Clean Tech Video: Wind Power Without Blades by Atelier DNA (NYC firm designs for Masdar, an auto-free planned city outside of Abu Dhabi)

Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. Atelier DNA’s "Windstalk"project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

Each base is slightly different, and is sloped so that rain will funnel into the areas between the concrete to help plants grow wild. These bases form a sort of public park space and serve a technological purpose. Each one contains a torque generator that converts the kinetic energy from the stalk into energy using shock absorber cylinders similar to the kind being developed by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Levant Power. Two large chambers below the whole site will work like a battery to store energy. The idea is based on existing hydroelectric pumped storage systems. Water in the upper chamber will flow through turbines to the lower chamber, releasing stored energy until the wind starts up again.

The top of each tall stalk has an LED lamp that glows when the wind is blowing -- more intensely during strong winds and not all when the air is still. The firm anticipates that the stalks will behave naturally, vibrating and fluttering in the air. 

Article Full Story link
Video story link
Image Credit link

Photography Videos : Timothy Allen, Photographer and Filmmaker

Timothy Allen's website Portfolio and About  and Google+ page

Forget Your Past ~ Image Credit: Timothy Allen

Video short film "Our Story in 2 Minutes"

Image Credit: NASA, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Watch: "Our Story in 2 Minutes" a short film high school video productions class using photos from all over the world sourced form the internet

Music "Mind Heist" by Zack Hemsey

Video and Article "The Daughter of the Dawn" (USA, 1920) and "Silent Enemy" (Canada, 1930) - Silent Films with all-Native American / First Nations Cast

"Silent Enemy" movie still (Canada, 1930)

"Daughters of the Dawn" movie still Kiowa Village (USA 1920)

(Image Credit: Oklahoma Historical Society)

UK Article: "Daughter of the Dawn" photos and restoration information of the film made in 1920

History Blog article "Daughters of the Dawn"

Watch 11 minutes of "Daughter of the Dawn"

"Silent Enemy" TCM article (1930) "Given the film's respect for their tribal life and ways, it's perhaps the first revisionist Western, before the genre veered off into depicting Native Americans as target practice for cowboys and colonizing armies. It is, in short, a major rediscovery."

How a silent film featuring an all-Native cast came to be made, lost (seemingly forever), discovered nearly a century later (in shambles), then restored and shown to the cast’s descendants is one of the most fascinating stories in the annals of American filmmaking. The Daughter of Dawn had its world premiere in Oklahoma City, and may be the only all-Native America cast silent film ever made. In the autumn of 1919 Norbert Myles was hired to direct a film for Richard Banks, owner of the fledgling Texas Film Company. "Silent Enemy", made in 1930, is a Canadian silent film depicting Ojibwe living in Quebec and Ontario.

"Silent Enemy" movie still, 1930

Articles "Biggest Native American DNA Survey Tells a Storied Theory"

Article: MIT coverage of a story about the scientific concept of how the Americas were settled in three waves.

DNA Tribes ~ website some people use test their ancestry story

UNOOSA: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 ~ Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (and UN SPIDER)

UNOOSA

Watch "UNOOSA: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs"

Watch "Women in Space"

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

Watch and take the "Outer Space Treaty quiz"

Outer Space Treaty of 1967 ~ Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration 
and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
The Outer Space Treaty was considered by the Legal Subcommittee in 1966 and agreement was reached in the General Assembly in the same year ( resolution 2222 (XXI). The Treaty was largely based on the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, which had been adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 1962 (XVIII) in 1963, but added a few new provisions. The Treaty was opened for signature by the three depository Governments (the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) in January 1967, and it entered into force in October 1967. The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law, including the following principles:

the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;

outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;

outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;

States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;

the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes;

astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;

States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;

States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and

States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

Video: Space mining interview April 2013

About UNOOSA ~ The Office provided secretariat services in 1968 and 1982 for the two first United Nations Conferences on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. For the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) held in July 1999 in Vienna, the Office acted as executive secretariat and serviced the Conference within existing resources.

International Outer Space Law, Outer Space Treaty, Moon Treaty: Who Owns Space? Who Rules The Laws of Inner and Outer Space? ... And The Role of The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS)

Image Credit and article "Outer Space Gets It's First Lawyer"

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and What is Space Law?
Space Law Wiki-defined

Outer Space Treaty

Moon Treaty 

Law of the Sea Treaty

Read: about "Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies"

Read: "Education Opportunities in Space Law - A Directory" by the UN

Read: about "Lunar and Planetary Institute"

Watch: "Will space mining surpass earth mining?" (6:34 minutes 2013)

Read: about "Moon Express"

Read: "Asteroid Mining"

Watch: "Space: The Mining Frontier" (2:18 minutes 2013)

Watch: "Mining Asteroids" (49 minutes 2012)

Watch: "Press Release by Planet Resources Asteroid Mining" (3 minutes 2012)

Read: "Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP)"

