Sept. 19, 1982: Can”t You Take a Joke? :-)

Sept. 19, 1982: Can''t You Take a Joke? :-) Scott Fahlman posts an electronic message proposing :-) as a character sequence for joke markers. He''s the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon. Go to Source Giraffe Blog

This Massive Cold War Spy Satellite Was Hidden from the World Until Now The HEXAGON satellite spied on America''s Cold War foes for over a decade, taking extremely detailed (film!) photographs from space. It was 60 feet long-bigger than a bus. And the public never, ever saw it. We did. Go to Source Giraffe Blog

Diamonds Journey to the Center of the Earth Diamond inclusions indicate that Earth''s carbon cycle extends from the surface to the deep lower mantle. Go to Source Giraffe Blog

DIY Fractals: Exploring the Mandelbrot Set on a Personal Computer Editor''s note: This article originally appeared in the August 1985 issue of Scientific American under the title "Computer Recreations: A computer microscope zooms in for a look at the most complex object in mathematics." The article helped make famous the Mandelbrot set, named for mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot; it is being posted now following the October 14 death of Mandelbrot at age 85. [More] Go to Source More Jobs ...

Flower Power: Genetic Modification Could Amply Boost Plants'' Carbon-Capture and Bioenergy Capacity Human activities currently add about nine gigatons of carbon to the atmosphere yearly. Photosynthetic organisms on land and in the ocean absorb about five of those gigatons through the natural uptake of CO2, leaving to humans the task of dealing with the rest. But no matter how much carbon there is, capturing it and preventing it from reentering the atmosphere is an immense engineering ...

Medieval Italian town blows hot on wind power (Reuters) TOCCO DA CASAURIA, Italy (Reuters) - Wind has never been a commodity in short supply for the medieval town of Tocco da Casauria in Italy''s central Apennine mountains. Nestled between two of the country''s highest mountain ranges, the Maiella and Gran Sasso, Tocco da Casauria sits in a natural wind tunnel and residents have decided to make it work for them. Now four wind turbines rise from ...

1837 Steam Powered Computer Could Finally Enter Production When a man says he wants half a million dollars to build a steam powered computer, it''s not exactly the most conventional of funding pitches.When that same man says he wants to build the world''s first digital, programmable computer, the pitch begins to look stranger.But for John Graham-Cumming, the author of science history travel guide The Geek Atlas, the pitch makes perfect sense. Go to Source More Jobs From Giraffe ...

End of the Earth Postponed It''s a good news/bad news situation for believers in the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. The good news is that the Mayan "Long Count" calendar may not end on Dec. 21, 2012 (and, by extension, the world may not end along with it). The bad news for prophecy believers? If the calendar doesn''t end in December 2012, no one knows when it actually will - or if it has already. Go to Source More Jobs ...

In Case of Asteroid Threat, Deploy Tug-Sats and Heavy Rockets, Apollo Astronaut Says As evidenced by NASA''s confirmation last week of an asteroid collision observed by Hubble, there are plenty of objects careening around the solar system that we don''t know about. Some of these space rocks could do some serious damage if the Earth''s gravitational field ever pulls them in. Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart has some ideas about how to deflect them: Smash into ...

World's Fastest Kettle: Steam Supercar to Break 170MPH Barrier [Real Steam] This is the World's Fastest Kettle. That's what Charles Burnett III calls his steam supercar, which will race at 170mph over the Mojave Desert this coming June. Yes, I can't believe it either. The 25-foot-long steam supercar has a theoretical speed of 170mph. It uses four 90Ah electric batteries for ignition, which fires up the gas to heat twelve boilers. The boilers-which have a whooping ...