Archivi autore: Mauro

Aurora from Saturn

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saturn auroraFrom the NASA site, last news about the Cassini mission.

An aurora, shining high above the northern part of Saturn, moves from the night side to the day side of the planet in this movie recorded by Cassini.

These observations, taken over four days, represent the first visible-light video of Saturn’s auroras. They show tall auroral curtains, rapidly changing over time when viewed at the limb, or edge, of the planet’s northern hemisphere. The sequence of images also reveals that Saturn’s auroral curtains, the sheet-like formations of light-emitting atmospheric molecules, stretch up along Saturn’s magnetic field and reach heights of more than 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) above the planet’s limb. These are the tallest known “northern lights” in the solar system.

These auroral displays are created by charged particles from the magnetosphere that plunge into the planet’s upper atmosphere and cause it to glow. The magnetosphere is the region of electrically charged particles that are trapped in the magnetic field of the planet. The auroral curtains shown in the movie reveal the paths that these charged particles take as they flow along lines of the magnetic field between the planet’s magnetosphere and ionosphere.

The day side of Saturn scatters light toward Cassini, creating the overexposed triangle at the center of the left of the frame. Stars can be seen above the limb of the planet, trailing across the field of view.

20 videos in B flat

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In this page you can find 20 musical videos to play together (or in any order). And the music will always be nice because they all are playing in B flat.

In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users.

If your computer hold up the whole stuff, there is a Buddha Machine that plays continuously here.

Click the image for a little sample, but don’t forget to try the site.

Bang on a Can

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Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted musical organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon (photo). It is a major force in the presentation of new concert music, and has presented hundreds of musical events worldwide.

It is perhaps best known for its Marathon Concerts during which an eclectic mix of pieces are performed in succession over the course of many hours while audience members, who are encouraged to maintain a “jeans-and-tee-shirt informality,” are welcome to come and go as they please. [wikipedia]

The three founders are still composing. Some interesting pieces:

Symphonies of the Planets 1

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coverIn the August and September 1977, two Voyager spacecraft were launched to fly by and explore the great gaseous planets of Jupiter and Saturn.
Voyager I, after successful encounters with the two, was sent out of the plane of the ecliptic to investigate interstellar space.
Voyager II’s charter later came to include not only encounters with Jupiter (1979) and Saturn (1981), but also appointments with Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989).
The Voyagers are controlled and their data returned through the Deep Space Network, a global spacecraft tracking and communications system operated by the JPL for NASA.

Although space is a virtual vacuum, this does not mean there is no sound in space. Sound does exist as electronic vibrations. The especially designed instruments on board of the Voyagers performed special experiments to pick up and record these vibrations, all within the range of human hearing.

These recordings come from a variety of different sound environments, e.g. the interaction of the solar wind with the planet’s magnetosphere; electromagnetic field noise; radio waves bouncing between the planet and the inner surface of the atmosphere, etc.

In 1993 NASA published excerpts from these recordings in a set of 5 CD (30 minutes each) called Symphonies of the Planets (now out of print).

This is the CD 1.

Virus da tastiera

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apple keyboardDopo una notizia interessante sul mondo Apple, ne arriva una un po’ inquietante, ma comunque divertente.

Le tastiere USB o Bluetooth di Apple sono infettabili da virus. Le tastiere, non il computer. Think different!

Il fatto è che le suddette tastiere contengono un firmware, cioè un piccolo software che risiede in una memoria flash di circa 8k (una memoria che non si cancella allo spegnimento, ma che può essere sovrascritta). Rimpiazzando questo software, si può alterare il comportamento della tastiera, permettendogli, per esempio, di registrare ciò che scrivete o anche di inviare autonomamente dei comandi alla macchina.

Il punto interessante è che la sostituzione del suddetto software può essere effettuata da remoto, come la stessa Apple fa. Quindi basta indurre l’utente a scaricare quello che lui crede essere un aggiornamento e il gioco è fatto.

Ovviamente, rispetto a tutti i virus che girano nel mondo windoze, si tratta di una banalità, ma ha almeno un aspetto inquietante: questo non è un virus normale. Potete anche rasare a zero l’hard disk, riformattare tutto e reinstallare il sistema da zero, ma lui resta sempre lì, perché vive nella tastiera, non nell’hard disk.

Dato che non ho un Mac, devo queste info al Disinformatico.

Foto da iPhone

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iPhone 3GS imageKoichi Mitsui è un fotografo professionista giapponese. Quando non è al lavoro per qualche rivista, gira per Tokyo facendo foto con il suo iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone has a single-focus lens with no zoom, and this simplicity keeps me devoted to only composition and the perfect photo opp

Sebbene queste immagini non abbiano la perfezione e la risoluzione a cui ci hanno abituato le attuali fotocamere digitali, a mio modesto avviso alcune sono molto belle.

Questo il link.