Nullary Sources

Space station to be crewed for SpaceX docking

This article on TPM’s IdeaLab blog (which is relatively new and has been doing a great job covering tech and science news) is mostly about how the ISS is doing after an August crash of an unmanned Soyuz rocket. But this caught my eye. Carl Franzen:

In any case, the decision is great news for the private spaceflight company SpaceX, which planned to make history by docking its Dragon capsule with the space station on November 30, the first such commercial spacecraft visit of its kind. Following the Aug. 24 Soyuz crash, the company had worried that its mission would be delayed, as there wouldn’t be any astronauts aboard the station to receive the craft, but according to NASA’s current launch schedule, its still a go for November 30.

I hadn’t heard about this, and didn’t realize SpaceX was this far along. Bad. Ass. I remember when the ISS was nothing more than an idea, much less something visited by commercial spacecraft.

Identify trees with your iPhone

An app that uses image recognition to tell you what type of tree you’re looking at based on the shape of its leaves? So cool. And plus:

Users of Leafsnap will not only be learning about the trees in their communities and on their hikes—they will also be contributing to science. As people use Leafsnap, the free mobile app automatically shares their images, species identifications and the tree’s location with a community of scientists. These scientists will use the information to map and monitor population growth and decline of trees nationwide.

Seems like fun. I gave it a try and while I’m no botanist, it seemed to work pretty well.

A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: living in the future

Space station to be crewed for SpaceX docking

Identify trees with your iPhone