Astronomy, History, Science, Space, Technology, Top 10, Weapons

Special section: the Middle Kingdom and the outer limits

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Chinese astronaut (taikonaut) Nie Haisheng

While Russian launches fail by the dozen, threatening operations aboard the International Space Station, and the American space program stalls amid political wrangling, China is building its own space laboratory, growing its satellite network, expanding its crewed space program, upgrading its launch facilities, improving its lift vehicles and laying the foundations for a moon shot. Are we witnessing the dawn of Chinese dominance in space?

Is China Winning the New Space Race?
10 Signs China is Serious About Space

Astronomy, Engineering, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

A noiseless, patient rover

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Curiosity rover descends on sky crane
Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

On Aug. 6, 2012, a new rover will touch down on Mars — bigger, badder and bristling with more gear than a spelunker convention. Although rocking the same suspension system and basic design, Curiosity, aka the “monster truck of science,” is so much heftier than its predecessors that NASA and JPL had to invent an entirely new way to land it: one part HALO jump, one part rocket-hovering sky crane. Its mission: investigate if the right conditions exist, or ever have, to support microbial life.

How the Mars Curiosity Rover Works

Consumer, Culture, Engineering, Gadgets, History, Technology, Top 10, Weird

Big Mouth Billy Bass sings all the way to the bank

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Eddie hops aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, along with Iraqi security forces and Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division.
Photo courtesy U.S. Army.

Some inventions save people’s lives, others improve them and still others end up as the white elephant gift no one wants to take home. Sometimes the question isn’t, “Why didn’t I think of that?” it’s, “Why would anyone think of that?”

Well, if benefit to humankind were the only means of making a profit, there would be no reality TV. In that spirit, here’s a list of ten kooky creations that made a mint, including one that turned out to fill a legitimate need.

10 Weird Inventions That Made Millions

Climatology and Meteorology, Geoscience, History, Science, Top 10

A hard rain’s a-gonna fall

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Super-typhoon Nina Think you know destructive storms? I’m talking about Old Testament, wrath-of-God type destruction, storms that kill people by the millions and require years and billions of dollars to recover from.

In this article, I count down the Top 10 most devastating engines of nature in terms of the lives they claimed, their financial toll, and their lasting impacts on the cities and towns they razed.

10 Most Destructive Storms

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