Weightless Animals

Grok Headline matches for Weightless Animals

Weightless in Sweden

Weightless in Sweden 03/24/2005 01:52 PM
Weightless in Sweden

Xeni flies Zero-G, part 2: word to the
weightless wise

Xeni flies Zero-G, part 2: word to the
weightless wise 09/11/2004 02:31 PM
Xeni Jardin: In a few days, God willing, I'll become one of the first people to ever fly on a commercial weightless flight in the United States. Friends, colleagues, and astro-nerdy strangers have been offering all sorts of advice ranging from scientifically substantiated to silly.

Some have even suggested some crash-course reading over the weekend. Lloyd Fonveille says that Air & Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Movement by Gaston Bachelard is a must: "Dense writing but amazing stuff about flying and flying dreams... he argues that images and dreams of flying are the highest state of the imagination, and emblems of the mental place where all real creativity happens."

As I prepare for Wednesday's adventure, I'll share some of this microgravity advice here on BoingBoing. I'll start with insights from experienced zero-g flier Raffi Krikorian of MIT (and O'Reilly).

I rode on NASA's KC-135a a few years ago (I was running a series of experiments to determine whether the brain's ability to localize sound was affected by being in a microgravity environment -- the anwer is that it is, but I digress), and it was an awesome experience.

NASA requires a lot of pre-training before they even allow you to get on the plane (a series of lectures about what to do if your sinus collapses, a hyperbaric chamber ride to have you experience what happens in the case of a rapid decompression of the cabin as the KC-135 is a single hulled plane), and going through that type of training is quite exhaustive. You spend a day in the classroom, then you spend a day learning how to work the emergency equipment and how to breathe through a reverse pressurized mask.

When the day of the ride comes, everybody tells you a few pieces of advice
1. bring jolly ranchers and gum
2. eat bananas and muffins for breakfast (extra credit for eating food coloring) [Ed note: I suppose this way, everything will look super-pretty and colorful IF YOU HURL IT ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLANE]
3. don't look out the window when flying.

As we were climbing for our first drop, I was chewing my gum like mad. The common advice is to get your mouth a little wet and to distract yourself of what was going to happen next. And then, all of a sudden, you lift right off the floor. I, personalily, was terrified on the first drop. I flailed around trying desperately to grab hold of something. I grab onto the floor, and it must have been amusing to see me hanging upside down, trying to pull myself down.

After that, it gets a lot easier. You just float around. Pushing yourself off the walls, and just bounce around. I was busy running an experiment, but it seems as though you will have time to play around.

What they don't tell you is that you will experience portions of negative gravity where you are pulled for the roof. Those freak you out. You're hanging out, chillin' in the air, and then all of a sudden you are rocketing towards the ceiling and pushing yourself off from it. Enterprising people invert themselves at that point, and go walking around up top. But, if you manage to close your eyes and somehow end up upside down, your brain will be convinced that you are right side up. You'll see people who are the other way from you. And then. Oh no. You puke.

The interesting thing about puking (or playing with any liquid) is its fascinating to watch it ooze around. Try it. Squirt some water into the air while you're floating -- it's gorgeous to watch these bubbles float around. and you can poke at it. Catch them. I'ts amazing. If you have a chance also, light a match. The flame makes a perfect sphere. Things you never think you'll see.

Image: photograph of a balloon full of water exploding in zero gravity on NASA's vomit comet (the KC-135 which Raffi discusses above). Link to full-size. The experiment was part of an Imaging and Photographic Technology project between NASA and the Rochester Institute of Technology: Link

Link to previous post: Xeni Flies Zero-G, part 1

Weightless trip yields thrills and
nausea (Reuters)

Weightless trip yields thrills and
nausea (Reuters) 09/15/2004 12:22 AM
Reuters - Fancy an aeroplane trip that takes you nowhere, costs about 1,670 pounds and may make you vomit?

