Random Moon Trip

Great! Now all I gotta do is get $150 million...



(from Yahoo)
Next Giant Leap for Space Tourism: A Trip Around the Moon
Space tourism has already reached low-Earth orbit, and now the industry is shooting for the moon. After helping to send seven private citizens on eight trips to the International Space Station -- starting with Dennis Tito, who became the world's first space tourist on April 28, 2001 -- the Virginia-based company Space Adventures is mapping out a tourist trip around the moon. Despite a nine-figure ticket price, the firm has already signed up a passenger for a maiden moon journey. And if it inks a second customer soon, the mission could launch within three to five years, company officials say. READ MORE

Spotted @ Drudge

Random Battle: Los Angeles

Not quite District 9, but it's close...



(from Wiki)
Battle: Los Angeles is an upcoming 2011 science fiction film directed by Jonathan Liebesman, and starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Pena, Ne-Yo, and Bridget Moynahan. The film's premise is inspired by the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles incident (sometimes called the "Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942") in which a presumed enemy attack, later deemed a "false alarm," led to an hour-long anti-aircraft artillery bombardment over the city of Los Angeles. The film is set in modern day Los Angeles and follows a platoon of Marines and Airmen during a global alien invasion. READ MORE

Random Moon Viewing

Space nerd strikes again...



I'm a little too pumped to stay up till 1:45am tonight to watch the eclipse.

(from MontrealGazette)
Solstice-eclipse overlap first in 456 years
This year's winter solstice — an event that will occur next Tuesday — will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn't been seen in 456 years. The celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun. "It's a ritual of transformation from darkness into light," says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto's Wiccan Church of Canada. "It's the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation. "The idea that the sun and the moon are almost at their darkest at this point in time really only further goes to hammer that home." Cooper said Wiccans also see great significance in the unique coupling of the masculine energy of the sun and the feminine energy of the moon — transformative energies that she plans to incorporate into the church's winter-solstice rituals. READ MORE

Spotted @ Drudge

Random Moon Punch

This video is very old, but very good...



Why would you mess with a guy who walked on the moon!

(Wiki)
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. On July 20, 1969, he was the second human being to set foot on the Moon, following mission commander Neil Armstrong. On September 9, 2002, filmmaker Bart Sibrel, a proponent of the Apollo moon landing hoax theory, confronted Aldrin and his stepdaughter outside a Beverly Hills, California hotel. Sibrel said "You're the one who said you walked on the moon, when you didn't" and called Aldrin "a coward, and a liar, and a thief."Aldrin punched Sibrel in the face. Beverly Hills police and the city's prosecutor declined to file charges after witnesses confirmed that Sibrel had initiated physical contact. Sibrel suffered no serious injuries. READ MORE

Random Water Moon

I feel like every 3 months NASA finds more water on the moon...



but never a monster!

(from ABCNews)
Water on the Moon: a Billion Gallons
Water on the moon? Scientists used to think it was as dry as, well, lunar dust. But after a year of analysis NASA today announced that its LCROSS lunar-impact probe mission found up to a billion gallons of water ice in the floor of a permanently-shadowed crater near the moon's south pole. That's enough, said researchers, to fill 1,500 Olympic-size swimming pools, all from one crater. If there is ice there, it probably exists in other places on the moon as well. They also found silver, mercury, carbon monoxide and ammonia. LCROSS was an empty rocket stage that was deliberately crashed into the moon last year, while a small satellite trailing it took chemical measurements of what it kicked up. Its target, a crater called Cabeus, was chosen because it is so deep that sunlight never reaches the bottom -- and any ice there, mixed in the soil, would never have a chance to vaporize. The ice might have remained frozen there for billions of years. READ MORE

Random Virgin Galactic

Space travel has officially been privatized...



(from Yahoo)
Private spaceship makes 1st solo glide flight
Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight Sunday, marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers. SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the mothership. The entire test flight lasted about 25 minutes. "It flew beautifully," said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides. The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo is undergoing rigorous testing before it can carry tourists to space. In the latest test, SpaceShipTwo did not fire its rocket engine to climb to space. READ MORE

Random UN Space Ambassador

"Welcome To Earth"...



Is there more to this job?

(from Telegraph)
UN 'to appoint space ambassador to greet alien visitors'
A space ambassador could be appointed by the United Nations to act as the first point of contact for aliens trying to communicate with Earth.
Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist, is set to be tasked with co-ordinating humanity’s response if and when extraterrestrials make contact. Aliens who landed on earth and asked: “Take me to your leader” would be directed to Mrs Othman. She will set out the details of her proposed new role at a Royal Society conference in Buckinghamshire next week. The 58-year-old is expected to tell delegates that the proposal has been prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other starts, which is thought to make the discovery of extraterrestrial life more probable than ever before. Mrs Othman is currently head of the UN’s little known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa). READ MORE

Random Moon Speech

I've always been fascinated with space travel and the Moon...



Thankfully, so was he!... I recently watched an amazing movie called "For All Mankind" which is a collection of stories from the 24 men who have traveled to and walked on the Moon, check it out!

(from nasa.gov)
John F. Kennedy Moon Speech - Rice Stadium (ironically delivered on my birthday)
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. FULL SPEECH

and then we went to the Moon... How awesome is that?! Google Moon

Random Lego Wars

You've seen the long review guy, now here is the quick recap kid...



Well done kid, well done

(from Wiki)
Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two sequels, released at three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy's final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released, again released at three-year intervals, with the final film released on May 19, 2005. As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totalled approximately $5.51 billion, making it the third-highest-grossing film series, behind only the James Bond and Harry Potter films. READ MORE

Random Improv Everywhere

Most impressive...



