Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
University of Delaware doctoral recipients headed for fulfilling work
Friday, May 25, 2012
Marooned in Lunar Orbit (1968)
May 25, 2012 12:28 AM
by David S. F. Portree
Marooned in Lunar Orbit (1968)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
AUVAC: Strengthening the AUV Community
Sunday, May 20, 2012
NGDC Geomagnetic Calculators | ngdc.noaa.gov
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Southern California Woman talks about pants on fire | abc7news.com
Thought this was a case of liar liar but guess not.
Careful what you pick up off the beach.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Soul of America – We Are All Amateurs
May 15, 2012 7:30 PM
by Nick Normal
The Soul of America – We Are All Amateurs
No matter where you are in America – the United States of America – you're within shouting distance of an amateur. Maybe it's a garage tinkerer, a homebrew geneticist, DIY archaeologist, or "self-taught sky-buffs" fabricating home telescopes that rival the technical ability of major institutions. These characters and their creations are explored in This American Life contributing editor Jack Hitt's newly published book, Bunch of Amateurs, which hits stands today.
America's self-invented tinkerers are back at it in their metaphorical garages—fiddling with everything from solar-powered cars to space elevators. In Bunch of Amateurs, Jack Hitt visits a number of different garages and has written a fascinating book that looks at America's current batch of amateurs and their pursuits. From a tattooed young woman in the Bay Area trying to splice a fish's glow-in-the-dark gene into common yogurt (all done in her kitchen using salad spinners) to a space fanatic on the brink of developing the next generation of telescopes from his mobile home, Hitt not only tells the stories of people in the grip of a passion but argues that America's history is bound up in a cycle of amateur surges.
In celebration of the amateur spirit, we're giving away a bunch of prizes (including an Orion 90mm refractor telescope) starting today and in the coming weeks – more information after the jump.
For our first prize we're giving away an Orion AstroView 90mm refractor telescope. Also included is an adjustable tripod and multiple eyepieces for various star-gazing applications. Celestial objects in the night sky will appear bright as day with this awesome entry-level telescope. You can find more information on this device on the manufacturer's website.
To enter to win: all you have to do is leave a comment below! Comments before 11:59PM PST will be considered to win this prize. Be sure to leave a valid email so we can contact you if you win. Feel free to tell a story about your own amateur pursuits, although this is not necessary – just leave a comment! For complete rules please click here.
We'll be offering two more prizes, on Tuesday May 29th & Tuesday June 12th, accompanied by interviews with the author Jack Hitt – be sure to check back then for another chance to win!
These prizes are provided by The Crown Publishing Group, publishers of Bunch of Amateurs.
Dr. Art Trembanis
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Capacitive Touch on Everyday Objects
May 9, 2012 6:30 AM
by Adam Flaherty
Capacitive Touch on Everyday Objects
Wouldn't it be cool if everyday objects were as easy to control as a smartphone or tablet? Disney Research in Pittsburg have created a more sensitive version of capacitive touch technology, called Touché, that allows for multi-point gestures on a variety of surfaces and environments. This technology has the potential to create new human computer interactions. If this were available today, how would you use it? [via New Scientist]
Dr. Art Trembanis
Spreadsheet Mapper 3: More placemarks, advanced customization, and more
May 11, 2012 2:45 PM
by Lat Long Blog
Spreadsheet Mapper 3: More placemarks, advanced customization, and more
Do you have a spreadsheet of locations that you'd like to see on a map? Here on the Google Earth Outreach team we talk to many nonprofits who use Google Earth and Maps to tell their stories and visualize their data. Often the data is in spreadsheets, or other tabular formats. Converting these rows and columns into a map brings the spreadsheet to life by providing geographic context and a new way to visualize the information.
Spreadsheet Mapper is a tool that enables anyone to easily create a well-designed KML file to show off their data in Google Earth and Maps. Since Spreadsheet Mapper is a Google Docs template, you fill in your data using the familiar interface of a spreadsheet, and create a great KML without any coding. It gives you all the cloud-based benefits of Google Docs, including collaborative editing and the ability to publish directly to the web.
