Paul Thomas Anderson’s mysterious, Scientology-related new film has a trailer. Take a quick guess: Do you think it looks fucking awesome? SPOILER THE ANSWER IS YES Via AICN.
Astronomy
Posted inAstronomy
Today in You Are Tiny and Insignificant: Special Valentine’s Edition!
This is pretty incredible. Here’s a to-scale model of EVERYTHING, from the tiniest particle that exists up to the size of the known universe. You can scroll backward and forward and see it all; there’s the scaled size of a human, of a house, of Rhode Island, of Earth, of the Sun, of everything and […]
Posted inAstronomy
Make Your Own Planetarium at Home with Lost Lander
Here’s a video tutorial on how to turn Lost Lander‘s fine new album DRRT into a homemade planetarium. YouTuber (and very chipper person) Abby Williamson demonstrates exactly how to fold the CD package into a triangular shaped box that, with the aid of a flashlight or phone, can throw celestial patterns onto your darkened walls […]
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From Now On, the Days Get Brighter
Just a reminder that today is the solstice, which means the daylight now grows day by day as our collective despair shrinks. I woke up in time to see the sunrise from Mount Tabor and want to confirm that there were, actually, a few minutes of sunlight in Portland today before the fog immediately rolled […]
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Astronomy News Is Not Important Today; RIP Heavy D
Apparently, an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth right now, and everyone here in the Mercury office is like, “Hey, Astronomy Guy, you’ve got to post something about this because you usually write about astronomyyyy! We’re all gonna die! Asteroid! Meteor! Astronomy! Waaaaaaaa!” I’m sorry. I can’t. I’m too sad. I just heard […]
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Somebody Get Me a Quantum Locker
I don’t even know what it is, even though io9 tried to explain it to me. And I don’t care, actually. Somebody just get me one.
Posted inPortland
Plumbing the Cracks of the Unknown
No, I don’t know why Riann Wilson is wearing Asimov muttonchops and playing some dude named “Xanthony O’Harbinger” and acting all mysterious and shit. All I know is it has something to do with the St. Johns Bridge. And maybe something to do with why “Rainn” is such a goofy name. “Rainn” is a stripper […]
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Well, That’s Comforting
image from NASA The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) We’re fucked. A decommissioned NASA satellite is plummeting towards the Earth’s surface as we speak, but it seems that it’s not entering the atmosphere exactly when the rocket scientists thought it would. From the Washington Post: Thursday night, the space agency said that the 35-foot-long satellite […]
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Watch the Moon with Your Fancypants On
Keith Moon (not present at this weekend’s event) Looking at the moon from the comfort of your own home not good enough for you? You’re in luck, moony: The Portland Japanese Garden is hosting moon-viewing parties this Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, timed perfectly with 2011’s harvest moon on September 12. (The harvest moon is the […]
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Planet Bling
Swineburn University of Technology in Melbourne In a week where astronomy news includes the discovery of a new type of rock on the surface of Mars and reported plans for a Domino’s on the moon, it’s possible that the most important story has fallen by the wayside: As Reuters reports, a new planet has been […]
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This Is What the End of the World Will Look Like
This is an animated video that NASA has produced, after recently observing a black hole by the name of Swift J1644+57 devour a giant star in the Draco constellation—the first time such an event has actually been witnessed as it occurs. In other words, when a black hole swallows our galaxy hole (it will happen, […]
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Aliens Will Kill Us, Study Says
A study at Penn State in conjunction with NASA has just been released, outlining the different scenarios that could occur should Earth ever be visited by an alien species. The study, titled “Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis” includes the following theory: Humanity may just now be entering the period […]