GeekSix

But will the poor birds hear it coming?

Joe
Monday
12:47 pm

Boeing hasn’t worked on anything particularly fun since the Sonic Cruiser was axed after 9/11.  This new plan for hybrid jetliners isn’t quite GEE WHIZ EXCITING but it could still be pretty cool.  The only problem is they don’t expect them to enter service until, at the earliest, ..read more

4 Flying Cars you can (almost) own today

Josh
Friday
9:58 pm

Ever since we were glued to episodes of Beyond 2000 as kids, we’ve never gotten over our heartbreak at being promised a flying car in the 21st century. We’ve brought up Parajet in the past, but there are several other companies rushing to get their designs aloft, too.

The Transition is basically a street-legal sport aircraft, and is one of the closest flying cars to actually winding up in your garage. The wings accordion up to vertical positions so the vehicle can drive on roads.

Cool factor: Call it Jetson’s law — the closer flying cars get to reality, the more homely they become. The Transition resembles a ..read more

Time for Kabul to train more peons

Joe
Monday
5:31 pm

From the This-Will-Turn-Out-Very-Good-or-Very-Bad-Not-in-the-Middle files, Afghanistan

just got a visit from Pentagon Clearing House with a post-dated check for 200 infinity trillion dollars.  Or whatever that equals in Afghanis.  The funny thing is that this motherlode of every single mineral on the periodic table was alluded to almost 30 years ago by the Soviets during their skirmish with the locals.  And yet it took another war and two flyovers by tech-savvy geologists to confirm it, and THEN a half decade to actually break the news and set the gears in motion to start mining the stuff.  What happened to the days when Jed Clampett shot a hole in the ground and ..read more

Why “The Goonies” resonates with our generation

Josh
Sunday
4:14 pm

“The Goonies” turns 25 today. The almost-kid-friendly movie has language that wouldn’t be heard from 12-year-olds until South Park premiered more than a decade later. It has plot holes you could ride a bike through. It has occasionally sloppy direction, special effects of dubious quality and, production-wise, hasn’t aged all that well.

But it’s a classic. And, as DVD sales figures corroborate, it’s left a mark on today’s thirtysomethings.

At it’s core, it’s every kid’s fantasy — including my own — that a world of adventure exists just under our feet. “The Goonies” was one of the first VHS tapes I ever owned, and more than a decade ago, it was the ..read more

Must watch: Time lapse of space shuttle prep and launch

Josh
Saturday
10:58 pm

At Geek6, we’re still really bummed about the demise of the shuttle program and the end of a return to Apollo-era rockets.

This incredible video rubs salt in our nerdy little wound. Shot over six weeks and 100 hours of footage, this time-lapse Smithsonian video shows just what it takes to get the shuttle prepped and ready for ..read more

Seattle: Cloudy with a chance of DEATH

Joe
Tuesday
5:17 pm

In the modern era, (i.e., after the death of Christ) we have reached a technological level  as a society where any structure built by someone who holds themselves as even the most modest professional should be able to, at the very least, stay standing for a while.

But as tenants of a high rise residence tower in the Belltown area of Seattle found out recently, that is a naive (and long-winded) statement to make.  Especially naive if you have spent any amount of time in the Pacific Northwest, where construction disasters are about as novel a sight as overcaffeination.  I know “rust” and “wrong components” are fringe Manbearpig ..read more

Space Women – Women in Space!

Autumn
Monday
6:25 pm

When Discovery blasted through the atmosphere this morning a new record was made.  With the three women astronauts on Discovery and the one already at the International Space Station that makes four women in space at one time.  For awesome!

This got me thinking.  If I was in space, which women would I want with me.  Which space women, that is.   And then of course, how would they behave on the ISS?  My list -

Princess Leia – Of course the constant committee making would be a nuisance, but she’s got good organizational and telling-it-like-it-is skills.

Starbuck – Sure, she might get into the dehydrated whiskey packets and try to light a cigar ..read more

CERN Celebrates, World Waits

Autumn
Tuesday
6:29 pm

Yay!  The Large Hadron Collider worked when it was tested today!

This excites me; not only for the potential insights it will bring to dark matter; not only for the wealth of new jokes Sheldon will inevitably soliloquize about on the “Big Bang Theory.”

No, not just for those lofty dreams, but also so that I can share this with you -

http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

aheheeheheheeheheeheee hee ..read more

Telescopes + Raves + Stealing Fire Barrels = Star Party in the Desert

Christy
Monday
1:49 am

My friend Whitney read in LA Weekly about these great Star Parties out near Joshua Tree National Park. They’re located at the Joshua Tree Lake Campgrounds.  The Southern California Desert Video Astronomers set up telescopes and screens to project the images straight from the telescopes.  Sounds amazing, right?  The campgrounds looked fine with the website bragging that it’s “the discerning camper’s ultimate choice,” so we made a reservation, loaded up our camping gear and drove out Saturday morning.  While checking into the campgrounds we were told that there was going to be a group having a rave and that there would be no refund if we decided ..read more

Part Animal, Part Plant

Christy
Friday
6:02 pm

I recently finished reading “Wings” by Aprilynne Pike.  Okay, I know it’s a teen fantasy novel with an ever present triangle of a not so normal girl, a normal boy, and a mythical male.  I don’t care.  I plan to never outgrow this fluffy genre.  If you hate spoilers and plan on reading this book then stop reading right ..read more