Bill and Ty's Excellent Adventure
My nephew does it yet again
Ryan Mercer's thoughts, mostly random musings, spanning form 2001 to present. Freemason, geek, nutter, Whovian, 8-bit Atari enthusiast, SciFi fan.
My nephew does it yet again
Computer simulation shows Solar System once had an extra planet

Hrmm, Nibiru ring a bell anyone?
A new study published on arXiv.org shows that, based on computer simulations, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may not have been the only gas giants in our solar system. According to David Nesvorny from Colorado’s Southwest Research Institute, our current solar system could never have happened without the existence of a fifth planet.
Read more about it HERE
Globular clusters on a plane

Ok, so does anyone else feel like a galaxy comes along, cannibalizes another, then takes a big fat dump and leaves it along a plane before moving on to the next?
Globular clusters are generally some of the oldest structures in our galaxy. Many of the most famous ones formed around the same time as our galaxy, some 13 billion years ago. However, some are distinctly younger. While many classification schemes are used, one breaks globular clusters into three groups: an old halo group which includes the oldest of the clusters, those in the disk and bulge of the galaxy which tend to have higher metallicity, and a younger population of halo clusters. The latter of these provides a bit of a problem since the galaxy should have settled into a disk by the time they formed, depriving them of the necessary materials to form in the first place. But a new study suggests a solution that’s not of this galaxy.
Read more about it HERE
An X1.4 Solar Flare and a CME

Nothing really to say here, X class falres just interest me.
A large coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the West (right) side of the sun at 6:24 PM ET on September 21, 2011. The CME is moving away from Earth at about 900 miles per second.
Read more about it HERE
Exploring an asteroid with the Desert RATS

Other than in movies, like Armageddon, I don't think we need a vehicle for landing on and exploring asteroids yet, we aren't quite ready for mining the asteroid belt.
Earlier this month, European scientists linked up with astronauts roaming over the surface of an asteroid. Desert RATS, NASA’s realistic simulation of a future mission, this year included a European dimension for the first time.
Read more about it HERE
NASA completes Orion spacecraft parachute testing in Arizona
Parachutes, seriously? We know that there is a secret space program not in the public view that has had anti gravity capabilities for ages now.
NASA this week completed the first in a series of flight-like parachute tests for the agency's Orion spacecraft. The drop tests at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona support the design and development of the Orion parachute assembly.
Read more about it HERE
My nephew does it again
Chuck Lorre #350
The boy who farted laughing gas, eschewed pretentious poses. He thought those who called him vulgar, had boogers in their noses. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
I say maybe Waldo Geraldo Faldo... or maybe just the guy that brought down Charlie Sheen.
3 alarm fire, 4 departments responded. Eagle Lake Landing Apartments at 2002 High Eagle Trail in Speedway, Indiana.




Today in Geek History: Oceanic flight #815 crashes in 2004. Smokemonster bakes a casserole to welcome the newcomers.
Six coronal mass ejections in 24 hours

If these head our way, expect some 'fun' interference on communications.
The sun let loose with at least six coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- solar phenomena that can send solar particles into space and affect electronic systems in satellites -- from 7 PM ET on September 18, 2011 until 1 PM on September 19.
Read more about it HERE
Young clays on Mars could have been habitable regions for life

Let's just hurry up and get a manned mission to Barsoom so we can see evidence of life, instead of finding evidence to suggest it may be possible for life to be there.
Two small depressions on Mars found to be rich in minerals that formed by water could have been places for life relatively recently in the planet’s history, according to a new paper in the journal Geology.
See more about it HERE
From the comfort of home, Web users may have found new planets

All I have to say, is... AWESOME!
Since the online citizen science project Planet Hunters launched last December, 40,000 web users from around the world have been helping professional astronomers analyze the light from 150,000 stars in the hopes of discovering Earth-like planets orbiting around them.
See more about it HERE
WISE mission captures black hole's wildly flaring jet

Even black holes experience flatulence. True story.
Astronomers using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have captured rare data of a flaring black hole, revealing new details about these powerful objects and their blazing jets.
See more about it HERE
Saturn's moon Enceladus spreads its influence

Old Faithful... IN SPACE!
Chalk up one more feat for Saturn's intriguing moon Enceladus. The small, dynamic moon spews out dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice -- first seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005. It possesses simple organic particles and may house liquid water beneath its surface. Its geyser-like jets create a gigantic halo of ice, dust and gas around Enceladus that helps feed Saturn's E ring. Now, thanks again to those icy jets, Enceladus is the only moon in our solar system known to influence substantially the chemical composition of its parent planet.
See more about it HERE
The secret lives of solar flares

People were about crazy leaders nuking humans to death... I worry about solar flares hurling us into the middle ages, because it's a very very likely possibility.
One hundred and fifty two years ago, a man in England named Richard Carrington discovered solar flares.
See more about it HERE
The mission to find the missing lunar module

Aliens took it, for a museum, duh.
Where is the Apollo 10 Lunar lander module? It’s somewhere out there — orbiting the Sun — and there’s a new initiative to try and find it!
See more about it HERE
I'm going to just copy paste the entire eBay auction, so that when it ends and is envetually archived there is still the evidence of it here. Perhaps he is immortal, or perhaps he was part of Project Pegasus like Andrew D. Basiago
(The Thanatos Archive watermark is not on the original image)Original c.1870 carte de visite showing a man who looks exactly likeNicolas Cage. Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of
walking undead / vampire, et cetera, who quickens / reinvents
himself once every 75 years or so. 150 years from now, he might
be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host.This is not a trick photo of any kind and has not been manipulated
in Photoshop or any other graphics program. It's an original photo
of a man who lived in Bristol, TN sometime around the Civil War.
For the many of you insisting that this is a Photoshop manipulation:
Any serious potential buyer will be allowed to have a photo expert
of their choice examine the original photograph before any money
changes hands.
I've had a lot of questions asking where I purchased this. As followers
of my website know, I collect antique memorial photography -images of dead people - from the 1800s. This photo was found in
the very back of album that contained an unusual number of
Civil War era death portraits (which is why I purchased it). All of
the other people in the album, living and dead, were identifiedby name - this man was not.
Photographer is Professor G.B. Smith. A contact of mine forwarded
this interesting article (link) about the photographer, Smith. Turns
out he was a confederate Civil War prisoner of war photographer.
Guaranteed to be an original 1860s-70s photograph and not
a modern reproduction, copy or photo manipulation.4" x 2.5".
Condition
Unevenly trimmed on all sides.* Items shipped to U.S. addresses are shipped within 1-2 business days.
* Items shipped to all international addresses are shipped within 1-4 business days.* All photos are shipped in photo mailer with cardboard and "Do Not Bend" on outside. Never had a damaged item!
* An option to add insurance will be available - please review your invoice carefully!
See the eBay auction of the photo HERE