On The Emperor's Animals...

On The Emperor's Animals... 10/29/2003 12:10 AM

So here's a concept for a new Typepad weblog, inspired by the quirky and immensely pleasing post categories on a friend's weblog. The concept is called The Emperor's Animals and is basically a collection of funny animal links and stories from around the web. The site is designed to resemble 18th/19th Century illustrated guide to fabulous beasts and uses as post categories the The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge typology of animals outlined in Jorge Luis Borges' The Analytical Language of John Wilkins. Please please will someone make this. I'd read it every day! Just in case you don't know them off-by-heart already, these categories are:

1. belonging to the Emperor
2. embalmed
3. trained
4. pigs
5. sirens
6. fabulous
7. stray dogs
8. included in this classification
9. trembling like crazy
10. innumerable
11. drawn with a very fine camelhair brush
12. et cetera
13. just broke the vase
14. from a distance look like flies

Read the comments

Animals on the Underground

Animals on the Underground 02/15/2004 03:45 PM

Sometimes it is a totally obvious and simple idea that is the most brilliant. Animals on the Underground is just that sort of brilliant, simple idea. Constellations of stars have been illustrated for centuries using the connect the dots technique, but applying it to the underground station map is clever and the animals are adorable. Maybe I'll dig out my underground map and try to find a few new ones.

Tool Use in Animals

Tool Use in Animals 05/03/2004 06:43 AM
“Tool Use In Animals”, a tidy little informative set of pages from Dr. Robert Cook's much larger “Animal Cognition & Learning Website” at Tufts University. See also (worth repeating because it’s the coolest thing ever) the previously featured “Betty the Crow”.   ◊via milovoo in Ask MetaFilter◊

Infrasound animals

Infrasound animals 01/03/2005 10:02 PM
"Infrason ic Symphony" Intrigued by reports of tsunami-avoidance behavior in Sri Lankan wildlife? Science News offers a timely antidote to simplistic mumbo-jumbo about the "mythical power" of animal earthquake detection with a detailed look at the latest research into low-frequency sound. The Elephant Listening Project is particularly interested in elephant rumblings that produce Rayleigh waves. "Mammals, birds, insects, and spiders can detect Rayleigh waves," notes The Explainer. "Most can feel the movement in their bodies, although some, like snakes and salamanders, put their ears to the ground in order to perceive it."

"the animals we face"

"the animals we face" 05/12/2004 05:27 PM

Glass Animals 1.0

Glass Animals 1.0 05/17/2004 10:32 AM
Cute and shiny animal icons.

When animals go to school

When animals go to school 08/31/2004 09:52 AM
Maybe we can save endangered species, but can we teach animals to be wild? Salon contributor Susan McCarthy talks about her new book, "Becoming a Tiger" -- and debunks the 100th monkey theory along the way.

Amazing Animals

Amazing Animals 08/18/2004 06:30 PM

FDA says it's OK to eat cloned animals

FDA says it's OK to eat cloned animals 10/31/2003 08:33 PM
USA Today Oct 31 2003 7:53PM ET

Stuffed Animals

Stuffed Animals 04/24/2004 05:03 AM

A few pictures from a trip to the Helsinki Hall of Taxidermy, a.k.a. the Finnish Museum of Natural History.

Ok, it's true, we were bored while Jarkko was on 2 weeks of holiday that didn't include a trip somewhere and also featured the 4-5 day Easter holiday. What do you do when you've got a few days to kill, no car, no plane tickets and don't want to sit at home answering email or aimlessly surfing the web from the couch? The Finnish Natural History Museum seemed like a good idea one afternoon. We went, we saw, we were impressed by the taxidermic skill and then we went to dinner. If you're into taxidermy and dioramas, head straight for this museum as it has them both in abundance.

Where Are All the Dead Animals?
(Reuters)

Where Are All the Dead Animals?
(Reuters) 12/29/2004 12:15 PM
Reuters - Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned -- the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast, but they can't find any dead animals.

