City and in September of 2012 that roster of educational institutions will grow by one more when the Academy for Software Engineering opens its doors. The school will greet its first class of incoming freshman at the beginning of the next school year and become the first NYC public school dedicated to pumping out programers. Beyond filling our desperate need for … Read More → "NYC opening its first public high school dedicated to software engineering"

This short, unsourced video contains 100 percent of your daily allowance of nostalgic paper-tape, punchcard and patch-panel techno-nostalgia. via Boing Boing

… Read More → "Classic old computers and machines"

This is exciting. If everything goes well, we may get the first-ever photo of a black hole really soon. A big number of astronomers are getting ready to achieve this feat using a global network of telescopes:

Given the rapid pace of technical progress in the field of (sub)mm Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the prospects for observing and imaging a black hole event horizon with Schwarzschild radius resolution are … Read More → "Astronomers getting ready to take the first-ever photo of a black hole"

During his nearly two-decade career, British photographer Nick Veasey has been using his own superpowers to peer inside everything from insects to MP3 players to jumbo jets–and create stunning images of their innards.

And like any accomplished superhero (or artist), Veasey makes it look easy.

To view one of his X-ray photos is to think the trick was simply in … Read More → "X-ray artist’s amazing images reveal hidden beauty"

Also, if you’re interested, Thomas Dolby will be one of the keynote speakers at ESC/Design West in Santa Clara, CA at the end of March: http://www.ubmdesign.com/conference/keynotes/

The tour will feature music from his current album, A Map of the Floating City, and begins in Austin, Texas at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 16, 2012 and continues on through North American cities until April 2012. One great thing about this tour is that Dolby is bringing along a “Time Capsule” road trailer where he’ll give folks an opportunity to “make their own fully produced … Read More → "Thomas Dolby kicking off his 2012 Time Capsule Tour at SXSW"

The Russian Phobos-Grunt space probe has really had a rough run of things. The craft was originally intended to land on the Martian moon Phobos and return a soil sample by 2014. Instead, Phobos-Grunt has been stuck in orbit since it was launched in early November. Today, the probe made an uncontrolled re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean just before 1:00 P.M. E.S.T..

After reaching orbit atop a Zenit rocket on November 8, Phobos-Grunt was supposed to fire its engines sending it on a course to Mars. However, the Russian space … Read More → "Doomed Russian Mars probe “Phobos-Grunt” crashes into Earth"

The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques has taken this hot picture of the Russian Mars 13-ton probe Phobos-Grunt as it falls to planet Earth. It may hit tomorrow, but we still don’t know where.

According to the latest tracking data and calculations, re-entry is expected from tomorrow to Tuesday. Phobos-Grunt is now orbiting Earth 16 times a day. Scientists don’t know where the impact … Read More → "Image of 13-ton Russian spacecraft as it falls to Earth – impact as early as tomorrow"

via Geekosystem

This is an amazing life-saving technology, with an interesting psychological back story.

I fly one of these airplanes. Cirrus was the first (and I believe is still the only) manufacturer who equips all of their aircraft with a whole-airfame parachute system like this. Since these are single-engine aircraft, engine failure is a concern – even though these engines are highly reliable.

Single-engine pilots are normally trained to glide to a safe landing site in the event of engine failure. However, there is often not a suitable landing site within gliding distance. Flying at night, over mountains, … Read More → "This is an amazing life-saving t"