Before the advent of radar, the British used giant parabolic microphones to literally listen for enemy aircraft.

Sound mirrors - Denge - Sound Radar

Awesome Slow Motion Lightning Bolt

Golden Ray photos of amazing mass migration - Telegraph

Each time the space shuttle rises from its launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., an Air Force officer waits anxiously for the first 2 minutes to pass safely. If the spaceship were to veer off course and endanger a populated area, this range safety officer would bear the terrible responsibility of flipping a pair of switches under a stenciled panel reading “Flight Termination.” The first switch arms explosives on the shuttle’s two solid rocket boosters. Flipping the second switch would detonate them, destroying the shuttle and crew.

“If something happens when it’s just off the pad, there’s only a couple of seconds [to react],” says Bryan O’Connor, a former shuttle commander and NASA’s chief of safety and mission assurance.

Space Shuttle Destruct Switch - NASA Prepared to Blow Up Discovery - Popular Mechanics

Five unbelievably cool research facilities

Slashdot is currently carrying an article about light pollution, which is nothing new. But on a whim I did some digging on wikipedia and came up with this map of light pollution to see where the nearest dark sky is to me (it's in the ocean).

What really amazed me, however, is that light pollution in the US kind of drops off right in the midwest. It's light the people who make streetlights started in New York and got bored to tears halfway through the nothingness that makes up much of Kansas and Oklahoma.

I guess the starkness of that line just catches me by surprise. You'd think there was some huge chain of mountains or maybe a giant "trench of light" that you'd fall into - but no, there's really no physical difference between eastern Kansas and Western Kansas. They're both just wheat!

Any ideas?

Light Pollution Ends Abruptly

Transplant patient Jennifer Sutton paid a visit to an exhibition in London called The Heart today, mainly to check out a particular item on display - her own heart.


..

"Seeing my heart for the first time is an emotional and surreal experience. It caused me so much pain and turmoil when it was inside me. Seeing it sitting here is extremely bizarre and very strange. Finally I can see this odd looking lump of muscle that has given me so much upset. It's tremendous it has become an object of fascination and will get people thinking about the disease, heart transplants and organ donation."

Woman visits her own heart

Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard, has passed away at age 90.

RIP Mr. Wizard