Links!
Here are a few links for your reading pleasure.From Jesse Leimkuehler, a link to an article over at the NASA website:
Cassini Finds Lakes on Titan's Arctic Region07.27.06 NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found lakes on Saturn's moon Titan.
The lakes are most likely the source of hydrocarbon smog in the frigid moon's atmosphere. Finding the source of the complex soup of hydrocarbons in Titan's atmosphere has been a major goal for the Cassini mission and is a significant accomplishment.
Numerous well-defined dark patches resembling lakes are present in radar images of Titan's high latitudes taken during a July 22 flyby. At Titan's frigid temperatures, about minus 180 degrees Celsius, the liquids in the lakes are most likely methane or a combination of methane and ethane.
"This is a big deal," said Steve Wall, deputy radar team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've now seen a place other than Earth where lakes are present."
Here's the full story, including picture.
Meg McReynolds sent in a link to a story about two newly-identified plesiosaurs: Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes, and you can read about them here.
Finally, Sirius sends in a link to a very interesting article over at the Wall Street Journal Online about digital replicas. Here's the opening:
Steve Perlman became famous in Silicon Valley for pushing the boundaries of technology and entertainment. Now he is trying to change the face -- literally -- of characters in movies and videogames.
The veteran entrepreneur, best known for selling a pioneering set-top box company called WebTV Networks Inc. to Microsoft Corp. almost a decade ago, has devised technology that he says can create digital reproductions of the human body that are as accurate as photographs. If it works as planned, Mr. Perlman's system could open up a host of creative possibilities.
Game makers could use the system, called Contour, to create very realistic animated characters in videogames with fully controllable movements and facial expressions. Film makers could use the technology as a kind of digital makeup, changing an actor's looks or words or switch camera angles without costly retakes. The technology can even substitute one actor's face for another's and create exact replicas of long-dead historical figures. In a biopic such as "Walk the Line," for example, film makers could use Contour to alter Joaquin Phoenix's face to look exactly like Johnny Cash's while still capturing all the nuances of Mr. Phoenix's movements.
Almost unlimited possibilities, seemingly, and the full article is here.
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