Watch: TMRO - "CrowdFunding Your Next Space Program"

Read: "Space Exploration" (mini history)

Read: "Who Owns Mars? The Law in Outer Space" by Jesse Londin

Watch: Promo for "Deep Space Industries - Mining The Universe For The Future" (4 minutes 2013)

Read: "SpaceX Reaches Orbit: 7 ways you can get sued doing business in space"

View: Slide show of space related legal issues

Read: "Asteroid Mining Venture Backed By Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled"

Read: "NASA and FAA Agree on Private Space Taxi Rules"

Read: "How To Keep Commercial Spaceflight Safe: QandA With FAA's George Nield"

Read: "Space Tourism and Private Space travel Must Be Safe, House Panel Says"

Read: "Space Law: Is Astroid Mining Legal?"

Read: "Space: The Legal Frontier?"

Read: "Does Astroid Mining Violate Space Law?"

Read: "Space Debris Remediation"

Image Credit and website

Read: "Can I Buy Land on The Moon?"

Read: "Free-Market Fans Encourage Rush for Off-Planet Real Estate"

Read: "Newly Discovered Network of Moon Tunnels Could House Lunar Colonists" 

Read: "Analysis of Human Space Flight Safety"
Report to Congress 2008
Independent Study Mandated by Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004

FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation

Read: "Regulating Private Human Space Flight"

European Center for Space Law (ECSL)

Archimedes Institute Library for Space Law and Policy Research

Institute of Air and Space Law ~ McGill University Canada 

International Law Association ~ Space Law Committee

Space Policy and Law of India 

India ~ A Millennium Perspective

China Space Law

The Way Forward for Promoting Awareness of Space Law in Asia

Africa Space Law

Australia Space Law
and Space Law Activities Act

Journal of Space Law

Space Travel Law News ~ Google Blogspot

Space Travel Law News

American bar Association ~ The Forum on Air and Space Law

International Institute of Space Law (IISL)

Image Credit and website link

International Space Law ~ The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is the Secretariat for the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which is the primary international forum for the development of laws and principles governing outer space. In addition to providing parliamentary services, the Office prepares legal studies and background documents on various aspects of space law to assist member States in their deliberations. In accordance with the Action Plan endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 55/122, the Office provides information and advice, upon request, to governments, non-governmental organizations and the general public on space law in order to promote understanding, acceptance and implementation of the international space law agreements concluded under United Nations auspices.

NOOSA and The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 ~ Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The Outer Space Treaty was considered by the Legal Subcommittee in 1966 and agreement was reached in the General Assembly in the same year resolution 2222 (XXI). The Treaty was largely based on the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, which had been adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 1962 (XVIII)in 1963, but added a few new provisions. The Treaty was opened for signature by the three depository Governments (the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) in January 1967, and it entered into force in October 1967. The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law.

The Fair and Responsible Use of Space: 

An International Perspective

Image Credit and Google book link

Space Law, A Treatise

Image Credit and Google book link

The Law of Outer Space

Image Credit and website book link

Image Credit and link to digital book

Commercial Utilization of Outer Space: 

Law and Practice

Image Credit and Google book link

Dispute Settlement in International Space Law: 

A Multi-Door Courthouse for Outer Space

Image Credit and Google book link

Space Sound Photography : SETI, Frank Drake Equation, and Richard Powell's "Atlas of the Universe": How Many Alien Civilizations Exist?

Photo Credit: NRAO/NSF/AUI

Chairman Emeritus SETI Institute, Frank Drake conducted the first modern SETI experiment in 1960. He continues his life-long interest in the detection of extraterrestrial sentient life, and participates in an on-going search for optical signals of intelligent origin carried out with colleagues from Lick Observatory and the University of California at Berkeley (using their 40-inch Nickel telescope).

Frank also continues to investigate radio telescope designs that optimize the chances of success for SETI (he proposed the plan used in the design of the Allen Telescope Array, based on some of his work of more than forty years ago.) He is also interested in the possibility that the very numerous red dwarf stars, stars that are much less bright than the Sun, might host habitable planets. In this regard, he has noted that the behavior of various objects in our own solar system – in particular the resonances between their rotation and orbital periods – when applied to some of the newly discovered extrasolar planets, strongly suggests that most planets orbiting red dwarfs will not keep one face towards their star, and thus are more likely to be habitable. If this is proven correct, it will increase by almost ten times the probable number of habitable planets in the Milky Way.

Astro Society:
The Universe In The Classroom article by Sarah Scoles and Sue Ann Heatherly
The Drake Equation: 50 Years of Giving Direction to the Scientific Search for Life Beyond Earth

BBC article:
Drake Equation: How many alien worlds exist?

i09 article: 
Use this interactive chart to figure out how many alien worlds exist across the entire universe.

BBC Future, with the help of iib Studio, has put together a very cool interactive calculator that takes the Drake equation to the next level. Typically, the equation is used to estimate how many radio-transmitting civilizations could currently exist in the Milky Way Galaxy — but by adding just one extra variable, it lets you take the entire universe into account.

