Author Archives: Andrea

“Come to think of it, they’d make a really good superhero team.”

Veritasium: The Real Reason Robots Shouldn’t Look Like Humans | Compilation. (YouTube, 1 hour 27 minutes)

Includes the following videos that were released separately:

  • This Unstoppable Robot Could Save Your Life
  • World’s Highest Jumping Robot
  • The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition on Earth
  • Why Machines That Bend Are Better
  • Why Robots That Bend Are Better

Cosmic Kiss

Zeit Podcast: Alles gesagt: Matthias Maurer, wie lebt es sich im All? “Er hielt Astronauten für Superhelden, dann flog er selbst zur ISS. Im Podcast spricht er über die Angst vor dem ersten Weltraumspaziergang und Essenslieferungen ins All.” Podcast vom 18. Juli 2024, 9 Stunden und 46 Minuten. Und keine einzige Sekunde langweilig!

Das war eine der besten, wenn nicht die beste Folge dieses Podcasts. Häufig erwähnt wurde die ähnlich interessante Folge, nämlich Thomas Zurbuchen, wann findet die Nasa Leben im Weltall? vom 2. August 2022 (“nur” 5 Stunden 2 Minuten lang).

Cosmic Kiss war übrigens der Name seiner Mission zur ISS vom November 2021 bis zum Mai 2022.

Photographing the Solar Eclipse 2024

Smarter Every Day: I Accidentally Photographed Something Unknown During the Eclipse. (YouTube, 23:40min)

I’m already looking forward to finding out if someone is able to identify the satellites.

Here’s the earlier video which he did in preparation for the eclipse: April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Here’s what you need to know. (YouTube, 22:55min) It includes a lot of information about things you can observe during the partial phases, like how shadows change or why small clouds will disappear.

There’s more information and a link to the eclipse app at Destin’s website: Smarter Every Day – Eclipse.

I haven’t experienced a total solar eclipse, only a few partial ones, but I hope to be able to see one in the future.

The Ships that Repair Undersea Cables

The Verge: The Cloud under the Sea by Josh Dzieza.

“The internet is carried around the world by hundreds of thousands of miles of slender cables that sit at the bottom of the ocean. These fragile wires are constantly breaking – a precarious system on which everything from banks to governments to TikTok depends. But thanks to a secretive global network of ships on standby, every broken cable is quickly fixed. This is the story of the people who repair the world’s most important infrastructure.”

Link via MetaFilter.