On October 10, 2013, Cassini captured a rare view of Saturn separated from it’s rings, a view that can never be seen from Earth. The image is a three-by-four mosaic of red, green, and blue filter images take from high above the equatorial plane. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version.
An overview of the Cassini spacecraft and it’s mission is outlined on the Cassini JPL NASA website.
Apple has confirmed that October 22 is indeed the day to look forward to as it has sent out official media invitations. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and will begin at 10:00 AM Pacific Time.
As we mentioned earlier, the event is expected to be primarily about an update to the iPad line which will likely feature a 64-bit processor (A7), Touch ID sensor, and updated camera. We will also likely be hearing more about OS X Mavericks and possibly the new Mac Pro. Many are also hoping for an updated mac mini, likely to be equipped with new Haswell processors.
On Monday, October 7th, Grasshopper completed its highest leap to date, rising to 744m altitude. The view above is taken from a single camera hexacopter, getting closer to the stage than in any previous flight.
Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere reentry, SpaceX rockets are being designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. The Grasshopper VTVL vehicle represents a critical step towards this goal.” – SpaceX
The Nobel Prize in physics was given to Higgs Boson researchers Peter Higgs (84) and Francois Englert (80) “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.”
“The entire Standard Model also rests on the existence of a special kind of particle: the Higgs particle. This particle originates from an invisible field that fills up all space.”
“Even when the universe seems empty this field is there. Without it, we would not exist, because it is from contact with the field that particles acquire mass. The theory proposed by Englert and Higgs describes this process.”
Microsoft recently created a few anti-iPhone ads to help take some of the wind out of Apple’s sail after their new iPhone line introduction, the only problem, they are terrible.
The ads were not only lacking in the humor department but some would even say they are just plain tasteless. Apparently Microsoft felt the same way as they quickly decided to remove the videos from their channel. Thankfully, there are a few users who have managed to re-upload the videos so you can catch a glimpse and decide for yourself. These re-uploaded videos seem to be mysteriously disappearing one-by-one over the last few days but I was able to easily find another.
I’m all for good competition and a little smack talk now and then, but there’s definitely a right and wrong way to get the job done.