Woman to Surrender More Than 130 Animals
(AP)

Woman to Surrender More Than 130 Animals
(AP) 06/15/2004 04:43 PM
AP - A woman found with more than 130 animals in her two-room house and on her half-acre lot has been ordered to surrender the pets to an animal rights organization.

Animals Saving the World

Animals Saving the World 09/24/2004 10:04 AM
Gift a goat to help lift more families out of poverty forever.

In Sri Lanka, animals seem to have
survived

In Sri Lanka, animals seem to have
survived 12/29/2004 02:36 PM
Xeni Jardin: Strangely, amid massive loss of human life, there seems to be little or no dead wild animals in Sri Lanka. Snip:

Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned -- the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast, but they can't find any dead animals.

Link

Did animals have quake warning?

Did animals have quake warning? 12/31/2004 06:41 AM
The BBC's Sue Nelson investigates claims that wild animals, who escaped the impact of the quake, may have a sixth sense.

How Did Animals Escape Tsunami?

How Did Animals Escape Tsunami? 12/31/2004 07:04 AM
No wild animals were found dead along the Sri Lankan coastline, adding credence to the belief that beasts have a sixth sense that warns them of impending disasters.

Tumors grow just like animals

Tumors grow just like animals 11/17/2003 05:46 AM
The same equations used to model animal growth also describe the growth of tumors:

As an animal's mass increases, so does the number of cells within it. But the blood supply that feeds those cells grows more slowly. As a result, an increasing proportion of the available nutrients go towards maintaining existing cells rather than the growth of new ones, so the rate of growth slows and ultimately comes to a halt...

When they compared their predictions to the growth of 13 rodent or human tumours, they found the tumours' growth closely followed the same universal law.

Link

An Off-and-On Switch for Controlling
Animals?

An Off-and-On Switch for Controlling
Animals? 04/11/2005 05:29 PM
Researchers at Yale can make fruit flies walk, leap or fly by shining a laser at the insects, a discovery that could, in theory, lead to a sort of animal remote control.

"Your Mommy Kills Animals"

"Your Mommy Kills Animals" 12/18/2003 08:39 PM

Animals laugh says scientist

Animals laugh says scientist 04/06/2005 12:36 PM
David Pescovitz: Dogs, chimps, and rats laugh when they're having fun, according to psychologist Jack Panksepp of Bowling Green State University. Reporting in the journal Scien ce, Panksepp suggests that laughter may be an ancient emotional response older than humans. From BBC News:

Young chimps "play pant" as they mischievously chase and tickle each other.

And when rats play, they make chirps which some scientists associate with positive emotional feelings.

When rats are tickled in a playful way, they become socially bonded to humans and are rapidly conditioned to seek tickles, the US neuroscientist explains in Science.

Link

Your Mommy Kills Animals

Your Mommy Kills Animals 12/22/2003 11:26 AM
PETA advises children to "ask your mommy how many dead animals she killed to make her fur clothes." While you're prying, kids, see if you can figure out why she owns so many vibrating rabbits. (12-22)

Animals in classic art photoshopping

Animals in classic art photoshopping 06/08/2004 04:26 AM
Today on Worth1000's photoshopping contest: Cute ani-mules matted into classical paintings. Link

U.S. May Pay Farmers to Test Animals for
Mad Cow

U.S. May Pay Farmers to Test Animals for
Mad Cow 01/02/2004 09:55 PM
Reuters via Wired News Jan 2 2004 9:38PM ET

Animals escaped tsunami

Animals escaped tsunami 12/31/2004 10:26 AM
David Pescovitz: While tens of thousands of people along the Sri Lankan coast were killed by the tsunami, wildlife officials say that they haven't found any dead animals. The waves swept inland to the island's largest wildlife reserve but none of the elephants, tigers, jackals, crocodiles, or other animals drowned. From the BBC:

Debbie Marter, who works on a wild tiger conservation programme on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, one of the worst-hit areas in Sunday's disaster, said she was not surprised to hear there were no dead animals.

