Just a lazy day surfing...

[srgalahad]

...the web.

Still getting life reorganized after 3 weeks of sun and beaches; catching up on various news feeds etc. and found a few things to share:

Another of those (ho-hum) International Space Station time-lapse videos (although I can't ever get bored with the view)
Some great shots of the ISS, Soyuz attached - then a surprise - watch the left side of the view at 2:03...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GOAEIMx39-w

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-best-space-station-time-lapse-yet-has-an-incredible-1475534367/@jesusdiaz


Then, a shot of the last test run of the J-58 (SR-71, A-12) engine:

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And last, but not least - a new kind of helicopter (at least the full-size version is new)
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http://www.e-volo.com/

Unmanned first flight video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzP0Zqxam7E&feature=player_embedded
Electric/hybrid, pleasantly quite, seemingly stable - the potential is there.

[PRB]

Love those ISS videos. But I want to see what it looks like with a 50mm lens, IOW, not "fish-eye" distorted to look round! I've read some accounts of what it looks like up there that suggest the horizon isn't much "rounder" than it is when you're peering out the window of a 747 at 40,000 feet, and that the really startling difference is that the sky is black (black black) in the day time. The darned ISS is only 200 miles up, after all, not half way to the Moon. But we never get to see that because everyone wants to show us how round the planet is, which we already know, lol!

[srgalahad]

e-volo set a European crowd-funding record.

Their initial appeal was for 500,000Eu to fund further development - this was reached in just over 2 hours.
The total is now 1,200,000 Eu in just over 3 days.

"Managing director Alexander Zosel: “Through this new financing possibility, 750 investors contributed between 250 and 10,000 euros. We would like to thank all investors for your trust and financial commitments!”"

http://www.e-volo.com/general-news/e-volo-reaches-european-crowdfunding-record

(If the concept of crowd-funding is new to you, here's a link to the Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding )

[srgalahad]

e-volo set a European crowd-funding record.

Their initial appeal was for 500,000Eu to fund further development - this was reached in just over 2 hours.
The total is now 1,200,000 Eu in just over 3 days.

"Managing director Alexander Zosel: “Through this new financing possibility, 750 investors contributed between 250 and 10,000 euros. We would like to thank all investors for your trust and financial commitments!”"

http://www.e-volo.com/general-news/e-volo-reaches-european-crowdfunding-record

(If the concept of crowd-funding is new to you, here's a link to the Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding
Actually it's not that new.. Joseph Pulitzer used the method to raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1884 without an internet!)