Ewan's Corner » video

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

ewan — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:09:13 +0000

A wonderful and amazing version of the Dr Seuss classic “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” (his final published book) recorded at Burning Man. One of my favourite bed-time stories, loved by big and small kids alike – wisdom for us all.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Created by Tedshots.

Ben Goldacre on the fascinating nocebo effect

ewan — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:30:28 +0000

I hadn’t seen Ben (of BadScience fame) speaking live – and wow was I missing out! He is one of the few speakers for which VLC’s awesome speed-up-without-changing-the-pitch feature is unnecessary – and he’s funny and interesting too!

Watch his great Nerdstock outtake on the fascinating placebo (and nocebo) affects, with obligatory homeopathy back-slap included – a cup of strong coffee beforehand is recommended :-) It’s properly outrageous.

Or use KeepVid to save the video locally as a high quality MP4 to entertain and educate your friends.

For more info on the placebo effect, the Skeptic’s Dictionary has a good writeup.

STS-125 Launch Camera Videos (6 cameras)

ewan — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:14:00 +0000

Awesome camera footage from 6 of the cameras attached to the two Solid Rocket Boosters and external propellant tank of the Shuttle – from lift-off to splashdown in the ocean – on mission STS-125.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa59oCWqqgE

The video is 35 minutes in length, so being the obsessive I am I flagged the times of the more interesting moments as well as the switch to each camera.

Interesting times, camera 1 (SRB Left Aft):

2:24 -
detach
Much
tumbling
5:07 -
you can see something else falling into the atmosphere and starting to burn up
(the other SRB I assume)
5:30 -
start to stabilise, or at least less flipping end over end
6:15 – in
cloud
6:50 -
glimpse the deployed parachutes (looking up)
7:07 -
splash

Camera 2 (SRB Lr Intertank):

This
camera has a microphone, so make sure
you have audio enabled – eerie stuff
7:17 – camera view starts
7:48 -
detach (watch an SRB rotate in sync with us)
Amazing
views and eerie sounds – the white specks are apparently unburned propellant
10:30 – quick view of a smoking SRM entering the atmosphere, more atmospheric noise now
11:30
skip to upward view of deployed chutes
11:50 -
splashdown, and we fall over. Gurgling.

Camera 3 (SRB Left Forward, facing down):

12:08 -
launch at t-10 (facing down, great launch view)
14:30 -
detach
Camera
view is unfortunately fogged :(
17:03 -
view clears somewhat, beautiful Earth views
More
stable now, view mostly down.
18:20 -
some puffs / fire from the exhaust, this thing is still burning
Parachute
deployed?
18:30 -
ocean through the clouds
19:15 -
splash, fall over, cool

Camera 4 (SRB Right Aft, facing up):

19:40 -
footage starts of launch
21:58 -
detach, bye bye shuttle
Rest of
video cut short

Camera 5 (SRB Rt Intertank – like the other intertank camera
has a microphone feed):

22:22
starts
22:56 -
detach
Beautiful
falling / tumbling views of earth
25:25 -
things get noisy
26:05 -
mic feed stops, view mostly down now
26:40 -
skip to parachute deployment, facing up, looking almost straight into the sun
27:12 -
splash. Get to see the chutes falling into the sea and collapsing

Camera 6 (SRB Right Forward):

28:18 -
footage starts, probably the best launch footage of the down view
30:41 -
detach
View
fogged :(
Sun-earth-sun-earth-etc
:)
33:17
clearer view briefly, more stable
34:35
parachute? Ocean incoming
35:17 -
splashdown, splash reaches camera

Russian Booster Rocket Re-Entry – Live Video Footage

ewan — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:41:57 +0000

MyFox (Fox 31), a local TV station in Denver, Colorado, got lucky when their helicopter traffic monitor crew captured live video of space debris breaking up in the early morning sky. The video is beautiful, and the reactions from the pilot and anchors are great :-)
You can view the video from the MyFox website (Space Debris Breaks Up on LIVE TV) or grab a local copy from this site (7mb flash video file, which you can view with the latest version of VLC Media Player).
This was not a meteor – this was most likely video footage of a spent Russian booster rocket burning up on re-entry:

“A spent Russian booster rocket re-entered the atmosphere Thursday over Colorado and Wyoming, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. NORAD spokesman Sean Kelly said the agency was trying to confirm a report that a piece of the rocket may have hit the ground near Riverton, Wyoming, at about 6 a.m. Kelly said military personnel had not yet reached the scene. No damage was reported and the debris was not believed to be hazardous, NORAD said. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flaming objects in the sky at the time the rocket was re-entering, Kelly said.”

Slashdot – Russian Rocket Hits Wyoming
CNN – NORAD looking for Russian rocket in Wyoming