If you’re anything like me you’ve been glued to Ustream this week watching the final shuttle mission before NASA retires the oribter for good. Born in the late ’70s I grew up seeing the shuttle as the pinnacle of human endevour, and it’s rather sad to see it being retired without a replacement ready to launch.
I for one feel that MUCH more should be invested in space exploration. NASA’s entirely yearly budget is currently equal to what the US military spend in 23 days! Surely some of that money should be diverted to a cause slightly more positive than fighting over oil?
At least NASA do appear to be spending their meagre budget wisely though, and diverting a lot of the savings from ending the shuttle program into building a deep space probe. But in the meantime, maybe it falls on DIYers like the crazy geniuses at Copenhagen Suborbitals to push the envelope and further our reach to the stars!
Anyway, in the meantime I came across this great infographic on the shuttle and thought I’d share it… Let’s hope the orbiter’s eventual replacement is just as iconic!
Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration
Today being Geek Pride Day, I thought I’d celebrate by sharing some great geeky goodness from around the interweb!
Happy Geek Pride Day
May 25th was the premiere of Star Wars – A New Hope in 1977, and since 2006 it has been recognised as Geek Pride Day in celebration of geekiness. It also coincides with “Towel Day” in rememberance of the late great Douglas Adams (in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy a towel was the most useful object in the universe!) and Glorious 25th of May, a holiday in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
Anyway, enough of the history, here is some geeky goodness I’m sure you’ll enjoy whether you’re a true geek or not…
The Geek Test – Think you’re a bit geeky? Want to find out for sure? Take the test and see how you score. BTW I got 46.12546% which apparently ranks me as a “Super Geek” (anything above 75% ranks as “dysfunctional geek”!
Killer List Of Videogames – Now part of the wider “International Arcade Museum” is the biggest online collection of anything to do with arcade games. Beware – if names like Outrun, Galaga and R-Type mean anything to you then you could be stuck there for several hours!
Geeky decorations for the home or office – Want to geek up your pad? These 10 items will brighten up your home and show off your geeky side – I just wish my office was bigger so I could get the Space Invader wall decals – my book cases cover up too much of the walls, and I don’t think my wife would let me put them in the kitchen!
15 of the geekiest tattoos – Had to include these just because I’m a tattoo fan myself. In fact, the photo on the right shows the Space Invader tattoo on my back!
So, hope you enjoyed the links – what are YOU doing to celebrate geek pride day?
I’ve always listened to music while running or cycling. Say what you want about iPod zombie cyclists, but so long as you keep the volume level reasonable and pay attention to the road and the traffic I don’t see a problem.
For a long time I was using an iPod Nano (and before that a minidisc player!) but just recently I’ve been borrowing my wife’s iPod shuffle which I absolutely love. If you’re not familiar with the shuffle, it’s the smallest and most basic of all the iPod models (opposite end of the line to the iPod touch) which comes in 2Gb or 4Gb versions. The unit itself is not much bigger than a postage stamp, no screen or fancy features – just plug and play!
The shuffle has a built in clip, so you can clip it onto your shorts waistband, or even the peak of a cap and you hardly know it’s there!
Now, while a shuffle might be the perfect music player for running or cycling, it’s nothing without the right choice of music, so I wanted to find out what other people like to listen to on the bike or on a run. Here are some of my top picks, leave a comment or Tweet in with some of your own favourites!
Perfect running and cycling music
The Prodigy -Music for the Jilted Generation and Experience
The Killers – Hot Fuss
Blink 182 – Blink 182
Greenday - Dookie and American Idiot
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Carter USM – 30 something
OK so that’s a few of the albums I’ve been listening to while training recently – what are your favourites?
Came across a fun post at GeeksAreSexy.net this morning called The Geek Alphabet. It’s just a bit of fun, but check it out. They made up a poem of geekiness using Flickr images. I love anything that mentions books, Starwars, programming and NASA all on the page, but while some of it’s good I couldn’t help thinking that maybe they could have come up with a better idea for “Q”!
QWERTY?
Qux?
Q-bert?
QuickTime?
Any other suggestions?
