News and links for late August 2012

Herewith another link collection and general update. This one’s a little out of schedule (given that I aim to post these things near the 7th and 21st of each month), but sometimes it’s a battle to keep my queue of to-read links from growing a lot faster than I can read them….

I heard about the death of Neil Armstrong from my alarm clock radio. It’s unusual that my alarm clock radio tells me something I care about; normally I look upon radio as merely an inoffensive noise to get me out of bed. But this was an exception.

It seems appropriate this month to put my space-related links first, and let everything else follow.

• I take claims of plate tectonics on Mars with a grain of salt. It’s quite an extraordinary claim, given that people have looked for plate tectonics on Mars before and concluded that there isn’t any. Still, worth watching.
• Narrated video of Curiosity’s landing, comparing images from both simulation and camera.
• Another Mars mission has been announced, which will focus on studying the interior of Mars as opposed to its surface, and should settle that plate tectonics question. This is cool and all, but so soon after Curiosity I would preferred to give some other planetary body a turn.
• Panorama from Opportunity (you know, the other Mars rover). Detail loads gradually.
• The various connections between Snoopy and Apollo-era NASA.
• And away from moon/mars: an interview with Mike Brown and David Jewitt, ten years after the discovery of the kuiper belt.

Other links:

• “Fight for the Murray” — a site dedicated to the cause of Australia’s largest river. I haven’t had time for a thorough browse, but this is important.
• Lynne Murphy’s TEDx talk on American vs British politeness is worth a look. Companion blog post here.
• Long New York Times article on gender-crossing in children.
• I don’t normally do world politics, but I expect the Pussy Riot closing statements will prove iconic for a long time to come.
• Foot-powered washing machine. (I linked to a pedal-powered washing machine back in 2009).
• Printing with the highest possible resolution: 100,000 dots per inch.
• Entertaining video on how viruses work.
• History of doll houses and toy butcher shops. Read it for the pictures.
• This chocolate-cake-for-campfires recipe might be worth trying out sometime.
• Mark Rosenfelder’s Advanced Language Construction is out, and I will definitely buy a copy. Eventually.
• On the consciousness of people who have just had their heads chopped off.
• I must confess I always thought about 2/3 of these myths were true.
• Nice video tribute to fandom — gotta love the juxtapositions.
• Turning a sphere inside-out.
• A bird takes a thoughtful approach to fishing.

I caught up with parents last weekend, and (among other things) went for a walk in Belair National Park. Here’s a koala from below (or possibly a drop bear) and a 3D photo of what would be a waterfall at a different time of year.