Sunday 11 January 2009

The future is now part: 999













Robotson Crusoe: "I just popping down the Crater do you need anything.."
Sorry to bang on about the future already being here and that but here it is again on a Micro and Macro level.

Micro Machines: On the home front I got a little usb plug in freeview card for my lap top meaning 25 years after having to plug the computer into the TV I can now plug a TV into the computer and record TV etc and it worked out the box and is just sort of normal and yet incredible at the same time.

Macro Machines: On a larger grander level I was just reading about the Nasa Mars Landers that have been slowly and doggedly exploring mars remotely all those miles away. They have been doing it for 20 times longer than expected and have further deepened out knowledge and helped confirm the theory that water once flowed on mars. This is incredible that someone could build a machine that works so far from our reach to quote Douglas Adams if you think it's a long way to the shops well Mars is...
Further proof that sometimes we need to go and find out first hand is offered by the fact that one of the reasons the robots have lasted so long is that their solar cells have not got covered in dust because the winds on mars are stronger than expected and blow the dirt away. We probably wouldn't know this without going there. It's not a mars shattering fact but few pieces of information are it's when they are all put to that interesting things are revealed.
Of course there are other ways of getting to Mars. Over to you Francis Albert





Live version of Fly me to the moon By Frank Sinatra

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