(from Wiki)
Improv Everywhere is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes." The group carries out pranks, which they call "missions" in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of "chaos and joy." Some of the group's missions use hundreds of performers and are similar to flash mobs, while other missions utilize only a handful of performers. Improv Everywhere has stated that they do not identify their work with the term flash mob, in part because their site was created two years prior to the flash mob trend. Improv Everywhere has been profiled by many national and international media outlets including The New York Times, The Today Show, and ABC's Nightline. Todd was interviewed on an episode of This American Life in 2005. While touching briefly on two missions ("No Pants" and "The Moebius"), the show focused on "Best Gig Ever" and "Ted's Birthday", and how they created unintended reactions. Improv Everywhere was also featured in the pilot episode for This American Life's television show on Showtime. In 2007, Improv Everywhere shot a television pilot for NBC. READ MORE

Spotted @ Newzjunky

Random Super 8

J.J. Abrams makes a hell of a movie trailer...



and after directing Star Trek and MI3, we know he makes good Summer blockbusters too.

(from Wiki)
Super 8 is an upcoming 2011 science fiction film written and directed by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, Abrams, and Bryan Burk. Abrams has refused to reveal the plot of the film as he wants to keep it a mystery and let the images speak for themselves. What has been confirmed is that it will take place in 1979 and it will be a homage/tribute to Spielberg's '70s and '80s science fiction films with a mystery and supernatural feel from Abrams. READ MORE

Random Mars Colony

The man walked on the Moon. If he says we can do it, we can do it...



(from VanityFair)
Buzz Aldrin Is Not All That Impressed With Walking on the Moon

(Q)President Obama gave a speech at the Kennedy Space Center in April, promising to increase NASA’s funding by six billion and send astronauts to Mars in the next two decades. Do you believe him?
(A)I do. But what he’s describing is a very leisurely way. He’s talked about getting a bunch of things in the orbit of Mars by… what year did he say again?
The mid-2030s.
Well that’s all well and good. But I want to land on the damn place! And I want to minimize the expense. I want to make sure that when they land, they’ve got a support system. I’m convinced that sending people to Mars is so expensive that if you go once and bring the people back and then go again and bring the people back, we’re eventually going to run out of money. But what if we send people the first time and they don’t come back? What if they stay there?
READ MORE

Random R2D2

C-3PO would be more impressive...

(from SciFiWire)
Students at Minnesota's Carleton College turned the school's observatory into a giant R2-D2 as a prank. They'd better get an A+ for this.

A + mazing!

Random Life On Mars

I'm getting my time shares lined up now...



(from TheSun) <---Ironically

NASA: Evidence of life on Mars

NASA scientists last night unveiled compelling evidence of life on Mars.

A special mission to the Red Planet has revealed the likely presence of a form of pond scum - the building blocks of life as we know it. NASA unveiled the results of the recent Opportunity and Spirit probes sent millions of miles through the solar system to discover signs of extraterrestrial life. The results are so promising boffins have already planned a host of other missions to discover whether there is extraterrestrial life in the universe. The recent missions have gathered evidence of sulphates on Mars, a strong indication there is water on the planet and therefore life. Previous missions to Mars have concluded there is probably water on the planet. READ MORE

Spotted @ DrudgeReport

Random Hubble

The world is an amazing place...

Almost as amazing as the space around it.

(from StarTribune)
Review: "Hubble 3D" shows the dazzle in deep space
How cool is the image quality for the new Imax spectacular, "Hubble 3D"? So vivid that you'd swear you could reach out and rub your fingers over the space telescope's rivets. So immersive that the star fields of Andromeda seem to enfold you. So hypnotic that in the deep-space sequences, the air you breathe feels a little thinner and colder. The dazzling documentary, narrated by terrestrial star Leonardo DiCaprio, concerns three service missions to extend the lifespan of the 20-year-old satellite. A zero-gravity repair job doesn't sound like a thrilling cinematic spectacle, but this 43-minute film is utterly gripping. When the shuttles blast off, giant thunderheads of vapor erupt from the water-cooled launch pads, and the bass notes pummel your rib cage. The astronauts do some lame look-Ma-I'm-floating monkeyshines for the camera, but their space walks are sheer high-wire suspense. The circuit boards they're handling look pretty mundane until you learn that their razor-sharp edges could slice open the gloves, leading to depressurization and death. READ MORE

Random Space Chair

Everything is better in space...



especially HD cameras.

(from Wiki)
Toshiba Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company's main business is in infrastructure, consumer products, electronic devices and components. READ MORE

Thanks to J. McGlinchy for the link!

Random Hockey Opening

Some times people take their love of college hockey teams to the EXTREME...



(from Wiki)
The Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college ice hockey program that represents the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Nanooks are a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). They play at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska. READ MORE

Thanks to C. Puls for the link!

Random Space Clown

I think we've officially given up...



Instead of continuing to search for a cure for cancer or AIDS, we put a clown in space... well, kind of.

(from Yahoo)
Cirque du Soleil founder reaches for the stars
Cirque du Soleil's founder, who will soon rocket into space, went from pauper to circus mogul by turning a troupe of ragtag street performers in 1984 into a global entertainment empire. At 0714 GMT Wednesday, Canadian Guy Laliberte will celebrate his recent 50th birthday by becoming the seventh space tourist to rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan to the International Space Station for a 12-day "poetic, social mission." Near the end of his 35-million-dollar trip, on October 9, he will direct a "planetary artistic event" in 14 cities on five continents. The social dimension will be represented by his One Drop foundation, which works to improve access to water resources and to raise awareness of water-related issues. READ MORE

I guess Cirque du Soleil is awesome enough that this guy deserves to go. BUT THATS IT!

Stop fooling around and cure cancer!