What is OPAL? OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) is a project to obtain long time baseline observations of the outer planets in order to understand their atmospheric dynamics and evolution as gas giants. The yearly observations from OPAL throughout the remainder of Hubble’s operation will provide an important legacy of time-domain images for use by planetary scientists. Viewers might notice that some of the images of the same planets appear to be different colors. This is due to the fact that over the years, from Voyager to Hubble, many different instruments, and many different filters have been used.
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Digital Life: ‘Is Immortality Possible?’ – Capturing Our Memories For Future Generations (WSJ Video)
Voicebots, Humanoids and Other Tools Capture Memories for Future Generations What happens after we die—digitally, that is? In this documentary, WSJ’s Joanna Stern explores how technology can tell our stories for generations to come. Old photos, letters and tapes. Tech has long allowed us to preserve memories of people long after they have died. But with new tools there are now interactive solutions, including memorialized online accounts, voice bots and even humanoid robots. WSJ’s Joanna Stern journeys across the world to test some of those for a young woman who is living on borrowed time.
Photo illustration: Adele Morgan/The Wall Street Journal
Walking Tours: ‘Tel Aviv’ On Mediterranean, Israel
Tel Aviv, a city on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, is marked by stark 1930s Bauhaus buildings, thousands of which are clustered in the White City architectural area. Museums include Beit Hatfutsot, whose multimedia exhibits illustrate the history of Jewish communities worldwide. The Eretz Israel Museum covers the country’s archaeology, folklore and crafts, and features an on-site excavation of 12th-century-B.C. ruins.
Future Of Energy: ‘Tiny Nuclear Reactors’ (Video)
Nuclear energy accounts for nearly 20% of electricity generated in the US, more than wind, solar and hydro combined. But now, new nuclear reactor designs could bring far more widespread use and public acceptance of this powerful form of energy.
X-energy is an American private nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company. It is developing a Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor design.
Video Tour: ‘B&H Photo’ in NYC – One Of The Largest Camera Stores In America
B&H Photo Video (also known as B&H Photo and B&H and B&H Foto & Electronics Corporation) is an American photo and video equipment retailer founded in 1973, based in Manhattan, New York City.[1] B&H conducts business through online e-commerce consumer sales, business to business sales, and its one retail location. Customers engage with B&H via its websites, retail store, phone sales and customer service, email, and chat channels.
B&H stands for Blimie & Herman, the founders of the store. B&H was named the leading online consumer electronics retailer by Consumers Reports for 2018. Newsweek named B&H as one of America’s Top Companies for Customer Service for 2019, with top position in the consumer electronics category based on over 130,000 customer evaluations. In 2018, Forbes named B&H as one of America’s Best Mid-Size Employers. Also in 2018, B&H’s consumer website was recognized as the Best for User Experience of any e-commerce company by the Baymard Institute.
Timelapse Travel: ‘Tiempo’ – Barcelona, Spain (Video)
Filmed and Edited by: Jordi de Temple
Barcelona, the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region, is known for its art and architecture. The fantastical Sagrada Família church and other modernist landmarks designed by Antoni Gaudí dot the city. Museu Picasso and Fundació Joan Miró feature modern art by their namesakes. City history museum MUHBA, includes several Roman archaeological sites.
More than 6 years have passed since I published “Into the Night”. Since then I have had the opportunity to capture hundreds of landscapes, both urban and natural, using the timelapse technique.
With “Temps” I wanted to show some of these urban landscapes of the city of Barcelona, to represent through images, the passage of time and the ephemeral and fragile of human life.
Science: Researchers Build Crash-Resistant Flying ‘Beetlebot’ (Video)
Beetles are virtually crash resistant. Their wings fold up when they collide with objects, and then quickly spring back into place. That helps the insects stay on course and fly straight, rather than spiral to the ground, while exerting little energy. Researchers have now built a winged robot that mimics this capability.
The “beetlebot” keeps flying, even after it crashes into poles, researchers report this month in Science. The energy-efficient robot could even navigate narrow environments, such as collapsed buildings, to aid rescue missions, the team says.
Travel: ‘Santorini Island’, Aegean Sea, Greece (Video)
Santorini is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. It was devastated by a volcanic eruption in the 16th century BC, forever shaping its rugged landscape. The whitewashed, cubiform houses of its 2 principal towns, Fira and Oia, cling to cliffs above an underwater caldera (crater). They overlook the sea, small islands to the west and beaches made up of black, red and white lava pebbles.
Walking Tours: ‘Koblenz’ Western Germany (Video)
Filmed in September 2020
Koblenz, spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and of the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its name originates from the Latin cōnfluentēs, meaning ” confluence”.
Aerial Travel: ‘Alaska’ – USA’s Largest State (Video)
The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut word “Aleyska,” meaning “great land.” Alaska has 17 of the 20 highest mountains in North America. Denali, at 20,310 feet, is the tallest mountain in North America. Alaska is big, has 586,412 square miles are bigger than Texas, California, and Montana combined.
Boomers Daily 