"Wild animals in particular are extremely sensitive," she said. "They've got extremely good hearing and they will probably have heard this flood coming in the distance. There would have been vibration and there may also have been changes in the air pressure which will have alerted animals and made them move to wherever they felt safer."

Link

Chiropractor Offers Help to Animals (AP)

Chiropractor Offers Help to Animals (AP) 01/03/2005 07:12 PM
AP - A chiropractor who applies his skills to animals as well as people is finding new ways to help four-legged patients.

Some dolphins are party animals
(Reuters)

Some dolphins are party animals
(Reuters) 08/11/2004 01:44 PM
Reuters - Some people are born to be the life and soul of the party -- and so it seems are some dolphins.

The Real Difference Between Humans and
Other Animals

The Real Difference Between Humans and
Other Animals 04/12/2005 01:50 PM

A couple of years ago Chelsea, our dog, accidentally got into a fight with a woodchuck (she was exploring a large hole beside the walking trail in the conservation are near our home, and the sharp-clawed woodchuck didn't like the invasion of her den and emerged and attacked). Chelsea was unsure what to make of this creature, and she first approached and barked, and then, when it squealed and lunged, she backed off and the woodchuck retreated. Chelsea seemed fine, and was a bit distraught but made no sound of distress, so we continued on our walk. The next day we noticed Chelsea was licking herself on one side and I went to check to see if she'd picked up some burrs. To my astonishment I found a gash four inches (10cm) long and nearly one inch (2.5cm) deep. It was invisible under her fur but was still bleeding -- a battle wound. If we hadn't been paying attention we would never have known. If it had been on a different part of her body she might have died. The wound required several stitches and a long time to fully heal. We resolved to keep a closer eye on her health from then on. A month ago, we were going out for groceries and, as usual, Chelsea came along for the car ride. With her arthritis and her hypothyroid condition she's a little tentative now about jumping into the back seat of the van, but she made it all right. We were doing up our seatbelts when suddenly Chelsea let out a terrible howl, just like a wolf's. We panicked and rushed back to see what was wrong, convinced she must have injured herself somehow. It was a cold day and my wife had strapped on her coat, and in walking through between the middle bucket seats to the back bench seat Chelsea had got caught and couldn't squeeze forward or back. She was completely unhurt, but was terrified and shaken by this experience of being trapped. A serious wound she took in stride without a whimper, but the thought of being immobilized, imprisoned was unbearable. How different she is from humans! From childhood we howl for help -- from parents and then when we're older from doctors -- at the first sign of pain. We measure out our childhood with band-aids. But we learn to take imprisonment stoically, silently, dutifully. Soon we even learn to lock ourselves in -- in our rooms with 'keep out' signs on the door, in seatbelts in locked cars,and in homes locked against outsiders, and some even in gated, wired 'communities' -- voluntary prisons. Our imprisonment grows from being forced to stand in the corner, to being forced to sit in oppressive classrooms, to victimization by the cliques and bullies in the schoolyard, to 'being grounded', to the humiliation of having to pay and volunteer for even more stifling 'education' in universities, to groveling for jobs, employment contracts and wage slavery, to the 'bonds' of matrimony, to addiction to consumption and debt, just another form of imprisonment, and finally to fear on a global scale -- of criminals at every turn, of terrorists and tyrants -- causing us to want to lock up our loved ones and put barbed wire around our whole country. This then, it seems to me, is the real difference between humans and other animals: We can take imprisonment but not pain, and all the rest of life on our planet can accept pain but finds imprisonment unbearable. Perhaps then it's not surprising that we call imprisonment without pain 'humane'. If you've ever watched chickens in battery cages, you know nature doesn't see it that way.