When we released Spreadsheet Mapper 2 a few years ago, it had a number of limitations, especially with regard to the number of placemarks it could create and the available balloon templates. In response to user feedback, and taking advantage of new features in Google spreadsheets and Google Apps Scripts, we have upgraded Spreadsheet Mapper with a variety of new and improved features:
- More placemarks: Support for 1,000 placemarks and ability to add more as needed
- Flexible balloon design: Take advantage of even more balloon design templates and simplified starter templates
- Simplified publication: Just click "Publish to the web" to share your map (no more fussing with URLs)
- New customization options: Advanced users can change the default view and network link details
We hope these new tools make mapping from spreadsheet data easier than ever!
Posted by Christiaan Adams, Developer Advocate with the Google Earth Outreach team
Dr. Art Trembanis
Thursday, May 10, 2012
UTEC adds 2nd AUV
UTEC Acquires Second AUV to Increase Global Productivity
HOUSTON—April 23, 2012— UTEC has completed factory acceptance tests and has taken delivery of an additional Teledyne Gavia AUV (#27) to expand their AUV fleet. UTEC's fleet of 1000m-rated AUV systems are licensed for use in 67 countries from UTEC's Houston base.
"UTEC is committed to investing in the best equipment and the most recent technology to offer our international customers the highest level of service. We continue to work closely with Teledyne Gavia and others to develop new modules and enhance the capabilities of these class leading AUVs," said Ken Adams, UTEC's chief technology officer.
Recently, UTEC formally extended its agreement with the University of Delaware, which provides access to the university's Gavia AUV 'DORA.' The parties intend to build upon the established relationship, now in its third year, to continue to share knowledge and benefit from increased asset availability.
"At the University of Delaware we are excited to continue our collaborations with UTEC and continue to field cutting edge technology in the hands of the best trained personnel," said University of Delaware's associate professor Art Trembanis, director of the Coastal Sediments, Hyrdrodynamics, and Engineering Lab (CSHEL.)
The AUVs incorporate many key features including: a nosecone-mounted digital stills camera and Imagenex obstacle avoidance sonar, the Inertial Navigation System-T-24 IMU by Kearfott DVL, which is aided by 1200kHz Doppler Velocity Log from Teledyne RDI. Additionally both of UTEC's AUVs have a Side Scan Sonar – dual-frequency (900-1800kHZ) by Marine Sonics Technology Ltd., and a Multi-beam Echo Sounder – Geoswath Plus by GeoAcoustics.
UTEC Survey is one of the world's largest independent offshore survey companies providing a wide range of survey services including dimensional control, laser scanning and modeling, offshore positioning, construction support, geophysical and geotechnical surveys. UTEC has offices located around the world including: Houston, Aberdeen, Rio de Janeiro, Calgary, Perth, Singapore, St. John's, Naples and Dubai.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Crowdsourcing game helps diagnose infectious diseases
May 4, 2012 1:45 PM
by Lucas Mearian
Crowdsourcing game helps diagnose infectious diseases
Researchers have created an online game designed to crowdsource the process of distinguishing malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones.Dr. Art Trembanis
View historical shoreline surveys going back to 1841
May 7, 2012 8:04 AM
by Google Earth Blog
View historical shoreline surveys going back to 1841
The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has been mentioned on Google Earth Blog quite a few times. They make excellent use of Google Earth as a way to visualize the vast amounts of data that they process.
They've recently released a collection of nearly 8,000 shoreline surveys that have been collected over the past 171 years. Using Google Earth, you can preview and overlay any of the surveys in a very intuitive manner. Thanks to the way that Google Earth handles image overlays, wrapping the imagery over the terrain, the results can be pretty interesting:
To view the data in Google Earth, you can load this KMZ file
, which will show the outlines of all available areas. Use the timeslider at the top to choose a range of years, then click on the outline of an area for details. The "Preview" option for each item will load the data directly into Google Earth, filling the space that was outlined.
For more, you can visit the NOAA Historical Shoreline Survey Viewer site.
Dr. Art Trembanis