random 99

moon images

In an abandoned McDonald’s restaurant on NASA Ames property in Mountain View, a pirate flag is taped to the window. Inside, it gets even stranger. Three researchers huddle around a wheezing 45-year-old Ampex FR-900A tape machine, a one-of-a-kind reel to reel 2-inch model designed to record data for the National Security Agency. It now sits where people used to wolf down Big Macs. Behind the counter, where the fry-tubs and refrigerators used to be, one-thousand five hundred 14-inch diameter tape reels are clustered in five piles. Each reel has a two letter identifier followed by three numbers. “These tapes hold the best images of the moon ever taken, even to today,” says Dennis Wingo, a lanky 55-year-old engineering physicist who heads the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project.

via kevin kelly

tarantulas
Australia is known for it's large and deadly creepy crawlies, but giant tarantulas have invaded an Outback town in Queensland.via times online

useful tattoo

a new nano ink particle tattoo will help diabetics eliminate the need for painful fingertip testing strips.

Recently developed by scientist Heather Clarke from Draper Laboratories, is the nano ink particle tattoo which samples glucose levels in the skin and changes colors to give accurate glucose readings. This will improve the quality of life of diabetics, who will no longer need to rely on regulated glucose testing, since a permanent built in tattoo will show them their glucose readings automatically so they can make the appropriate adjustments with insulin injections or seek a doctor's care when necessary.

This innovative nano particle tattoo is both an interesting fashion statement and a cutting-edge improvement for healthcare.

via inventor spot

church ladies
They’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in their hearts! Where? Down in their hearts! Where?! Down in their hearts!
via sacred sandwich

shipwrecks
a collection of photos and stories of interesting shipwrecks

via artificial owl