An awesome picture…

I just love finding apps like this, and I think you’ll be excited too. The British Library has released 1000 books from its 19th Century collection into a free iPad app that includes novels, historical works, poetry, philosophy and scientific books.

The books have been scanned in high resolution and color so you can see the engraved illustrations, the beauty of the embossed covers, along with maps and even the texture of the paper the books were printed on.

You can search the collection, browse titles by subject, and even read commentary on some of the titles. The books can be downloaded for reading offline.

In general, I found the app a joy to use. It was fun to browse titles, or search for things I was interested in. While some of the type is old and weathered, you can zoom in and read everything without issue.

Just like a real book, there are some blank pages you have to skip through, but I didn’t find that a frustration. The app only works in portrait mode, but some of the illustrations are oriented in landscape view. Many of these literary treasures will likely never be offered as standard e-books so this is a unique opportunity for readers.

Although the app is free, the British Library plans to charge for an enhanced version of 60,000 titles later this year. Many of the books have an option to buy, and when you click you are sent to Amazon to purchase a printed copy. The app is iPad only for now, but will be coming to the Kindle Reader and Android tablets in the future. If you grab the app let us know what you think.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/british-library-19th-century/…

more books – go read one

A great site! A mash-up of my favorite comic strip with Twitter.

More than a year after it first lost contact with its Mars rover Spirit, NASA has finally decided to throw in the towel. Yesterday, the agency confirmed that it will end all planned communications with the robot on May 25th, effectively ending the craft’s seven-year mission. NASA was hoping that the approaching Martian spring would allow the Spirit to recharge its solar panels and re-establish radio contact, but it now appears that the craft sustained irreparable damage last winter, when it was forced to endure brutally cold temperatures. NASA executive David Lavery, however, says the rover team will remember the Spirit more for its achievements than its slow demise:

“I think we’ll all sit around and have a sip of Guinness and reminisce about when Spirit was a wee small little rover and look back at the accomplishments and successes rover had over its entire lifetime.”

So the Spirit’s spirit will live on, but what about NASA’s mission to Mars? Well, the Opportunity is still in good health and, later this year, will be joined by the next-generation, nuclear-powered rover Curiosity, which will investigate whether or not Mars ever supported life forms. Meanwhile, NASA’s network of orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for signals from the Spirit, just in case it miraculously comes back to life. Full PR after the break.

Show full PR text

NASA Concludes Attempts To Contact Mars Rover Spirit

WASHINGTON — NASA is ending attempts to regain contact with the long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, which last communicated on March 22, 2010.

A transmission that will end on Wednesday, May 25, will be the last in a series of attempts. Extensive communications activities during the past 10 months also have explored the possibility that Spirit might reawaken as the solar energy available to it increased after a stressful Martian winter without much sunlight. With inadequate energy to run its survival heaters, the rover likely experienced colder internal temperatures last year than in any of its prior six years on Mars. Many critical components and connections would have been susceptible to damage from the cold.

Engineers’ assessments in recent months have shown a very low probability for recovering communications with Spirit. Communications assets that have been used by the Spirit mission in the past, including NASA’s Deep Space Network of antennas on Earth, plus two NASA Mars orbiters that can relay communications, now are needed to prepare for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. MSL is scheduled to launch later this year.

“We’re now transitioning assets to support the November launch of our next generation Mars rover, Curiosity,” said Dave Lavery, program executive for solar system exploration. “However, while we no longer believe there is a realistic probability of hearing from Spirit, the Deep Space Network may occasionally listen for any faint signals when the schedule permits.”

Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, for a mission designed to last three months. After accomplishing its prime-mission goals, Spirit worked to accomplish additional objectives. Its twin, Opportunity, continues active exploration of Mars.

Science is awesome….

Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano

On May 21, 2011, Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano erupted, sending an ash plume 12 miles (20 kilometers) high and closing Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s largest. Ash fell on much of Iceland, with some areas pitch black at midday on the 22nd. This eruption is not expected to disrupt air travel as much as taht of Eyjafjallajokull in 2010 because the Grimsvotn ash particles are larger and settling out of the atmosphere more quickly.

This natural-color satellite image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite, shows the towering ash plume at 1:00 p.m. local time. Beneath the ash plume, clouds cover much of the scene. Lingering snow is visible beneath the clouds to the northeast (upper left). Brown ash covers a portion of the Vatnajokull Glacier near the Atlantic coast (lower right).

Grimsvotn is Iceland’s most active volcano, but it hasn’t erupted so forcefully since 1902. The lava is basaltic, which typically erupts in non-explosive, Hawaiian-style eruptions. Grimsvotn is located beneath a glacier, however, and the interaction of melting ice with the lava can create an explosive eruption, at least in the initial stages.

Image Credit: NASA, GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response Team