The Universe within 50000 Light Years ~ The Milky Way Galaxy

Image Credit: Atlas of the Universe and about these maps by Richard Powell

Galactic Sky Chart

Image Credit: Atlas of the Universe and about these maps by Richard Powell

About Richard Powell 

"Richard Powell has two degrees in astrophysics - a Bachelor's degree from the University of Birmingham and a Master's degree from the University of London. For his MSc research he studied the Big Bang, trying to understand what the universe was like when it was less than one second old. He created his web page because he wanted to see for himself what the universe looked like, and he thought maybe some other people out there might also be interested."

Space Photography "HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT" Martian Dunes and Avalanches

Image Large and Credit 

HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

The above image shows large sand dunes in the North Polar sand sea on Mars. It is one of a series of repeat images of the same dunes, taken at different times, in order to determine the type and extent of changes in the dunes over time.

Dunes tend to migrate slowly on Earth under continuous wind regimes (on the order of several to tens of meters per year), and we are just starting to verify movement on Martian dunes with these repeat HiRISE images.

In addition to migration of the dune, we will also use these repeat images to look for changes in the dune shape and avalanches down the slip face. Analyzing these changes will help us better understand the interaction between the atmosphere and the surface of Mars. Full story (click here) 

Image Large and Credit 

Space Photography : 3D ANAGLYPH IMAGES of Mars ~ Martian Terrain In 3D Relief

ANAGLYPH IMAGES created from stereo pairs, these images show Martian terrain in 3D relief.

 HiRISE reimages locations of special interest with different spacecraft rolls (to the left or right of the groundtrack) to acquire stereo pairs or 3D views of the surface.

Click here to access the unprocessed stereo pairs with data info 

Space Photography : NASA Camera: High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Zoomable Mars Map

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) will photograph hundreds of targeted swaths of Mars' surface in unprecedented detail. Click here for the HiRISE zoomable Mars Map

HiRISE operates in visible wavelengths, the same as human eyes, but with a telescopic lens that will produce images at resolutions never before seen in planetary exploration missions. These high resolution images will enable scientists to resolve 1-meter (about 3-foot) sized objects on Mars and to study the morphology (surface structure) in a much more comprehensive manner than ever before.

Camera explanation link and Image Credit

HiRISE also makes observations at near-infrared wavelengths to obtain information on the mineral groups present. From an altitude varying between 200-400 kilometers (about 125 to 250 miles) above Mars, HiRISE will return surface images that contain individual basketball-sized pixel elements (30-60 centimeters, or 1 to 2 feet wide), allowing surface features 4-8 ft across to be determined (resolved). These new, high-resolution images will provide unprecedented views of layered materials, gullies, channels, and other science targets, as well as characterize possible future landing sites.

Areas for close-up HiRISE imaging will be selected on the basis of data returned from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions, and from regional surveys conducted by the orbiter's instruments.

The Principal Investigator (lead scientist) for HiRISE is Alfred McEwen from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona.

GigaPan Photography : Everest Base Camp Trek 2012: The Creative Imaging of xRez Studio's Gigapixel HD Pano

View: "Everest base Camp Trek 2012"

Creative imaging and visual effects practice which explores the intersection of high-end computer graphics and advances in digital photography. Pioneering the methodology and application of extreme resolution gigapixel photography for five years before the advent of the GigaPan, New technologies arising in computational photography such as multi-spectral imaging, photogrammetry, terrain modeling, photo-clouds, polynomial texture mapping, and high-end feature film visual effects techniques allow xRez Studio to provide compelling and unprecedented visual solutions toward socially meaningful projects.

View: "Everest base Camp Trek 2012"

Ocean Photography: The Underwater Magic of Alexander Semenov

I feel magic when I view Alexander Semenov's photography. Click here for the Flickr slide show. He uses a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Summer is Alexander's busy season, expect new photos on his website soon. Here is a great 2011 treehugger article called "The Incredible Undersea Photography of Alexander Semenov"

All images owed and used with permission of Alexander Semenov

Alexander's Facebook link

Video "A Flight Through the Universe, by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey" and SSDS-III Sky Survey 3D Largest Map of the Universe

Credits and SDSS-III Information

The Luminous Galaxies chart is the biggest ever 3D map of the universe. 

Watch "A Flight Through the Universe, by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey"

Article: New 3-D Map of Massive Galaxies and Distant Black Holes Offers Clues to Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Article: Largest Map of Universe Yet Captures 1 Million Galaxies 

Colour spectrum: 

Our Milky Way galaxy (blue) is seen here 

absorbing its galactic neighbour, Sagittarius, (red trail) in 2003; 

the colour of a galaxy indicates its age

Mapping the sky: 

These images from the ongoing Sloan Digital Sky Survey III 

show the northern (left) and southern hemispheres of the Earth, 

as seen from space, were produced in early 2011