Thieves Take $40K in Cold-Blooded
Animals (AP)

Thieves Take $40K in Cold-Blooded
Animals (AP) 07/27/2004 04:12 PM
AP - Thieves broke into the Lowcountry Reptile and Amphibian Expo in Ladson over the weekend and got away with loads of slithering and shelled creatures.

Theo Jansen and his beach animals

Theo Jansen and his beach animals 06/05/2005 11:47 PM

Two people got standing ovations for their presentations at GEL. The first was Barry Schwartz for his talk on The Paradox of Choice. The second person, who gave the most fascinating presentation I've seen at a conference in a long time, was inventor/artist/mad scientist Theo Jansen. For the past fifteen years, Jansen has been creating (growing?) "beach animals" made from commonly available tools like plastic tubing, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, hose, tape, and all sorts of other stuff. Wired News did a pretty good article on Jansen earlier this year:

Jansen is evolving an entirely new line of animals: immense multi-legged walking critters designed to roam the Dutch coastline, feeding on gusts of wind. Over the years, successive generations of his creatures have evolved into increasingly complex animals that walk by flapping wings in response to the wind, discerning obstacles in their path through feelers and even hammering themselves into the sand on sensing an approaching storm.

It's hard to know where to begin in talking about what's so cool about Jansen's beach animals. They're evolved for one thing; he worked out the optimal 11-piece leg using evolutionary algorithms on a computer but now prefers to race his animals on the beach and "breed" the most successful ones together, taking the best bits from each to make their offspring better. His animals have legs, muscles (pneumatic pistons within the plastic tubing), stomachs (plastic bottles for storing air), and nerves (collections of on/off values that work pretty much like logic gates).

And watching the videos that Jansen showed...his animals were so organic and lifelike as they moved under their own power across the beach. He's got a few of the videos on his site, but for some reason, the best ones he showed at GEL are not among them. To see evolution happening like this, a clumsy, imprecise process of trial and error that nonetheless produces beautiful and organic results, it was a real treat.

Did animals sense tsunami? (Reuters)

Did animals sense tsunami? (Reuters) 12/29/2004 03:05 AM
Reuters - Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned -- the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast, but they can't find any dead animals.

FC Now: Animals Got a Tsunami Warning.
Why Didn't Humans?

FC Now: Animals Got a Tsunami Warning.
Why Didn't Humans? 01/05/2005 06:49 AM
Reading about the aftermath of the tsunami in south Asia, I'm struck by one story now making the rounds. As rescuers began assessing the damage, they reported that, remarkably (and true to legend), the wildlife populations of the region sensed...

Claire Robertson's stuffed animals

Claire Robertson's stuffed animals 02/01/2005 08:38 PM
Mark Frauenfelder: Loobylu blogger Claire Robertson sure makes cute stuffed animals. Link

Denver Rejects Ban on Circus Animals
(AP)

Denver Rejects Ban on Circus Animals
(AP) 08/11/2004 08:16 AM
AP - A proposal from a 15-year-old girl to bar circus animal acts within the city limits of Denver was soundly defeated Tuesday by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Tiny Fossils Could Be First Complex
Animals

Tiny Fossils Could Be First Complex
Animals 06/04/2004 12:59 AM

Biologists croak to their animals
(Reuters)

Biologists croak to their animals
(Reuters) 07/30/2004 07:05 AM
Reuters - Biologists have taken a leaf out of the literary Doctor Doolittle's book and started talking to their animals.

Order of Magnitude Quiz: Animals

Order of Magnitude Quiz: Animals 12/28/2003 10:06 AM
How many animals raised on farms are killed for consumption in the US each year? Getting within an order of magnitude constitutes winning. Reveal the answer by drag-selecting the seemingly blank space between the X's: X ————8 billion ———— X...
Grok Description matches for Weightless Animals
GrokA matches for Weightless Animals

Weightless Animals

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