The Troubadour: BJ and His Megaphone. "Vesuvius" A New Dreamflight Adventure. Space and Science News. The Imaginarium (with a picture of the campers of tomorrow)

"Campers, campers, may I have your attention?
Yes, please stop talking because I have something to say.
I'm waiting...... I'm waiting......
Campers, you'll want to hear this.
I'm only going to say it once and if you don't hear it you'll be missing out.
Here goes... I'm going to say it....
Gosh darn it campers. I need you to stop talking so I can say something.
Doesn't anybody want to hear what I have to say?
OK guys, if it doesn't get quite by the time I count to three I may have to do something.
One.... Two............................
Aw, COME ON. ITS MY TURN TO TALK!

Hello Troops,

Dream Flight Adventures is our sister space education center in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Gary Gardiner (aka, Admiral Starblayze) sent me the following promotional piece for Dreamflight's newest mission Vesuvius.

Dreamflight Adventures is doing some pretty amazing things things with its simulator Titan. Gary is pioneering new ground with missions in space, in the ocean, under ground and through the human body. Check out his web site for more information.

Announcing Vesuvius, our Latest Mission!

by Admiral Starblayze

Hello troops, today we're delighted to unveil our latest addition to our mission library! Have you ever wanted to dive deep underground, explore subterranean wonders, or brave the brutal heat of a live volcano? Well now you can, in Vesuvius!

Here's the sneak peak:

Krafft Island, with its fertile volcanic soil and crystal blue bays, is a luxury destination for the rich and the powerful. Everyone loves it—except for one man. Dr. Ash Tephra, the world’s most renowned volcanologist, has long been outspoken against settlements on the island.

Using his own special research methods known as “underground volcanology,” Dr. Tephra has warned the government that a massive eruption is about to occur and that the island must be evacuated! Fellow volcanologists using more traditional methods, however, do not agree.

A similar situation occurred two years ago. Dr. Tephra predicted an eruption of massive proportions and the island was evacuated, but the eruption never occurred. Angry citizens lodged complaints against the government for economic loss. Dr. Tephra was humiliated and his reputation took a severe hit, but now he is making the same prediction: an eruption is imminent!

The government is concerned for its citizens’ safety, but even so it does not want a needless evacuation. To clear matters up the government has called upon the Infinity Knights—the renowned protectors of peace and justice throughout the universe—to help. They must travel beneath the surface of Krafft Island, explore its volcanic conduits, and determine whether an evacuation is necessary—before it’s too late!

But wait, there's more! We'll be play-testing this brand new mission at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh this coming Saturday, July 13th from 10am-noon. If you're in the area and want to be the first to test drive this new mission please swing on by for the adventure of a lifetime!

If Discovery Space Center can have Mission Posters, then why not Farpoint?

Mission Poster for Farpoint Story in Development

Space and Science News

Human v. 2.0

"Meet the scientific prophets who claim we are on the verge of creating a new type of human – a human v.2.0. It’s predicted that by 2029 computer intelligence will equal the power of the human brain, a point of convergence referred to as the Singularity. Some believe this will revolutionize humanity – we will be able to download our minds to computers extending our lives indefinitely. Others fear this will lead to oblivion by giving rise to destructive ultra intelligent machines."
Video: http://ow.ly/mVRyF

Do We Live in a Multiverse?

"Hard as it is to swallow, cutting-edge theories are suggesting that our universe may not be the only universe. Instead, it may be just one of an infinite number of universes that make up the "multiverse." Brian Greene takes us on a tour of this brave new theory at the frontier of physics, showing what some of these alternate realities might be like. Some universes may be almost indistinguishable from our own; others may contain variations of all of us, where we exist but with different families, careers, and life stories. In still others, reality may be so radically different from ours as to be unrecognizable. Brian Greene reveals why this radical new picture of the cosmos is getting serious attention from scientists. It won't be easy to prove, but if it's right, our understanding of space, time, and our place in the universe will never be the same."
Video: http://ow.ly/mVVcc

A Beautiful End to a Star’s Life"

Stars like the Sun can become remarkably photogenic at the end of their life. A good example is NGC 2392, which is located about 4,200 light years from Earth. NGC 2392, nicknamed the "Eskimo Nebula", is what astronomers call a planetary nebula. This designation, however, is deceiving because planetary nebulas actually have nothing to do with planets. The term is simply a historic relic since these objects looked like planetary disks to astronomers in earlier times looking through small optical telescopes.

Instead, planetary nebulas form when a star uses up all of the hydrogen in its core -- an event our Sun will go through in about five billion years. When this happens, the star begins to cool and expand, increasing its radius by tens to hundreds of times its original size. Eventually, the outer layers of the star are carried away by a thick 50,000 kilometer per hour wind, leaving behind a hot core. This hot core has a surface temperature of about 50,000 degrees Celsius, and is ejecting its outer layers in a much faster wind traveling six million kilometers per hour. The radiation from the hot star and the interaction of its fast wind with the slower wind creates the complex and filamentary shell of a planetary nebula. Eventually the remnant star will collapse to form a white dwarf star. Full NASA article: http://oak.ctx.ly/r/7i6a

A.I. and The Blue Brain Project.

Artificial Intelligence, in essence, is about creating or mimicking intelligent behavior in non-sentient entities. The wealth of knowledge that has been gathered in researching this topic reveals much about logic, perception, and common sense. In my own words, I’d say that AI is the science that highlights the basics of human thinking

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to reverse engineer the human brain and recreate it at the cellular level inside a computer simulation. The project was founded in May 2005 by Henry Markram at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland (Switzerland, how surprising is that?).

Goals of the project are to gain a complete understanding of the brain and to enable better and faster development of brain disease treatments.

The research involves studying slices of living brain tissue using microscopes and patch clamp electrodes. Data is collected about all the many different neuron types. This data is used to build biologically realistic models of neurons and networks of neurons in the cerebral cortex.

The simulations are carried out on a Blue Gene supercomputer built by IBM. Hence the name "Blue Brain".

The simulation software is based around Michael Hines's NEURON, together with other custom-built components.

Read More :http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/ (So all the credit goes to EPFL on the insight.)