cult and paste

Lunar galavanting keeps mostly to the infield

Clicking on the picture above will give you a better perspective of just how far Neil and Buzz ventured from home base. The Eagle is on the pitcher’s mound. In the outfield Armstrong plants his camera. Buzz’s steps seem a bit more confused. (via Popsci)

July 22, 2009 Posted by cultandpaste | Art, Science, Technology | area of tranquility base, footprints on the moon, if the moon had a baseball field, moonwalk | No Comments Yet

Space Flush Fail and the Ghost of Keith Moon

iss space station toilet

This is the second time in a year that the international space station has been backed up, My hunch is one of the Discovery guests has some contraband cherry bombs, either that or Keith Moon is haunting the US waste and hygiene compartment. The last time this happened, it was a broken pump. Repair took weeks and totalled 19 million dollars. This time the problem arose when six liters of 2001 flush fluid somehow leaked into the wrong compartments. Such leakage could be ruinous for a number of important experiments on-going in the next room, however having people in orbit with a limited number of toilets sounds pretty experimental. (via BBC)

With 13 people currently squatting on the ISS, i’m sure that there’s talk of mutiny. The Russians have their own toilet, the people who came up on the Discovery have their in-flight lavatory. NASA believes that there is enough duct tape on board to get the toilet back online soon.

July 20, 2009 Posted by cultandpaste | Science, Technology | Cosmic commode, ISS schematics, Keith Moon was not here, Plumbing in space, Space toilet, Waste and Hygeine compartment shut down | No Comments Yet

Cracker Crazy: The Invisible History of the Sunshine State

mermaid capture weeki wachee

As a native of Florida, I found this documentary to be a wonderful introduction into the bizarre history of the 27th State. Using eerie organ music and stock footage from state archives, all sorts of facts and insinuations are put forward as to how and why Florida is the way it is. Who were the Seminoles and where did they go? How was Miami founded? Walt Disney had the right to do what on his land? What’s buried underneath that trailer park?

Since the majority of Florida’s terrain has been supplanted by immigrants in the last 150 years, it’s important to consider how the place has grown/adapted to withstand 18.5 million people; and to ponder where it’s going (into the Atlantic). Though I can’t vouch for every opinion in this film, I do appreciate the effort it makes to show that history is dangerously subjective. The history of the Sunshine state is also a tale of ethnic strife and misguided progress- just look at the place. Great fodder for anyone interested in a second look at one of the world’s greatest sandbars.